ARTIST SPOTLIGHT: YIANNA MUSIC

Hi Yianna, we’re so excited to have just released your single Blue on DARKNET Recordings. Can you tell us a little bit about your inspiration for the song and what it means to you?

Happy to be a part of Darknet! We wrote the song last year, and I think I was still in the midst of feeling nostalgia over a person I had been with in the past. Everyone in the room was sharing stories about unhealthy relationships and heartbreak they had experienced and so we kind of just went down this rabbit hole of reminiscing. Writing this song was pretty therapeutic actually haha. I'd never written a song in that style before so it was actually a challenge for me. Naturally I tend to write more bluesy or r&b melodies, so writing something "hyper pop" was hard. I enjoy trying new styles musically and for me "Blue" was one of those moments.

What was your creative process like writing and making the song? Do you write about your experiences as you’re experiencing them? 

It really depends on the song and what I'm going through. Sometimes I'll get into a session with no ideas or expectation and I'll have a conversation with another songwriter and we'll go from there. Usually someone will play a chord progression and I'll start by singing a melody and then hook on to a lyric. If I'm falling in love or having a bad day, I'll sit at my piano or play the guitar. Personally, that's my favorite way to write and it's when the best ideas come out of me, but ideally I'd like to avoid a lifetime of heartbreak just so I can write songs. 

You have an incredible voice! Have you always been a singer/know that was what you wanted to do? 

Thank you!! Definitely not. I used to sing in choir as a kid, but I had horrible stage fright. I would come home from school and lock myself in my room and sing karaoke tracks or play piano and write for hours. That's how I learned how to sing. I didn't actually start to pursue music more seriously until I was 18 or 19.

You collaborated with Nitepunk on the single ‘I’m Not Yours And You’re Not Mine’, a favorite song of ours. Tell us a little bit about what that experience was like.

Aside from Lasha (Nitepunk) being an incredible talent, he's also one of my best friends in the whole world. We work together a lot. 'I'm Not Yours And You're Not Mine' was actually the first song we wrote together without any other songwriters. He had this studio setup in his bedroom in Brooklyn overlooking the Statue of Liberty and Manhattan. It was such a magical place to work. I think some of my best vocal performances have come from that room. We had a long talk about something he was going through in his personal life and just made a song of it. We laughed a lot during that session. I love that song.

Do you have a dream collaboration in mind or any upcoming music projects we should look out for? 

People ask me this question a lot and I usually name a producer or an artist. But honestly my dream collaboration is to just always work with talented, like-minded, driven producers, artists, songwriters, and musicians. There's no greater feeling than being in the studio with people who uplift you and challenge you. I want to work with people that make me lose track of time during a session because I'm so in it. So that's the dream collaboration. I have a lot of singles coming out that I've been holding on to for a while. The next one will most likely come out in late August.

Who are your biggest influences in music right now?

I can't stop listening to ABBA so theres one. Hmm let me check my Spotify... Okay i'm back. I've been listening to a lot of Thundercat, Snoh Aalegra, Rufus Du Sol, Tame Impala, a lot of 80's records. I like everything. If it's good, it's good.

What has been your all time favorite performance you’ve done? Do you have any upcoming shows?

Good question. Aw man, when I lived in New York I would play everywhere I could. There's a few performances when I played with the full band that come to mind. I'd tell the venue owners to leave the doors open and people from outside would literally walk in. Nothing brings people together like music. I'd like to perform at the end of the summer now that I'm in LA. 90% of why I make music is to play live. Not to be cheesy, but it literally fills my soul.

The music videos you’ve released are super fun and creative! We especially love ‘When I’m Loving You’, how did you come up with the concept? What about for your video for Blue? 

Thank you! So when I was writing my mixtape "Class of 1995" I was in my early twenties feeling like an insecure teenager again. So I made the whole project thematically about that. I had dreams of re-creating prom for one of my videos and when I sat down with Michael Casker the director, he mentioned it before i'd even said anything. It honestly was a dream come true to film that. I filmed "Blue" last year in the freezing cold with my friends Daniel Francis and Matt Callamore. It was super on the fly and they honestly made my vision come to life. I wanted to create a dream world and a visual representation of transitioning from this 'Class of 1995' period into a new era and dimension. David Gogokhia did all of the spfx. He's a wizard.