Devotion to music has driven Spacemoth’s Maryam Qudus—a performer, composer, and now sought-after producer—for as long as she can remember. At age twelve, she traded chores for guitar lessons; at sixteen, she took on after school jobs to pay for voice lessons, learning to drive so she could take herself to both. Qudus is the first-generation Afghan-American child of working-class immigrant parents, who she describes as encouraging, but apprehensive about her earliest creative pursuits. "Being a female musician was not common in the Afghan & Muslim community; I knew if I followed my dreams, I could start breaking cultural barriers—both Afghan and western".