Formula Indie Sessions _ Interview with Edith Valdez
Introduction of the project
Edith Valdez
What is your earliest memory connected to music?
I vividly remember pretending to be a singer, using my grandmother’s cane as a microphone. I’ve said I wanted to be a singer for as long as I can remember. Music was always around me, my parents loved listening to it, and my grandmother could play the piano and harmonica entirely by ear, even though she was never given the chance to formally study music.
When I was four, I used to walk to pick up my sister from kindergarten, carrying a little colorfull cassette recorder with a microphone, singing out loud as we walked down the street.
When I was six, I told my mom I wanted to take singing lessons, so she took me to the only music school in La Paz, where I’m from. They showed me a classroom full of older, more experienced students, and I got so intimidated that I decided not to go in. My parents respected that decision and never pushed me, not I wished they had hahaha because the theory and practice since young age makes your voice very mature and controled, but back then I remember thinking at that moment that maybe I didn’t have to be “the best singer” to love music and become a Singer, and that feeling stayed with me, understanding that sometimes passion and perseverance in a dream is more important than having all the knwoledge to start. It shaped the way I relate to music even today. For me, it’s not about perfection, but about connection
How did your passion for creating music begin?
I’ve always loved expressing myself through words. Since I was little, I would declaim, give speeches, and sing, but I always thought I would interpret someone else’s words, not write my own.
I didn’t believe I was capable of songwriting. I thought that was something reserved for experts, and my impostor syndrome convinced me I had nothing meaningful to say. I used to write songs but kept them to myself because I felt they weren’t good enough and I felt too exposed and vulnerable.
Everything changed in college when I entered a songwriting competition called Festival de la Canción. Working alongside musicians made me realize that something that lives in your mind can become real and can become something amazing with the right collaboration and support. That’s when songwriting became tangible to me. Since then thankfully I’ve been surrounded with people who made me belive in myself and helped me with their talent to grow mine.
What’s the story behind your current music project?
My project is about becoming. It reflects the process of building myself through music. There are sad songs, happy songs, it’s a representation of the volatility of being human, and the beauty of finding strength through vulnerability.
I also want to represent people who feel like they have multiple passions and don’t fit into one box. I’m a lawyer, and I’m also an artist. I want to show that even if those paths seem different, they can coexist and even complement each other.
Through my music, I try to turn human emotions into something poetic, transforming pain into art and creating something meaningful out of it. I hope to inspire others to pursue all sides of who they are and to believe that different callings can come together into one purpose.
How would you describe your sound to someone who has never heard your music before?
I would say my music feels like opening a diary or stepping into my mind, but with poetic language and pop production. It’s a very intimate space where I talk about things we don’t always say out loud, and I have a hard time sharing them in day to day conversations but when they become a song it is pretty easy to let it out, I talk about ego, love, contradictions, and the process of understanding yourself.
Sonically, it lives in alternative pop with touches of R&B and synths, but beyond genre, emotion is what defines it. I like each song to feel like a specific moment, like being in the beach, or driving at night thinking about your life, or sitting alone in your room processing something that changed you.
My music exists between vulnerability and strength. It’s not just sadness or empowerment, but that in-between space where you’re rebuilding yourself.
If you’ve never heard me before, I’d say: it’s music to feel accompanied while you’re finding and understanding yourself.
What is one thing you’ve learned that completely changed the way you make music?
That you have to be okay with imperfection, and that you can’t make music for everyone. The world is too vast, and so are people’s tastes. It’s better to create something honest rather than something purely commercial. I spent a long time delaying my releases because I felt my songs weren’t perfect, that they needed more changes, more production, more everything. Eventually, I realized that perfection doesn’t exist, and that mindset was just procrastination to avoid the fear of facing what people might think of my art.
Once I understood that, everything changed. I stopped trying to please everyone and focused on making music I genuinely connect with, stopped being my worst judge and becoming my biggest (yet objetive) fan. That shift allowed me to enjoy the process more and to experiment without fear.
I also learned that there is no linear path to “become a famous Singer” I used to think that I had to be in TV to become famous, so I audition and I got to be in La Voz México, I was on national TV I did grow a bit in terms of followers, but then I realized that there is no secret formula to mantain that growth, you have to keep on going and pursue not fame, but then again, real connection, the fame comes as a consecuence not the other way around.
What tools, instruments, or software are essential in your creative process?
The guitar is essential for building melodies, but one instrument I always come back to is the Juno. It gives me that atmospheric, ethereal quality I love in my music, something subtle but very present.
It brings a synth-pop essence that feels timeless to me. The Juno is incredibly versatile and often sets the emotional tone for an entire song. Also I love to work with armonies, I put several layers of my voice in different armonies to make it feel fuller and somewhat crowded, like there are many people singing in the room with me, I like to think of it like we are a team, all my versions and me singing together.
Which indie artist or song are you loving right now?
I’ve been really drawn to Olivia Dean lately, especially her song “Touching Toes.” There’s something about the way she builds emotion so subtly, it feels effortless, but also deeply intentional.
She has this rare balance between classic and modern. There’s a timeless elegance in her voice and songwriting, but it still feels fresh and current. “Touching Toes” in particular feels very intimate, almost like you’re being let into a quiet, personal moment. It doesn’t try too hard, and that’s what makes it so powerful.
I really admire artists who can create that kind of emotional closeness while keeping a sense of simplicity and grace in their sound, and she does that beautifully.
How have your personal experiences influenced your music and artistic vision?
I don’t separate the artist from the person, my artistic project is me. And that’s something I had to learn and accept over time. For a while, I questioned whether I needed to create a character or an alter ego, because I’ve always admired artists who build entire worlds around a persona and have cool names. But every time I
tried to imagine that for myself, it felt disconnected. Even using a different name didn’t feel right.
