Anya Van Den Bergh: "Inner Poems" (Feature/Interview)
How did you start your professional recording career?
I’ve been writing texts and poems for a long time. When I was in my last year of music school in Paris, I was asked to compose and put an EP together for the end of the year to complete my diploma. The thing is, at this time, I was already starting to create my own little musical world, by writing music around my poems, as a way to express and enhance the stories, thoughts, and feelings I was experiencing. So this exercise became a boost for this whole project as it came to Life. It gave it structure. When my formation was over, I pushed the work further and decided to really commit myself to this EP and record it in a real studio. After this, everything went very quickly. I was on my own to manage the project and had a faint idea of what I had to deal with in order to release it in the best conditions. Although we had a small release party in Paris, the entire thing came to light in a very discreet way. I know that in the future, I’ll put way more chances on my side for my songs to reach a larger audience and get the attention they deserve!
How would you describe your vocal style?
I listen to a lot of different styles of music, and I’ve been singing for as far as I can remember. And before I even decided to become a professional musician, I spent a lot of time working on my voice, first as a lyrical singer. Because of my past doing Opera, people tend to tell me that they can hear this influence in my voice very clearly. At first, I was very annoyed about that, for I wanted to sound like other Pop or Jazz singers, but now I love that about me. When I sing, I don’t try to sound perfect, I try to sound truthful. I used to sing with my head, meaning I was thinking about every detail so it would sound as good as possible. Now I sing with my guts and feelings. And it very much meets my way to compose music: by telling the story first. I love me some Ariana Grande or crazy voice tricks, but nothing touches my soul more than a Billie Holiday, with her voice trembling and raw yet touching every word with such finesse. I’m not a Jazz, Pop, or Lyrical singer. I try to sing with my heart and I do it while blending all of those influences into my tone.
What inspires your music?
Every single aspect of my Life. I’ve never been much of a theoretical person. Also when I compose, I don’t think a lot about which chord progression I’m gonna use or, how complex I can make the harmony behind the melody. I wanna put colors and textures on the words I write. I wanna paint a mood, a feeling. It is very hard for me to say “oh hey I do THIS kind of music” because I think it’s my own and I like the fact that it looks more and more like me. It’s a weird meli melo of everything I’ve ever listened to with my parents in the car, or the thing I’ve learned in Jazz school, or the famous Pop or Rap singers I sing along with in the shower. When I write a text, a song, it’s how I feel at the moment. It’s the pain after a breakup, it’s the Joy of being alive, it’s the struggle with being part of something bigger, it’s Anxiety or Freedom. For me and I think for a lot of creative minds, it’s very hard choice to live off your art because sometimes I can’t compose at all. Sometimes I’m a mess and I’m in a place in my life where nothing comes out. But most of the time inspiration comes from very simple moments in Life. Like going on a walk in the forest with a friend, a train ride, being lost in someone’s arms... As I evolve as a human being, my music evolves with me.
How did you come up with your EP?
As I said above, I create with what’s going on in my inner world. “Inner Poems” is an album about both self-love and the love you have for someone else, about feeling lost but then choosing yourself. It’s extremely intimate for it comes from a place of vulnerability. I wrote those songs at a point in my Life where I was completely lost but also just at the edge of starting to find myself. I had built my supposed self-confidence around one person who at the time was everything to me. And when this person left, it was both the most crushing thing that ever happened to me and the first glimpse of light from the end of the tunnel. There’s an evolution between the first song of the album, which is about the fear of the void and feeling empty, and the last one, “Season’s changed”, where things open up and where I decide to accept myself for who I am. I wrote “I’ll find you” in one night. It’s the last song I wrote for the EP and as I was writing it, I felt the weight of this chapter of my existence going away. This song was mourning and a goodbye. Writing and releasing this EP was a liberation.
What can we expect from you in 2022 and beyond?
Making plans, that’s very risky! More seriously, a lot of great things are coming up and I am very impatient to work with new people and share what I’m working on right now with the public. I’ve been writing A LOT this year and the year before. I’m currently working at home on new songs possibly another EP and some singles, in the footsteps of “Inner Poems” but less Jazzy and more myself! But mainly, I am super excited about a brand new project I just started in parallel, for which I can’t say much for now cause it’s a bit secret... What I can say, is that you’ll see me on stage next year for sure, and probably in a recording studio by the end of 2023.
