Vienna based experimental/electronic-pop formation Leyya really hit it off with their 2016 debut album „Spanish Disco“ – followed by international bookings at prestigious festivals like Eurosonic Noorderslag or Sziget and a stunning video for their latest single “Butter“.
(Update 2018) Check out their latest single “Heat”:
We talked with Sophie from Leyya about their songwriting routine and the challenges of being an artist in the digital age.
How do you deal with your visual concept on social media?
We, as Leyya, like to keep it simple. We just post something, when we think it is interesting for someone to read or see. Most of the time we use pictures to underline what we want to say. But we like to keep everything short and on point. ?It happened, that we didn’t say anything for 2 weeks, just because we didn’t want to annoy the people with useless content.
Someone might now say – “… but the people will forget you, if you don’t post anything for that long. It’s a fast-moving business.” – well, we believe that, if someone is actually interested in what we do, they don’t care about how often we post. I think it should be about the music and social media is just something, that comes in handy to easier show people what we’re up to. That’s it. At least for us and for me as a person. My personal Facebook wall consists of songs I like and want to show friends or songs I did with Leyya or someone else and Instagram we only use as a band. Pretty boring haha.
What are the biggest challenges you face as an up and coming artist in the digital age?
Exactly what I mentioned earlier – the fast-moving age we are living in right now. Everyone “has to be” everywhere at once. Everyone can do anything, say anything they want anonymously without consequences. You get forgotten when you’re not as present as someone else, get compared? That’s why we decided to rely on the people actually interested in what we do. It’s not easy, but it’s the best way to not lose yourself in trying to be someone you’re not.
Could you sum up some personal milestones in your artist development?
Maybe these aren’t “milestones”, but these are definitely very important parts of our development:? Travelling because of our music is something I really appreciate. We’ve played in more than 10 different countries last year and I’ve seen so many places and cities, met so many new people. We’ve played festivals I never thought I’d be playing, like Iceland Airwaves, Eurosonic Noorderslag, headliner on the main stage at Popfest Vienna and smaller festivals that turned out to be so much fun to play.
Or being allowed to release an Album and influencing your listeners and even other musicians with your music.
When you start a new track – what are the first steps?
We don’t really have a pattern or a receipt that makes us start a new song. Sometimes there is a drum beat we dig or just a sound we keep holding on to. Sometimes I write a draft on the guitar and we build around that. Sometimes Marco starts with chords and a rough mix or we start together from scratch. But what we try to do is, to always start a song differently than before, because that is how you avoid falling into the same old scheme. For me, when I do a collaboration or write a song on my own, I need a certain feeling to inspire me to write something. A movie I watched, a song I heard or a conversation I just had – any situation can trigger something in me and inspires me to sit down and bring it to paper.
Head to Leyya’s Facebookpage to show some love and keep your eyes and ears open for their new single (we heard it will be released in April).
Leyya are nominated for the Amadeus Austrian Music Awards – vote here!
Photo: apesframed
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the album is called spanish disco. not spanish disco deluxe.
so true … thanks for noticing, we updated the article