Being an artist, for me, is something deeply intrinsic, it’s not something I step into, it’s something I already am and I try to live my life with the art lenses on. So instead of creating distance, I chose to lean into honesty.
My music is shaped directly by my experiences (good and bad ones), my contradictions, my questions, and my growth. It’s where I process things I don’t always fully understand yet. That’s why my artistic vision is constantly evolving, it grows as I grow. I think that’s what keeps it real. It’s not a fixed identity, it’s a living one. Everything in my life is art or can become art.
What emotions or messages do you hope listeners take from your work?
I hope they take away resilience, vulnerability, and strength, but not as abstract ideas, rather as something they can feel in their own lives. I write from a very honest and sometimes uncomfortable place. I talk about emotions as they are: messy, contradictory, and evolving. And through that, I want people to feel that it’s okay to not have everything figured out.
We’re often taught to hide what we feel, to appear strong, but I believe there’s so much strength in allowing yourself to be seen. Vulnerability, to me, is not weakness (at least not anymore because there was a time when I felt that way, my song Ego talks about that) but now, I think vulnerability it’s one of the most courageous things we can offer.
If someone listens to my music and feels less alone in something they’re going through, or feels understood in a way they couldn’t put into words before, then that means everything to me. More than anything, I want my music to feel human, like a mirror, or a quiet companion, with a cool beat.
What’s the most important lesson music has taught you so far?
Catharsis. Music has taught me that emotions don’t disappear when you ignore them, they transform when you face them. For me, songwriting is that process of transformation. There are things I don’t always know how to say out loud, or even fully understand within myself, but when I sit down to write, they begin to take shape. Music gives me a language for what feels intangible.
I truly believe that wounds need to be seen in order to heal, and for me, music is how I look at them. It’s how I sit with them, understand them, and eventually release them. And when I do, my friends and familiy tend to ask me If I am Ok hahaha, but even tho a song can be very sad, if I’m singing about it, I definitly am Ok, better even.
And then something beautiful happens, when someone listens and says, “It feels like you wrote this for me.” That’s when the song stops being just mine. It becomes
something shared, something collective. That’s the magic of music to me: turning something deeply personal into something that belongs to many, humanity is about sharing.
What is a dream venue or festival you would love to perform at?
Ufff without a doubt, Madison Square Garden.
It’s more than just a venue to me, it represents a moment, a level of connection and impact that I aspire to reach. It’s been on my vision board for a long time, almost like a symbol of everything I’m working toward.
Whenever I imagine my ideal life, I see myself living in New York, walking through the city, and heading to perform there. Not just as a goal achieved, but as a full-circle moment, a little girl who once sang into a toy microphone, now standing on one of the most iconic stages in the world.
It feels both surreal and deeply real at the same time. Mark my words it Will be real someday….
If you could collaborate with any artist, past or present, who would it be and why?
Elvis Presley, Aretha Franklin, Silvana Estrada and Taylor Swift. Funny mix butttt there is an explanation.
Elvis, because there’s something undeniably magnetic about him, his presence, his voice, the way he redefined performance. He had this timeless charisma that made people feel something instantly, and I’ve always been drawn to that kind of energy.
Aretha Franklin, because to me she represents the perfect balance between power and vulnerability. Her voice carried so much strength, but also so much emotion and truth, you could feel her humanity in every note.
That duality is something I deeply connect with and strive for in my own music: being strong, but also open; powerful, but deeply human.
In present times Silvana Estrada, because there’s a rawness and honesty in her music that feels almost sacred. The way she uses her voice and minimal instrumentation creates such an intimate atmosphere, it feels like she’s letting you into her soul. As a Mexican artist, she also inspires me to embrace my roots and to understand that vulnerability, when it’s real, can transcend language and reach people anywhere.
Taylor Swift, because of her songwriting. I deeply admire her ability to turn very personal, specific experiences into something universal. She creates entire emotional worlds through her lyrics, and her evolution as an artist has been fearless.
She constantly reinvents herself while staying true to her core, and that’s something I find incredibly inspiring.
All of them, in different ways, represent something I aspire to: emotional truth, presence, and the courage to be fully yourself through music.
Where can our listeners follow and support your music? (Website,Spotify, IG, links)
You can find my music on Spotify and on almost every streaming platform.
On Instagram, I share more of my day-to-day life and the personal side behind the music, it’s a space where you can really get to know me as an artist and as a person.
And I’ve been using TikTok a lot to connect with people who may not have discovered my music yet, so if you’re new, that’s a great place to start and be part of the journey from the beginning.
Spotify:
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/edithvaldezluq
TikTok:
YouTube:
Looking toward the future, what’s your dream for the next chapter of your musical journey?
Right now, I’m working on an album that I hope to release this year, and I’m building a vision to take it on tour. But beyond the releases and performances, what excites me the most is expansion.
One of my biggest dreams is to collaborate with artists from different parts of the world. I see music as a universal language, and collaborations as a bridge between cultures. There’s something incredibly powerful about two artists from different backgrounds creating something together, something that didn’t exist before, something that carries both of their worlds in one piece.
To me, that’s magic. And that’s the kind of impact I want my music to have.
What do you hope listeners will discover about you along the way?
Depth. That I’m not just one thing. Not just one genre, I hope they discover that it’s possible to have many facets, many passions, and still bring them together into something meaningful. That you don’t have to choose just one version of yourself to be valid.
I want my journey to reflect that becoming is not linear, that you can evolve, explore, and redefine yourself over and over again. And hopefully, through that, they feel inspired to do the same in their own lives.
If you want here you can add a representative Youtube video to insert below the interview 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/@EdithValdez
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