Formula Indie Sessions : Interview with The Innocent Bystanders x TAVIA 

What is your earliest memory connected to music?

Debb: I remember being on stage dancing to “Bare Necessities” in a handmade costume that my grandmother made for me 

Tavia: Listening to my brother play Beatles songs on an acoustic guitar in our living room

How did your passion for creating music begin?

Debb: When I met Tavia at the Merrow after playing with my band, The Innocent Bystanders. I went over to her house the next day and ended up staying and writing music for 5 hours. I never knew that I could write music, but she brought it out of me.  

Tavia:  My family and I were going through a difficult time and there was a guitar at the place where we were staying.  I started noodling on the guitar and thought, maybe I can write a song to work through my emotions.   After that day, I never stopped songwriting.

What’s the story behind your current music project?

Debb & Tavia: We decided to write a country song and brainstormed some of the top country songs that were being written at that time, from style, imagery, and topics. From there we created a story. We mixed together a story that we had made up along with personal experiences.  Every song we write has a message of our collective beliefs.  For instance, in this song the tagline is “I’d rather lose you than me”- For every song we create we ask each other, what is the one message we want to get out, for us to be happy with the whole story we created?  

How would you describe your sound to someone who has never heard your music

before?

Debb: A little bit of everything you love

Tavia: Debb’s voice is a blend of Lady Gaga, Stevie Nicks, Miranda Lambert

What is one thing you’ve learned that completely changed the way you make music?

Debb: to be honest with yourself and everyone else. Not everyone is going to love what you do but that’s okay. At the end of the day as long as you love it and it truly means something to you, that’s what matters. 

Tavia: To trust in your own vision, we know more about production than we initially realized…. We write music, we listen to reference songs, and we know the sound we’re going for.

What tools, instruments, or software are essential in your creative process?

Debb & Tavia: Guitar, piano, recording device – now we’re using Audigo, We use Logic for pre-production.

Which indie artist or song are you loving right now?:  Sierra Ferrel, Noah Khan, Fabrizio, Nic Fair

How have your personal experiences influenced your music and artistic vision? 

Debb & Tavia: Every life experience and interaction has led/ shaped what we say and how we say it. Even if a song is about an imaginary person, they still reflect us.

What emotions or messages do you hope listeners take from your work?

Debb & Tavia: We want every song to grip our listeners, focusing on real-life experiences of loss, grief, heartache, sadness, anger, fear, struggles/challenges, hope, and empowerment.  We love it when someone asks if we wrote the song personally for them.

What’s the most important lesson music has taught you so far? 

Debb & Tavia: Trust yourself, be who you are and let that shine through your music. At the end of the day, music is a reflection of yourself so believe that you are good enough, and people will see that you are that good enough.  Hopefully if the song resonates, they will be empowered as much as we were.

What is a dream venue or festival you would love to perform at? 

Debb & Tavia: Bonnaroo, Music box, Belly Up Tavern, Fenway Park

If you could collaborate with any artist, past or present, who would it be and why?

Debb & Tavia: Elton john: he has always been one of our favorite artists, both lyrically (thank you ( Bernie Taupin) and melodically (thank you Elton). Elton was one of our mutual favorite artists. Noah Khan: The stories he tells through his music really resonate with us and how we like to write our music. Stevie nicks who hs been such an inspiration to us for both of our whole lives. 

Where can our listeners follow and support your music? (Website,Spotify, IG, links)

Debb; www.theinnocentbystanders.com; The Innocent Bystanders Youtube Channel

Tavia: taviacollectivemusic.com; linktr.ee/taviacollective; 

Looking toward the future, what’s your dream for the next chapter of your musical

Journey?

Debb: To perform and share my music as much as possible. My goal is to reach and connect and meet as many people and to share my message and hear theirs. I also want to explore as many musical roads as possible, such and writing music for synce and even writing music for others. 

Tavia: to continue improving as a songwriter, record in different studios across the country

What do you hope listeners will discover about you along the way?

Debb:: There’s a song for everyone, we write so many songs that we truly believe that there is a song that will resonate with every listener. We want our music to reach any and everyone, and that is our main goal. 

Tavia:I believe there’s a song that needs to be written inside all of us, even if listeners don’t feel inspired to become songwriters, my hope is that they will explore creative outlets