Formula Indie Sessions – Interview with Kemayah

What is your earliest memory connected to music?

My earliest memory connected to music goes back to my primary school choir. I loved it when around fifty of us young students would gather at the very top of the school to sing together, sometimes even in several-part harmonies.

I’m especially grateful to the passionate music teacher who introduced us to music. It’s amazing to have had the opportunity to experience something like that at such a young age.

How did your passion for creating music begin?

At the age of 12, I already loved playing the piano. There were pianos in several members of my family, and one day my grandmother gave me hers. I’ve never taken piano lessons.

After that, I started composing my first little songs and melodies. There’s actually one that I still play today.

That’s how my passion for creating music began. Every day, as soon as I came home from school, it was the only thing I wanted to do. I could spend hours playing and creating. It allowed me to escape from my everyday life as a pre-teen, then as a teenager, and eventually as a young woman.

What’s the story behind your current music project?

My EP For Peace, released in 2026, brings together not only my first real songs (the first ones I consider truly complete) but also songs that I all wrote in New Caledonia, the country I moved to at the age of 15, leaving my native country, Switzerland.

Five years later, together with a New Caledonian friend and sound engineer, we recorded and brought these six selected songs to life, with the help of six other musicians. We did everything independently, without a traditional studio.

We created the project in a small apartment in Switzerland, connecting two ends of the world through a project that is both authentic and ambitious.

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

I wrote and composed the foundations of this EP on a wild island in the Pacific, inspired by tropical nature, the ocean, the dense forests and the Milky Way.

That’s what makes this EP so introspective. It’s an invitation to turn inward and listen to the sound that resonates within us.

The music invites you to listen to the voice at its center, powerful and accompanied by organic instruments that help bring this universe to life, somewhere between Neo Soul and World Music.

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

It might sound silly, but I learned to love my voice. And that changed everything…

I’m still learning to love it, because it’s not easy.

Most people hate hearing their own voice. And it’s the same for singers. Forcing myself to see the beauty in my own voice has helped me tremendously to dare to share my music.

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

Guitar, piano, and I’ve recently fallen in love with my looper because it allows me to easily create vocal harmonies.

Which indie artist or song are you loving right now?

I really like Mighty Oaks!

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

In every possible way. I don’t play a character in my art, I’m simply 100% myself. So my music is naturally always influenced by my personal experiences.

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

I hope they learn to treat themselves with love. And I hope they hear something they needed to hear, rather than simply what they wanted to hear.

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

Music keeps teaching me, again and again, to be myself and to share who I truly am. That’s what I love about music. It’s not only a passion or a profession, it’s also a personal and spiritual journey.

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

No matter the venue, I would love to perform in front of a receptive audience people who genuinely connect with my music and feel that it does something good for them.

But if I had to choose one, I’d love to play at Paléo Festival.

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

I would have loved to collaborate with Y’akoto a few years ago, because her music has changed quite a lot since then. She’s an artist who isn’t very well known, but she has had a huge influence on my style.

Where can our listeners follow and support your music?

Everything is here: https://beacons.ai/kemayah

I also regularly post on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kemayah.artist?igsh=MXh4MjR4aWJlMXBpYQ==&utm_source=qr

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

I want to become really strong on stage and play as many live shows as possible, both with a band and solo with my looper.

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

that everything I create is made with love and a lot of passion.