Maia Sharp Brings the Light with New Single “Kind” [Exclusive Premiere]

For singer-songwriter Maia Sharp, it doesn’t matter what sports team you root for or how you like your ice cream as long as you’re kind.

She says so in her new single “Kind.” The song is fun and infectious, but most of all it’s heartfelt, a tune that is greatly welcome when things today seem not-so-kind.

“It’s fun as hell to sing,” Sharp tells American Songwriter of the song. “I’ve been closing the show with it so we all leave on an up note. The layer of it that gets to me the most is the idea that it really doesn’t matter what other traits you might have, if you’re kind we can be friends. Different than me? Great. Letting your freak flag fly? Cool. Unkind? We’re done.”

My kind of people are kind people / My kind of people are kind, she sings the heartwarming chorus, awash in smooth Americana. If you got a good heart / That’s a good start / If you want to be a friend of mine / Rich or broke, drink or smoke, to me it’s all Pepsi/Coke / Whatever floats your boat is fine / My kind of people are kind people / My kind of people are kind.

Sharp co-wrote “Kind” with Mindy Smith and Dean Fields after a conversation simply catching up led to the delicately country-tinged ditty. “It was 2019 and I know we all came in with song starter ideas but our conversation quickly became about how basic human kindness seemed to be going out of fashion,” she explains. “We were all feeling that frustration strongly enough to know we needed to turn it into a song. We started off coming from the negative like this isn’t cool and that isn’t working but then we decided to flip the perspective to celebrate the people who do still believe kindness is important. And every time I play this one live I get confirmation that there are a lot of us out there.”

“Kind” will appear on Sharp’s forthcoming album, Reckless Thoughts, set to arrive on Aug. 18. The artist calls Reckless Thoughts “more of a mixed bag musically” when compared to her last release, Mercy Rising (2021). “There are a couple of others on Reckless Thoughts that are as unabashedly Americana as ‘Kind’ and a few that are totally different,” she says. “I’m hoping the writing, vocal, and production will be the threads that hold it all together.”

Mercy Rising was an album born from change, “a real emotional rollercoaster that was no fun to ride but great for songs,” she explains. “Reckless Thoughts is all from the period just after the shake up so what I needed to write about wasn’t as obvious. What showed up in the (relative) calm was the idea that I’m settling into myself and discovering the good stuff that was always there. I just hadn’t figured out how to see it yet.”

Listen to “Kind” below.

Photo by Anna Haas/ Hello Wendy PR