But for Maisie Peters — born in Brighton, raised in Steyning, and back in her home city today to celebrate the release of her third album — that journey has always felt completely, authentically Sussex.
Peters performed at independent record shop Resident today to launch new album “Florescence,” her most assured and joyful record yet.
And speaking to The Argus on a sun-soaked balcony beforehand, she was in no doubt about where she comes from.
“I feel myself to be a Brighton girl,” she beamed.
Maisie with a copy of her new album, which came out on May 22 (Image: The Argus)
Peters spent her first six or seven years in Brighton before the family moved out to Steyning in West Sussex. But Brighton never let go of her.
“Churchill Square was my first ever trip out,” she recalled. “I went from doing Build-A-Bear and Hollister, to Snooper’s Paradise and the Lanes as a teenager.
“My first clubbing experience was Shoosh on the beach — I’ve thrown up outside there a few times.”
Maisie supported Taylor Swift in London during her Eras tour (Image: Ella Pavlides)
By the time she was 14, she was busking outside Brighton Library, the Pavilion, and in the Lanes for hours at a stretch.
“I was just singing for singing,” she said. “I truly didn’t care if people were watching or not.”
Her dad, she admitted with a laugh, would hover nearby.
“I was like, ‘Dad, don’t stand too close.'”
Her debut single, “Place We Were Made,” released independently in 2017 when she was just 17, drew directly on the particular experience of growing up in a small West Sussex village and dreaming bigger.
“I wrote it about living in a very small village and wanting to escape and see the world,” she said.
“But also knowing, even back then at 17, that I was in this really special, sweet moment in time.”
Maisie grew up in Steyning and Brighton (Image: The Argus)
The logistics of teenage life in Steyning, she recalled with a grin, were very much part of the experience.
“There’s one bus that gets you from Steyning to Brighton — I think it’s the 2 — and it takes forever, and you have to get it from Steyning High Street.
“My sister could drive, so I’d just get a lift everywhere.
“But if I needed to get to Brighton by myself, I was just on that bus.
That bus, those lanes, those seafront afternoons busking — all of it feeds into the rootedness that underpins “Florescence.”
“Florescence” is Peters’ third studio album, co-produced with Grammy winner Ian Fitchuk and featuring collaborations with Marcus Mumford and Julia Michaels.
It follows “The Good Witch,” which in 2023 made her the youngest solo British female artist in nearly a decade to top the UK album charts.
Maisie performing in Los Angeles in 2023 (Image: Justin Higuchi)
She admits writing happy music is harder than writing sad music.
“Happiness is a much wider feeling, and sadness is much sharper — so it can be easier to capture,” she said.
“But I’m really proud of this album. I feel like it’s a real step forward for me.”
Returning to her parents’ house in Steyning during the writing process helped ground the record.
“I was in the countryside a lot more.
“That feeling of being reconnected with my roots really became the foundation of a lot of this album.”
Maisie said the West Sussex countryside partially inspired her new album (Image: Ella Pavlides)
Peters has also, in recent years, accumulated career moments that even she struggles to fully process.
Chief among them: supporting Taylor Swift on the Eras Tour in London.
“It was a dream come true,” she said. “A bucket list goal. She’s been so inspiring to me my whole life.”
“If I get married, it won’t be as good. And if I have a baby, it definitely won’t be as good.
“Babies are way worse than the Eras Tour.”
Her relationship with Ed Sheeran — whose Gingerbread Man Records she is signed to — has also been central to her rise.
“He’s a great friend of mine,” she said. “He’s always across all of my records. I played him most of this album about halfway through and got his thoughts.
“I really see him as a mentor, as a friend — always in my corner.”
Maisie will be performing a headline show at London’s O2 next year (Image: Ella Pavlides)
Peters has an O2 Arena show confirmed for 8 May 2027 — a fact she is still getting her head around.
“It’s hard to really process a show that big,” she laughed.
“I’m still kind of worried that no one’s going to come, even though I’m told people are coming.”
From the 2 bus out of Steyning High Street to the O2. Not bad at all.
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