- Date
- 10 SEPTEMBER 2025
- Author
- MIRA WANDERLUST
- Image by
- ALBERTO PELAYO
- Categories
- Music
La Maccaia: Gaia Banfi’s Sound of Love and Freedom
Singer-songwriter, musician, and producer. Born in Milan in 1998, Gaia Banfi has quickly established herself as one of the most compelling voices and sounds in Italy’s electronic music scene.
Though she moved from Milan to Bologna, her heart draws inspiration from the Genoese coastline, the atmosphere and emotions of that city deeply influence her music. It's precisely from this emotional landscape that her latest album, La Maccaia, was born.
“I don’t really like to describe the emotional landscape of this album,” she says, “because I want people to take from it whatever resonates with them.”
This new project came from a deep personal need, the urge to tell her story in a raw, unfiltered way, something she hadn’t fully achieved in her previous work. Tuning in with herself was essential to the album’s success.
“Music is the art form that feels closest to me, so it became the natural way to express all of this.”
Love and freedom are recurring themes in Gaia’s music, though she doesn’t explore them through direct or literal storytelling. Instead, she evokes them through powerful imagery, often grounded, almost tangible. What matters to her is conveying the sense of a love that belongs to everyone, one we should never fear, and the inner freedom to embrace it, live it, and move through it.
Gaia is carving out her own path in Italy’s electronic music landscape, a world she’s always been drawn to, but which still remains underappreciated and underexplored in her country. Too often, it’s seen as a niche.
By combining her native language, Italian, which she deeply loves, with an international sound, she’s found her own voice and offered something fresh and original to the scene.
“We’re coming out of a musical phase where everything tends to sound the same. So being part of a movement that’s pushing for something new, being part of real change, felt necessary.”
What sets her apart even more is her approach to influences: she doesn’t really follow specific role models. Instead, she sees other artists more as sources of perspective than as benchmarks to imitate.
This editorial project was created with her in mind, aiming to capture, and perhaps normalize, the inner duality many artists live with: the contrast between their most intimate selves and the more performative, outward-facing side. When asked how much she identified with this idea, her answer perfectly mirrored the concept we built the editorial around:
“I think it’s all connected. The intimacy is part of the creative process, the writing. Then comes the act of putting it out there, pulling it from the private into the public, as a way to free yourself.”
Gaia has only recently started performing for live audiences, but she’s already gaining recognition for her presence on stage. With a strong and recognizable artistic identity, she knows how to stay authentic while performing, and she knows exactly what kind of experience she wants to deliver to her audience.
She doesn’t stick to rigid plans for her career. Instead, she prefers to follow her instincts, letting curiosity guide her and staying open to the unexpected.
The idea of working abroad fascinates her, especially because of the different energy and cultural weight that music seems to carry in other parts of the world.
She dreams of collaborating with international artists through real, meaningful exchanges based on shared creative visions. And then there’s cinema, a quiet dream that lingers between the lines: writing film scores, giving sound to images. For her, that would be one of the most beautiful things she could do.
When it comes to facing challenges, Gaia approaches them with a cool head. Of course, difficult moments come, days when her mood dips, or situations that threaten to drag her down into a dark place. But her strategy is to take a step back, to look at the problem less emotionally and more analytically, almost as if from the outside. It doesn’t always work, we’re only human, but even a little distance helps her stay grounded and often leads her to a way forward.
Among her dreams, one stands out with a smile that mixes awe and disbelief: working with Justin Vernon, the singer-songwriter and founder of Bon Iver.
“I don’t think he’ll ever notice me,” she jokes. “But hey, you never know.”
What fascinates her isn’t just the artist himself, but the sonic and visual world he’s built around his music, a constantly evolving project, unafraid of transformation. She’s long admired him, not just for his songs but for the creative freedom he embodies.
To collaborate with him, or even just to talk and share ideas, would be a dream.
A distant goal, perhaps. But dreams like that are part of the journey.
And as we all know, sometimes the things that seem impossible, stop being so.
Lecturer & Mentor
Veronica Bergamini @veronica_bergamini
Editor
Mira Postolache @mirawanderlust
Photography
Alberto Pelayo @albertopelayo.jpg
Photography Assistant
Francesca Lanfranchi @lanfrancesca
Creative & Educational Project Developer
Cecilia Bortolazzi @cecilia_bortolazzi
Production Assistant
Giulia Carraro @ggiuliacarraro
MUA
Rossella Pastore @rossellapastoremua
Hairstylist
Helena Collaviti @hell22
Casting/Talent
Gaia Banfi @gaiabanfi
Styling
Tommaso Amabile @thomasamabile.jpg
Francesca Caponera @fracapo_
Giulia Ciccarelli @gc.aether
Chiara De Tuoni @cdtstyle
Giorgia Deoni @outtakes_gd
Rachele Di Palo @racheledipalo
Gloria Gennari @gloriagennarii
Luna Grancagnolo @anacerta
Chiara Lacalendola @instylebychiara
Sebastiano Lazzarotto @seba8style
Anna Marchioro @annamrc.studio
Jessica Masiero @inmyjesmess
Federica Pellacani @federicapellacani
Erika Pucino @erikapucino
Alessia Succi @alessiasuccy
Video by Mattia Boldrini @mattiaboldrini_
Video Art direction: Nicole Zia @nicoleeezia
Production powered by MOODART School of Fashion Communication @moodartfashioncommunication
