Heema Izzati

Heema Izzati has always had a deep passion for music, coming from a family where music was a central part of life. Her siblings were trained in classical music, and her mother had vocal training, so she had constant exposure. A "normal elite school kid" by her own account, Heema was fortunate to have been introduced to music - a competitive cellist and played on stage -  at a very young age. That's when she realized just how much power a melody could have over someone's mood - and that it was a passion she couldn't stop doing.

Heema's songwriting began as a process of exploration. As a young songwriter, she needed to experiment with things to discover what worked best as a body of art, with her upcoming EP going by this concept. In the past, she started with a melody she liked and built lyrics around it. Now, she's found that she writes with an idea in mind, mostly perceiving music to be a reflection of life and self-discovery. Her songwriting process now consists of sitting down with her guitar or piano, reflecting on concepts that resonate with her thoughts and writing down key words. Overall, her writing process and style have evolved and grown over time.

Heema would describe her sound to be very genre blending due to the backgrounds in her music, and having a large vocabulary of sounds. However, her sound has definitely changed too, starting in classic orchestra, being in an acapella group in secondary school as well as a rock band. With all these influences, she describes all these genres to come together like characteristics. Regardless, if she had to depict one genre, it would be folk, which her lyrics revolve around.

Heema's personal favourite song she's written is called "Foreigner", which is a single we can look forward to coming out on 21st March. It's about the human act of feeling alienated from your own mind, talking about her struggles with anxiety and health issues she was dealing with last year. "Foreigner" is also a part of her upcoming EP, which consists of five songs which talk about the big changes she went through in her life.

As for live performances, Heema started out doing singing covers, making sure her covers always resonated with where she was, bringing her audience through a journey of growth. As she was in her early teenage years when she started, she liked to show the change in the environment. Now, she does original music, believing that the main thing is showing how authentic she is on stage, speaking her truth as boldly and unapologetically as possible.

To grow her reach, Heema uses social media as her resume and portfolio. Though she thinks she is not the best at keeping up with socials, she acknowledges that the more she posts covers and speaks about music, the more she is taken seriously of her craft. She also collaborates with other artists which she met at various events and LASALLE College of the Arts, recently collaborating with Thaarmin and Dru Chen.

One of the most rewarding parts of Heema's journey so far was during her secondary school life, performing and preparing while teaching classical music on weekends. She managed to pull one of her students into her music and play together, which was a pleasant combination of the music she'd been studying and songwriting. She also found that picking up the guitar at fifteen years old was another rewarding moment, as it was a big deal performing with it on stage and seeing everyone's reactions. Putting together the second song from her EP called "Blue" was another pivotal moment in her journey, as the song shows every part of herself and was also one of her first songwriting projects.

When asked to advise any aspiring artists, she acknowledges that the journey is far from easy, but she's never once regretted it. Passion for what you do will pull you through, and take every small win. She advises, "If you know your core, and you stick to it, and you don't get overly jealous of others' successes, you won't lose passion and you won't want to quit." Passion plays a crucial role in the journey of artists, keeping them rooted when times get tough. At Unravel Magazine, we strive to bring out the passion of our local artists for what they do.