Yaya Brings the New Wave of R&B Sound
Yaya is a NJ-based R&B singer/songwriter. She likes to describe her sound as unexpected and calming. Yaya has been making original music for 3 years so it's safe to say this is just the start! You can see her drawing a lot of inspiration for the theme of her music from her puerto-rican/dominican roots.
“A lot of the music I listened to growing up were dramatic, heartbreaking love songs and a lot of the time disguised with deceiving upbeat tempos and rhythms”, she says.
Maria: How did you get into music?
Yaya: I've been singing for a really long time since I was a kid. My mom started managing me when I was about 12 years old and just getting me on as many stage contests as possible. I had been doing it on and off all the way up until college. One night I did this open mic gig, and I was backed up by this band. There was a company of all of the other artists that were performing that night, and one of the artists came up to me and asked me if I had any original music. And honestly I have never even thought about it until that point, I just really loved to sing. I was doing covers all the time.
So I got really close with the band and I started to work on my own original music. I released my first original song in 2018. I was really just trying to discover myself and my sound and like who I was as an artist. And I would say I started to take it seriously in about like around 2018 when I released my first song.
Maria: So how would you describe the genre of your music?
Yaya: That's always a hard question for me. But I think if I had to categorize it definitely would be r&b. That's what I mostly listened to growing up, something that I really enjoyed. My mom was putting Spanish music around the house, which at the time, I was like, I don't want to listen to this (laughs).
I can't say that I have a favorite or specific person that I'm drawing inspiration from. I draw inspiration from so many different bands or my own life experiences. Just all different kinds of indie music that I'm listening to on a daily basis.
Maria: What was your creative process like for writing your latest single "Ready For It" ?
Yaya: So that's when I got to work with these producers who were based in LA. And it was funny because I had heard their work before and was enjoying it without even knowing that they were the ones who produced some of the songs that I was already enjoying. Life is always working in mysterious ways. And I was able to go to their home studio and record my song. And now I'm staying with my friend Nachi, who's also a singer-songwriter based in LA and I think as far as, like, the writing process goes I really appreciate just the conversation before getting right into it. Just working with people that I get along with and that I can have a conversation with is super important to me. I think before that session we just spent like, half a whole day just just talking about anything, catching up. Then we had our session. Brandon had played some tracks that he was already working on. The instrumental for “Ready for it” caught my eye and I just played it over and over. I wrote some stuff down, Nachi wrote some stuff down, Brandon had like a tracking mic and he's like singing melodies. We're just going back and forth. So yeah, I think it's as far as the process goes which involves a lot of collaboration and just like having conversations with people.
Maria: Do you think your process of writing songs has changed in any way since you started releasing music?
Yaya: I've discovered that I think a bit too much, especially when it comes to writing. You don't want to and I did a lot of that in the beginning and so we were taking so much longer to finish a song or I abandoned ideas a lot quicker because things weren't coming to me so quickly. I discovered that I need to be easier on myself and just trust the process.
Maria: What advice would you have for someone wanting to follow in your footsteps?
Yaya: Don't let the internet rush you. It’s the number one rule. I know way too many artists that just rushed the process. They felt like they needed to put something out because you see all of these people posting. It all feels like this invisible pressure being put on me to put something out there to stay relevant and whatnot. I think quality over quantity. For me when it comes to putting music out, you know, you don't just want to put it out. I want to put it out the right way. I think when you're more intentional with putting music out like it's going to reach you it's supposed to reach.
Maria: If you can have your fans remember one thing about you, what would it be?
Yaya: I want people to remember, I guess, the things that make me “me” you know, like, behind me, there's like my friends, family. You know, people that I really care about they all make me who I am.
Maria: Do you have upcoming and future projects? That we can see or hear?
Yaya: So this single “Ready for it” was actually supposed to be a single word for my upcoming project but I put a pause on that. So I'm just releasing a couple of singles before the EP actually comes out. I'm still working on it, but definitely you can expect a music video or the song and then a couple of more singles after that were finally released around March.
