Liya can’t help but being in love, and you’ll feel the same when you hear her new single “stupid for your love.” The Bulgarian-born singer from Boston has a passion for writing fun and meaningful songs, and her latest effort brings both forces together for one epic love letter!
Here’s Liya and I’s chat about her journey, making a killer song, self care, and everything in between.
Hi Liya, how’s it going?
I’m good, very good. How are you doing? Good morning!
Good morning, yes! I’m craving waffles honestly.
Are you gonna get some? What kind of candy were you getting when you responded to me?
(Context: Liya reached out to me for the interview when I was at Walmart in search of leftover Christmas candy.)
Oh yeah! So I got these… I think they were Jolly Rancher candy canes, and I only got two. They really didn’t have much candy left over, so I was disappointed.
That is disappointing!
I know. I also got those charcuterie kits, and it came with a little bit of sausage, cheese, and some mustard. That was the main thing I was trying to get, but I was very disappointed about the candy. Then you hit me up, I was trying to listen to the song in the middle of Walmart, and when I listened to it I was like, I LOVE THIS! This totally just made up for the disappointment!
Aww, thank you!
But before we dive into that, I want to hear more about your background. I know you grew up around musicians, and I think that’s interesting! How was that whole situation like?
It was great! I was very happy that I grew up around musicians. My grandfather was a musician, my uncle was a musician, my cousin was a musician – and he has a studio in Bulgaria. I even have cousins and an aunt in Australia who are musicians. A big part of my dad’s side of the family (if not almost all of them) are musicians, and I’m very grateful for that. They helped reinforce the idea that music can be a career! It can be a path in your life that its okay to take. At the same time, it had its tough moments because being around serious musicians means if you’re gonna do it, you’re gonna do it right… right?
I may or may not have gotten a few slaps around the wrists when I played something wrong… but it’s like, growing up in the early 00’s having strict musicians as grandparents, I think I had a good upbringing. I love that I was brought into music, and my cousin and I still get together and record stuff. My grandfather played the piano, flute, and saxophone, so there was always music around. I grew up in Bulgaria too, and moved to Boston when I was 18.
Dang. So I bet when you were very very young, you must have started playing different instruments.
I started playing piano! Piano was my main instrument… and voice. I tried to pick up guitar, but every time I tried to do it, something happens and I never come back to it. I want to pick up guitar as well!
I totally felt that about picking something up, going oh my, I love this, and then a few seconds later going.. hold up… no…
I get obsessed when I start playing guitar, and I get super obsessive. I’ll play for the whole day. The first time I had to go on vacation, so I had to leave it. When I came back, I was like meh. I have to pick it up though… maybe that can be my New Year’s resolution.
Maybe! But what made you gravitate more towards singing? There had to be something that made you realize it’s your thing!
I’ve always known I wanted to be a singer and performer. My earliest memories of myself are me with a hairbrush in front of a mirror being a little popstar wannabe. I remember watching Christina Aguilera thinking that’s all I wanted to be when I grew up, or watching Whitney Houston… people like that with big voices. I remember listening to them and knowing that’s what I wanted to do. Piano for me was just a bonus. It’s great because I write on keyboard, and it helps me! But I always wanted to sing, dance, and jump around on a stage.
How old were you when you started writing your first songs?
I started putting words together when I was quite young. I wouldn’t call them songs or full poems, but I was experimenting with writing when I was maybe 6 or 7. I slowly started writing longer things that turned into music, but I guess I really started committing to songwriting in my early college days.
What was your major when you were at Berklee?
I was doing pro music, which is professional music. In that major, you focus on a lot of things… my focus was songwriting, performance, and music business.
Wow! So you were like, let me go be a well-rounded queen.
Yes! That’s literally what I wanted. I could’ve picked one of the three to just focus on, and it would’ve been great. But I realized I wanted to leave a little more well-rounded.
Totally. There’s a lot of value in that too, you know? I think it’s important to know about different aspects of the industry, especially because you don’t really want to go into something blind.
Yes, 100%. I also learned that college is an essential part. I’m very grateful that I got to go to Berklee, and I don’t think I’d be anywhere near where I’m at today without it. It was definitely an essential part of my career and life, but it’s also a small part. It’s only four years, but you learn a lot when you fully go into creating and performing and all that. I think the college days were incredible for me to learn, but after that was when a lot of learning happened as well!
I’m assuming you started your artist project while you were in school?
Yeah! It was fun, but now thinking about it, I didn’t give myself enough time. I felt like I had to do a lot in very little time. I’m still okay with everything that I did, because it’s part of who I am and a part of my journey. But now I spend a lot of time on songs. It takes me longer to record and produce stuff, and I really like to dive in and perfect things.
