For those people that haven’t heard of Sola could you tell us a bit about yourself, your story?
Well the short story would be, I was born and raised in San Jose, California by my Filipino immigrant dad and Norwegian-American mom so I grew up in a multicultural house, and that sorta instilled in me a desire to travel and discover the world. In college, I decided to take a leap of faith and change schools to follow my music dream, which led me to an incredible opportunity to move to England in 2014, and I’ve been here ever since.
Who inspired you to get into music?
My family have been the most supportive people I could’ve ever hoped for, especially my mom. My family aren’t in the music industry at all, but they saw my passion for it at an early age and have supported me 100% of the way. So while I was originally inspired to get into music by a lot of the strong female music contemporaries I saw when I was growing up like Hayley Williams of Paramore, my family has consistently been a source of inspiration, especially to keep pushing forward in my music career.
Are there any particular artists or albums that have stuck with you?
One of my favourite bands consistently for half of my life has been Bring Me The Horizon. All of their studio albums have really nicely followed my own evolution with my personal taste in music, and they have just tried so many out-of-the-box things for their genre. I respect the hell out of their creativity and willingness to do what they want regardless of what anyone thinks.
What is the writing process like for you, do you write at a particular time/place/mood?
There’s no consistent process for me honestly. But I usually just start with chords or a beat, then I freestyle and improvise over top, and then take those melodies and put lyrics to them. Sometimes the lyrics come at the same time as the melody. So for me, it really depends, but I usually just can’t be too tired or else I can be pretty useless haha
Could you tell us a bit about the writing/recording of the Syncr Music winning track Highs & Lows?
Yeah, I wrote it at the very end of 2019 with some friends at a songwriting camp here in England. It was me and 3 other writers, and I basically use group songwriting sessions as DIY therapy sessions so I just vented about my romantic life, and then we made a track about it! haha
What have been some of your favourite venues to perform at?
My favourite venues I’ve performed in are definitely the Hard Rock Cafe by Hyde Park in London as well as Sefton Park for the Liverpool International Music Festival. I think I must subconsciously love performing near nature or something, but those two venues were/are dope.
What do you think is missing from the music industry?
I think there’s definitely a lack of diversity. How many of the top executives, songwriters, artists/bands, managers, producers, etc are women, LGBTQ+, or POC? The answer is not nearly enough, and that has been on purpose! The systemic, institutionalised problems that plague our societies and industries, like racism and sexism, also infect the music industries since they don’t exist in a vacuum. So for me, I would love to see more and more artists from marginalised communities come up and be celebrated.
Here at Artistic Echoes, we are always on the lookout for new artists do you have any to recommend?
Yes, I’m always listening to new music! I’d definitely recommend Remi Wolf for fans of unique, fun-loving pop and Ashnikko for anyone looking for an in-your-face, unapologetic rapper to love.
What plans do you have for the rest of the year?
I have lots of plans coming together at the moment. I have another couple singles and at least one new video coming soon, so planning those releases while we speak! I’m also a podcaster so I have lots of podcast material constantly coming out too. But I’m currently writing even more material so if you want to hear all of that and keep up to date with what I’m doing, you can follow me on your favourite streaming platform and/or my socials for updates!
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