Straight out of the City Of Churches, we get to know vayla, who’s stepping out solo with his debut single ‘Run Out’.
Yes, vayla’s been in a band previously, but now branching out on his lonesome, he’s some delivering ’80s pop realness.
But who IS vayla? Naturally, we wanted to find out more, so we rolled out our 20 probing questions in order to find out.
01. Name : Jayden Lugg a.k.a vayla.
02. Where are you based? I am born and raised in Adelaide, South Australia! Specifically, the Western Suburbs just outside the city.
03. How did you get your start in music? I started in an indie rock band within my first year of uni. This really introduced me to the diverse Adelaide Music Scene. Since then I started an alternative pop band with my now best friends called DRESS CODE, which has enabled me to share the stage with amazing artists such as Hilltop Hoods, G Flip, Spacey Jane and many more.
Now branching off to start my own solo career, it’s something I’ve never attempted before!
04. Give us five words to best describe you as an artist. Driven, persistent, competent, colourful, inspired.
05. Tell us a little bit about your sound and how it developed. I think I’m someone who is inspired by so much music, both within Adelaide, Australia and internationally. Primarily I would describe my sound as ’80s-inspired mixed with contemporary pop music.
06. What’s your earliest musical memory? My earliest music memory would be my dad teaching me guitar on this little nylon string acoustic guitar. I would then go to school and show all my friends what new chord I had learnt the past week.
07. Who have been your musical influences? I would say primarily I’m influenced by a lot of contemporary underground pop from both Australia and internationally. Artists such as Lauv and Lany are definitely artists I look up to for inspiration both as a songwriter and producer.
08. What are your favourite songs of all time? My favourite songs of all time would include tracks ‘Comfortably Numb’ by Pink Floyd and ‘Just Like Heaven’ by The Cure.
09. Where’s your favourite place to listen to music? Easily would be in my bedroom studio with a glass of gin late at night or with my friends on the balcony.
10. Who are your go-to artists when you’re feeling :
Happy? When I’m feeling happy, artists like Paradise Club (ADL) make me feel really happy and fill me with energy.
Sad? When I’m sad, I feel like you could put on any Lany song and it will make you feel like you just went through a rough breakup.
Introspective? A new artist I have been listening to is Sasha Sloan and a few of her songs different make me feel pretty introspective and wonder how the world works.
Exhausted? If I’m exhausted, I’ll listen to something pretty slow and dreamy like an artist I love called The Ivy.
11. What was the first album you ever bought? First album I can remember buying was the AC/DC’s ‘Back In Black’ on the iTunes store with mum’s credit card.
12. Give us a little fun fact about yourself that people might not know. Funny fact about me, I went through a huge surfer/skater phase in my late teenage years and I still work at a surf shop that I started when I was 17. My friends love to have a laugh at me for that.
13. What would your chosen career be if music wasn’t an option? If music was not an option, I think I would’ve been a pretty decent basketballer. A few of my friends may disagree.
14. What’s the best advice you’ve been given in your career? No one cares about your music anywhere near as much as you do.
15. What’s been the highlight of your musical journey so far? In my music career as a whole, definitely opening for Hilltop Hoods at the Adelaide 500 in my band DRESS CODE. That was crazy.
16. What’s been the strangest experience you’ve had in the business? Strangest experience would definitely be mixing and producing my debut track. It’s the first track I have ever mixed completely mixed and it took a lot of mental capacity and patience.
17. If you could trade places with any artist in the world right now, who would it be? Easily I would trade places with someone like Lauv, although I’d probably screw his career up from there.
18. Tell us about your debut release. My debut release ‘Run Out’ is the first song under my solo project ‘vayla’ and is out now. It’s the first track written, produced and mixed completely by me and was the result of my COVID isolation. It combines ’80s synth inspiration and contemporary pop.
19. What do your future plans involve? I am going to continue to write and produce tracks and really just see what happens from there!
20. Where can our audience catch you live? For now, I am just going to be releasing music digitally but to celebrate my release I may do a live performance via Instagram!
FACEBOOK : http://facebook.com/musicbyvayla/
INSTAGRAM : http://instagram.com/musicbyvayla
TWITTER : http://twitter.com/musicbyvayla
Australia's first stop for pop!