heka is a 28 year old Italian artist based in London. She caught my ear last month with the astoundingly gorgeous single 'no-one', and I wanted to know more about this somewhat elusive musician.
You're from Italy but now based in London. Was a career in music your motivation for moving there?
It was actually. I moved just after high school and did a one year diploma course in songwriting. I started writing music when I was 15 and I always wrote in English as I found I could hide behind the illusion that people in Italy might not immediately understand the words. I’ve always written about pretty personal stuff so being able to hide behind the language at that time was I think instrumental to my being so prolific and honest with the things I wrote about, even in those early days. This all to say that as I started to show my music to people in the industry in Italy I was often told that singing in English might be a problem if I wanted to have a career there. I don’t know that that’s true but I didn’t need much convincing to be honest. My dad’s English so a part of me had always wanted to move to the UK and explore that side of my heritage.
Your music displays exposure to and knowledge of a wide variety of genres. Was there any particular artist or art that influenced you to take a more alternative route?
For a while I had a really hard time understanding what kind of music I wanted to make because I like lots of different genres and it felt like every new song I wrote was too different to fit with the one before. I found this really confusing and annoying because the world is constantly asking you to label things and put them in their respective boxes, and as a young person trying to find their place in that world, it’s excruciating not to fit anywhere. I guess it was just a question of finding my voice but a lot of artists seemed to immediately have a clear idea of who they wanted to sound like whereas I always shied away from doing that because I really wanted what I was writing to come from me directly, untampered in a way, and to be original and personal. It’s of course a naïve illusion to think that we are not - even subconsciously - influenced by other musicians, but that was a big thing for me at the time. It was about expression and release rather than the building of a character, sound or identity. About the content and the writing more than the aesthetic or the form, which evolved later for me. I think it might be kind of what happens when bilingual kids learn to speak, apparently they take longer than kids that are only learning one language because they have to decode double the information and connect it. This is what it felt like in a way. Like this whole time I was synthesizing all the different influences into a language that made sense to me and that only recently I’ve been able to start speaking. I’m glad I was patient with it because with time I realised that I didn’t need to compromise my taste to fit a specific genre or category of music, I could break that illusion and play with all the genres and sounds I liked which was unbelievably freeing.
Your latest single 'no-one' sounds really nice, how did you record it?
I was back home in Italy while recording that song actually. Recorded the stems in a studio I use sometimes when I’m in Florence called Blue Moon, then mixed it myself at home.
What is a typical day for you?
Wow, I haven’t had a typical day for a while. Don’t know if I like it or not. I’m not a huge fan of routine, makes me a little sad. Even eating the same breakfast every day makes me feel bored, but I also at the same time yearn to have stability and be constant in my work with music. If I could revolve my life around music I don’t think I’d mind the routine so much, but the world gets in the way a lot.
What is your favourite and least favourite thing about London?
I love how big it is and how anonymous I feel walking around it, it’s very freeing. I love the abundance of cultural influences especially when it comes to food. I love eating, and eating out and London definitely delivers on that front. And all the art, and the music. I hate how expensive it is, the fact that everyone’s working all the time just to survive it seems, and often I ask myself what the point of being here really is. If it wasn’t for the music, I would have left a long time ago. I miss the countryside every day and I wish to explore the world.
Do you prefer playing live or working on recording?
Playing live is exhilarating and sort of addictive, but it’s also scary. It was definitely something I had to force myself to do at the very beginning and still find a bit daunting. Though there are moments on stage when something clicks, and despite and throughout the shaking terror of it all you nestle into the right frequency and experience the stillness of the time you’re living and become at once both incredibly aware and completely detached, abstracted. In that moment all the anxiety and apprehension preceding it are worth it. It’s also wonderful to connect with people afterwards and experience the warmth of having shared that moment with others; especially after the pandemic I’ve become slightly insatiable for that aspect of it as well. And yet I think that the feeling of creating and recording something new, finding the perfect part that makes you fall in love with a new song, that discovery and the magic of creation is more special to me. It’s the addiction to that feeling that keeps me writing and I don’t think I can compare anything else to how much I enjoy doing that. But they’re two completely different beasts so it’s a fair fight between them.
Any plans for the future?
Lots! Most imminently, finding some musicians to join me as a live band and practice and practice and gig and gig. I am also in the midst of recording a new EP, which I’d like to release either this Spring or Summer. In between these things, I’d also love to collaborate with other musicians, and see if I can start writing some soundtracks.