Q&A: Spanish Artist MAVICA Talks New Album, Music Video & Her Love For Dance
CRYING IN THE CLUB, AND DANCING OUT THE PAIN — are some of the most therapeutic ways to work through heavy emotions. This act of releasing yourself to music as a means of emotional regulation was a major inspiration for London-based musician MAVICA. Growing up in Spain, music and dance was a central part of MAVICA’s upbringing — she studied ballet and flamenco and sang from a young age. When she went to college, she put her passion for dance on the back burner and dedicated herself to her studies and her music.
But as she ventured into releasing more music, she found herself attracted to dance again. From doing so, MAVICA was able to express herself in a variety of different forms: through her songwriting, storytelling, and dance.
Her latest release, “are you back?” and “no puedo decir que no (no regrets),” whisk listeners away into a beautiful trance-like tranquility in which your body is lured in to dance. In the music video for “are you back?” MAVICA’s passion for dance and music come together in a beautifully choreographed video set in an idyllic mansion, and the visuals are as soothing as the song.
Inspired by a falling out with a friend, “are you back?” encapsulates the energy of the singer-songwriter’s upcoming album, which works through the intensity of human emotion. Sometimes you feel so much that you simply must cry and dance, and MAVICA’s upcoming album will help you to do just that.
Luna sat down with MAVICA to talk about her creative upbringing, the recording of her latest music video, the inspiration for “are you back?” and what it was like working on her upcoming album. Read below to learn more about this ethereal artist.
LUNA: First of all, congratulations on the release of your latest single “are you back?” It’s so enchanting and lovely. What experiences brought you to write this song?
MAVICA: I think the musical inspiration was Christine and the Queens, big time, and a lot of music from the ’80s that I had been going back to. I [also] got a new synth that is a Juno, which is quite an important piece of the upcoming album, so everything goes around that. The concept of the song is about a fallout with a friend that I was living with. It was one of those things where you're asking that person if they are coming back to your life or if they are gone forever, you know, for good. Because she was like, “Yeah, I'm coming back — now I'm gone.” So the song is trying to say, “Tell me what you're about, tell me what you’re doing.”
LUNA: Friend breakups are so hard and weird — I always respect when people take time to creatively go through that.
MAVICA: I know, right? The whole album itself is about leaving people [who] are not adding anything to your life, or the idea that you are holding onto them until you realize it's okay to just make your way if they are not contributing to anything in your life. You know, it's kind of healthy, actually.
LUNA: The music video for “are you back?” is quite mesmerizing. Describe the experience of recording that video. Did you have a role in the artistic direction?
MAVICA: Yes. When I was still writing the tunes, I got a message from this director who was a really big fan of my music, and she wanted to make a video where she felt part of the creative process. So we built it together, and we ended up coming up with this world of dreams that we both liked. So [the visuals of the video have] nothing to do with the lyrics that much, but it was quite cool. We rented a mansion — like, the palace of this writer in the UK, outside London. And it was just like, “Wow, these rooms were amazing! Who lived there?”
So when I was filming it, I very much felt like I was in a movie — but it was quite a stressful process. I'm kind of a bit scared of things that stay forever, like photos, videos, and recordings in real studios — they scare the shit out of me. Like, if you have a bad day or you fuck up, that stays forever. So it was quite a stressful whole day filming. We filmed it on the day of my birthday, too!
LUNA: That's so special, I love that. Dance was a big part of the video — were you involved in the choreography?
MAVICA: Yes. I met the choreographer at a party and we connected instantly. I was like, “I have this video — you should [choreograph] with me.” So we did a couple of workshops together and that's how I started connecting with dance again. It was quite important for me to have her on board. The parts where I'm dancing are my favorite parts of the video. It was quite fun to do, actually.
LUNA: That's so cool. Love that it was born out of a friendship, too. That always makes it so much better.
MAVICA: Exactly!
LUNA: You mentioned that the process of making this music video brought you back to dance. Can you describe to me how dance plays a role in your music-making process?
MAVICA: I used to dance when I was a kid … like classic ballet and flamenco, and then when I went to uni I kind of stopped. I had some moments where I did some workshops, and I came back to it a little bit a couple of years ago. So this was the one thing that brought me back, in a way. It is not like I'm dancing every day — I just do some workshops now and then. Especially because I have this friend now who does a lot of dance stuff here and is quite inspiring. Now and then I will receive videos from people of them dancing to my songs. So that kind of made it all feel like it was coming together.
