Diandra Interviews Wafia: Remembering The Good Things That Matter
I can’t lie. I am a FAN of Wafia, and if you read my review, you know I like her heart. She believes the small details in life are the Good Things, which is the title of her new EP. Her ability to spread happiness and humility through her music made me excited to interview her and see her thoughts on friendship, love, and self-care. Themes she always sings to, and, in this interview, attests to, as well.
Diandra: In honor of Good Things, what are the best things that you appreciate from you life?
Wafia: Friendship! The ones that stick around through it all.
Diandra: As a fan of plants, what plants would you be and why?
Wafia: A pothos, maybe, because they are always so reliable and pretty resilient.
Wafia – Pick Me (Official Music Video)
Diandra: What is the most cherished compliment you have ever received and the best advice you always keep?
Wafia: A new friend recently told me that her first impression of me was that I’ve made a really deliberate effort to be the person I am and that I wasn’t always like the way I am now. I felt really seen by that comment and have thought about it a lot since.
The best advice I’ve received is to keep turning left. My manager told me, early on ,that there were so many things in life that would have kept me turning right and, at the last minute, I turned left. His advice has been to always follow that intuition and keep turning left.
Diandra: Being big on self-care, what are the literal routines or rituals you follow? What has doing them shown you about loving yourself?
Wafia: Skin care is a big one for me, just taking that time at the beginning and end of my day is really important. So is journaling my feelings in the moment; it’s helped me from holding on to anger and resentment as well as gives me perspective. But the biggest one is always booking a session with my therapist as a precaution; before I get too depleted.
Wafia – Hurricane (Official Lyric Video)
Diandra: What are your favorite qualities about yourself and how do you feel they transfer into the EP?
Wafia: I think I’m really loyal. I can be a good friend if someone lets me and also meets me halfway. So I think when friendships end, I’m devastatingly hurt by them. To me that comes through on a song called How To Lose A Friend.
Diandra: What is your favorite childhood memory with music?
Wafia: Probably trying to reenact all the music videos I used to watch on MTV, specifically Lucky by Britney Spears.
Diandra: Having moved so much throughout your life, what is a worldly view or message you try to put in your music?
Wafia: I want everyone to feel really welcome and included to my music and also to my shows. I always felt like an ‘other’ in spaces growing up so, hopefully, I can avoid others feeling that in the spaces that I can control.
Diandra: Having studied biomedicine, what is one factoid about that world that fascinates you and oddly feels like music to you?
Wafia: Heartbeats! Feeling your own or someone else’s is so intimate.
Wafia – Flowers & Superpowers [Official Music Video]
Diandra:You have said it is essential for you to speak up for marginalized communities. What about marginalization do you feel most media misses but you hope your music captures?
Wafia: Media can feel click-baity when I am reduced to labels in a headline. I hope that my music dispels all that and can stand alone of whether I’m Arab, Muslim, or Queer.
Diandra: Your beginnings were in local cafes. What was one of the first lessons you learned there about performing? Any vivid memory?
Wafia: I learned that not everyone will like me or pay attention to me. Very quickly. I had to adapt to being in the background and, honestly, that was a good thing to learn. It’s not really in my nature to convince anyone of anything I do.
Wafia – Butterflies (Live from Barefoot Studio)
Diandra: With family and culture being so important to you, what is the greatest strength you have gotten from both?
Wafia: For better or worse, pride. I feel like I have a strong sense of my identity, and I’m very comfortable with the line I’ve drawn for what I would and wouldn’t do for my career. I think it’s my pride that stops me overstepping that line.
Diandra: In singing about love, what have you discovered are your deal-breakers and what do you see you offer to someone in love with you?
Wafia: Deal breakers for me are someone who’s controlling, manipulative, mean or disingenuous. I’d hope that I offer a lot to someone in love with me (haha). I haven’t thought about it before. I think I love hard and deeply. There’s very little that feels better than being in love.
Diandra: Again, singing to romance, what are the love stories, from history, entertainment, or even your own family, that most inspired you? Would you base a song on them?
Wafia: I love looking at my parents relationship, that was by no means perfect, but they had this saga of a life together. They dated then got engaged for 5 years, but all of that was long distance between Syria and the Netherlands; in a time where the only form of communication they had were the letters they sent each other. They got married in Syria and moved to the Netherlands the next day. Their marriage hasn’t always been easy, and there was even a time where they separated, briefly, but I think ultimately they always care about each other and there really is a friendship between them. I made a whole EP about it with my friend Ta-ku a few years ago called (m)edian. He had gone through some similar things with his family so it felt less daunting to approach it together.
Wafia – How To Lose A Friend (Official Audio)
Diandra: Ultimately, your music is about healing. What is one hardship or flaw you feel this upcoming EP has helped your confront or heal?
Wafia: Letting things go I think, especially unrequited friendships.
For More Information On Wafia and To Buy Good Things, Out August 21, Click Here.