Rendcombs Rising Star

We're so excited to introduce you to Maia, a talented singer and songwriter from Rendcomb College!
Rendcomb college student Maia has recently been displaying her singing talents at our weekly coffee concerts, showcasing her wonderful voice, and her knack for songwriting! Recently she performed an original moving piece called 'How I felt', which captivated everyone in the room. Maia is currently in year 10 and is an aspiring singer/songwriter, who uses her passion for meaningful songs and music to drive her.
"I made a rule for myself stating that I’ll never write a song without meaning because, for me, music is a way to express feelings, so without that feeling, the song is pointless. Most of my songs come from either experience I had (my song ‘how I felt’), or to express a feeling. The song I wrote for my dad is called ‘All I Need’. I wrote it to surprise him on his birthday but later recreated it. I don’t believe it’s my best song, but it’s for the best person, so I love it. My dad has a hobby of collecting and keeping cars; he loves BMWs. We usually listen to music and go out on a drive when we have free time, and I found that time with him is really special to me, so I wrote a song about it. "
Maia enjoys preforming at coffee concerts here at Rendcomb College and creates a lot of her songs here at school. She also finds that taking GCSE music helps as you are required to create original music, and art helps inspire her to create new music as painting helps her come up with new ideas! Outside of school Maia is working towards her grade 7 singing.
Showing of her school traits of being thoughtful, adventurous, and ambitious, Maia also told us about her diverse music taste: "I don’t mind most genres of music, but my favourite is probably indie-rock, indie-pop and J-pop. I’ve always grown up with a family who loves listening to music, and for that reason, I believe I can appreciate most music, even if it’s not my style. I am also interested in other languages such as Japanese, and actually speak a bit. My goal one day is to write a song in Japanese and to translate one of my English songs into Japanese. That way I can share my music with even more people."
Rendcomb College is very proud to have such a talent at the school, and we hope to hear more from her in the future! We are sure she will continue to make great music.
Q&A
What inspired you to get into music?
Singing and songwriting are my main hobbies; I’ve wanted to be a singer since I was young. I used to sing with my mum in the car and eventually started performing in smaller talent shows in school. I used to find performing hard, but now I think I’m a little more confident. Some of my idols whose music I take inspiration from are Billie Eilish, Ado, Alec Benjamin and Cavetown.
Will you continue to sing in the future?
I definitely want to sing and write my own music when I’m older. Writing music is my way of expressing feelings and evaluating them to share my experience with others. I believe music is one of the only things that can communicate a feeling so accurately and that is incredibly important to me.
Take a look at Maia's cover of Skyfall below. And head to our social media to listen to some of her original music!