With a sound reminiscent of early Björk, Gaeya’s music marries the sounds of the natural world with immersive sonic paintings; landscapes formed from analogue synths and deep-rooted Nordic frequencies which provide the backing for vocals that seek to inspire sustainability and focus for a better world.
Inline with her mindful musical messaging, Gaeya also hosts the podcast tellUs, which focuses on sharing new ideas and solutions for the on-going issues mankind is facing from the results of long term misuse of the planet, its resources and its beings.
Gaeya has an unrelenting desire to affect change, underpinned by a profound respect for the planet and delivers this through the medium of beautifully captivating music. She is a truly exciting artist and is set to make a bold mark with the unique insightful message running through her debut EP Awakening which is out today.
We had a chat with Gaeya all about the EP, what she's been up to, her creative process and more. Read the Q&A below.
Hi Gaeya! How have you been?
"I’ve been good thank you. I know for many people 2020 has been a very different year but for me who lives out on a farm in the countryside, life has not been very different except for not playing any live shows in a long time. Which I miss a lot!
"Instead, I’ve spent most of my time creating. Working on new songs, which are now released, and tried to spend time in nature as much as possible."
You've just released your debut EP Awakening. What is the record about and what does it mean to you? What do you hope listeners will take away from it?
"Awakening for me is almost like a reflection on how it can be to wake up to a new perspective in life. To let ourselves go through the struggles and realise that we always have a choice of how we want to view different situations in life. Using challenging times as an opportunity to grow.
"The first track of the EP called ‘Contact’ is about the connection to oneself, to establish the link to yourself and your heart. Practice listening to our own “gut feeling”, accepting all aspects of ourselves and start to be conscious about our actions.
"The second one is ‘Truth’, which comes when you start to get connected to yourself. With this song, I hope people can feel energised to follow their own truth knowing that they have all they need inside. When we then start expressing our truth we do it with a humble heart and without judgment towards others.
"The middle songs ‘Aureola’ and ‘Micro Orbits’ I see like the development we can feel while learning something new and when we come to understand who we are and what we want in life. We can then start to set intentions of how we would like our lives or the world to look like. To fill our heart and mind with our dearest visions to help manifest a better world and from there change can occur. When we then let go of the things in life that no longer serve us, we open up new space for new opportunities and beauty to enter our life. Once we realise this potential awakening occurs.
"I hope that people can feel supported with this EP knowing that in any time of hard feelings or troubles we are never alone. And knowing that even those hard times will pass and in the end, make us grow if we let it."
Let's go back to the beginning for a moment.. What led you to make music? Who were you influenced by growing up?
"For as long as I can remember and what people have told me it’s always been music and singing for me and the most natural way for me to communicate. I started out very young to work with music. I’ve moved around in a wide range of genres with classical music and musical theatre through a long time of my early years. I always had an interest in getting to know my voice as much as possible and therefore I’ve never been afraid to try out new styles. So, in the end, I worked with jazz, hard rock, country and traditional folk music to name a few. So I guess the influence is as wide as that haha.
"But my love for nature and the sounds in the forest inspired me early on to want to combine the two. Though it wasn’t until later that the sound really started to shape new forms when spending a lot of time in native communities around the world and finding new ways of using my voice.
"To name someone that has influenced me from my childhood I guess is probably Sting. To mix styles and especially world music and traditional music with contemporary has always given me a lot of stimulants and kick-started my creativity. More recently an artist that I also felt inspiring is the Norwegian Aurora. She is a young artist with really beautiful songwriting skills."
Please take us through your songwriting/creative process.
"I write music with Anders Rane my producer and co-pilot. Usually we start with Anders having some chords and a nice riff and we just flow together. I like to be in “the zone” when I create and therefore most of the time the songs come more or less in one piece when we are improvising. I like the feeling of just letting go and letting the song write itself without me trying to tangle it. With both melody and lyrics.
"Sometimes it is like our song ‘Truth’ where the whole song came in one piece in the first run.
"But there are other times when it comes in pieces and my job gets to be putting the puzzle together into something that is flowing. When the song is written Anders put’s his magic into it and creates beautiful productions, I love to be in the production working too but he is really the one who makes magic happen."
Finally, what are your plans for this year? Will you be continuing your tellUs podcast?
"The plan is to continue our work with new music. Alongside the Awakening EP we’ve also created an acoustic EP called Awakening Reborn, which I long to release soon too.
"One thing I really hope to do soon is to start playing live shows at both festivals and with our Tipi Tour. I feel like I can’t wait to see people again, sharing music and fun together physically.
"TellUs will definitely continue during this year and we will bring in more international guests talking about sustainability in different forms. Bringing up some exciting projects that are taking place around the world. My plan is also to make some shorter episodes, where I will hand over some hands-on tips and tricks of how we can live more sustainably in our own lives and what kind of effect some things have on both ourselves and the environment.
"We’ve had some really lovely guests last year with deep insights into nature and I really looking forward to sharing more of those meetings with you guys during this year."
