a conversation with ha vey

I recently spoke with San Fransisco based singer songwriter Ha Vey about her debut EP, what made her want to become a musician, the creative/writing process and so much more. Ha Vey's EP "we fell in love at the party" is out now on all streaming platforms.

Hi Maddy! Thanks so much for answering my questions, how are you?

Thank you for taking the time to interview me! I’m doing well - I just got back from a mini band tour down to San Luis Obispo last night. It was so fun, but I’m a little tired now.

How did you start making music?

My dad is a musician and got me started playing piano when I was really young. I fell in love with it, especially learning how scales work so I could start writing songs. My mom is a writer so she encouraged me to experiment with writing stories. So the natural progression was to start writing songs! I started recording in Garageband soon after. My mom still has a whole album that I made when I was 12. It’s so cute.

Did where you grew up inspire your music at all? If so, how?

It definitely inspired me, but in a reverse sense. I grew up in a sleepy little town so I spent a lot of time daydreaming about all the exciting things the bigger world could offer me someday. When I was growing up I wrote about everything I wished I could do. Then once I turned 18 I went out and started doing those things. But the fantasizing also never really went away.

When creating a new song which do you start first? Music or lyrics?

I usually write both at the same time and try to let them both flow out as naturally as possible. But I’m always writing words and phrases and concepts in my head or in the notes app on my phone. So when I write a song, a lot of the lyrics kind of already existed somewhere.

What’s your favorite thing about being able to create and write music?

I think the process, as a whole. When I write a song I can already imagine the entire production of it, as well as a little movie in my mind. The production process is my co-producer/engineer, Elliott, helping me figure out how to make all the stuff in my head into a reality. The most satisfying part is when I know the song is done because I can walk around listening to it and see the story come alive all around me.

How would you describe your sound? Has it changed since when you first started making music?

The sound has changed a lot since I started Ha Vay. We started out with a barebones setup, recording in a shed. Everything was recorded live in one room, so it was folk-rock and more lo-fi. But as we’ve upgraded, we’ve been moving in a direction I would call “ethereal singer-songwriter pop”. I feel like I’m returning to my roots. When I first started producing music in high school, I would walk around my town sampling wind chimes and bells to make pop beats and synths. We’re starting to re-incorporate that fairy realm of sound.

Congratulations on your releasing your EP “we fell in love at the party” how did it come to fruition? What was the inspiration behind it?

Thank you! With this project I wanted to get more personal and explore my own mythology. Before the pandemic I spent two years living in Paris and another chunk of time moving around a lot. I was constantly meeting people at parties, falling into infatuations, exploring relationships. Even though I was living a pretty extraordinary lifestyle, I was still always perceiving my experiences through a fantastical lens. So for this EP I wanted to tell that story. It’s a true story, one that’s repeated itself many times over, but it’s also partly a fantasy since it’s only my side of the story.

One of my favorite things about the EP is that each song is a different stage of the night as it goes along. How did you decide to go with this idea? What was the inspiration behind this?

I wanted to give the project a cinematic feeling. Each song I write is a story and it goes along with a movie in my head. I felt like the most effective way to communicate that would be to give it a chronological feeling. It also plays into the cyclical nature of this night in my life. I’ve lived this night countless times, with different people.

You write a lot about human connection, how do you bring the level of vulnerability and honesty into your creative and writing process?

I studied anthropology in college and even though I dropped out, I think it’s a big part of my music. The way humans work is totally fascinating to me. We are completely reliant on each other to survive. It’s why I use backing vocals as instruments - the human voice is raw and cathartic; it connects with listeners in a way nothing else can. Realizing that we pretty much all feel the same things has allowed me to be vulnerable in my music. I like to think that in publishing my stories I am connecting with the people who listen to them. I love that.

You preform under your Chinese name which is really cool, and exciting. How has being Asian bi racial inspired you as a musician?

In so many ways. With my Chinese family, storytelling is the only pastime. Listening to my grandparents tell their stories over long family dinners really inspired me. My grandmother is an incredible storyteller and she’s lived such a crazy, dangerous, extraordinary, brave life. I know that she is at the roots of my own storytelling. Growing up bi-racial left me with a lot of identity confusion, as well as the tendency to see every situation and relationship from multiple perspectives, since I don’t come from just one set of values and communication styles. So I think I bring that awareness into the storytelling of my music - I’m hyper-aware of how I’m crafting the story, how I’m manipulating my perspective in it.

My favorite track is “The Exhibitionist”, can you tell us a little bit more about this track? How did it come to fruition?

It’s actually the first song I wrote for this project! I knew I wanted to tell a story about a night at a party, mixing subjective internal dreaming with concrete external events. This song is the perfect mix: there is a moment rooted in reality (spotting someone at a party you want to get to know), but then the song is also an internal monologue weaving reality into fantasy. As the narrator I speculate how this person could be my perfect match and describe how I’m behaving to capture their attention. I ended up making two versions of this song. One is lush and energetic (“the exhibitionist”), the other (“to win you - maddy’s version”) is dreamier, stripped, vocal-driven. To me is speaks to the subjectivity of this kind of story - there are many ways of seeing it.

Was the creative and writing process for the entirety of “we fell in love at the party” any different from your other tracks such as “Ode to the Party Girl” and “Bloodlust” ?

It was really different! I wrote these songs knowing that I wanted them to all fit together. We also played some of them live for months before recording them, which I’d never done before. Seeing how audiences reacted to the songs allowed me to slowly make changes to them compositionally and definitely played into the final recordings.

Where there any bands or artists that inspired you during the creative/writing process the inspired you?

Yes! As this project is our foray into a more pop-driven sound, I found myself listening to a lot of Taylor Swift. As well as Michelle Branch (whose CD I grew up on), Lorde’s Melodrama, beabadoobee, and Grimes (always, haha).

Is there a formula you follow when creating music and writing lyrics?

I don’t! I always just try to let things come out naturally and see what happens. I surprise myself all the time.

When writing lyrics do you have a certain audience you want to reach?

Connecting back to how my hometown inspired me, I want to make music for dreamers. I hope that people can apply these songs to their fantasies, to the mythologies of their own lives. Especially for people feeling stuck somewhere, dreaming of all the adventures they’ll have when they get free.

Out of all the songs you’ve ever written, which one was the hardest to write?

“drunk as the gods” on this EP was actually very challenging. I wrote it over several sessions, which is unusual for me. I sort of pieced different songs together and when I finished it I kind of hated it. But Elliott and our band loved it. Once we started playing it live I realized it was pretty special!

If you could tour with any band or artist who would it be?

Ooh, this is so hard! There are so many artists I’d dream of touring with. This might be an unexpected answer, but one of the first artists I saw live that really inspired me to get onstage was Charli XCX. I saw her when I was in high school and she had such strong and magnetic energy - something I aspire to.

Last question, we’re all about discovering new bands and artists! Who do you think we should be listening to right now?

I’ve been playing shows with Vida and LoserLees around San Francisco - they have super different sounds, but both are great. I also recently discovered Lizzie Donohue when we got both tagged in a music discovery post on Instagram and her music is so cute.

Words by Melody

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