Making Melodies: A SOLEYA Interview
SOLEYA grew up with music through her parents, nurturing her ears with all sorts of sounds, from classical to modern pop. When she was young, she’d often sang scatting melodies with her mother’s voice memo as a playful pastime. Music has always been a part of her life but, alternative R&B was the music genre that captivated her the most. Drawn to the story-telling-like flow of the lyrics, accompanied by challenging vocals that show how vital of an instrument it is in each song. Which she incorporates in her art today, now daring to blend R & B with hip-hop, indie-pop, and soul.
BY CRISTINA BENAVIDES
With her sound in mind, and her musical upbringing, she spent her college years at Stanford University in California, learning song writing, making connections with peers, and networking. In her major, she generated first drafts of her songs, which she later tweaked for release, one of which is her summer latest, Remnants of Her, which was a particularly unique experiment of hers.
When making songs, SOLEYA usually writes out the melody first, then the instruments, finalizing with the lyrics. Remnants of Her was a diary entry that inspired her to adapt into lyrics for class. Breaking her usual formula by focusing on the lyrics first, then working on the tone and instrumental accompaniment. It was originally a somber tone with an acoustic guitar, but she’s since changed it to a scorn tone that reflect a spiteful, sassy, perspective of the songs topic of a crumbling couple. The inspiration for the change was testing out how a song’s tone shiftedwith a slow buildup, reflecting a resentful relationship. SOLEYA plans to return to the song and remix an alternative version inspired by the guitar sounds of the original assignment in the near future.
In the meantime, SOLEYA plans to spend the upcoming seasons, working on extensive collaborative projects, staring with her recent drop West Coast. Released on July 17th, the breezy up-beat song is a coming-of-age story and love letter about moving to a new city as a young adult and falling in love with the environment. The song is based on her experience, as well as the fellow songwriters she worked with to make this song a reality.
After years of working solo, West Coast was a first-time rattling, but exciting, journey of teaming up with fellow creatives and producers. Instead of living the dreadful nightmare of bands having frustrating creative differences, she expresses that the creative differences of her team made West Coast stronger. She looks forward to working with the people she grew close to while making the song. West Coast is the first of the SOLEYA collaboration project and she cannot wait to share the fruits of her and her teams labor in future releases.
You can follow SOLEYA on Instagram: @soleyasings