Stumbled Upon #092 – Christa Vi (London, UK)

In our 92nd instalment of “Stumbled Upon”, we meet Christa Vi from London, and chat about her synth-centric indiepop, being a solo artist, moving to the UK from Australia and check out the title track from her debut album, Makeshift Happiness.

Musician:
Christa Vi

Website / Social Media:
christavi.com
Facebook / Soundcloud / Twitter

Genre:
synth-centric indiepop

Members & their roles:
I’m a solo artist and do all the singing and songwriting – melody and lyrics , play a bit of guitar, keyboards and occasional percussion on my recordings. I do collaborate with other musicians and producers with the production, arrangement and sometimes a little bit on the songwriting side too as I think it’s important to be challenged and work with others, as I think the songs always turn out better that way.

I’ve recently worked with a couple of great producers on my album – Andrew McDonnell (Petite Noir, Crystal Fighters, SUNS) and Dan Brown (Massive Attack, Karin Park) and I got quite involved with the production side of things – mainly decision making rather than the technical side. I usually can hear the sounds I want in my head so it’s nice to work with collaborative producers who can help me achieve this.

What music or artists inspired you?
Female electronic artists and singer-songwriters who I’ve been listening to since the 90s like Roisin Murphy, Bjork and Tracey Thorn. More recently it’s artists like Sia, FKA Twigs, Jessie Ware and Jessy Lanza who are doing exciting things, although I don’t think my music really sounds like any of these artists that much. I’m mostly interested in great songs and strong hooks. I think that’s what makes music memorable so it’s what I try to do.

How did you get started?
I used to be in bands when I lived in Australia and when I moved over to the UK over 10 years ago, it took me some time to re-establish my creative process and find the right opportunities to make music again. After quite a long break, I started on this solo project in 2010 with writing, recording and doing live shows with my band in London, which has led me to this point of recording a full album that I’m really happy with and it reflects the sound and direction of the music I’ve wanted to make for a long time.

How would you best describe your live show:
Vocals, synthesisers and origami

What shows do you have coming up?
I’m still working on my live show so that it does justice to my record. Hopefully, I’ll be doing some showcase gigs in London in early 2016.
Keep an eye on Facebook for more dates.

Tell us about your latest release:
I’ve just released the title track from my album – Makeshift Happiness – with a couple of remixes by American DJ Amtrac who is doing a lot of great stuff at the moment including high profile remixes and his original tracks getting BBCRadio 1 airplay, and another DJ / producer called Small Pyramids (Glasgow Underground) who I met when I was in LA last year. I really enjoy hearing others’ interpretations of my songs and it helps to bring my music to new audiences too.

I actually worked on the original song first with Amtrac but then re-recorded it in a more organic style to better suit my album sound. But Amtrac’s version of it was so good, it’s included on the release as a remix. The original single is quite an epic pop song that tells a story about a person’s journey to create their own happiness when surrounded by hardship, and conquering the fear associated with that. It relates to some recent events in my own life but I also tried to describe universal feelings of fear, despair and hope and the process of facing and dealing with these emotions when life throws a curveball.

Where can I get your music?
Itunes, Spotify, Amazon, all the usual outlets.

Listen to ‘Stumbled Upon’ on AU Radio , Mondays at 8:30PM, Thursdays at 3PM and Sundays at 10AM (AEDT), or the playlist of past ‘Stumbled Upon’ artists on Soundcloud.

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