What are some of the things you do to de-stress?
I like self-care. I like a nice face mask or a hair mask. I like to take time on my nightly skin routine, have a cocktail, oh and I also watch True Crime. Maybe that’s a little weird for de-stressing because I do get a little stressed, but I really do like to put on a True Crime show, have a cocktail and put on a face mask. Sometimes I get scared if I’m in the apartment alone.
It’s okay!
How do you self-care?
I de-stress by working on crafts! I also like doing scrapbooks.
Is it hard?
If you’re a perfectionist like me, yes. But it’s like the good kind of stress, if you know what I mean. I’m sure you’ve experienced some of that through your career.
Yes. Sometimes you get stressed about all the things you have to do, but then you realize it’s like… that kind of stress, I almost feel grateful for being stressed because that’s what I get to be stressed about? I love it! I would take it any day… being stressed about how many gigs I have? Bring it on.
I’m really glad you’re being open about this though.
It’s not healthy to make yourself believe you’re not stressed, like it’s okay to get a little overwhelmed… as long as you know how to manage it and pull yourself together. Something I remind myself is, nothing is really that big of a deal. You just have to enjoy it, live in the moment, work hard and you’re going to pass by all of that in life.
Now it’s time for the really nitty gritty. You have a song called “Stupid For Your Love.” Let’s talk about how that came together! Stupid for who’s love? Hmm… hmmmm?
My partner! I’ve been with my boyfriend… we’re about to have our 10 year anniversary. Can you believe that?
Oh my goodness! That’s awesome! Congratulations.
Yeah, thank you! The song comes out on our anniversary month. I was really feeling writing a sexy song that explores the feeling of love sonically, through hard beats and rhythms, which me and Chengcheng (Troy) picked when we were listening to Bulgarian folklore music. We just wanted to express the feeling of love sonically. I wanted to write something that is for my boyfriend, because I’m still very much in love with him after so many years. It honestly doesn’t feel that long, time just passes by so quickly.
I also put the bridges in Bulgarian, because I thought it would be even more sentimental to add. He’s also Bulgarian like me in our mother tongue, and I also wanted to get closer to my roots and show America the beauty of the Bulgarian voice. It’s a very special song for me.
I want to represent our country to worldwide listeners who don’t understand Bulgarian, and I want to make my country proud! I also want to show people in the United States how beautiful the language is. It’s a very musical language, and I hope I did justice with the song. I personally love the song, I love the bridge, and every time I sing it I feel closer to home.
Awww, that makes me so happy!
I’m so happy you like it!
I’m gonna keep that in mind for Valentine’s Day. It’ll be on the playlist.
Yay!
Now… I’m going to ask you a few fun things. I want you to come up with a performance concept for this song. You’re on stage… pick a venue, any venue. Okay, I’m gonna pick one for you.
Yes, thank you!
Madison Square Garden. You have a bigggg stage, and you’re gonna come out on stage and sing “Stupid For Your Love.” This is gonna be your opening song. What are we gonna see besides you singing? Fire? Fog? What would you be wearing?
Did you see my outfit? My heart shaped outfit?
YESSSSS! I loved it by the way.
So. Madison Square Garden. It’s all dark. I’m in the middle of the stage, but you can’t see me because it’s so dark. There’s one little beam of light, and I’m wearing the big heart-shaped thing. I sing an acoustic intro to the song, and some background dancers in all shiny clothes come and take it off me. I’m wearing the most gorgeous one-piece with sparkles everywhere… do you envision that?
YES.
And then… oh my, imagine that… someone puts me in the air. My little P!NK moment. There’s drums with a hard beat to sound like a heartbeat, and then the song begins.
Ahhh, that sounds so epic!
Then the curtains pull up, and there’s a lot of musicians. I imagine a big instrumental intro, then drums like a heartbeat, and the song begins. Would you come?
I would buy a front row ticket off a scalper.
Madison Square Garden, I’m manifesting it!
Honestly though, that would be so cool. What are some of your favorite things about performing?
Connecting with people! Having fun with people, or being emotional with people. I like sitting down on the ground on an emotional song and being close to people I love, but also jumping around and partying and feeding off people’s energy. Really that connection you get, that connection music brings that nothing else can. The language doesn’t matter, people understand music because it’s in our hearts. It’s something that is unmatched.
Even though I love every kind of art form, I think music is special.
Period.
Period.
Listen to “stupid for your love” below!
