[HITC 2022 INTERVIEW] ‘Vibin’ With Ylona Garcia

Ylona Garcia is a Filipino-Australian singer-songwriter who became widely known as she joined the 88rising sphere. She made her breakthrough in the Philippines in 2015 when she became a part of the television series Pinoy Big Brother. Since then, Ylona is seen consistently releasing music and is now working internationally through 88rising.

The singer-songwriter joined HypnoticAsia at the Head in the Clouds festival on August 21st shortly after her performance. Her set included many of her hit tracks so stay tuned for our full festival coverage!

Ylona Talks Los Angeles, Food, and more

In August 2020, Ylona announced that she officially resides in Los Angeles, CA. She revealed that she loves the weather (mentioning that it is similar to Sydney, Australia, where she was born). The food isn’t as agreeable with her sadly but she’s trying new things still! The artist stated she does love Jollibee though which is familiar to her from her time of living in the Philippines during her teens. Ylona revealed that it is similar in taste but not quite the same. The food chain is a top choice when craving fried chicken!

Working With Musically-Talented Individuals

As she continued to discuss the individuals she is working with, Ylona said she realized while working with them that creating music for her is fun, as should be for everyone. “It’s an experience to be able to express yourself, express how you feel, express what you went through, and be proud of it.”

As one of her goals, she personally wants to be able to inspire people and, “fire people up to be better because if I’m able to like do that for people, it inspires me to go even harder”. She started her career in the Philippines at the age of 13 and feels that she has a responsibility now over the hearts and minds of fans. She says, “I really, really take that seriously now, to be able to do that for people and to be able to take care of them, it pushes me to do that more for myself”. Ylona mentions that one wouldn’t know how to truly take care of others if they don’t know how to do that for themself.

Influences

When asked about her influences she said, “My influences are myself!” The artist elaborated by saying she has surrounded herself with friends that really inspire her. Ylona reveals she has heard the phrase, you’re 70 or 85% of the people you surround yourself with and she takes that very seriously. “I really take it upon myself to surround myself with people that want to make me grow, and work as hard as I can every day on myself and my music.”

Musically, her influences include Christina Aguilera, her top idol, then Michael Jackson, Selena Gomez, Kehlani, as well as, Dua Lipa. She also mentioned NIKI! Unfortunately, she didn’t have the chance to meet her as NIKI revealed she had COVID and was unable to make her set at Head In The Clouds this year. She loves her music and thinks she has amazing songwriting skills. Hopefully they’ll be able to meet soon!

Ylona Wishes To Collaborate

As we chatted about NIKI, Ylona revealed she is hoping to see and even collaborate with her one day. We started discussing the festival lineup soon after. She announced that she unfortunately wasn’t able to see Joji’s perform on the first day of the festival, but she was excited to see Rich Brian’s set. Rich Brian is an artist she’d also want to collaborate with. He is a, “dope rapper that’s very funny” according to Ylona. She’d also like to collaborate with Saweetie who was on last year’s festival lineup. Ylona says it is because Saweetie has a sass that she admires.

Her Music!

We asked the young artist for a few song recommendations if people wanted to get to know her music better. She recommends everyone to listen to:

• “Entertain Me”
• “Vibin'”
• “All That”
• “Space”
• “Don’t Go Changing”

The talented Ylona also discussed how unique her name is so adding, “Prelude Intro (My Name is Ylona Garcia)” to the list which she wrote when she was just 13! Through the track, the singer pronounces her name for everyone who ever saw it and wondered what the proper way to say it was.

As self-described, she’s very quirky and unpredictable but also can be very calm and shy. “High and low vibrational energy. Two different parts of the sphere. Two different sides of the coin,” she described.

Message To Fans

It was revealed by Ylona that her performance of “Don’t Go Changing” at the festival included a little montage video in the beginning where she asked her fans to send videos. She wanted to play them on the big screens just to show her appreciation as they have been with her for five years.

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