Editor’s Note: This was one time where I certainly wasn’t prepared for the interview. At the same time, Tatiana DeMaria came off as completely genuine and sweet, and was just excited as the Vans Warped Tour crowd was certainly abuzz about her. I am anxious to get to know this artist more and excited for her new music to come out! In the meantime, fans can find Tatiana DeMaria at the following locations:
www.facebook.com/TatianaDeMariaMusic
www.twitter.com/tatianademaria
www.instagram.com/tatianademaria
Madness To Creation: How was the Vans Warped Tour?
Tatiana: It has been wonderful!
Madness To Creation: What was the best memory that you have from it?
Tatiana: Oh wow! It was such a whirlwind to think of that, I’m still thinking about that! It’s been amazing! A lot of fun bands, a lot of new bands to see, bands I’ve never heard of, having fun barbecues, on the first few days, we did a volunteer day cleaning up the beaches in Ventura, I loved doing the days off on Warped Tour because we always ended up doing some volunteer days, and that’s one of the things that I really enjoyed doing. You get to connect with a lot of the bands, but also do something that not really many tours or festivals get to do, it’s amazing to give back like that!
Madness To Creation: I see that giving back is important to you, what are some causes that you like giving back to?
Tatiana: Oh gosh! There’s feeding people, education, life is precious, and being here in the fullest way possible is something that we all love to do, I think it’s heartbreaking, and from personal experience, I certainly have. The refugees, Amnesty International, there’s a lot of different things to do and participate in, Doctors Without Borders, feeding people across the U.S., and charities to participate in. The main thing is to have stuff and that you can share, I love to help! I feel very, very lucky, so I like to share.
Madness To Creation: Your hard work and dedication is paying off, who do you attribute for your success so far?
Tatiana: While out on Warped Tour, it would be very appropriate to say Kevin Lyman because he’s been incredibly supportive, and put myself on Warped Tour. I had a band called TAT and we’ve done Warped Tour five times previously and Kevin Lyman has been incredibly supportive in our songs and having our backs in the most wonderful way possible, so Kevin has certainly been a massive champion and an incredible supporter, so he’s made a lot possible for me in the U.S., it’s very important to add family who love what you do, if you have that, awesome, I feel very lucky that I do, my mom will always show up in a t-shirt with my face on it, which is sweet, and you know I was very young when I made music, so I had to start recording stuff and getting a manager for my family, so we can look at it and go, “I get it, cool”, but I’m really lucky that they loved it, my tour manager, my merch person, they’ve been killing it on tour. My merch person is out there hustling every day, my bass player and my drummer make up this great team, so if people like the songs, well that helps, I enjoy writing, so I’m glad!
Madness To Creation: What would Tatiana DeMaria say to Tatiana DeMaria from TAT if you were to give her advice?
Tatiana: Doing Warped Tour, we done a lot with TAT, now doing Warped Tour as Tatiana DeMaria, I’m looking at the previous experiences in TAT. Baby wipes! I would just give myself a checklist of shit to get ready for.
Madness To Creation: What are you going to miss the most about it?
Tatiana: The camaraderie, the people, the bands, the barbecues at night, and having 60 buses on tour, 100 vehicles of trucks and stage trucks, you don’t really get to look around on any tour that you’re doing. With festivals, there’s a lot of bands, but it’s a weekend, you never get to be on tour with 60 or 80 bands for two months in the summer, or for a month and a half and just hang out, it’s a summer camp for misfits. That’s the thing that I will miss the most is the camaraderie, the fun, the evenings, and meeting fans, being out on the ground every day doing our signings, and being face to face and hang in a way that you don’t get to in nightclubs or in venues because the venue structure is slightly different, or it’s not in such an open field like it is.
Madness To Creation: What do your fans mean to you?
Tatiana: Everything! It took me a long time for Tatiana DeMaria to work out because I was very, very careful to not put something out that would upset fans who followed us for so long in TAT. In terms of everything, I think as an artist and as a human, I also have to take care of myself, but you put music out there because you want people to connect, if they couldn’t connect, I wouldn’t necessarily release it, when people connect to your music and when they are moved by it, when it helps them in their life, for me that’s the most exciting thing that I can do. When I was a kid, I felt like music had saved my life, and when I was listening to it, I was thinking “shit, this is the cure to everything”, everyone needs to know this right now, it’s music! When I was writing the first TAT album, I remember thinking that everything that I was writing, I had to have that feeling in my chest that I felt when I listened to songs that inspired me and took my anxiety away as a young teenager, and so that’s sort of how I like to write and operate, and if people feel that in return, then that’s amazing to me, but you have to have people that want to feel it, and when they do, then that’s fulfilling my purpose I guess, and just connecting with in every way.
Madness To Creation: So, is the anxiety something that you go through?
Tatiana: It was! When I was younger, I went through it for a long time, it was something that I had to work really, really hard to get out of, but that’s also why I’m passionate about the work I do in order to try to help people, whether its helping people navigate depression or life or anxiety, it has a lot to do with the fact that once you come out to the other side, and you think, “shit, there is a way to get through it”, and these are the things that I’ve done and you want to share, and you want to spread that word, so it’s just a way to share the bullshit that you’ve been through.
Madness To Creation: Do you have fans come up to you and say, “that song connected with me”?
Tatiana: Oh for sure!
Madness To Creation: How does that feel when someone says that?
Tatiana: It feels amazing! It really does feel amazing, fans who come to the shows, and have basically said that “I was an addict and this song helped me get over my addiction”, or I released a song called “Anxiety” in 2015 in which I was expressing myself, and when I write, I don’t think about affecting people in this way, I write, “if this is how I feel, cool, I hope that you can connect”. So watching people connect is actually an amazing feeling and when people connected to the song “Anxiety”, and people say, “shit, I really relate to what I’m going through”, that meant a lot to me because I felt like it was giving people a place to appreciate it.
Madness To Creation: Tell us about the “London Don’t Lie” music video.
Tatiana: What would you like to know?
Madness To Creation: Anything you want to tell me.
Tatiana: The song came out recently, the music video came out, it’s on VEVO, YouTube, it’s on Apple Music, Spotify, feel free to check it out guys! I’m very excited to have it out, it’s a song that’s very close to my heart, it covers chapters lyrically for me in life, so I’m really happy to have it out there, it’s a really fun song to play live, so it’s a song off of my new EP, there’s a song every month, at the end of the year, new music videos and new record!
Madness To Creation: Is there anything else you would like to add?
Tatiana: Find me on Instagram at @tatianademaria, Facebook at @TatianaDeMariaMusic, Twitter @tatianademaria, I’ll be touring in the fall and in the New Year! I’ll have a new record coming out, bunch of new music, I’m looking forward to seeing you guys on the road!
And there you have it! Follow Tatiana DeMaria on her socials for upcoming news and happenings in her world of music!
