Daily Discovery: Maria Dontas, “Come On Back”

Maria Dontas is one of the finalists in the 2014 Durango Sole Performer Contest. Listen to the song “Come On Back” below and check out some of her other songs on Songspace.

ARTIST: Maria Dontas

SONG: “Come On Back”

BIRTHDATE: June 29

HOMETOWN: North Caldwell, NJ

CURRENT LOCATION: My bedroom.

AMBITIONS: Write a song that makes people cry. Own a house with a wrap-around porch and an old creaky staircase.

TURN-OFFS: inconsideration, people who respond to “how are you?” with “hi” (like…I ASKED YOU A QUESTION, ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING TO ME?)

TURN-ONS: People who are nice to their moms, people who know a lot and are super passionate about a specific thing, tea.

DREAM GIG: I open for the Eagles at MSG, Regina Spektor makes a surprise appearance and we all take a verse and do insane harmonies on Shovel and Rope’s (yes, they’re there, too) “Birmingham.” Suddenly, the Avett Brothers show up and we close with “Go To Sleep.” Then I go to heaven.

FAVORITE LYRIC: “Decide what to be and go be it.” – The Avett Brothers

SONG I WISH I WROTE: “The Temptation of Adam” by Josh Ritter

5 PEOPLE I’D MOST LIKE TO HAVE DINNER WITH: Steve Carell, Tom Hanks, Sara Bareilles, Billy Joel, Chelsea Peretti

MY FAVORITE CONCERT EXPERIENCE: I saw John Fogerty over the summer at PNC. He was running around the stage for two hours, never tiring, playing hit after hit, so happy to be doing this show. He’s got the music in him. It was so inspirational. I want to be like that.

I WROTE THIS SONG: … I wrote this song”Come On Back” after spending time away from a group of people I considered my really close friends. We grew apart a little, but I couldn’t get the good memories out of my head. I promised myself that if we ever got the opportunity to be tight again, I’d forget all about how it hurt when we fell apart.