HEIDI MAYS

Texas-native Heidi Mays was raised on ’70s rock, thanks to her mom and dad’s immense love of music. Carly Simon, Janis Joplin, Stevie Nicks, Chicago and Journey served to inspire her own swampy flavor of gritty pop/rock, while her lyrics stem from her personal faith journey. Growing up, her parents owned a music venue in East Texas where hundreds of teens flocked every weekend to hear Christian bands. It was an experience that had a lifelong impact on the singer. “Every weekend all of these teenagers would get saved, and it made a huge impression on me,” Heidi shares. “That’s what I want my music to do. I saw these teenagers that were going through a lot of stuff, and through music, they found Jesus… What happened there is so important that I want to try and recreate that through my music.”

Heidi won the 2016 Cantinas Worship Songwriting Contest after entering her song, “Bullets”, into the running. She released her debut EP, “Monsters”, in mid-January, 2017 and has been on the Grammy Long-list twice.

Heidi’s brother and lead guitarist, Tam Mays, is the assistant producer at Sarah Kelly Music School in The Woodlands, Texas. He specializes in analog sound production and his projects have been played on the radio in Sweden.

The multi-instrumentalist is primarily self-taught—playing everything from guitar and piano to mandolin and banjo. But it was the violin, which she learned to play at age 12, that really lit a fire in her for music. Together with her dad and brother, she also collects rare vintage guitars. A Head-Writer at Sarah Kelly Music School, she has just released her debut EP "Monsters" with the help of producer Jonas Ekman.

Her original songs come from a personal place, as she’s continually inspired by her 15-year-old sister, who initially wasn’t even supposed to live. Born braindead, Heidi’s sister, Hannah, is literally a walking miracle, and her story bears the imprint of God’s faithfulness and the healing power of prayer. “I think having a little sister that has a brain injury has made me mature quicker,” she observes. “I don’t think I would have been able to look at life or write songs the same way if I hadn’t had Hannah.”