Q&A With Vythess

Hi Vythess and welcome to LOCK. For our readers could you tell us a little about yourself?

Hello team LOCK, thank you for the opportunity. I really admire magazines and blogs that are willing to help independent artists, as like in any industry, monopoly is advancing at an amazing rate and it’s becoming harder and harder to find space as an independent artist.

I am currently based in Groningen, The Netherlands but I originally come from Bulgaria. I am a Pop-R&B vocalist and songwriter and I have some background in digital music production. I had a fascination with music since I was 4 years old and it has been an integral part of my life since then. I always like to express myself in all art forms and shapes from poetry to visual arts or even theatre and I use my music project as a place to combine them as much as possible. My mission is to innovate art expression and use music to bring back the human connection we lost with modern life.

Need Some Space is an empowering anthem of self-discovery and independence. What inspired you to write this song?

I noticed that I lot of the time my inspiration to write comes in moments of despair and I end up with pieces that are rather dark and sad. And I realized that I don’t necessarily want to send this message out in the world, I don’t want to make the world a sadder place than it already is. However, I still believe that what I felt in these moments was authentic and could be relatable to other people so I didn’t want to put it behind. That is why I decided to look at the same challenges but from the positive side. Hardships will always be present but we can always choose to see them from a positive angle, and they can actually empower us if we find the strength to step back and take them as a learning experience instead. My personal belief is that we are on this Earth to learn from each other, so why not share my journey 🙂

You’ve mentioned that you created this song as a reminder to yourself during hard times. What message do you hope your listeners take from it?

I think in hard times we can feel really alone, as if the universe is working against us and no one really understands what we are going through. However, deep inside humans are so similar, even if the events we go through are different, our emotions and our human potential are quite the same, no matter your origin, age etc. So I would like to tell people that they are not alone in their journey, there is always love and space for them in this world and we, as human beings have way more power to overcome hardships than we can imagine.

This is the first release from your upcoming EP, Fragments of Healing. Why did you choose Need Some Space as the first single?

The songs in the EP are chronological episodes of my healing journey. I think the first step of healing be it mental or physical is to take a step back, make some time and space to breathe and gather your thoughts. To calm down and see the situation clearly, to think about how to save yourself from the situation you got yourself into, to actively practice self-love and look for any lessons you might take before continuing your journey. Nowadays, we always feel like there is not enough time, that we always have to rush and we forget to make space for ourselves and our needs. An engineer friend of mine told me the following saying once: “If you don’t schedule maintenance for your equipment, your equipment will schedule it for you.” and I think it fully applies to our body and mind, as those are our best assets, however, unlike the technical equipment we can not get a second life, so we have to be extremely careful with it.

What can listeners expect from the full EP? Are there any particular themes or emotions that run throughout the project?

They can expect a reflection of a full year of experiences, inner conversations and healing, summarized in 5 tracks of bubbling sounds, airy vocals and futuristic energy. There will be themes of finding the strength to embrace your true self, even if it means losing people you love in the name of remaining true to your heart, escaping toxic relationships and finding your inner strength.

Can you take us through the creative process behind this EP? Did any specific moments or experiences shape its direction?

It all started during my worst anxiety attack, where nothing but art would help me calm down. And I knew I wanted to create a piece that can remind me that I won’t always be in this mindset, that no lows are permanent. Since then I started actively searching for methods of healing and sharing with friends who were going through similar hardships. I started seeing patterns of negative loops that seemed that a lot of people went through and I just wanted to say something because it’s breaking your heart when you see the same suffering you went through in someone else’s eyes. You just want to tell them that you’ve been through the exact same and everything will be alright in the end. At this point, I realized it is a whole journey that can be shared into an EP. I just went out there and asked people, strangers even, what their coping mechanism is, and what their journey is and I was trying to combine it with my lessons and point of view. One of the songs will be a collaboration with Valentino Babat with whom I have worked for a long time but it was one of the first times we were so vulnerable in front of each other because we wanted to share each other’s break-up healing stories in an attempt to find a song that shows both points of view in an equal way because sometimes it’s no one’s fault that things don’t work out. I think each interaction with people and artists paved the way to a new perspective on healing that hopefully can help as many people as possible.

You come from the beautiful Rhodope Mountains—how has your upbringing influenced your artistry and sound?

Growing up in a small town, close to the forest, really develops your connection to nature, to community, to what it means to be a human. I used to take this for granted as for me it was the norm. However, once I started travelling, I realized not everyone is lucky to have this connection and I wanted to bring it using my music. Loneliness is the disease of the new society and I think art can be one of the remedies. I want to bring this serenity through the gentle, relaxing sound design but also add a contrast of metallic and darker elements representing the harsh environment a post-soviet country can be sometimes.

Your music blends contemporary pop and R&B. Who are some of your biggest musical influences, and how have they shaped your style?

I listen to a lot of new music all the time, so I don’t think it’s one or a few artists that changed me but rather a whole pallet of influences that permeated through my brain. However, I am really inspired by the production of Flying Lotus, the uplifting energy of Duckwrth, the musical genius of H.E.R. and the vocals of Tori Kelly. The list can be long but I don’t think we will have the time for it.

As someone who creates music rooted in emotion and personal experience, how do you find the balance between vulnerability and artistic expression?

When I first created the project “Vythess” I wasn’t sure how to approach the fact that is a second persona. You hear a lot from different media that you have to “maintain” a brand and not be yourself etc which I find not very appealing of course. However, later on, I realised that the persona doesn’t have the purpose of alienating you from your true self but on the contrary, it creates space where you can be fully yourself because if someone judges me they judge Vythess, not Tsvetina (my real name), as people perceive it in the context of a performance even if for me it’s real life that I’m describing. The curtains will drop and whoever found it meaningful will leave the venue with a smile and whoever didn’t will continue the search to someone who resonates with them. So I don’t think those two things are something that should be “balanced” but rather vulnerability is the key that opens the door to all the important messages that the expression helps you communicate with the rest of the world.

Lastly, what’s next for you after the release of Fragments of Healing? Any plans for touring, new music, or exciting projects in 2025?

I will perform at the Spike Showcase festival this May and you can regularly see me at some local cross-arts events in Groningen. The music I want to do next will depend on what personal lessons I get along the way so I can’t really predict that. However, I want to go in a direction that can address more social issues because the world is in a very scary place right now and we need to collectively do something about it. Be more human, be more united, less polarized and I also want to experiment more artistically and see where this path will take me.