Interview with Heyoka

What got you into music, and if you had not gotten into music what would you be doing today?

Well, I’d say it was a necessity, a way for me to express myself and outrun my shyness and introversion. That was a strong need to share with others what I couldn’t express with worlds. If I had not gotten into music, I’d probably have developed a career in the other activities that I’m currently doing now, but in background. Drawing, directing videos, teaching.

What do you like to do when you are not playing music and how does that influence your creativity?

Well I’m watching movies ore documentaries (mostly about space, I have to admit, but also about psychology and sociology). The audiovisual world is one of my best source of inspiration. I’m also teaching French in a secondary school, so the contact with the students can sometime be a source of inspiration. As a teacher, we’re in contact with adolescents. We sometime face their concerns, their doubts and it reminds me all that we all went through.

How long have you been making music?

Hmm, that’s a hard question to answer… Depends if we’re talking about concrete music projects or just playing music. For the first one I’d say I played my firsts concerts around 2018. A lot have changed since then. But this was the first time I was introducing and releasing my own songs.  For the second one, I started playing music at 9.

Where are you based out of and how did that influence your music?

I’m based out of Brussel, Belgium. I’d say that this is a really open-minded and multicultural city. It’s the capital of Europe, so there’s a lot of people passing by, each person with his or her different story. All these stories are also a source of inspiration.

Tell me about your most memorable shows, if you haven’t played live what is your vision for a live show?

Well, I could say it’s on a big stage, at the Reflektor (Liège, Belgium), or at a student festival in which I played, but strangely, my best show was in a bar, where I was playing last year. I went there with my sound engineer Astrid Buol. We played 45 minutes, the sound was perfect and I was finally released from the stress of technical stuff, so I could focus entirely on playing music.

What is your favorite venue to play at, and do you have any places you want to play that you have not already?

Hmm I’d say in every big stage with a good sound system. I’d be blessed to play at Palais 12, Forest National or at the AB (Brussels), wich are some really good stages. And of course I’d like to play in Canada and USA, that’d be kind of a dream to have an opportunity to play there !

If you could play any show with any lineup, who would be on the ticket?

Without hesitation, I’d put Bastille, Woodkid, Beirut on the line up and I’d like to share the stage with them!

What is some advice that you would give to someone who is just getting into making music and some advice that you would give to your younger self?

I’d tell them to enjoy the trip, to never focus too much on the numbers and to be consistent. I think consistency is the key. An advice that I’d give to myself is “dare to propose your music to others, dare to assume and try 100% percent, that won’t make you ridiculous, you’re good enough, you just need to work and to improve, but the sooner you dare and assume your passion, the quicker and the better you’ll learn”.

Of your songs which one means the most to you and why?

Hmm I’d say Flashlight. First of all because it’s the first song that I released as Heyoka. It’s the first song that got mixed and mastered professionally and released carefully. That’s also a song that I wrote and recorded in a few months only (yes that’s quick for me, I’m a slow composer). I think I needed to spit it out, I needed to share these emotions before they were too heavy to carry alone.

Which songs are your favorite to play and which get requested the most?

I haven’t performed a hundred live show, but I’d say as far as I can remember, Ghost has always been my favorite, coz everybody could sing with me on the intro. That’s always an incredible moment of sharing with the public. That’s also the one that got requested the most.

What is your creative process, and what inspires you to write your music?

I have not a single creative process. Most of the time I compose an instrumental from scratch and when it inspires me enough, I follow the flow and write the lyrics about what’s on my mind. Sometime, I get out of bet at 2am to turn on the piano to play some chords and improvise some lyrics. Other times I just write lyrics about what needs to get out of my mind, what needs to be shared and then I compose the instrumental.

What inspires me to write my music is what makes us, humans vulnerable. Human are really beautiful when they’re vulnerable. No beauty lies in perfection. We all are and always be fallible. Space is another source of inspiration to write, because that’s something that makes me feel vulnerable. Thinking we’re all walking on a blue sphere “floating” into the immensity of space makes us desperately vulnerable. Space and universe dynamics hide poetry in its most extreme form. The poetry of the vacuity of existence is deeply linked with our human emotions and need to pull a meaning out of it.

Do you have messages that you like to get across in your music, if so please tell me about them?

Yes, my main message is : let’s try to admit and embrace our vulnerability and assume it. Nobody’s perfect so what if we could take good note of it and finally assume it, try to improve but be kind to ourself and to each other a little more? Stop to walk around with armor and shields, ready to fight each other coz we can’t make peace with ourself.

What are your plans for the future, and do you have anything that you want to spotlight that is coming up?

So we’re working on a liveshow, I’d like to play more gigs, and be able to finance a second EP. Songs are ready and I can’t wait to share all of this with you!

How can your fans best keep up to date with you, any socials you want people to check out?

Of course. The main one is Instagram, that’s where I share the important stuff and the one that is the most up to date. It’s “ @heyokaoff “. I also have a website “ heyokamusic.com” where you can find all my work.