While the lyrics on Solya’s new “Queen of Texas” album are downright violent at times, her throwback vocal delivery set against an analog soundscape results in an overall dreamy and catchy collection. Expect the 20-year-old from west Texas to stay true to that sound when she performs live amidst the chandeliers at the Crystal Ballroom at Somerville Theatre on Sept. 2 as part of a 25-city North American tour that starts this week and has already chalked up sellouts at the first three venues.
I spoke with Solya via a video call following the U.K. portion of her tour and ahead of her trip to the east coast. She’s only played in the Boston area once before, as an opener at the Middle East in Cambridge about two years ago, though I suspect she’d be welcomed with open arms if she could score a gig someday at Wellesley College, which in recent years has hosted Muna and Chuwi for its spring concerts.
Love and danger, youth and mortality, and being seen vs. being alone are all recurring themes in Solya’s music. “Silver Swan,” off the new album, “is what my soul sounds like,” the singer has said.
Solya’s music is inspired by the types of artists her parents have enjoyed, from Patsy Cline to David Bowie. Bu its slight spookiness also reminds some of Julee Cruise, known for the theme music from “Twin Peaks,” the 1990s surrealist soap opera from David Lynch that I happen to be bingeing after never having watched it. Solya’s music has served as the perfect complement to that cult classic.
Asked if she finds inspiration for her music in any modern artists, Solya says not really. But she enjoys electronic music and rap for her own listening pleasure.
Solya made clear during our talk that those attending her show in Somerville should expect to hear the “Queen of Texas” come to life, performed similarly to what you hear on the album, with the same band she recorded it with on analog equipment in Texas (Danny Reisch produced the album and plays drums, Jason Chronis plays bass and lead guitar). Solya wrote the songs in just months and the album was recorded over 10 days.
Don’t expect Solya in concert to stretch out the sub-4-minute songs she’s released to date. Though the artist told me she is working on some longer songs as she becomes more confident in her song writing.
What will sound different live are her earliest songs, recorded at home in a decidedly modern bedroom pop approach (think Clairo or Conan Gray) that’s not at all old school in style. Those older numbers, like “Heaven” and “Roadkill, get reimagined with the full band treatment on the road.
Solya took an interest in music at an early age—learning piano and then guitar and synthesizers— though it was mastering music recording, editing, and mixing technology Pro Tools that allowed her to share her music with the masses. Her scientist dad, seeing Solya’s passion for music, learned Pro Tools and taught it to her.
Being a digital native, Solya succeeded in attracting an audience not just with her voice and songs, but with her social media skills—Instagram is where she first went viral after just posting every day.
“The virality was just me posting online, it just kind of happened, that was just organic…” she said. “There’s really no secret formula.”
Solya self-released her first EP in 2024, then was discovered by independent label Version III, which she worked with to release “Queen of Texas.
Solya Ava Lowe, who graduated a year early from high school and performs under her first name, recently wrapped up a UK tour that she acknowledges was both a blur and a lot of fun, between hanging with her bandmates and crew to chatting with fans and taking pictures with them at post-show meet-and-greets.
When I asked if I’d be the oldest person at her Somerville show if I attend (we started Swellesley four months before she was born…), Solya didn’t flinch before confirming that would probably be the case. Many of her fans are in the 12-20 age range, she said.
Though she has attracted a young crowd, they’ve embraced Solya’s modern take on an old-school sound. Solya has experimented with digital versions of her songs, but has always returned to the analog sound, which she assures the average person can recognize.
“It’s like the 70’s music. It’s so much warmer and richer sounding,” she says. “A lot of things these days are done just digitally, like through MIDI, and it just sounds so thin and sharp. It doesn’t have that same real feeling to it… MIDI’s not right. It’s not right. No.”
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