Erin Vadala’s “Robots” Proves She is Anything But In Conversation with the Singer/Songwriter About Her Latest Single
ERIN VADALA IS NOT A ROBOT - Despite her perfect pitch, programmatic perfectionism and skilled songwriting, her music is anything but algorithm generated. An expression of her emotional toolkit, to Vadala, songwriting is a means to tap into humanity, exploring her inner world and its echoes outside of herself.
"On her latest single “Robots,” the 21-year-old singer-songwriter is finding her own voice, through the perspective of others. Somewhere between the funk-indie fusion of her contemporaries and the lyrical savvy of singer-songwriters past, Vadala’s sound is strikingly unique."
In a softly lit apartment in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston, not too far from where Vadala was raised, we open a bottle of red wine and a tub of red salsa, “they pair well,” Vadala jokes. Tonight, she is uncharacteristically soft-spoken and characteristically quick-witted. As someone who communicates so freely through music, in speech, her laugh chimes in like a melody in moments of silence.
Formerly the front-woman of the brother-sister band: Erin Vadala and Her Brother Charles Vadala and Their Band, today’s single is part of a larger, deeply personal project of Vadala’s. Her previous single “Water, pt. 2,” of which there is no part 1, is a perfect example of Vadala’s music style–specific and symbolic in some moments, and universally simple in others. “It has some meanings that are hidden to me. And then some meanings that you could discern if you study a lyric, which I don't imagine many people do. And then it has some really accessible moments. Like 'I'm not over it" at its core, feels universally relatable for people across experiences.”
As her music becomes more personal, she’s taken on a larger role in how it's made. “The project that I'm releasing now is even more personal to me. It has a lot to do with being a woman, with being confused about my relationships and experiences as a woman,” Vadala shared, explaining how her process of creation has shifted to form something new on her own, though Charles is still involved and supportive.
In her first year at college, Vadala had a nonconsensual sexual experience, “but it wasn't as black and white as a lot of nonconsensual experiences that are depicted in the media. So I didn't know how to navigate it. Each song in the project is processing a different relationship, a different person that was important to me at that time.”
Drawing on her experience with songwriting as a form of healing, and expression of sticky, uncertain feelings, writing songs about that time in her life became an act of catharsis.
“Music as a healing tool makes me feel confident. It's incredible how sometimes when you speak something, it’s not enough to express a feeling, and then when you can turn it into a song, it being enough, because I think that poetry and harmony and all these other elements of music can turn a concept into something that's greater than just the words within that concept, and fully flesh out the feeling that like needed to be expressed. It's the coolest thing ever.”
Exploring Vadala’s experience through the people who shared that moment in time with her– one through the perspective of her best friend, one around the loss of a friend who didn’t believe her, today’s aptly-named single “Robots’ about “men in general.” Her own voice comes through in the delivery of the songs themselves, but also the agency of her first solo project.
Still collaborating with Charles, along with producer Lorenzo Taddei, Vadala has had to learn the responsibility that comes with individuality in her creative pursuits but is moving away from precision and towards expression. “ I know how to connect myself and help other people connect to the expressive power of music. But music is also something that has a lot of skill involved in it. And it can be really intimidating to have to be really skilled at something in order for the way that you're emotionally expressing yourself to be, considered valid enough. And that makes me feel self-conscious. But not always.”
At her most confident, Vadala is sharing herself, and her music with the people who shape it–which is everyone. Vadala’s shows are charged with welcoming and uninhibited energy; the crowd is made up of familiar faces of her friends and family, and newcomers touched by her undeniable on-stage charisma.
“I love performing, I think that you can work through this super broad range of emotions, and do it really genuinely, and really connect with people. So I've had people cry at live performances in a way that I think is nice, like, sometimes people need to cry. And you don't need perfection as much in my performances, you can just let loose. And that's one of my strengths: to be really genuine and connected.”
We finish the wine, and the chips, but not the salsa, and sing impromptu songs about airports and talk through her plans to move to LA in May for an internship in music therapy at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.
“It's like such an incredible, incredible feeling to write a song with someone who's not really a musician that expresses something for them, or sing a song with a group of people that I can really, genuinely help the group feel empowered and connected to each other in a way that might not have otherwise been possible.”
For Vadala, music is a chance to explore the impossible, making real intangible futures and making right past wrongs. By working on a song, Vadala is working on herself, and by sharing her music, she invites listeners to share in the pain, joy, and community music can conjure.
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