MIA GIOVINA ON GROWING UP, FACING ADULTHOOD, AND FOLLOWING YOUR PASSION
Summertime tends to be a time associated with spending time with friends, making memories, and looking forward to what’s to come for the rest of the year. When summer ends, however, we can often feel stuck in a state of disillusionment as we ask ourselves, “where did the time go?”. 20-year-old New Jersey native and TikToker Mia Giovina captures this gut-wrenching feeling in her succeeding single ‘Time Machine’ where Giovina laments her childhood and time with her hometown friends as she stares into the unnerving eyes of change and adulthood.
The inspiration behind the song initially came from a tiktok. Giovina resonated with a girl who experienced the sour realization that her best friend no longer lived in her hometown and Giovina spent a teary-eyed night writing about it. Giovina noted that this sparked some feelings of fear of adulthood and having to do things on your own. “I think that the general inspiration behind the song came from the world going back to somewhat what we call ‘normal’ after the pandemic and watching my friends go back to school and my family go back to work. I'm not good with change so to go through that I was like, ‘I can't. I don't know how to handle this.’” Despite the alarming consternation of adulthood, Giovina bravely and boldly decides to follow her passion of making music in the hopes of doing what she loves for a living and reaching people who are the “underdog” and “the people who don’t feel seen or heard.”
Giovina recalls knowing that making music has been her dream since she was a little girl and that her life path would be far from conventional. While her parents and counselor expected her to go to college, she knew that would not be the route she was going to take. “I just feel like I need to do music. It kind of came from this place of the fear of looking back on my life and regretting not chasing my wildest dreams when I wanted to,” Giovina discloses. “I just kind of felt like if I went to school I would be putting my plan A on hold for Plan B and I was super super lucky that everyone in my life was super supportive - especially my parents.” It’s no secret that despite Giovina choosing a path that many are too scared to take, there is no doubt that she will take her dreams and make plan A a reality.
Now, after releasing her two singles ‘Sirens’ and ‘Time Machine’, Giovina declared she’d be working on more singles as she hones in on finding the rhythm of the release process and bonds with her team before releasing any big projects. She notes that she plans on releasing an EP or LP sometime in the future but in the meantime, Giovina will continue writing and putting out the songs she loves and creating content for her dedicated TikTok audience.
Blueprint Magazine: What does ‘Time Machine’ mean to you and what does it represent?
Mia Giovina: I wrote it like a couple months ago at like one o'clock in the morning as I was sobbing through the song. I was just having like a mental breakdown and going through a crisis and the song just kind of helped that a little bit. It's basically just kind of about the fear of becoming an adult and like having to like do things on your own and yeah and and what sparked the inspiration for it was I saw a tiktok where this girl was crying because she realized that like her best friend didn't live in her hometown anymore and she just can't visit her everyday only once in a while, and I was like, oh my god that's kind of like a song lyric. But yeah, I think that the general inspiration behind the song kind of came from the world kind of going back to somewhat what we call normal after the pandemic and watching my friends go back to school and my family go back to work after spending so much time with just those people. I'm not good with change so to go through that I was like, “I can't. I don't know how to handle this” so I ended up writing a song and it kind of helped.
While COVID put a stop to much of what you were doing, was there anything good that you believe came out of having all that time to yourself?
I'm very lucky and blessed to say that there was a silver lining for me and like quarantine was actually beneficial for me because I know that like so many people still going through the pandemic and are still struggling but I'm very lucky say that I could see like the bright side of it, I guess. So yeah, I think that I really don't think like I would be the musician that I am today. If it weren't for that time that I got to spend like, just with myself completely, honing my craft. I made a little checklist for myself every single day, so I would do 45 minutes of practicing my guitar or 45 minutes of piano. I would be like “Did I write a song today? Did I record a cover today? Did I post a cover?” I just kind of had like a little checklist to keep myself in line and force myself to really work on myself and better myself and work on my craft and everything and I don't think I would have had that motivation had it not been for quarantine. I feel like with quarantine, it was kind of just like a different mindset because I was like, I'm home I can't just sit here and not do nothing, you know what I mean? So it gave me the opportunity to just really work on my music and my songwriting and my vocals and everything like that. I think it definitely changed me for the better and I feel like I came out of it as a stronger musician.
As a young and new artist who’s just starting to break out full force into the music scene, what exactly is your dream and what are you hoping to get out of this?
My dream right now, I guess as cliche as it sounds, is just to make music that I think is really good and is really beautiful and that I'm really proud of. I feel like when I kind of first decided that I wanted to do this as my career I was 15. It was like freshman year of high school and I was like, okay, yeah, this is definitely what I'm going to do with my life. I feel like back then I was super focused on the fame aspect of it. I was like, “I want to be the next big thing. I want some big label to come and find me and sign me” and I wanted to do all these big thing and accomplish all these big milestones and everything, and I feel like as I've gotten older, while all of that would be incredible to do, I feel like the most important thing for me is literally just like the music. I just want to make music that I really like and hopefully that other people like and resonate with and and then I feel like that's when I'll feel most fulfilled.
Do you have a certain message that you feel is your job to get out there?
I feel like I make music for almost like the underdog, like the people who don't feel super seen or heard whether it's the media or just in their lives, in their family or with their friends or whatever it is, like I feel like as I've gotten more into songwriting I've realized that's really who I'm writing music for because I feel like that's who I've been for most of my life. I've never necessarily felt like I see myself in the media or felt like the prettiest girl or the most talented girl or whatever it was. So I feel like I just want to make music that makes even one person just feel seen or heard or understood or just like a little bit less alone. That's My favorite thing about music is listening to a song and like and it could be about this really devastating thing that this artist is going through and you're going through it as well and it's this bittersweet feeling like God, I wish they weren't going through that but also thank God I'm not alone. It's just this really comforting feeling of listening to an artist like Harry Styles or something like when I first heard Falling by Harry Styles I was like if Harry Styles can feel like this, then we’re all equals so yeah, I just want to make music that, as cliche as it sounds, makes people feel maybe a little bit less alone.
Do you have any advice for anyone who's also trying to follow their dreams in the same way that you are?
Just do it for yourself first. Like, you know, getting big on TikTok is amazing or if your music is getting on the charts and getting a ton of recognition that's the dream for most of us but I think the most important thing is just to do it for yourself first and make sure that like you're feeling fulfilled and happy with what you're doing and then everything else kind of falls into place.
