Diandra Interviews Maia Reficco: Siendo Tu Misma

Maia Reficco is so strong. Known as Kally from Nickelodeon’s Kally Mashup, she has a decisiveness and discernment to her spirit that not every “child star” can say they gain. Her awareness of both her ambitions and societiy’s archaic models pushes her to build her voice as a person and artist. She understands that, if there is one thing she is going to have to do a lot, it is defend her vision for herself, especially as a Latina. In our interview, we discuss the hiccups and highs of learning to have your own back in the limelight.

Diandra: How does it feel to debut in a pandemic?

Maia: It was terrifying. I had the song for a year and a half, and it feels like it is apart of me. I wanted to release it in, you know, “normal life.” So we waited and waited, and then I got Covid, and it just felt like I needed to release it. I have been wanting to be a solo artist for 5 to 6 years, and, with all that is happening right now, you never know what will happen. So I just had to release it.
Maia Reficco – TUYA (video oficial)

Diandra: How has the pandemic changed how you experience the song or feel it now?

Maia: I think this track has evolved with me. I looked at it like a “break-up” song, and I felt it very intensely. Now, that song resonates differently to me. It is about a Maia that deserves better, and it shows how I’ve evolved. It has attitude, and that is something that has evolved in that last few years. I used to be really shy and timid and I’ve gotten sassier. At the moment, it wasn’t a happy song, but now I’m like, “Yes, girl! You go girl” I was mad at that person who did me wrong. He was not a good person. It was sad because he did me so wrong, I couldn’t even feel sad. It was like I couldn’t even feel how bad I felt because it was so bad.

Diandra: How did the relationship make you grow as a person?

Maia: Wow! I changed a lot. I used to be way more insecure about me deserving to be loved. Quarantine really helped because I moved out of my parents house, and I had to be by myself. It made me think about myself in different ways. So, maybe, the newfound confidence makes you see you deserve to receive. I am a giver, and I was used to giving to people and never receiving back. That relationship made me understand I deserve someone who sees me as an equal and is kind back.

Diandra: You had Covid by yourself?

Maia: Oh yeah! I had like this crazy fever, and I was like, “I wish I had my mom!” Now, I get very easily exhausted and gasping for air more. I have never been athletic like, I can’t run half a mile, but I get very agitated lately. I get tired and my hair is crazy weak. It sucks. It is really difficult because I want to work, but I can’t. It is not a good feeling.
Maia Reficco – Shake It Out (Cover by Maia Reficco)

Diandra: Having worked since you were a kid, how has being a star been redefined for you?

Maia: It has definitely changed a lot. Being a Latina, growing up in Boston, in a predominantly white city, I felt forced to identify with what mainstream media was offering, but it didn’t offer anyone who looked like me or had my experience. It didn’t have Latinos, and it made me feel like an outcast. Now, media is changing. It is has been an incredible awakening for my generation, and how we are fed up with how things have been going. Having a spotlight is a huge responsibility, and now that we have more of us representing, we have to send that message. We deserve to be seen. The world is going to collapse if we don’t change.

Diandra: Totally! One thing I feel that diversity in people brings is a diversity of thought and new resolutions. What do you feel your presence brings in new thought?

Maia: Ever since I was a little girl, I was hearing things that I didn’t like or feel comfortable with. I experienced things that I knew wasn’t right, but I didn’t know the name and it is not talked about enough in mainstream media. Working at Nickelodeon, as a Latina, people will tell you things that are straight up unacceptable. Being on a major network, and seeing how the Latin community is constantly being brought down and told how we should see ourselves, I want to break those stereotypes that people hold against us. I want to be that person for little girls.

Diandra: If “Tuya” is an indicator, I know you can fight!

Maia: When you are a young kid, working with so many men, you have to learn, and I don’t want little girls to go through what I went through.

Diandra: Have you put that pain into a song?

Maia: It is hard to be okay to put those things in a song. I am on my journey to finding the confidence into putting it into songs and believing I can tell this story. It is a long process breaking through that because we are constantly oppressed, but I am taking up the process.

Diandra: It is hard because it gives you a double conscious. On one hand, you are a human being that, like everyone, needs to grow as an individual, but then you are also apart of a community that is not allowed to grow or even considered human. It is hard to build your strengths and heal as an individual when your community is threatened as a whole.

Maia: Totally! I feel like my life, as an artist, is like a double life. I am always genuine in my life, but being artist does bring up a lot of issues that I feel, if I wasn’t an artist, I wouldn’t not think about as much. Maybe, I have evolved in certain aspects and have left behind some things but I want to grow as a role model. I wish when I was younger I had seen more people fight for us and fight these things.

Diandra: Is there a part

Maia: I really watch a lot of Youtube like, I love those videos when they are cutting sand.You can get lost on Youtube like, 6 hours later, just watching so many random videos. I also love real estate shows on Netflix.

Diandra: Those are awesome, especially rainbow colored-sand. Diandra: So do you have a favorite tv show or movie that you think would be a perfect concept album? 

Maia: Incredible question! Wow! Coraline would be a great. Euphoria definitely, and, maybe, Big Little Lies.

Diandra: Those are really good, and they feel like they match what you have been saying. They are all about betraying images.

Maia: Wow! You are totally right. That was really good and fast.

Diandra: (laughing)

Maia: Now, I’m thinking about it, and I’m about to go to the piano.

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