Rock and Folk come together harmoniously in the performer that is MAWD.

Madeleine Mathews, better known by her moniker MAWD, is a Chico State music industry grad that strives to share her eclectic musical style and cater to the tastes of very different audiences.

Placerville native MAWD is a self-taught musician who is proficient on the piano, ukulele and guitar. Her grandmother was a professional piano player who traveled around the country in the 1920-30s and although her grandmother was the only musician, her family wanted to keep music in the family through MAWD.

“When I was probably about 16 or 17, I started writing music. I had always written music on the piano and make it up, but then I started putting lyrics to it,” Mathews said. “Writing music is what gets me through life basically.”

MAWD is a project created by Mathews in order to play folk music, but she plays in another band with her best friend called The Feisties, which is more of a rock ‘n’ roll group.

Both projects serve to entertain two different types of audiences: with folk, she wants to have a more interactive approach with the fans while her rock ‘n’ roll side serves more active, party-like venues.

“When I’m performing (with The Feisties), I’m more reacting off the audience with that music. With this project MAWD, it’s more of my singer-songwriter folkie stuff, so it’s a little less audience interaction and a little bit more connecting in a different way,” Matthews said.

While trying to take inspiration from other folk artists, she developed her own type of style and sound. In order to play in Chico, Mathews wanted to come up with more upbeat music to fit the bar scene.

“I had never done a rock voice or anything like that, except strictly to write music for fun,” she said. “We realized in the bar scene in Chico that in order to get people excited and dancing, it can’t be sleepy folk songs.”

Mathews’ record label, Soundx3, is sending her on tour to Sweden, Norway and Denmark with fellow Chico artist KLEZ. They will be playing eight shows over two weeks in April.

MAWD will be performing at the 1078 Gallery Friday. Tickets are $5 both pre-sale and at the door, and the show starts at 7:30 p.m.

Her untitled EP is due to come out sometime this spring.

Julia Maldonado can be reached at [email protected] or @theorion_arts on Twitter.