“Up until recently, I’ve always been in cover bands,” Viola says. “For the last couple of years I just decided I wanted to get out my own stuff. My music is basically adult contemporary, easy listening. It’s got some pop, blues, soul and light rock.”
Viola’s career began as a vocalist for a cover band after secondary school but sees her new all-original album as a platform to deliver her emotions to her audience through self-constructed lyrics and music. “It basically started when I left secondary school. I became a vocalist in a cover band and it just went from there,” Viola says. “I just got tired of doing covers and singing other people’s songs, and I thought, ‘I want the world to know about what I think.’”
Viola expresses her thoughts and emotions to the musical world in the form of a “raw” debut album that leaves the listener with a feeling of having looked through a portal into the life of Nesina Viola. “Basically, the songs, I suppose, are a bit autobiographical – based on my experiences and feelings, you know, heartbreak,” Viola says of her new album. “They’re pretty raw, honest-type of lyrics. It’s not really technologically-based, it’s more raw.”
The vocalist finds comfort and inspiration for her new album in the fact that she gets to sing about her own life and that people desire music that involves real-life experiences that allows them to feel the emotions of her life. “The fact that I get to sing my own stuff that reflects what’s going on in my life and that it’s personal to me, and that people actually appreciate that [inspires my work],” Viola says of her inspiration.
Viola sees her new music as an opportunity to once again focus on the artistic value of music at the expense of eliminating some of the pop-like influences found in her covers. “I’d say the songs are very personal and I’d say the material I write is sort of the material that a real musician would prefer,” Viola says. “What I’m saying is it’s not like Britney Spears, Madonna-type music. It’s real music.”
It’s not that Viola regrets singing cover songs, just that she wishes she would have realised earlier that there lies a demand for original songs from her instead of just covers. She attributes the ease of an audience being able to appreciate her music to her “easy-listening” musical genre. “I wish I would’ve done it from day one,” Viola says about creating her own music. “I never realised people would actually pay and come to listen to you regionally. I always thought you had to be on the radio and have massive exposure. In the past, I always thought it was a lot easier for crowds to listen to songs that they know but I’ve found that with my material – because it’s so easy listening and it’s adult contemporary, it’s not like heavy-metal or something really shocking – people can actually get accustomed to the groove and stuff like that.”
Fans and music aficionados can hear her at her upcoming show in Mornington, where she will be performing her new music as well as cover songs. “It’ll be a very intimate, laid-back atmosphere,” Viola says of her upcoming gig at Manton’s Creek Estate. “Easy-listening, smooth lyrics and grand food. It’s a winery in Mornington and Mother’s Day is a three-course meal and I’ll be providing music.”
BY CHRIS MCCLAIN
