Formula Indie Sessions _ Interview with Agota Viae
What is your earliest memory connected to music?
I’ve tried thinking about this for quite some time, because the earliest memory feels blurry, almost like it might be half-real, half-imagined. I think it goes back to kindergarten, during a Christmas event where everyone was invited to sing. It wasn’t obligatory, just warm and soft. I remember a piano, teachers playing accompaniment, children performing, and the sense of being surrounded by something gentle and musical.
I’m fairly sure I sang too, though even then, people told me I sang too quietly. That became a theme in childhood, being nudged aside for not being loud enough. Still, that moment, the piano, the softness, the safety of it, is the earliest connection to music I can reach.
What is the story behind your current music project?
My current music project grew naturally after finishing my debut album. Even though it’s been out for a while, it still feels freshly born to me. After releasing it, I began traveling, and that opened a new creative door.
Now I’m collecting sounds along the way, songs that appear suddenly, birdsong, moments, conversations, recording them with a small portable recorder. I want to make an acoustic travelling album that stays honest, raw, and real, without overproduction.
Since settling briefly, I’ve been writing more again, especially with the instruments available in the house, piano, guitar, ukulele, and now my kalimba. The heart of this project comes from the same place as my first album, which was written during travels in France: inspiration returns the moment I travel. I move, the world shifts, and music grows from it. That rhythm feels like my natural way of being.
How would you describe your sound to someone who hasn’t heard it before?
This is always a hard question, because it’s difficult to step outside myself and hear my music as a stranger would. But if I had to describe it, I’d say my sound blends grounded, simple instrumentation with more intricate, emotional vocal lines.
Instrumentally, I’ve always gravitated toward gentle textures, chime-like tones, uncomplicated melodies that hold space. The voice usually carries the nuance: honest, sometimes fictional, sometimes dreamlike. I live a lot in imagination, and some of that fantasy slips into my music without me trying.
There’s a cinematic feeling to it as well, something intimate and film-like, as if each song is a scene from a story that doesn’t exist yet. So maybe the best way to describe my sound is: simple yet intricate, grounded yet dreamlike, personal but slightly magical. A soft world you can step into.
What is one thing you’ve learned that completely changed the way you make music?
Learning music production changed everything for me. It “broke my ear,” the way learning a new language eventually breaks your ear. One day, you suddenly hear the world differently. You pick up the musicality beneath the words.
Once I began listening as a producer rather than only as a listener or writer, something shifted. Even when I’m writing something acoustic, I already sense its production possibilities, the worlds it could become. The same song can tell many stories depending on how you shape it.
Production opened a door into a new dimension. It changed not only how I make music but how I hear it, how I think about it, how I move through it.
What tools, instruments, or software are essential in your creative process?
My most essential tool is anything that can capture an idea the moment it appears, usually my phone or a small recorder. My ideas tend to be fleeting, so I need a way to catch them before they dissolve. Later I relisten, untangle the melodies, and rediscover the words that only made sense in song.
When I’m writing without a recorder, I rely on a completely blank notebook. I spill out images, lines, refrains, they become the scaffolding for the melody.
I’m inspired by almost any instrument, but I write most often on piano, guitar, and ukulele. I’m also beginning to explore the kalimba, which naturally leans toward a cinematic atmosphere, a doorway into a world I’d like to enter more.
For production, I work in Logic Pro. It’s where everything comes together, at least for now.
Which indie artist or song are you loving right now?
Pedro Mizutani.
How have your personal experiences influenced your music and artistic vision?
My personal experiences influence everything I create, even when I’m not writing literally about them. Adventures shape me, movement shapes me, and the emotional weight of certain moments pushes me toward music.
When something significant happens and I think about it too much, my instinct is to sit with a simple chord progression and sing until I understand what I feel. Sometimes it becomes a song; sometimes it becomes clarity.
Music and life influence one another constantly. When I go too long without creating, it feels like I’ve been holding my breath without realizing it. Then I write, and everything aligns again. Music feels like a life force, something necessary, grounding, and inevitable for me.
What emotions or messages do you hope listeners take from your work?
When I travel, one of the things I miss most is a hug. That warm, grounding human moment that feels too intimate to ask for from new people. Because I yearn for it so much, I think some of that longing slips into my music. I hope my songs feel like a hug from someone close.
I don’t aim for a specific message. I just want people to feel seen, comforted, held, perhaps reminded of the simple, primal things that matter: love, warmth, nature, small adventures, the present moment.
If my music reconnects someone to that quieter, softer part of themselves, then it’s done what I hoped.
What is the most important lesson music has taught you so far?
That I don’t have to be the best to create. For a long time, I unconsciously believed that if I wasn’t the best at something, I shouldn’t do it at all. Music helped loosen that belief.
Creating without aiming for perfection taught me that joy matters more than mastery. Many artists who move us aren’t the most technically perfect, they’re the ones who make us feel. Learning that has changed everything.
Letting myself be curious, imperfect, and happy has been one of the biggest lessons music has given me.
What is your dream venue or festival to perform at?
The New Orleans Jazz Festival is a dream of mine. I’d also love to headline the Umbria Jazz Festival – it feels personally meaningful to me. And honestly, any intimate jazz bar would be beautiful. I don’t see big stages as goals; the larger the stage, the more anxious I become. Smaller spaces feel truer to who I am.
If you could collaborate with any artist, past or present, who would it be?
D’Angelo, Stevie Wonder, Jacob Collier, Nina Simone, George Gershwin, RAYE. I could never choose just one, each of them shaped music in ways that feel deeply meaningful to me. Collaborating with any of them would change me forever.
Looking forward, what’s your dream for the next chapter of your musical journey?
I want to study production more deeply and eventually write a musical or a film soundtrack. It doesn’t need to be big or successful, I simply want to explore that world creatively and see how far it can take me.
What do you hope listeners will discover about you along the way?
I hope listeners will discover how much I’m still growing, especially in the direction of jazz. It’s a genre I love deeply, and one I’m slowly learning to write and express more confidently. My hope is that, over time, people will hear that evolution, that they’ll notice new colours in the harmonies, new shapes in the melodies, and feel the joy I have in exploring that world.
More than anything, I hope listeners sense that I’m an artist who keeps expanding, learning, and opening new doors. I’d love for them to hear that journey in the music itself.
Socials
Spotify: Agota Viae
Instagram: @Agota Viae
