Hailing from New Zealand, Maxine Funke makes hushed, lo-fi acoustic music that feels like it was recorded in a blanket fort at midnight—think delicate, mysterious, and just a little haunted.
She didn’t start that way, though. As a kid, she played louder stuff with her drummer stepdad in bands with names like the Beaters, Snapper, and the Snares. After one too many noisy gigs, she wisely decided: what if… less noise? Enter her softer, folkier era—plus a partnership with experimental musician Alastair Galbraith.
Between 2004 and 2008, she recorded a bunch of intimate, homegrown songs that became her debut, Lace. From there, she slowly refined her sound: Felt was more cohesive, Silk got a bit weird with retro electronics, and Séance (2021) somehow managed to be both her most experimental and most approachable record. A neat trick.
Raised on a tiny island before moving to Dunedin at age eight, Funke grew up on live gigs and her stepdad’s record collection. She later swapped noisy venues for quieter pursuits—like uploading gentle acoustic videos and even workshopping songs in front of small groups of schoolkids.
After a burst of releases in 2018, she went quiet for a bit—on brand—before returning in 2021 with more EPs and Séance, which finally gave her music a wider audience. Turns out whispering softly can carry pretty far.
