By Emily Davenport

Gedina has always had a thing for mermaids.

The California native was a fan of the ocean from the time she was six months old, which is when she started swimming.

“The ocean provides a training ground breakdowns and breakthroughs,” said Gedina.

Her love for the water led her to her love of mermaids. From the time she was a child, Gedina loved the classic Disney film “The Little Mermaid” and would sing the songs whenever she had a chance. As an adult, a mermaid represents so much more to Gedina than it did when she was a kid because they helped her shape her identity as a musician and performer.

“Mermaids were my go-to. They represent transformation and requires me to be part magic as well as more authentic in myself as a human,” said Gedina. “The mermaid mentality is like a battle cry, it’s who I am with my friends, my fiance, on stage. It only seemed fitting to create that lane of music.”

Gedina knew she wanted to do music professionally since she was young. Growing up in Santa Cruz, Gedina was exposed to the music scene very early on in her life.

“From the time that I could form sentences, I knew that I was going to be in music,” said Gedina. “Music was a part of the community. I found myself surfing in the mornings and playing music at night.”

Gedina spent a fair amount of time playing in talent shows and bands as she started to hone her craft. By the time she was 15 years old, Gedina graduated high school and later enrolled in U.C. Irvine, and during that time she started to play in local blues bars.

“I wanted to go to college, but I knew that time was of the essence. Being involved in my passion was where I wanted to be,” said Gedina. “I loved school but I knew I needed to get through it to do what I love, so I took the fastest route to get into the adult world. Being an adult at a young age, it was like, ‘This is what I’m supposed to do. I’m ready for big.’”

Gedina further developed her brand of “mermaid-pop” music and landed a blind audition on season three of NBC’s Emmy-award winning musical competition series, “The Voice.” That same year, Gedina released her debut single “Shame,” and by 2015, her song “First Time, First Love,” became an international hit that has now amassed over 2.2 million streams on Spotify.

She released her first album “Tell’em” in 2018, and her second album “Out of My Shell” is set to release sometime next year. The first single off of “Out of My Shell,” a song called “Messy,” was released in August 2020.

The second single on the new album, “Transformer,” is set to release on all streaming platforms on Oct. 16. According to Gedina, “Transformer” is a call to action for listeners to acknowledge the transformer in all of us and be your best self.

“It’s the absolute appropriate time to take ourselves on — there’s a transformer in each of us. We have such an opportunity now with the pandemic, BLM, and other political movements. We’re being called to step into our greatest selves, step out of the wary and own our power,” said Gedina. “Now that you owned it, what are we doing with it? Are we coming together or tearing each other down? We have to acknowledge that people are perfect as they are when they choose to be their best selves.”

During this time of quarantine, Gedina believes that now is a great time to flex those creative muscles.

“It is absolutely the most incredible time to create from nothing. Where’s there’s a vision, there’s a way,” said Gedina. “There’s always a way to reach people. I‘m in love with Zoom, Facetime, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, TikTok — all platforms allowing us to stay connected. I see this as a time of growth, as a renaissance, a way to expand and grow beyond our limitations with ways to entertain and connect.”

However, like most people she recognizes how challenging a time the pandemic has been.

“There are days where I’m anxious and facing grief that I wouldn’t normally face. There’s room for that too,” said Gedina. “People are losing loved ones right now, and things that we haven’t gone through, we have the time and place to go through it now. All of this is very necessary to face our time, we have to pick up the mirror and put down the magnifying glass and see what are we made of.”

In addition to writing and performing, Gedina is overseeing her own company, 4th Door Records. In the next few months, the record label is working to bring on new artists that fit into similar vibes that Gedina’s music gives the world.

“Really the intention of 4th Door Records is to lay the new ground for music, the Renee Browns, the Oprahs in song,” said Gedina. “The affirmational manifestation language that people get from YouTube or seminars — we wanted to create that in music.”

For more information or to keep up with Gedina’s work, visit gedina.com.

This article first appeared on our sister website, amny.com