Music's Week: What inspired you to pursue a career in music, and what drives your creativity as an artist?
Macha Roy: I always loved to sing and play piano, but I only sang to myself for years because I didn't believe in myself. I judged myself a lot, thinking I didn't have a pretty voice, that I wasn't good enough. I compared myself to singers I thought I would never live up to. My dad was pretty judgmental growing up and made a comment when I was 13 that really stuck with me and blocked me from believing in myself. About 10 years ago, I went to a gathering in Vermont, where there was a live show with a bunch of musicians, amateurs and pros who sang on stage. And that sparked my love for singing and playing again. I joined a band a year later, at first only on the keyboard, a year or two later as a backup vocalist, and little by little, once a year at that yearly gathering in Vermont, I started singing covers on my own. I felt seen for the first time and every year my friends would push me to sing and play.
4 years ago, I had a really rough breakup and it ignited a flame to write my first song. I sang it at my yearly gathering in Vermont and everyone was blown away. That song unleashed something inside and I started writing song after song for the next few months. The songs just kept on coming to me, like I was channeling them. I started to express all my feelings through music, writing neo-classical piano solos and pop songs. For a while, I didn't do anything with them. But over time, I got the burning desire to share them with the world.
I started sharing with my friends and family, and the beautiful thing is that my dad started recognizing my gift too, he started being proud of me for the first time in my life and started pushing me to do more as well. That helped me tremendously in believing in myself and changing my narrative of not being good enough.
I started taking singing lessons, piano lessons to accompany me while singing. (until then, I was classically trained which is quite different). I started getting better and started to believe in myself more and more. And like I mentioned earlier, my friends truly helped me to believe in myself. I would never be where I am today without them, without their support.
At first, I just did it because I loved it as a hobby, but over time, it grew into a calling I could no longer ignore, all I wanted to do was sing, compose, write and the desire to share my art with the world grew stronger. Now I feel like I don't have a choice anymore. The desire is too strong.
What drives my creativity are my personal experiences. Every time I go through something meaningful or challenging in my life, it sparks a song. Making songs really help me externalize my emotions, release them, process them, relive them, and heal them.
I wrote a piano solo when my dad passed away two years ago. I wrote another piano solo a few months later when I had my first miscarriage. When I started to feel better and felt like I was finally on the other side of the tunnel, I wrote a pop song called From the Other Side (which is coming out at the end of August).
Music's Week: Can you tell us about your single "Checkmate"? What's the story behind it, and what do you hope listeners take away from it?
Macha Roy: Two years ago, I met a man when I was trying to have a baby on my own. I had already started the process and had a donor, we were at the beginning stage of the process. This man wasn't looking for a relationship, and I was on the journey to motherhood, but we fell deeply in love. After a month of seeing each other, he told me he wanted to gift me a baby. He didn't want to be a father figure, but he loved me so much that he wanted to do this for me as he saw that I deeply wanted to be a mom. We started trying, but a few months into our relationship we separated because we wanted different things. He still wanted to gift me a baby, so we kept on trying. Two months after we separated, my dad passed away suddenly from a heart attack. And two weeks later, this man told me he couldn't be on my journey anymore and couldn't gift me a baby anymore. He also asked that we have a clear cut, and couldn't be here to support me while I was grieving my dad. The thing is, amidst our final separation, we had one last romantic moment together, and I got pregnant. A month later, I miscarried and when I told him, he told me he was very sorry but couldn't be there to support me. So I had to grieve my dad, him and my miscarriage all at once. It was probably the hardest time of my life. My heart was crushed in every way. Months later he came back into my life, but more heartache came with that. It took me a really long time to heal from that relationship. And amidst all of this pain, the song Checkmate came to me.
It helped me express everything that I was feeling, at the time, it felt like there was nowhere to go, like I hit rock bottom. A few weeks after I finished producing the song, I saw him for the first time in 8 months, he asked me what I had been up to, and I told him, "well, I wrote a song, and it's about you. Do you want to hear it?" and he said "yes". While listening to it, he had tears and told me he was so sorry for everything, for all the pain he had caused me. At that moment he told me he wanted to help me make a music video. He is a cinematographer, so we collaborated on the music video.
This song became so much more than a song, it became the story of how we decided to move past the pain and suffering, to forgive each other and to collaborate on one of the most beautiful things I've created to date. We started building a friendship based on trust and honesty. It was very cathartic and healing. We are now slowly learning to trust each other again, to be friends and to have love and compassion towards each other, understanding that we are all humans, and we are all doing the best we can with the tools that we have.
Like I mentioned earlier, writing songs help me externalize my emotions, process, integrate and heal them. I always go to music to help me process emotions. When I'm sad, I listen to sad songs, when I'm happy I listen to happy songs, when I wanna have more energy, I listen to upbeat music, when I wanna feel deeply, I listen to classical music, etc.
I'm so thankful to have music to express my emotions. It's redirected how I feel about experiencing pain, grief, sadness, anger, joy too. I recently parted with someone, and wrote a song. And I thought "wow, that's beautiful, if I didn't experience this breakup, I wouldn't have written this song".
Music's Week: How do you approach songwriting? Do you have a specific process or do you let the music come naturally?
