Vela - Moments

The intro to Vela’s debut album “Moments” starts with her raw voice, almost like she’s testing it out. It doesn’t sound like much, but it’s followed by a cleaner take in a higher register, like an echo of herself from the future. The voices multiply and come together until they form a whole, who she is now.

You might have heard this kind of story before, a girl with big dreams from a small town who makes a momentous decision to move to the capital city in order to make it. Most of the time, we only hear the good parts, from the stars whose success was almost pre-ordained due to precocious talent, marketability, or connections. And for every one of Aimyon, Miwa, or Miu Sakamoto, there are thousands who never succeed. Fortunately, the democratization of music allows anyone to give it a try, and it means we can hear the voices of people other than those the major labels show you.

“Moments” chronicles Vela’s first few years from starting out in her home town of Osaka and eventually making the move to Tokyo. It’s like a photo album of shots from her memories, a musical documentation of this journey. Unlike those who have only known success and praise, Vela talks of self doubt and trying to convince herself that everything’s going to work out. She observes that there are those who are loved no matter what they do, and those who aren’t loved despite all they do - she understands she’s in the latter camp. So she sings to herself things like “I’ve got to treasure my life”, “I am me, and I’m irreplaceable”, which are positive sentiments that easily resonate with anyone who’s ever struggled to be noticed or popular. She tries to encourage herself to keep going, to grow and change despite being hurt much in the past by words.

The other main theme of the album is chasing her dream of becoming a musician. In “Interlude - City”, she talks about coming to terms with her decision in detail, and her emotion and struggle is conveyed not just in the lyrics but also the performance, with just an acoustic guitar for accompaniment, recorded in a space like a bedroom. You can hear her breathe and try hard to get the words out, and even her sniffling. It’s something that’s so real and convincing, which you don’t hear in the ultra shiny pop of the charts. The interlude is followed up by “Tipsy”, which sounds like she’s had a few drinks to numb the pain of saying goodbye, and also again try to convince herself in a kind of drunken ramble that choosing a difficult path is fine - not to worry if you don’t have any self confidence, and that a smooth easy life is boring. Again you can hear that uncertainty and squaring dreams with reality. It’s really brave to wear your heart on your sleeve like that and the honesty is refreshing in today’s world.

Admittedly, this kind of content might be boring if the whole thing was performed by a typical singer-songwriter strumming away on an acoustic guitar. But on “Moments”, each track was made by a different producer, including Sozen Otsubo of her original group BL4CK PEARL, SunaoSystem, EXPCTR, and wunderkind Kota Matsukawa, who of course provides the trendy alternative R&B vibes on “Voice”. This variety of sounds and styles makes “Moments” much more interesting to listen to, and creates different backgrounds for the lyrical imagery. As for her singing, Vela isn’t a diva, rather her strength lies in her sense of rhythm and phrasing, which means she has more in common with conscious rappers and soul music. This results in more creative opportunities by layering or manipulating her vocals to make diverse content instead of mainstream pop.

The final track of the album perhaps best demonstrates her songwriting and potential. When people write songs about Tokyo, a lot of the time they fail to capture the spirit of the city, maybe because they’re just trying to be cool or make a buck and all they end up doing is name dropping Tokyo. But Vela manages to make a song that’s all about Tokyo without using the name of the city even once. The song is about the overnight bus journey from Osaka bound for Tokyo, and she expresses how much she misses those she left behind, her struggle with everything, and though her dreams might be falling apart, to keep working and shouting to make it come true. The pulsing rhythm of the music reflects the swaying bus, accelerating through the night to its final destination, full of promise yet fraught with uncertainty. That is the real Tokyo, the real feeling of leaving it all behind in search of a fantastic dream that can’t be achieved anywhere else. Sure, there are other songs about Tokyo and overnight buses, but Vela’s is the real deal. And here on “Tokyo” as the conclusion of this chapter, you will hear the finished melody and vocals from the intro again, as not the end but a new beginning, as living proof of a concept. 

There are absolutely no guarantees whether Vela will succeed or achieve her dream, but “Moments” is a precious record of a young girl’s impassioned reach for the brightest of lights. The universe is full of stars, and Vela may never be the most noticeable, but she’s out there shining in her own way. You just have to look.