Meet Bella Joy | Singer, Song-writer, producer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Bella Joy and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Bella, what inspires you?
I wrote “Only You” during the pandemic when I was living in Barcelona. The curfew there was pretty tough, we could only leave the apartment to go to the closest grocery store or to the closest drugstore, if necessary. I was feeling very powerless, because I had just decided I wanted to be a singer for less than a year at that point, and then the pandemic came… I felt very lost about what to do with my life.
I was thinking of how many people around the world had their plans ruined by the pandemic. I’ve always been my best friend and the person who gives advices to the people around me, so I wanted to put into a song the things I was telling myself everyday to go through those endless days. I always see a positive side in every situation, I always tell myself it’s going to be alright and that I should keep on going and give my best every day, so I really wanted the world to hear this message through my song. The pandemic inspired me to try to give the best message I can to as many people as possible.
Even though the initial reason I wrote this song was the pandemic, it’s a general encouraging and motivating message to everyone in the different phases of their lives. The idea of being able to give a positive impact to someone’s day or even someone’s life is really inspiring to me.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Making the decision of releasing my first single “Only You” wasn’t a fast process. Let’s give it a little throwback:
I decided I wanted to pursue the singer career back in July 2019, in Barcelona. That summer was the very first time I wrote a song, the first time I went to a music studio and recorded covers, original songs, made part of different projects. I felt so fulfilled, I felt that that was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. However, the music industry is not something you can study in the university like other careers. There is no major or specific formula to know how to turn your ideas into an actual song. It’s also very hard to find music producers that will understand the sound that you’re looking for if you don’t have a demo, which I didn’t have a that time.
When the pandemic was announced I got a bad feeling, so I ordered some home studio equipment and figured out how to record covers and mix them a little bit during the first days of the curfew. After learning how to use the microphone, I decided to use the midi. I regret not looking for tutorials, I had a bit of a hard time in the beginning, but after about 3 days I made my very first full instrumental with the midi, and recorded an English cover of a Spanish song called “Ahora Que Te Vas”. I remade all the instrumental in a higher key and translated the song to English.
And finally, after this first cover fully produced by me, I wrote and produced the very first Bella Joy song: “Only You”. The first version was written in Spanish and since it was all made with the midi, it was a piano version. The vibe and beat was very pop, but I thought I could make a better version with the guitar, so I worked with other musicians to make this new pop/rock version. This was a very stressful process, since I knew exactly what kind of sound I wanted to achieve.
When I finally got the mix of the song I was so frustrated because I had spent so much time and money that I was saving to get nothing more than an average quality. I didn’t hate it, but I knew it could be way better. So I listened to my heart and didn’t publish it.
In LA everything feels different. I’ve showed my song to a couple of people here and they all seemed to love it. This gave me motivation, and made me think “Why not get a new and better mix and record a music video here?”. So recently I met some really talented people that were working with me on this audiovisual project, and I was finally able to take a first step as an independent artist.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?

First of all, I’d love to give a shoutout to the mixing and mastering engineer Subgroover, the talented filmmaker Efekan Yildiz, as well as the amazing photographer Jeong Ho-In.

Also, I love the Korean culture. I love the country, the cultural customs, the people, the beautiful landscapes and of course the art. The Korean art is something that saved me from really depressing and sad days. It encouraged me to keep on going, to remember that there are many good people in the world. Their talent brought me so much joy, seeing their art through movies, choreographies, songs, series, gave me strength to keep on going during hopeless times.

So even if they’re all really famous, I want to thank artists such as Park Hyo Shin, Roy Kim, B.I., Glen Check, Gaho, Sung Si-Kyung, Big Bang, Baek Yerin and many others for being so inspiring! And of course, as you all might have guessed: BTS.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bellaa_joy/?hl=en

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9IJCwtAXmeLSj4zX27SaUg

Image Credits
Andrea Soro Jeong Ho In