Lyra Star sprinkles a little bit of magic into every enthralling melody that she creates. An independent singer, songwriter, and yoga-loving dreamer, Lyra Star has spread her wings past her hometown of Nashville to eventually find herself exploring and falling in love with the West Coast.
Finally settling in the bay area of California, she became one half of the duo Wisps and Willows before realizing she couldn’t be contained and indeed needed to fly solo to pursue her dreams to her maximum potential.
As she follows her inner voice while navigating through the music industry, she uses her expertise in the performing arts as she steers through the winding paths of her journey in Los Angeles.
Lyra Star expressed her internal creativity through imaginative releases in 2020. Kicking off the year with the sentimental depths of, “Beautiful Ride,” we are exposed to the vulnerability that she uncovers through intricate lyrical tales about feeling a connection to someone despite their darkness and wanting to get close to that person because it could potentially be a beautiful journey together. As she wavers through the enticing instrumentation that dances in our minds in a nimble manner, Lyra Star sets the tone with her ethereal vocalization.
Her single “Under the Water,” is a rather special masterpiece for the independent artist herself. Taking her resilient connection to the ocean, she used vivid imagery to illustrate how she is ready to burst out of her shell to shine her bright light on the world through her tantalizing musical designs. With mesmerizing visuals released for, “Under the Water,” Lyra Star created an opportunity to merge her skills as a contortionist with her original creations. The manner in which the music video highlights her capabilities through a larger than life performance of her talents is unmatched as she paves her path in the industry.
“Broken,” uses the sorrows she carries in her to depict a lively picture about falling for the wrong person, and recognizing that it is better off to be alone than to allow someone into your life that is so broken inside. As we can relate to Lyra Star through the alluring strings being performed in the composition, the elements cataract with her otherworldly vocalization, as she brings raw emotion to light in this slow tempo ballad.
With her latest single, capping off the year of 2020, “Light,” pulsates in our minds as we are captured by the heavenly resonance through the masterpiece at hand. Touching on themes that stroke the idea, sometimes the universe brings certain people in and out of your life for unknown reasoning, and you can’t help but feel a strong emotional connection to them. Lyra Star drives home a delicate yet powerful performance as she stresses the importance that timing is everything, and sometimes it just isn’t right. However, her optimism fuses with her realism and she remains holding onto hope as she allows her inner light to twinkle and glistens.
Through the disarray that may have come through the year, Lyra Star remained consistent in tugging at our heartstrings through her whimsical performances. If this is what she can deliver through a year of uncertainty, we are more than ready to hear what she has in store for us come 2021.
Welcome back to BuzzMusic, Lyra Star. It is always a pleasure when we get to chat with you! With a hectic year coming to an end, how were you able to stay inspired through 2020?
Well, this year has been absolutely crazy for sure, and it's only my second year in LA... this shutdown for me was an extreme slap in the face. I have continued to ride emotional waves throughout the pandemic, and I definitely did not do as much songwriting as I thought I would have. I ended up devoting a lot of my time to my yoga mat and contortion training, and I stayed inspired by connecting with other artists (songwriters, performers, etc) that were going through similar experiences. I also went to a couple of Zoom events for releases and had a lot more time to devote to streaming people's music and supporting fellow artists and their releases throughout the year. I think everyone that creates may go through downtimes, but we all manage to get inspired in some way, shape, or form. For me, I had a lot of time to myself to really go within and slow down and think about each release that I put out and where I want to go from here as an artist moving into the next year.
“Under the Water,” is such a striking composition and it holds a special place in your heart. Could you please tell the listeners the story behind the writing process?
This song was different than most of my other songs because I wrote it on a loop pedal using only beatboxing and my voice. I have always felt a strong connection to the ocean, and I was feeling unsettled in my life before moving to LA. Like I had this light within me that felt ready to shine in some way. The lyrics unfolded from there with the underwater imagery as the backdrop. I worked with producer Sam J. Garfield in the studio to create it into a fully functional song that could be released. Originally, I had thought about it as a potential live contortion performance where I would layer on the vocal parts and then do a performance. You can actually see the evolution of this song on my YouTube channel... there is a live in-studio video of me performing it as I originally wrote it, a live contortion performance where I do contortion and sing, and then the final official music video for the single.
