You have an album coming out soon! Can you give us a sneak peek into what we can expect in terms of themes or collaborations that might surprise your listeners?

Yes! I am incredibly nervous and excited! But my debut album Snow Angels comes out this fall! It has taken me around 6 years to write, record, produce and finish this album. 

This album captures me, my life, my essence in a way that I’ve never experienced before. I am so proud of this project. I feel that through these songs, I’ve managed to capture so many emotions I have felt but didn’t have the courage to talk about. For me, this album is truly about my relationship with music and what it has meant to me all my life. I started writing songs when I was 11, and for a long time felt lost at how I could bring them to life. 

I’m particularly proud of track #7, “Is there anybody out there?” I started writing this song when I was 14 years old but didn’t come around to finishing it until I was in my 30s! This song feels like a conversation between my younger self and I. And it makes complete sense why it took me so long to finish it. 

The title song “Snow Angels” captures my journey of traveling around the world, being hopeful and all the lessons I learnt along the way. It took me a long time to figure this song out, eventually, I had to start from the scratch and build a whole new Logic session to give myself a fresh perspective. When the song finally fell into place, I couldn’t believe it, it really stretched my skills (both as a person and musician) to another level and I’m very glad I stuck with this song and finished producing it. 

There are a few instrumental tracks, including “Liquid”, “Water Waits”, and “Reef”, that are more cinematic and film score-like.

There were over 20 musicians who worked on this album, including myself. There are beautiful guitar solos played by Ukrainian guitarist, Vitaliy Tkachuk, Australian guitarist Luke Stamenkovich, and American guitarist Mike Fonte who played on the title track. This album for me is truly a dream come true!

Your book The Composer Cave Challenge offers 21 exercises designed for composers of all levels. What inspired you to create this book, and how do you believe these exercises can help composers improve their theoretical and creative skills?

The pandemic inspired me to write this book! I love writing, and ever since I was young I thought I’ll write a book. The pandemic happened a few months after I’d moved to LA. I did not really know anyone here, but I’d become a part of the composers community. This played a huge role in me maintaining my sanity through the pandemic. I have been using an online platform called Cave Day since 2018 to get my work done. This platform organizes work sprints to encourage monotasking and enhance focus. My book is greatly inspired by this amazing platform and what I’ve learnt about monotasking by working in a cave! 

I started organizing weekly virtual meetings for composers called “Composer Cave,” we’d get together for 3 hours and write music based on the prompts I would send out to everyone. The goal was to write and finish a new piece of music in three hours without distractions.

Eventually, I decided to write a book with 21 exercises that composers could use to inspire new music. It almost works like a brief, but every exercise explores a new musical concept, theoretical aspect, or theme. 

I personally grasp concepts much quicker once I create something, for example, I’ll understand a certain mode better and my ear would get more tuned towards it, if I’ve written a new composition focused on honing it in.  

While the book might look quite basic at first glance, it only makes sense if you do sit down and do the 21 compositions. The challenges work both as ideas and boundaries, and help score out the work. Sometimes, it can be easy to get caught up in the comfort zone and write music that is very focused on a particular sound. I built these exercises to create a fresh perspective and to break out of the loop. 

My favorite challenge from the book is #16, “The Gustav Klimt,” that encourages the composer to write a piece of music inspired by Gustav Klimt’s paintings. 

The Traveling Studio project in South Africa sounds incredibly unique and innovative. Can you share more about that experience, any challenges you faced, and what you learned from recording music in such an unconventional setting?”

I moved to the USA in 2017 to pursue a Master’s degree in Audio Arts at Syracuse University. While I was there, I dropped my debut album Tribal Love, and was busy promoting it, this is when I met Professor Ken Harper and he told me about the opportunity of traveling to South Africa for a project. A few months later, I applied and interviewed for it, and soon received an email that said “Pack your bags, you’re going to South Africa!” 

Visiting South Africa was one of the most magical and incredible experiences of my life! We woke up every day for two weeks to visit the local people and hear their stories. I was mainly working as an audio engineer and recording the spaces, and the stories of the people. We met local musicians, rappers, artisans, and artists. 

I ended up co-writing with a few artists – Nombasa and Asemahle. We recorded the songs we wrote together in the hotel music conference room. I was only traveling with limited field recording equipment and turned the conference room into a studio. Recording in an unconventional space felt very freeing. I’ve never enjoyed working in an old-school studio, but since then, I feel like I can record almost anywhere – and the essence of a different room gets embedded in the music. 

A lot of the recordings I did while I was there were on the Ambeo microphone for the VR setting, I received additional training to operate the Sound Devices field recorder. I certainly became a stronger audio engineer on this trip. 

It was an incredible opportunity, I think the biggest challenge we faced was that our flight back to the USA got canceled and we ended up spending an extra night in Johannesburg. Also, I was carrying a lot of expensive audio gear on me which turned out to take extra time at security and I almost missed my flight to South Africa! I was the last person to board the plane!! 

Overall, now that I look back, I realize how big the world is, how many amazing artists and musicians are out there whose stories are important and need to be heard, and feel incredibly lucky to have had the experience of visiting some of them. 

As a member of several prestigious organizations and a mentor through GrammyU and Sound Thinking NYC, what are your goals for the future in terms of your career and contributions to the music industry? How do you hope to inspire the next generation of musicians?

I genuinely believe we can only inspire others when we are living out our own dreams. 

For a very long time, I was focused on honing my craft and becoming a better and better writer, composer, producer, and engineer. Now my goal really is to think bigger than I have ever before. Watching myself grow into the producer I am today, my younger self would be so proud of who I have become. All I ever wanted as a young person was to find a way to produce an album and I just did not know at the time who the producer would be, and was far from realizing that it would be me. I just needed to give myself the time and energy to grow. 

If there are young people out there who feel like they are too far away from their dreams. I understand this feeling, and I really want them to know they’re only one thing away from reaching their goals. One person. One video. One song. One film. All you need to do is practice, and the rest does fall into place. 

I’ve had the privilege of mentoring some incredible young human beings, I have learnt from them as much as they may have from me. If there’s one thing I’d want to say to them over and over again, it would be to have the audacity to believe in their dreams, and to speak them out loud for everyone else to hear. Luckily, today we live in an age where we can go online and find our tribe. 

Check out the AWFC directory for Rivita Goyle

Interview by Jocelyn Scofield