Interview: Melbourne Based Singer-Songwriter Pomaa Discusses Her Debut Single "I Can't Wait 'Til This Doesn't Matter"
Tell us about your creative process when you are developing new music.
I mainly start on guitar/keyboard by finding a chord progression that I like and trying to sing a melody over it - just whatever comes into my mind at the time. Sometimes this will come with words and other times I scroll through my Google Keep notes to see if anything fits. I love writing lyrics and the volume of notes on my phone is getting a bit ridiculous at this point haha.
I don't really have a set process and prefer to just see what takes shape. It's always easier when my expectations aren't too high for a song cause that allows it to form naturally and in its own time. The way my songs end up depend a lot more on how it feels when I sing them and whether I'm excited about the melody/lyrics or not.
Congratulations on the release of your debut single "I Can’t Wait ‘Til This Doesn’t Matter"; what inspired you to write the song and was it self-produced?
Thank you! It's been wonderful to finally share my music with the world. I wanted to write something that everyone could relate to. When I'm getting into a bit of an overthinking spiral, I try to tell myself that it won't always be like this and one day this problem just won't matter anymore. I remember thinking to myself, “I can’t wait 'til this doesn’t matter” and it really resonated with me – so I wrote a song around it!
Yes I produced this one myself. When I'm making demos I always say that I don't want to plan everything out but then I get carried away and arrange the whole song. I had the pleasure of working with Women In Stereo to mix and master the track and they really encouraged me to stay with the original arrangement cause it already worked so well.
Do you plan on releasing a music video for "I Can’t Wait ‘Til This Doesn’t Matter" next? If not, is there a follow up song on the way?
I don't have a music video unfortunately! But I'm always writing songs. I'm currently doing a 10 week songwriting challenge and I'd love to put out a "best of" collection from it. It's not very often that I write to a prompt so it can feel like I'm working backwards in a sense. I think of myself as a songwriter first so it would be nice to showcase that prompt writing skill in a collection of songs.
Would you say that the city of Melbourne influences you in terms of the topics that you write about?
Potentially at a subconscious level? I definitely didn't write as much before I moved here in 2020. I feel like there are more opportunities in Melbourne, to perform and connect with other musicians, so I think that inspires me to keep doing what I'm doing.
What are some of your goals musically for the remainder of 2021?
I'm hoping to do more gigs this year but Melbourne has been having snap lockdowns every few months for most of the pandemic. At the moment it's really hard to gauge when things will normalize. Other than that, I'm also working on some songs for an EP and looking to have those written and demoed by the end of the year.