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Together with American Songwriter we had the pleasure of interviewing EVAN GIIA over Zoom video!
British producer Duskus’feel-goodremix of EVAN GIIA’s new single, “tiny life.” Duskus, praised by EDM.com for his “ability to craft emotional and forward-thinking anthems,” recently released his new EP, Rising. Listen to “tiny life” (Duskus Remix)HERE and view the visualizer HERE.
Worldwide fitness phenomenon Peleton gave fans a first listen to the remix earlier today. GIIA will be joining the spin class, instructed by Emma Lovewell, at 5:00 PM EST today from Peleton’s Madison Avenue showroom. During an Instagram Live with Lovewell at 6:00 PM ESTtoday, GIIA will discuss the remix, “tiny life” and herprevious career in fitness.
GIIA will perform “tiny life” and sit down for an interview with artist/producer/songwriter Schyler O’Neal as part of the GRAMMY Museum’s Spotlight Saturday series, which will be available for viewing on the GRAMMY Museum’s website on November 28. “tiny life,” which was heard in ESPN’s college football campaign, proved to be the biggest launch of GIIA’s career, amassing more first-week streams than the debuts of all her previous releases combined. In its premiere of “tiny life,” LADYGUNN noted, “[GIIA] keeps on churning out hip hop hits ready to dominate radio.” Read the interview HERE. View the official video for “tiny life”HERE.
A classically trained opera singer, Giia’s voice adds a distinctive touch to her electronic pop crossover sound. She made her recording debut on the MEMBA track “Heat of the Moment,” featuring alongside Hoosh. The song was named Single of the Week by BBC Radio 1. Released by ODESZA’S Foreign Family Collective in 2018, GIIA’s breakout single “WESTWORLD” and the accompanying music video propelled herto #1 on Hype Machine. Combined global streams of the song now exceed 20 million. Since the release of “WESTWORLD,” GIIA has been in sessions with Hudson Mohawke, Georgia Ku, Nate Campany, Kyle Shearer, Chris Lyon, RITUAL, OjiVolta, Kate Morgan, CHVRCHES, What So Not, Matias Mora and Larzz. Earmilk observed,“EVAN GIIA is the gutsy, barnstorming pop singer making quite a splash with her unique sonic panache and kinetic live persona.”
Every EVAN GIIA song is a pure exchange of energy, powerful enough to lift the darkest mood. Classically trained as an opera singer, the Brooklyn-based artist brings both raw passion and precision to her vocal performance, endlessly heightening the impact of her sculpted approach to electronic pop.
“I really want my music to get people out of their own heads,” says GIIA. “It’s a big theme in my live show too: being totally present in the room with me and letting the rest of the world melt away so you can move and dance and forgot about everything else for a while.”
Since breaking through with her hypnotic single “Westworld” (a #1 hit on Hype Machine, amassing millions of streams), GIIA has mesmerized audiences at major festivals like Coachella and shared stages with leading artists like ODESZA. With her most recent live experience including her first-ever headline tour and a run of dates with Louis The Child, she’s now set to deliver a series of singles further showcasing her stunning vocals and self-possessed songwriting.
Mostly recorded in her home studio with MEMBA—an up-and-coming production duo comprised of Will Curry and Ishaan Chaudhary (GIIA’s fiancée)—GIIA’s latest material includes songs like “Focus,” a soulful yet infectious reminder to turn your attention to the things in life that matter most. After sketching the song on her bathroom floor—her former favorite writing spot—GIIA joined forces with MEMBA to transform “Focus” from stripped-back ballad to sprawling epic. Layered with stacked vocals and lush synth lines, the resulting track ultimately builds a beautiful tension between its ethereal textures and hard-hitting beats.
Originally from outside Boston, she began training as an opera singer at the age of 7, eventually participating in a summer program at the prestigious Tanglewood Institute. With intentions of transitioning into the pop world, she later earned a degree in music business at the Berklee College of Music, then moved to New York City and landed a job as a secretary at an audio mastering studio. “I knew right away that it wasn’t what I was meant to be doing, but I ended up staying longer than I thought,” GIIA notes. After linking up with MEMBA, however, she began collaborating with the duo on an inventive hybrid of electronic music and pop, eventually posting her songs on SoundCloud and playing shows around New York. As she refined her sound even further, GIIA quit her job and fully devoted herself to music, soon earning serious buzz with “Westworld.” The track promptly caught the attention of ODESZA’S Foreign Family Collective, who released “Westworld” and invited GIIA to join ODESZA on an arena tour in 2018—an auspicious turn of events that paved the way for her signing to Astralwerks in summer 2019.
Making her Astralwerks debut with the September 2019 single “Encore,” GIIA next released “Sidelines”: a track whose video she co-directed herself, as is the case with each of her cinematically shot visuals. Filmed in a Brooklyn boxing ring, “Sidelines” also spotlights the tremendous passion for movement that informs all of GIIA’s work. To that end, she recently launched GIIA MOVE: a project that finds GIIA partnering with CycleBar franchises across the country to lead a cycling experience designed expressly for her fans. With each GIIA MOVE class coinciding with her tour dates, she aims to meld music and fitness in a way that’s both intuitive and undeniably fun. “I want to inspire people to get up and move and be healthy” says GIIA, who previously worked as a spin instructor and regularly posts workout playlists on SoundCloud and YouTube. “This is just the way I live my life, and now I’m asking everyone to come and join me in what I love to do.”
With so many eclectic projects now in the works, GIIA is especially thrilled to introduce her newly expanded live show, an elaborately realized event she created with the help of her brother/tour manager. (“This whole thing is a family affair me,” GIIA points out. “My parents and my other brother come to every single show, even in snowstorms—they’re always involved, and they always will be, which was the goal from the very beginning.”) In prepping for her 2020 live dates, she also resumed her vocal training in order to build the strength and stamina needed to tear through her one-hour set without any electronic enhancement.
“I don’t ever want my show to be so overly produced that people leave and feel like they have no sense of who I really am,” says GIIA. “A lot of the show’s me up there singing these big melodies and feeling the crowd screaming back at me, but I also built in these moments where the lights turn on and I’m just talking to everyone in a more intimate way. I’m the exact same person on stage and off the stage, and it’s really important for me to always show that.”
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