Then when I started writing this album, I had one thing on my mind, which was that even if it's an album about a breakup or about losing someone or something that is supposed to be sad, I'm going to turn this into a positive thing where people can dance. It is not necessarily a bad thing [to be sad], but something where they can feel the [duality of the] music — I've never done something like that. So that was the main concept that I had in my head from the beginning. So I guess dance has been on my mind since I started writing [the album].
LUNA: I love that you intentionally made the lyrics about some pretty rough stuff but sonically made it so your listeners can dance through that sadness.
MAVICA: There is this thing I used to say with my friend: “We're making music that you could cry and dance [to] at the same time.”
LUNA: I think that's a healthy way to process emotion!
MAVICA: Exactly.
LUNA: Tell me about where you grew up. How does the music and culture you grew up around influence your songwriting?
MAVICA: Where I grew up is a very small town where no one makes music. I didn't even know that I had to record my music. I thought it was just about playing shows or learning and writing, but then I realized through friends — from when I moved to Madrid, to a bigger city — “Okay, I should record my music.” So because of that, I started quite late with recording everything.
But to be honest, I don't think that music from my culture or my country has influenced my music that much. More so the things that my mom would play in the car, which would be American or English folk, rock, or classics like The Beatles. That's the main thing that has influenced my music, but also playing flamenco and being from Spain, I'm slowly coming back to my roots. I'm just writing some Spanish tunes. I think I have two Spanish tunes on the album. So yeah, kind of slow going.
LUNA: Do you have a preference for singing in English or Spanish?
MAVICA: I think I prefer singing in English because this is how it naturally comes out… because I've always listened to music in English. But it is true that when I sing in Spanish it is so different, and people acknowledge it and have told me, “It is so special when you sing in Spanish — you should do it more!” So I don't know, maybe I should do it more. Yeah, I think whenever I have time, I kind of want to translate my songs [in some way] they work — some of them might.
LUNA: Who do you look up to as a solo artist?
MAVICA: A very big inspiration for me, in the way she's developed her career on her own and [in] being also a foreign artist, is Christine and the Queens because she releases something in English and then she releases it in French as well — and she's dancing a lot. Everything that I like is combined in her project… and she is also just so cool.
I love how Bon Iver went from writing something very folky and simple, just recording it with one mic, to the last album being electronic and so experimental with so many elements but it's still him — it’s still Bon Iver. I really, really like that from an artist because changing your style so much but still having that personality is hard.
LUNA: That’s a really good point! I think it's cool you chose people whose growth inspired you. You're like, “I want to be someone who can be many different artists at different periods.”
MAVICA: Exactly, because artists are in continuous change. We need to evolve, and sometimes it is hard for listeners to keep up with that, but it is natural. You will never stay at the same frequencies. That would be boring.
LUNA: What are you looking forward to over the next few months in terms of your upcoming projects, live events, or other creative endeavors?
MAVICA: Yeah, I'm looking forward to touring a lot, supporting nice artists because I have been in the shadows for like three years working on this album.
[Recently] I decided that I want to start recording the music again because I have another album sitting on the desktop. So I want to just finish it and record it early this summer to have it ready.
LUNA: When does the new album come out?
MAVICA: September!
LUNA: That's awesome. And you said you have a couple of Spanish tracks on that, too.
MAVICA: Yeah, I have a Spanish song and then a mixed one.
LUNA: That's super awesome. And when you were making that album, you said it's been taking a long time? Is it because the concept is something emotionally heavy?
MAVICA: I think it wasn't that much because of the concept of the album and how heavily emotional it was… it was more that I found difficulties along the way. I was so focused on releasing it with a label and also finding the right team for it, and that takes a long time. So at some point I was like, “I should just focus on the music and finish it because I'm just getting so distracted on the way.”
The process was a bit torturous. I had to record vocals on my own because I like doing that. So it felt quite lonely at times, but then I got the help of my friend PBSR, who's been helping me with the last EPs as well. So I think it was kind of key that he decided to help me. It was just like an emergency call: “I need like a proper couple of weeks to spend with you because you can help us get this out of the gate.” It was mainly like that. I had a couple of problems with the mixing and mastering. When you finish recording you think it is kind of ready, but there is so much after that.
LUNA: Wow! Thank you for sharing that. It’ll be so cool for our readers to see how much labor goes into building an album.
MAVICA: Totally! I'm super happy with how it turned out, and it is so nice to be at the finish line.
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