Last fall, Kito and her close collaborator Blue May found themselves spending long evenings at his Los Angeles home, watching Couples Therapy and talking through the next phase of their careers. Both had recently emerged from relationships and decided to stop waiting and begin creating with intention.

“We kept saying we had to make something we truly believed in,” Kito recalls. Those casual conversations quickly turned into action.

A few weeks later, May received a call from Lily Allen: she planned to record an album and would be coming to Los Angeles — specifically to May’s studio in the Hollywood Hills. May invited Kito to join, and the informal living-room sessions transformed into focused studio days where the collaborators set out to build the record together.

Kito, an Australian producer and electronic artist who relocated to Los Angeles in 2018, already had an extensive resume: releases on labels including Mad Decent, Astralwerks and Sweat It Out, plus her Club Kito nights at The West Hollywood Edition, which have drawn surprise sets from artists like Empress Of, A-Trak, Diplo and Tove Lo. By October 2025, she was credited as a co-producer on eight tracks of Allen’s confessional album West End Girl.

“It feels like a new chapter,” says the artist born Maaike Kito Lebbing during a Zoom interview, her cat occasionally wandering across the frame. Alongside her work on West End Girl, Kito released a string of standout singles in 2025 and served as executive producer on Parris Goebel’s seven-track EP A Girl Is a Drug, released Nov. 20, 2025.

“There were days I’d be tracking with everyone on Lily’s record, and by evening I’d be in sessions with Parris making high-energy club music,” Kito explains. That contrast — moving between introspective pop and floor-ready production — is central to how she works.

Her pathway into production began in Australia and continued through London, where she collected records, DJed parties and released music on labels like Skream’s Disfigured Dubz. Those early years — living in communal houses, DJing for cash and experimenting across dubstep and lo-fi — shaped a restless creative curiosity that later made her a sought-after collaborator.

After a demo she sent to Diplo was sampled on Trinidad James’ 2013 track “Female$ Welcomed,” Kito landed her first publishing deal and later saw one of her songs placed in a Victoria’s Secret campaign. Inspired by peers who balanced their own artist projects with production for others, she moved to L.A. in 2018 to pursue both paths simultaneously.

“In L.A. I felt invited into rooms I might not have accessed in London,” she says. “People seemed more open to different perspectives, and that allowed me to explore both my artist work and producing for others.”

Kito has leaned into the tension between underground textures and mainstream pop sensibilities. “My sweet spot is left-of-center pop,” she says. “It’s often too pop for the underground and too underground for the mainstream — and that’s where I like to sit.” That balance is why she’s been tapped to produce for artists such as Fletcher, Jorja Smith and Empress Of.

When Lily came to May’s house, the group moved quickly. Kito had worked with Allen once before in 2019, and this time they assembled a familiar circle of songwriters and producers in May’s home studios, including Chloe Angelides, Chrome Sparks, Alessandro Buccellati, Micah Jasper, Oscar Scheller, Leroy Clampitt, Leon Vynehall, Violet Skies and Hayley Gene Penner.

“Lily laid out the themes and the track sequence, and she was very honest about what she wanted the record to be,” Kito remembers. “We had a long conversation, we cried, we drank coffee, and then she said, ‘Let’s do it.’”

The fast, decisive atmosphere was unfamiliar but energizing for Kito. “Blue is brilliant at cutting through the noise and trusting instincts,” she says. That confidence helped Kito commit to projects she might otherwise have hesitated to take on — including working with Parris Goebel later the same year. Upon the album’s release, May even messaged Kito on Instagram, crediting her with bringing key collaborators into the project and writing that “this record would literally not exist without you.”

With two high-profile projects on her 2025 résumé, Kito says new doors are opening for everyone involved. “We’ve all been doing the work for a long time,” she notes. “When one thing connects, it has a ripple effect. I’m excited to see what next year brings.”

For now, the binge-watching sessions are behind her — replaced by focused studio time and the deliberate pursuit of creative projects Kito believes in.