INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY BECKHAM ROCK ☆
JVNA USES HER STORYTELLING TALENTS TO GO BACK TO THE BEGINNING—on her newly released EP, Violet Genesis, released on Oct. 16. The multi-instrumentalist got her start from a young age, studying classical piano at six. She further honed her musical prowess at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music where she explored film and game scoring. Throughout her music career, JVNA has used this combination of technical skill and a knack for inventing new worlds and narratives to connect with listeners.
After exploring many eras and styles of herself and her music, she returns to her roots on Violet Genesis. JVNA revisits her original sound after refining her craft over the years. It’s a sound she’s expressed feeling most connected to, one that showcases her most authentic side. The EP takes us through five tracks of melodic base and heavy sound design. Each track has an undercurrent of the divine sounds often seen in anime and video game soundtracks. The strong foundation of the electronic beats make for a powerful tracklist geared to leave listeners with a euphoric sense of hope.
A passion for narrative arcs is evident in both JVNA taking her story back to the start as well as the EP’s tracks having a clear story being told as each one flows together. The tracks evolve with one another, starting with an energetic opening synonymous with an anime opening theme. From there, listeners are taken through a cinematic score and a rollercoaster of emotions before closing out with a note of optimism on the final track.
Read the full conversation below as JVNA unpacks her journey with production, nostalgia and retracing who she once was.
LUNA: For our readers who aren’t familiar with your work, how would you describe your sound and inspirations?
JVNA: My sound for this EP is heavily inspired by JRPG soundtracks, anime OSTs and classic melodic bass. It’s the sound I started with when I first fell in love with EDM, and I decided to come back to it with a new “remastered” vision.
LUNA: What was it like returning to your original sound with notes of anime and video game scoring all these years later after having developed so much as an artist?
JVNA: It felt like coming home to my “core essence” of who I was and realizing that I’m still the same but evolved in a different way musically. It was fun because I feel like there were things I wasn’t necessarily strong at when I first started with this sound, and now I’m coming back to all of it with a new confidence.
LUNA: Going off of that, you’ve noted your original sound as “hopeful, ethereal and nostalgic.” In what ways did returning to this create a nostalgia in it of itself for when you were first starting out as an artist? What’s different for you now compared to back then?
JVNA: I think that over the years I've dabbled in different styles with electronic music and also pop production and pop songwriting. Whereas, in the beginning, I came from a film/game score and classical composition background. Now I’m able to blend all of it together and take my OG sound to the next level.
LUNA: What is the creative process around your impressively unique and complex sound design? Do you tend to craft the backing sounds and beats first, the lyrics first, or a mix of both?
JVNA: With this album I focused more on the production composition first—crafting a cinematic fantasy type world, and then built my toplines over them. My last step is completing the final production and then figuring out the lyrics.
LUNA: “Gravity,” released on Sep. 18, is both the single chosen to release ahead of the EP as well as the album closer. When going about structuring an album and deciding which single to release first, what stood out about “Gravity” to fill both those slots?
JVNA: I felt like “Gravity” was a very hopeful and happy song especially since it was written for someone I love in my life. I also felt like it had the strongest songwriting in the entire EP and thought it was a perfect closer.
LUNA: Often in OSTs and video-game-scores, the placement of each song is intentional to the story being told. What is the narrative arc of this EP and how did you land on the placement of each track as it unfolds?
JVNA: I chose “Digital Ghost” as the opener because the beginning of the song reminded me of an anime opening with the strong thematic strings and pulsing 4/4 drums. Then the tracks get a bit sad, and evolve to a happier place which I felt was a good flow.
LUNA: What’s next for you after the release of Violet Genesis?
JVNA: I’m not sure—maybe I’ll become a full on vocaloid character.
