Kiana Kazemi (KK): Can you tell our audience a bit about yourself?
Maiya Blaney (MB): Sure! My name is Maiya Blaney, I’m a 22 yr old singer and song writer and all around artist from Montclair, New Jersey. I’m mostly based in New York but I move around a lot. I’m a Virgo, an avid traveler, and I love meeting and connecting with people. And I’m having a really good day today!
KK: I’m curious to know how you see your music and passions in activism intersect?
MB: I think it would be really easy to say that my songs come from how I feel when I’m alienated as a minority in the communities I’m around, or they come from moments where I’m having a terrible experience in being a young, Black, queer person in this day and age. I think that would be the more simple and profound thing to say, but a lot of the times I’m just writing about being a human who is upset that another human doesn’t like me, or I have a crush on somebody and I don’t know if it’s reciprocated, or just feeling sad about something and I don’t know why.
I write about the smaller things, and don’t really set out to write about the big stuff, because it often comes to me in smaller waves. And that’s also how I move towards my own activism, by highlighting the smaller feelings just as much as the big ones so that I don’t have to feel like I have to be this super human all the time. Most of the time when I’m writing, I just want to be more real than anyone’s perception of me is.
KK: I want to ask you what you think the role of artists in movements such as the environmental movement should be?
MK: I think the golden rule is always just being as honest as possible in whatever it is that you’re writing. I don’t want to write to sugar coat anything, I always just want to be as honest as possible. But then as for the role of musicians, sometimes it’s so easy to think of musicians as these huge agents of change, but we’re really just existing in this made up world of experiences that have happened to us, or someone else, or haven't happened at all, and it’s really easy to glorify that. But music is essentially this special, imaginary world. And what musicians can do now, and what people in general can do, is be decent, and be good, not try to put themselves above anybody.
Because it's easy to take advantage of somebody when they see you as a “celebrity” or intimidating, and then to allow for them to see you as that, when in reality we’re all just the same. Which is why I think being honest is so important.
KK: How you stay optimistic, and practice caring for yourself and your community in difficult moments?
MK: That’s definitely an on going battle. I really appreciate that you mentioned that you live with anxiety, because I’m very much that as well. And it really came to the forefront of my life just before COVID, and when COVID hit I told myself “Maiya, if you lose it, you really can, I get it”. And it didn’t happen all at once like I thought it was gonna be, it was very much a gradual assessment of what our new world was like, and so it did change the way that I went about my day to day.
Because all of a sudden the fragility of life became a lot more apparent but then also the possible barriers that I was facing became a lot more apparent. When there were times we just literally couldn’t leave the country and I was just not used to that level of freedom being taken away from, as someone who is lucky enough to have a US passport. And so a lot of the times, the day-to-day is just trying to search for gratitude in as many ways as I can, and it’s definitely a struggle as somebody who is not just anxious and inside my mind a lot, but also an improvement person.
I’m always like “what can I fix” and “what can I make better” rather than just sitting with something and being grateful for it. So sometimes it’s as simple as feeding myself, making sure I talk to a friend, getting myself something to look forward to, stretching, really just as simple as taking care of myself. And sometimes I have a day where I just feel really good, and I know that it’s because I’ve been putting in the work to take care of myself.
KK: If you could give your younger self any advice, what it would be, and what advice you have for other budding musicians?
MK: Hmm I think a lot of things that I had issues with as a kid, I still have issues with now. There are always thoughts about self worth coming in, and wondering how that should be measured.
I think a lot of things that I would give myself advice on then, I would give myself advice on now. And it’s that I’m the only person that can dictate my own joy, my own greatness, my own worth, and that it’s really important to know that the measuring tools for these are in my toolbox, and not in anybody else, and only I can dictate my own worth and my own importance in the world.
As musicians and also just as people, we’re always just waiting for people to tell us that we’re good enough, but it’s really important to know that no, you don’t have to wait for somebody to tell you that you’re good enough. You can just know that you’re ready. And sometimes the reason we delay it, is that we’re afraid to come to terms with the fact that we have full control. And that’s scarier than waiting for somebody else to tell us we’re good enough.
