Mia Giovina - taking the internet by storm

Mia Giovina (@miagiovina) is a rising singer-songwriter and online sensation with an amassed following of over 175k on TikTok. She is a 20 year-old from New Jersey who hopes that her music creates a safe space for listeners everywhere. Her new single “Time Machine” is set to be released on July 2nd. “With my closest friends off in cities hours from me and adulthood knocking it’s fists on my door, this song felt like it wrote itself more than I wrote it. Whether you’re 17 or 70, I hope this song makes you feel something.” Mia says about ‘Time Machine”. Our interviewer, Rachel has a discussion with her! 

Rachel: How are you?

Mia: I’m good, I’m actually very good. I’ve been doing a lot of live shows recently, which is very exciting to get back to that, so I feel like I’m finally getting back into the swing of performing and doing music and stuff, so I’m very good.

R: That’s really cool! What inspired your love for music?

M: I always have trouble answering this question, just because music has always been the biggest part of my life for my entire life, I've just always loved music and felt connected to music. My parents are both super musical, they actually write songs together, so that was kind of my first little taste of songwriting, watching the two of them work together as I grew up, so that's a hard question, because there wasn’t necessarily one thing, or one song, or one day where I was like “oh yeah I love music”, it’s kind of just in my blood I guess.

R: That’s so sweet! So your new song, Time Machine, is coming out next week, tell me all about it.

M: Yeah so it’s called Time Machine, it’s coming out next friday, July 2nd, I’m very very excited for it, I wrote this song in 15 or 20 minutes, it felt like it kinda just wrote itself, which are some of my favorite songs to write, and when i finished it, i sent it to my new 2 producers that i was working with, and I was like “do you like this? Like can we work on this?” and they loved it, so i was like “let's get to work”. SO they produced it for me, Nate and Noah, and I ended up loving it, and I think it’s super different from the first song that I released, sirens, so I'm very excited to show another part of myself as a musician, so I'm very very excited about it. It’s pretty self explanatory, based off the title, it's just about being scared to grow up and wanting to go back in time.

R: How was the whole song process affected by covid?

M: I think that being forced to stay at home honestly was beneficial for me as an artist, and as a producer and songwriter and everything in between, just kind of being forced to be with yourself for so long, i had all the time in the world to really hone my craft, and i started experimenting with music production at the beginning of quarantine, which became something i did every day. So I think I'm really lucky and blessed to say that quarantine was super beneficial for me as an artist. So it's really been great to discover new sounds with music production, and you know, hone that craft.

R: What are you most excited for now that covid is seeming to end?

M: Im super excited to get back to live shows, i've already done 2 already and I have one more, on my release day of time machine, at city winery in philadelphia, which is very exciting, and i'm very excited to get back to performing in front of people. And I'm so much more confident in myself as a person and an artist now, which shows in my live performances. I'm also super excited to meet people who've been supporting me online for a year now. I just met my very first fan, Adriana, who actually drove all the way to philly with her mom and sister to see me perform, which is a really surreal moment, because it's one thing to see comments saying how they feel about my music, and how it has affected you, but it's a totally other thing to see and hear that in person. So I'm definitely excited to connect and perform for people who I've been doing that for online for so long.

R: How has tik tok changed your life?

M: Tiktok has completely changed my life. When i first downloaded it, it was kind of a joke, I feel like everybody says that. When everybody downloaded it, everybody’s bio was like “this is a joke”. So I didn't download it with the intention of posting singing videos or anything, then I posted my first singing video in june of 2020, just to test it out, and see how it would do, and it ended up doing really well, and just starting the train of my videos. I've gained such an amazing loyal, passionate group of supporters from tiktok, and i've had so many opportunities and doors open because of tiktok. I wouldn't have been sitting doing this interview with you without tiktok, i wouldn't have my wonderful manager, tori, without tiktok, she found me on there, and i've met so many friends and musicians on tiktok, one of my closest friends, emily, she found me on tiktok, and now we see eachother every month. So I think that tik tok has entirely changed my life for the good. It obviously has its negative aspects sometimes, but it has too much good that it completely outweighs the bad for me.

R: Who is your biggest inspiration music wise, and how have they impacted their music?

M: It has to be Taylor Swift, I have loved her since I was 6 years old, her debut album was the first CD that i ever got. I just look up to her so much, I think her lyrics are so smart and intentional and meaningful, the melodies she writes, i don't know how she comes up with them. The concepts that secrates with her music and albums, like with folklore, creating songs from completely fictional stories is crazy to me, and she is my biggest inspiration, and i think my biggest dream in life is to sit down in a studio and watch her work, i don't have to be involved, i just wanna see her gears turn.

R: Who is your biggest inspiration non-music wise? 

M: Honestly it would probably also be Taylor Swift, but also Harry Styles. I look up to him musically, but also as a person. I was kind of late to the 1D and Harry Styles train, I think I had just started listening to him a month or 2 before he announced his fine line album. And i think to other people who aren't super big fan girls, it sounds like “oh you just like someone because they’re cute”, but i think you don't understand it until you experience it. And I think Harry Styles is that person for me, he has totally changed my outlook on life and i feel like i'm so much more confident in who i am as a person, and in my style, like what i wear today, i would have never worn before i started looking up to him. And I think he's just totally changed my perspective on life, and I'm very grateful for him.

R: If a genie gave you 3 wishes, what would you wish for?M: I think the first one would be to, well this might backfire on me, but the first one would be to never experience writer's block. I hate writer's block,it is the most degrading thing to feel as a songwriter, to feel like you physically can't write a song. So it would be to never experience writer's block, to be best friends with Taylor Swift, and to have an unlimited wardrobe.

R: What would you like people to know about you?

M: I think I would want people to know, at least for my music, that i just want to create a safe space for people with my music, i've always said how music has always been kind of my safety net, and now that i'm putting original music into the world, and i get to see the response to that, like people saying that they feel seen or heard or understood, like seeing that has probably been the coolest and most surreal thing out of everything. So the thing I want people to take away from me and my music is just to make people feel seen.

R: How would you like to impact the world?

M: I just want to make people feel something, whether that be happiness or sadness, or whatever. I think that one of my favorite things about music is the connection that it creates between people, like hearing an artist, especially one that you really look up to, sing about something that you're going through as well, is the coolest and most comforting feeling, and as a songwriter, i'm writing these songs that are super vulnerable and scary to write about these things that i'm going through, but then when i put it out there, and people say that they’re going through this too, it's like, i can take a breath because somebody else knows what it's like. So yeah that’s my favorite thing about music, and I hope that's what people take away from my music, and I hope I can just make people happy and feel good.