Born in Vienna and currently residing in Los Angeles, Josy Svajda is an musician, singer, songwriter and composer who is well known across town for her diverse talents and versatility.
In addition to her work as a musician, Josy has secured many powerful collaborations and featured placements, including having worked at Hans Zimmer's studio "Remote Control Productions,” as well as supporting composer John Powell (The Bourne movies, How To Train Your Dragon).
Recently she started writing for "Extreme Music"; she will also be singing some tunes for "Red Cola", a music production company based in Venice, CA, famous for trailer music. She is currently at work on her solo EP, which will contain mainly cinematic vocal tracks complimented by instrumentals. It will be released Fall 2017. She has a regular presence in LA ventues, including a year of playing piano at the Millenium Biltmore Hotel (which led to several more gigs), as well as "The Silverlake Lounge”, "Genghis Cohen", and the "Republic of Pie". Read more about my conversation with Josy below! She is a rare talent and I'm lucky she had the time to chat with me.
1. What projects are you currently working on?
Currently I am working on 3 different projects: I am singing on a trailer album for the company Red Cola, a trailer library based in Venice, CA. I cannot go into a lot of details yet, but it’s going to be sweet and creepy at the same time. Then I am writing and producing some tracks for Extreme Music, a music library co-founded by Hans Zimmer. I am singing on most of their tracks as well. And last not not least, I am working on my solo EP which will mainly contain of cinematic vocal tracks, with me being the featured vocalist.
2. What has it been like to work with Red Cola and Extreme Music? Can you elaborate on these companies and how you are collaborating?
Working with Red Cola has been a lot of fun so far, we have come up with some creative new ways of including vocals in a trailer arrangement and we are very excited about the first releases and how they are going to be received. Extreme Music is a huge music library with high end products and a lot of clients all over the world, I was very fortunate to be able to start writing and singing for them. It’s been really great, there are multiple genres I am writing for - some singer-songwriter, some cinematic tracks with vocals.
3. What draws you to being a singer-songwriter? Does this aspect of your career impact your work as a composer?
I love singing, and I love writing.. I love the fact that you can tell a whole story in a song and express so much feeling through music. Yes it definitely effects my work as a composer as well, all my work I think is kind of connected to each other. Sometimes I catch myself coming up with similar melodies for a song and for a cinematic piece, and it works for both since the interpretation and the instrumentation is a different one. Then I sometimes create a song version out of a film music piece, which actually happens quite often when you think about Titanic for example or many of the Disney films.
4. Being successful and established in LA, what do you wish you knew in the beginning of your career about the entertainment industry that you know now?
Nothing happens over night and patience and hard work is the key to success. And although I knew that when I came here it hit me when I realized how long most of the successful people in the industry have been working to gain respect and influence. I think it’s really important to have a future goal but even more important to just enjoy the art you are performing right now. I have learned that although most of us come here chasing the big dream, it can also be the small projects and collaboration that bring a lot of joy.
5. Who are some of your musical influences?
What film music is concerned, it were amazing movie scores like James Horner’s “Titanic", Hans Zimmer’s “Gladiator" and Howard Shore’s "Lord of the Rings” that really influenced my style in composing and also singing - when you think about it, all of these scores have a lot of use of vocals; Titanic e.g. even had the most popular film song ever performed by the amazing Celine Dion. Which leads me to the pop and ballad world, Celine Dion and Whitney Houston were probably my top favorite singers and huge role models when I was a child already, I was enchanted by their beautiful voices and some of their ballads still give me goosebumps today.
6. What can we expect from your upcoming cinematic EP? It sounds like a really interesting and cinematic approach to music!
I am very excited about the cinematic EP, it’s going to be very epic with lots of orchestral sounds combined with vocals and some synth elements. I will be singing in an ancient foreign style, I have some Elvish lyrics in one track and I will also be using my voice for textual and ambient purposes. I want to be as creative as possible and I am trying out different, new ways of using my voice so that sometimes you will not even recognize that this is me singing. As a vocalist and composer I think this is a great way of combining my talents and creating my own style, it’s been a lot of fun already and I am happy to finally get to do this and release some of my work this way.
7. List any other relevant info and social media links below.
Best way to reach me is via my website or through Facebook. You can find all my youtube and Soundcloud links on my website as well, feel free to share, comment or message me with any requests - my music is available for licensing and the upcoming EP will also be available on iTunes and CD baby.
website: http://www.josysvajda.com
youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/blubb604
soundcloud: http://soundcloud.com/josy85
facebook artist page: http://www.facebook.com/JosySvajdaMusic/
twitter: http://twitter.com/JosySvajda