What musical and non-musical inspirations do you allow to speak into your music?
Musically, Radiohead is one of my favorite bands, and Tori Amos has been an artist that has always inspired me. I really enjoy a wide variety of genres, and what I love about Tori and Radiohead is that each album they have created is so unique... they have really evolved and grown with the times in their music. I like seeing artists evolve but still stay true to who they are, and that's what I'm hoping to do as well. I also dabble in different genres, as I enjoy everything from jazz to trip-hop to electronica to classic singer/songwriter music. I think I am definitely most drawn to many artists that use electronic production in some way and those combined genres here and there (other artists I love include Imogen Heap, Bjork, and Sigur Ros). Non-musical inspirations include the natural world and surrealist art. I used to be a painter and majored in studio art when I was an undergrad in college, so I really love visuals and try to incorporate that into my music through the lyrics. I enjoy a lot of fantasy art and also love being out in nature because there are so many beautiful and unique elements that can be woven into a song through words.
How have you grown as an artist from the start of 2020 to now?
At the start of 2020, I still didn't have much music that I had released other than my album from 2018 and "Red House," a Jimi Hendrix cover that I released at the end of 2019. Since then, I have been determined to keep releases happening regularly, starting with my single, "Beautiful Ride," which came out in January. I filmed some live in-studio performances with In-Flight Music Group that I released on YouTube, then I released 3 other singles this year plus the "Under the Water" video. I've really tried to become more active on social media and take my fans and followers on my journey with me. I've also made more connections through the press and learned that sometimes I can't do it all myself (I invested money into Spotify playlisting this year, which really helped increase the number of people listening to my music). A lot of my plans for live shows got foiled due to lockdown, so I've just had to come up with other ways to keep people engaged... little contortion videos here and there as well as behind the scenes footage and photos from my various projects. I want to keep going on this track and hope to continue on this path of growth over the next few years. I really am still very new to the whole scene, especially the LA music scene, but I've met and been really inspired by some amazing artists since moving here.
Were there any challenges that you have had to overcome as an artist through your releases this year?
The greatest challenge was the disappearance of live shows. Live performances were a big thing for me, and going out to shows to get inspiration was part of my regular life. When that went away, I felt very emotionally challenged because part of the beauty of music for me is performing my songs live for an audience, and having that energy and interaction. I really struggled to get into the Livestream game, although I know many artists that have done it a bunch on Facebook and Twitch. It just wasn't something that fed my soul, and I definitely wasn't making any money from the few that I did. I basically had to accept that fact and just move on with each release... I was extra bummed because I wanted to screen "Under the Water" on a big screen at a venue and put together something really cool for a release show, but I couldn't hold onto the release.. it already got pushed back a few times. Such is life though, and I'm still proud of my accomplishments this year.
What words of wisdom would you like to share with your listeners as we close off the year?
If you are truly passionate about what you do, you can thrive in some way... I think the pandemic has shown us all that a pause can be both a blessing and a curse. It brought about completely unexpected challenges for everyone, but I think it also gave people a chance to really deeply connect with themselves. I think the bottom line is that artists need to create. We will always find a way, no matter what.
What types of projects can we expect to see and hear from you come 2021?
I can't wait to share my projects in 2021. First up, I have another music video coming out in January (for an older song from my album), followed by a new single called "The Loneliest Nights" that I think will really resonate with people considering all that has been going on in the world lately. I am also very excited to film a music video for my most recent single, "Light." This video is going to be edgier, as I am teaming up with Tonya Kay again (director of "Under the Water") as well as a visual artist to create a combination of contortion and fantasy visuals. I have gotten some great inspiration over the past few months from artists like FKA Twigs and look forward to continuing to hone my craft of creating beautiful and unique visual art featuring my contortion skills to accompany my original music. I think music videos are going to be my thing, but I want to start to up the game a little bit by incorporating fantasy art and CGI type of visuals. I also think it's going to be a fun adventure to bring attention to some already released songs that didn't get enough attention when they initially came out. I am also thinking about working on an EP. One step at a time though... I don't want to get too far ahead of myself.
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