Maria Brink on Using Social Media: “I’m More of a Private Person”
In This Moment frontwoman Maria Brink guested on this week’s episode of The MetalSucks Podcast to discuss the band’s new album, Mother, their notoriously extravagant live presentations, her propensity to keep her private life private and more.
Inevitably, the topic of the coronavirus pandemic came up, but instead of dwelling on the negative, Maria — who typically doesn’t do much press and is a bit of a recluse — told us about how this time in isolation has inspired her to use technology to interact with her fanbase. She explained:
“I’m more of a private person, I don’t do a lot of stuff like that [social media]. With the circumstances we’re in, people being afraid and people needing… I think people need to come together right now. So I’m trying to think of how I can push myself out of my comfort zone and maybe do some sort of live stream in a way that I’m comfortable with that still has some of those factors, those elements of what I love visually, and maybe figure out how to do that in my own home. I would like to do things for people to give them some sort of escape or work on something that I can do. [I’m] just trying to figure out the right way to do it.”
Maria then elaborated on that concept, speaking about how she thinks it’s important for rock stars to maintain a kind of mystique about them, and how she attempts to balance that with the modern-day demands of public figures staying active on social media:
“It’s so important to me when it comes to music or art or even characters in movies, sometimes you don’t even want to see what that person is like in real life because the character is so good in the movie. It’s weird to see them [in real life], I almost didn’t want to see them ruin the character.
“I think there is a real magic to that and I think for me I also like the separation. I like my privacy, I like to have my home and my sacred self, parts of myself that you have to keep for yourself.
“But at the same time, that balance of giving and sharing my soul through my music with people and being there and being supportive to people also. You gotta ride that fine line because I think you’re right, with social media something can sound so alluring and in your mind you create it to be this whole fantasy. But then you go look at [a famous person’s] page and you see all this stuff and that sometimes ruins it. The mystique of what you built them up to be in your head had magical fantasy, and it’s ruined.
“You have to work with separating art from reality and I think you gotta balance it. I tell that to my boys in the band too, but some people love to see those people in everyday life, like how they woke up, and this and that. If I just do a picture of me with no makeup on, a silly little selfie, which I don’t like to do at all, they will love that more than anything that I do because… I don’t know, they like to see real people too. It’s like finding that balance.”
Mother is out now and available for purchase or stream. You can have a listen to the full MetalSucks Podcast episode below.
