Today we’d like to introduce you to Aria Labaria.
Hi Aria, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
I used to stay awake at night with a strong sense that I am destined to do something great. Writing and utilizing my creativity ended up being key. Around the end of my junior/senior year of college at the University of San Francisco, and after a bought of sullen depression and anxiety, I came to take a creative writing class that brought out my voice when my throat chakra was heavily blocked. Through the assignments in this class, I was able to tell my story, and while the professor was guiding us through prompts and styles, there was enough creative freedom to dive into the thoughts clouding my mind. I explored this new love of writing by creating poems, short narratives, and long fiction stories. Through these works, I was able to accept myself, accept the thoughts as thoughts instead of as concrete facts about myself, and I accepted my intersectional identity as a Black, Latina, queer woman. An identity that throughout my upbringing had negative connotations from my culture, media, and fellow students growing up. Even being in San Francisco, one of the queer capitals of the U.S. I felt very alone coming to terms with my identity. And it’s true, all LGBTQ people know since they are children that they are different, who they “like”, and how they are comfortable expressing their identity. But through years of bullying, feeling the need to conform for safety and inclusion, this part of LGBT youths’ identity is torn away bit by bit.
My writing helped me find my way back. During the final semester of my B.A. college experience, I found myself heavily unmotivated to finish end-of-year projects and papers. I had just come out via Facebook post and felt very satisfied with a part of my mission of going to SF for school, away from family and the old community I felt uncomfortable being my whole self in. But alas I still needed to finish my degree to feel completely fulfilled, being that my favorite genre of music has been hip-hop and rap since I was 10, I began writing raps to motivate myself. At first, having never done any breathing exercises, I was barely able to get through them without getting out of breath. But it felt so right to write.
After moving back home after graduation, I couldn’t stop. Communicating my experience moving back, friends all grown up and having their own lives, the city around me changing daily, and writing these rhymes are what got me through.
Sooner than later, I wrote whole songs, started producing beats, and going to open mics around Chula Vista (shoutout DJ JG who helped me feel like my music was in good hands at CV Brew), then San Diego, all of these open mic’s had other artists who I began to meet and get to know through their music and Instagram. Slowly a whole community of music lovers, producers, and creatives appeared before my eyes, and opportunities for paid shows for me to perform whole sets of my songs around San Diego presented themselves.
Since starting, I have written and recorded more than 50+ songs, released singles (solo and collabs), and released my debut Blue Falls Drive EP. More is soon on the way and I am excited to share with my city and with the world all that I can bring to the music, to the community, and to bettering society. Ultimately, my mission is to create a world my younger self would be unafraid to be themselves 100%.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It definitely has not been a smooth road. I had a hard time accepting myself as a queer person. I also struggled with falling in love and eventually losing one of my best friends. This experience also has influenced my writing and some of the songs I have released with examples like Yooh, Last One, and ThreeThreeThree.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I write music. The music I write is for other young queers who have had trouble finding love for themselves with others. I’m known for making love songs for and about women. I am most proud of releasing my Blue Falls Drive EP. It took a lot of courage for me to release a project that I felt so vulnerable sharing with others. The songs For me and ThreeThreeThree are examples of pouring my heart out on a page and speaking to a mic about the depths of my heart. For me is a shoutout to my family and parents and the uncertainty/anxiety of feeling time with them fleeting. ThreeThreeThree includes a quote by Armistead Maupin stating “My only regret about being gay was that I repressed it for so long. I surrendered my youth to the people I feared when I could have been out there loving someone.” This encompassed my entire feeling because growing up I always felt drawn to love women but my community, culture, or society would deem it a sin or unacceptable. Little did I know I could have loved them either way.
Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
My advice to those starting out their writing journey and their music journey would be to just start. Write, read, and take moments with yourself to introspect what it is you want to put out into the world.
I wish when I was younger, I would have silenced the voices in and out of my head that told me I couldn’t do something because other people would think lesser of me, but I say screw those people because they will be the ones talking all about what you’re doing when you make your achievements and dreams come true.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/arialabaria
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/arialabaria_/
- Facebook: https://tidal.com/browse/artist/15072383
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/_arialabaria
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3KvSEk81mg
- Yelp: https://open.spotify.com/artist/0sYUYnvERe3KkMquSButDZ
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/arialabaria
