Exclusive Interview: Pop Culturalist Chats with Skandra

There are more and more ways to discover new artists today. If you’re one of the eight hundred and fifty million users on TikTok, you may have come across Skandra.

The gifted up-and-coming singer-songwriter was encouraged by her husband to share the hard work that she’s put into not only her career but her new single, “Rivers.” Within days, that video went viral, amassing over nineteen million views.

Pop Culturalist had the pleasure of chatting with Skandra about that milestone, all the new music she has on the way, and how she’s using her platform to speak to the world.

PC: How did you discover your passion for music?
Skandra: I always loved music from a young age. I started playing piano when I was four or five years old. But I had lost a loved one to overdose and I learned how to write songs and the theory behind it. I actually sat down and wrote a song about my feelings. From that moment on, I fell in love with the therapeutic value of that. I have not stopped writing songs since.

PC: When you look at your career, who or what has had the biggest influence on your career?
Skandra: That’s a good question. I have to thank my parents because they’ve always been so supportive of my dreams or delusions. [laughs] They always let me dream and they let me pursue those dreams, no matter what. That has been quite a motivation for me to keep doing it.

PC: You’ve been touring the world since you were fifteen and working on film scores and albums for other artists. What’s the biggest lesson you learned from those experiences that you’ve been able to apply to this next chapter in your career?
Skandra: I think it’s been finding my voice and finding what I do love without the expectation of others. It’s been finding the integrity in my art and what I want to make and what makes me happy making it.

PC: This industry has changed a lot and there are more and more ways for artists to be discovered. Can you share a bit about your own personal experience with TikTok?
Skandra: I wasn’t very fond of TikTok until my husband. I was planning on releasing the Skandra songs in March and doing a release show in Los Angeles. I had all these plans for the year, and then I had to cancel them. I held off on releasing the songs. Then once I started doing so, my husband said, “Well, why don’t we just tell the world what we did and how much work we put into this and how much it matters to you?” He made a TikTok video, and it got over nineteen million views. It got me two million streams across all platforms very quickly. It changed my life. It gave me a fan base, and it gave me actually a very amazing foundation to work off from there as a musician.

PC: Tell us about “Rivers” and the inspiration behind the song.
Skandra: “Rivers” is a song that I wrote on acoustic guitar in 2015. It was a long poem over two chords. It was a very simple acoustic song. I ended up showing it to my friend Aaron Domingo from Twin Oaks. He basically expanded the song into a shorter format with me. Then my friend Sean Friday from Dead Sara in Los Angeles, he ended up producing it into a sad dance song. It went through this whole progression and I fell in love with the sound because I got to use all my vintage synthesizers and all these old Casio drums and stuff that I obsess over. By the end of it, I was like, “All right. I found my sound. This is what I want to do. I want to do it. I want all the songs to live in this sonic universe.” The song is really about reflecting on a toxic relationship and admitting that’s what it is to myself.

PC: You’re getting ready to release a larger body of work. What can fans expect?
Skandra: I want to release singles even if there’s an album ready. I want to release a few singles first. I do want the whole body of work to be cohesive and have the same storyline. I plan on releasing a series of three videos and three singles in early 2021. They all go together. They’re all part of the same story.

PC: If you had to choose one of your songs that best encompasses who you are as an artist, what would it be and why?
Skandra: I think of the ones that I’ve released so far, it has to be “Ashes.” I say that because the last line of the song is “I’m a girl with all these dreams. And if you give me a match, you’d expect a flame. I hope the whole world becomes covered in the ashes.” That’s really a metaphor for me rising above anything that I’ve gone through to hopefully speak to the world. It really is my proclamation of doing so and my promise to myself that I’m going to blow up. It’s my anthem at the moment.

Pop Culturalist Speed Round

PC: A band or artist that fans would be surprised to learn is on your playlist?
Skandra: I love an artist named Alice Boman. She makes these songs that are mostly her and her piano. They ended up using a lot of her music in Transparent, which got me really excited because it gave her a lot of exposure. I appreciate her songwriting, tone, lyrics, and the way she performs. She’s so humble and gorgeous.

PC: First album you bought?
Skandra: It was a cassette tape, and it was Carole King’s Tapestry. It was my favorite album. It was my only album for many years. I used to make dances up to it.

PC: First concert you attended?
Skandra: Third Eye Blind. My brother was obsessed with their self-titled album, and I was forced to listen to it on the way to school every day. Then I fell in love with it. I actually really love that album. They were playing a concert at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles. I had my best friend go with me, and I had my mom drop us off. It was the first concert I wanted that quintessential moment. I was like, “I want to go backstage.” Somehow two twelve-years-old convinced the guard to let us into the backstage area.

PC: An album that changed your life and why?
Skandra: There’s this album that came out. It was like 2013 or something. It was by Youth Lagoon. It’s called The Year of Hibernation, and that album changed my life because he recorded all of these songs in his bedroom. He got signed to one of my favorite labels, an indie label in the US called Fat Possum. That album blew up. It’s an album that you would never expect to succeed in the sense of the way it’s recorded. It’s very underproduced and pretty lo-fi. He did these things and took all his vocals and played them through 1970s speakers and then mic’d the speakers to get this effect.

Lyrically and sonically, it spoke to me. I’ve probably listened to it like a thousand times at this point. I always go back to it as a reference. I think it’s so raw, honest, and beautiful. He actually stopped making music, weirdly enough. But I’ll always hold on to that album. It’s in a special place in my heart.

PC: A venue that’s on your bucket list to perform at?
Skandra: Greek Theatre.

PC: A must-have on the road?
Skandra: I have to have some yerba mate.

To keep up with Skandra, follow her on Twitter, Instagram, and Spotify. Listen to “Rivers” today.

Photo Credit: Anna Azarov