Solya

Solya knew who she wanted to be from a very young age. Born in West Texas, the songwriter and multi-instrumentalist wrote lyrics and poetry at four, started piano at six, and picked up guitar at 14. “Growing up in a remote small city, I had to make my own form of entertainment,” she says. “I had to be creative.” Listening to her parents' vinyl — Warren Zevon, Harry Nilsson, David Bowie — helped her hear who she wanted to become. “When I heard ‘Starman,’ I knew I wanted to be like David Bowie when I grew up. I saw myself in him even as a little kid,” she adds. “I never considered doing anything else. I wasn’t interested in anything but music.”

At 16 she attended a music camp at the University of Central Oklahoma’s Academy of Contemporary Music (ACM). It was the first time she played music with other people, and it lit a fire. After camp, she and her parents asked Scott Booker (manager of The Flaming Lips and CEO of ACM) for advice about studying music. He told her to start recording, so she did — in her bedroom, making her first three songs and learning Pro Tools.

She self-released her first EP, Fever Dream, in 2023. Her DIY bedroom tracks found an online audience and built an engaged global fan base before she finished high school. Each release did better than the last: singles like “Roadkill” and “Heaven” led to her most-streamed track at the time, “Tear Me Apart.” She promoted that song heavily on social media and began drawing label interest, eventually connecting with VERSION III, who gave her creative freedom and helped enable touring.

In fall 2024 she co-headlined a 21-date U.S. tour, “Bugs and Butterflies,” with Baby Bugs; most dates sold out. They followed that with four fully booked dates in the UK, and Solya played a sold-out headline show at the Troubadour in West Hollywood. She also released the project Jewel Box in 2024; one track, the waltz “We Say Goodbye,” became a surprise TikTok trend.

Wanting to move out of the bedroom and into a studio, she worked with producer Danny Reisch (Khruangbin, Local Natives) and musician Jason Chronis (Tele Novella, Voxtrot), who played bass and slide guitar on the record. After finishing her first tour she wrote 10 songs in four months and recorded them via analog equipment over 10 days in Lockhart, Texas. The result is her debut album, Queen of Texas.

The album blends influences — Patsy Cline’s vocal delivery, Fiona Apple’s cutting lyrics, David Bowie’s ingenuity — with 1950s rock ’n’ roll and a western flair that nods to classic country and her West Texas roots. The songs range from chaotic love to the isolating experience of being a queer young woman in a small, conservative place.

Notable songs and themes:
- “Tell Me It’s Over” — a vintage-guitar breakup song born of anger and empowerment: “I wasn’t upset about it. It was just like ‘I don’t care about you.’ ”
- “Movie Star” — dramatic, cinematic longing; in live shows fans respond strongly and have waved pride flags during the chorus.
- “Is This Love??” — sounds like a love song but is written from the perspective of someone who’s never been loved in a healthy way; a verse nods to Elvis and Priscilla as lyrical inspiration.
- “Born Wicked” — took weeks to write; features a rebellious, sing-along chorus and religious imagery tied to the queer experience.
- Title track “Queen of Texas” — wistful opener that evokes isolation and rhinestone-saturated imagery.

Solya hopes the album empowers listeners the way Bowie once helped her feel seen: “I hope Queen of Texas empowers people. I hope it feels the same way for them, that it felt for me when I was a kid listening to David Bowie and seeing myself in him. All I want is to be that for someone else.”

She’s a 20-year-old artist planning an extensive North American headline tour this year — her first with a full band — and is already thinking about follow-up material. She says she draws inspiration from where she grew up and doesn’t feel the need to move to a big city: “I just want to be the Queen of Texas.”