Macha Roy: Songwriting is somewhat of a new process for me. Up to now, it's always come naturally. It's come one of two ways. Either I go through something that brings up emotions, and I get a sort of call to get on my piano and start a melody. Or, I get inspired when I listen to certain songs, the rhythm, the beat, the lyrics, something will spark me to start writing lyrics based on a personal experience. The rhythm always ends up being different than the song that inspired me, but sometimes it ignites my creativity.
I get creative when I go on walks, when I'm in nature, when I'm going through something emotional. Sometimes in the middle of a party, I'll hear a song and lyrics just come flowing, usually tracks that don't have lyrics or minimal lyrics. I'll have to remove myself from the party and record voice memos on the spot so I don't lose out on the moment.
I can't wait for my process to expand and to discover new ways of getting creative and inspired.
Music's Week: Who are some of your biggest musical influences, and how do they inspire your own music?
Macha Roy: I have so many, for as long as I can remember, I've been inspired, influenced by artists of all kinds, music of all genres. It started when I was very young with Veronique Sanson, France Gall, Patrick Bruel, mostly French artists as I was born and grew up in France until I was 11 (my mom would play them in the car on our way to school and I'd sing my heart out). In my early teens came Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, Tina Turner. In my late teens, I started listening to Massive Attack, Portishead, Bjork, Radiohead, Oasis, Skunk Anansie, Ben Harper, I also got into French Rap and American Rap. I had go to songs for everything I was experiencing in my life.
I started loving Pop music in my early teens, and house music in my late 20's. Some pop artists that have inspired and influenced me and still do are Sia, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Katy Perry, Beyonce...
I'm also inspired by a lot of DJs and producers of house music. I want to create house tracks! I love house music!
Music's Week: What's been your favorite part about being a musician so far? Is there a particular moment or experience that stands out to you?
Macha Roy: I love having an outlet to express how I feel, everything I make comes from my heart and soul. All my songs have meaning, they're all a part of me, a part of my journey. I'm telling the story of my life through my music. It's a record of everything I go through, and it is eternal. It's very special.
Making my first music video was very impactful for me. I never thought I'd get to that point, and now I feel like I'm barely scratching the surface. I want to do so much more!
Last week, I played my songs Checkmate and On Dream at my yearly gathering in Vermont in front of 250 people, most of them dear friends, and they were so well received. People resonated with them, it was so special! I love that people resonate with my songs and that it brings up emotions for them.
One of my friends told me that she wasn't feeling well on her way up to Vermont, she was driving alone in her car, and she played my piano solos the whole way through, and it helped her through her drive there. That's just the best feeling!
Music's Week: How do you balance creativity with the business side of being a musician? Do you have any advice for other artists navigating this balance?
Macha Roy: Making music is so new, right now I'm mostly creating, and I just recently started to put myself out there. Mostly on Instagram and Tik Tok. My music video is on YouTube and my music is on Spotify, Soundcloud, Amazon, and iTunes. I don't really have any advice yet, if anything, I'm looking for advice myself :)
Music's Week: What's next for your music career? Any upcoming projects or tours that you're excited about?
Macha Roy: I want to do so much! Obviously I want to keep making music, more music videos too, start performing, touring. I love being on stage! I get nervous but I also get such a thrill out of it. I'm releasing two more songs in the next coming weeks, On Dream and From the Other Side, that's super exciting! On Dream is in French. I'm also in the midst of writing a new French song called Je Veux Danser. I love writing in my native language. On Dream was the first song I ever wrote in French and that was just a few months ago. It surprised me when it came out; up to now, inspiration had only come in English. I had this feeling in my gut that I needed to get on my piano and the whole song came to me in a matter of minutes. When I was done, I was like, wow, where did that come from? It was so cool! I'm realizing that I can write things in French that don't translate in English, and it's a part of myself that's often suppressed since I live in the States and I only have a few French speaking friends.
Music's Week: How do you connect with your fans, and what do you appreciate most about their support?
Macha Roy: Having the support of my friends and my fans is truly how I started to believe in myself enough to start making music and putting myself out there. So, I am for ever grateful for the support. Right now I mainly connect with my fans on social media, and when I perform. I love getting messages from them telling me they resonate with my music, that it makes them feel all sorts of things. It's such a good feeling! I love being able to connect to people in general, and through music, it makes it super special.
Music's Week: Can you share a memorable or meaningful moment that occurred during one of your performances or music-making experiences?
Macha Roy: I had a release party for my music video a few weeks ago, and I showed the video on a projector. Once the video was over, one by one everyone started coming up to me to tell me how amazing the video was, how proud and inspired they were by me, my music, my story. I cried with joy. That was one of the most special moments for me. To be recognized for my art, when not so long ago, I thought I wasn't creative, and that I didn't have anything to bring to the world. I still have a huge smile on my face when I think about it.
Music's Week: If you could collaborate with any other artist or producer, who would it be and why?
Macha Roy: I have an awesome producer, Marius Feder! He produced Checkmate and On Dream. I met him through a friend of a friend, and I'm so thankful for this connection. It's been such a pleasure making music with him. He's super talented and understands my music.
A few friends who are DJs and producers asked to collaborate, I love that collaborations are coming organically to me. I'm super excited about the prospect of working with friends to create music.
I would love to start collaborating with other musicians, being able to play my songs live, that's definitely a big dream of mine!
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