New York University student Maggie Rogers' song "Alaska," inspired by her travels to the Last Frontier, was released this week after months of internet anticipation.
The song was first thrust into the spotlight after "Happy" singer and producer Pharrell Williams was blown away by the music in a widely circulated New York University video.
"I have zero, zero, zero notes for that and I'll tell you why. It's because you're doing your own thing. It's singular," Williams tells Rogers after the demo plays, comparing her originality to Wu Tang Clan and Stevie Wonder.
[This video of a bearded Alaskan dancing to Alicia Keys is everything]
Rogers says in the video that "Alaska" is the culmination of her folk background and a more recent love of dance music.
After hiking in Alaska, she began compiling a sound bank of birds and noises. "A good chunk of the rhythm in the song started from me just patting a rhythm on my jeans," Rogers told Pigeons and Planes.
The artwork is a photo of her gathering water after a miserable rainy night in Alaska. "But that morning, everybody found each other …. Then the sun came up. We were in this glacial basin where there was this pool, essentially, and we hadn't seen any body of water like that," Rogers said.
"It seemed like the only appropriate way to represent the music," Rogers added about the photo later.