Darlington-based Viia is emerging on the music scene with her debut single – and it’s a track that you simply cannot ignore. Georgina Shine caught up with her to speak all things Viia.
Your debut single ‘Falling’ is a fantastic power track. What made you decide to make this song your debut single?
Thank you so much. We wrote ‘Falling’ back in January 2019 when I was still working out my ‘sound’. As soon as we wrote it, I realised – this is my sound. It made everything make sense and it’s a perfect mix of all my favourite things in music: it has electric guitars, big drums, massive vocals and the lyrics are very honest. Therefore, it was only right that ‘Falling’ was my debut single.
When making the video, did you have an idea of what you wanted beforehand? Or was it somewhat spontaneous when you did the shoot?
I wanted a really cool video where the focus was mainly on me [Laughing]. I wanted to have red lighting, projector shots and to use a fisheye lens. I’d made a Pinterest board for inspiration which I sent to my friend Ethan Fenton, who shot the video, and he helped me create exactly what I wanted. Even though it was difficult shooting a video with the coronavirus restrictions, it was a lot of fun.
Have you always been drawn to the rock sound? Or did you try a few different sound styles before settling on your sound?
Absolutely. I’ve always loved rock music. Muse, The Killers and Radiohead were always playing in the house when I was growing up so I’ve always been surrounded by rock music. Wolf Alice and Arctic Monkeys are two of my biggest inspirations, which I think you can hear in my music. I’m a huge fan of distorted electric guitars too so I try to put them into every song.
With such a strong debut, what’s next?
It gets bigger and better. My debut single, ‘Falling’, ties all the other music together. It gets rockier, more emotional, big choruses (always) and some pop thrown in. My second single is coming out in July too so that’s something for you all to look forward to. I can’t wait to start performing again too, so hopefully, if corona allows us, I’ll be back gigging all my new music.
You can listen to ‘Falling’ now on all major streaming platforms.
