Hungarian singer-songwriter Claudia Balla crafts dreamy, melancholic songs that feel like three-minute films. In this interview, she discusses emotional songwriting, classical influences, musical exploration, and balancing music with her career as a psychiatrist.
1. Your music has been described as a dreamy, melancholic journey through powerful emotions. When you write a song, do you usually begin with a specific feeling, a story, or a musical idea?
When I write a song, most of the time I begin with a feeling and a phrase that becomes a melody, and the song slowly unfolds by itself.
2. You once described your songs as “movies told in three minutes.” How do you approach storytelling in such a short format while still creating vivid emotional landscapes for listeners?
I try to capture the key elements of the story and the essential emotions to best describe it. Setting the stage, introducing the characters, establishing the conflict, developing it, and arriving at a moment of catharsis.
3. Your upbringing was deeply rooted in classical music with composers like Bach, Mozart, and Tchaikovsky. How do those early influences continue to shape the way you compose and arrange your modern folk-pop songs?
I suppose I have an old-school, somewhat predictable and measured approach to songwriting – that each song follows a certain structure, has a destination, a musical arc, a concept etc. I rarely experiment with more out-of-the-box formats or solutions – maybe I should be more innovative and risk taking in the future.
4. Artists such as Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Nina Simone, and Billy Joel have also influenced your musical journey. What elements from these legendary songwriters resonate the most with your own creative style?
The storytelling, the musicality, the desire for excellence in songwriting, and the poetic, yet relatable lyrics. The songs in question are not complicated on a structural level; they are accessible for a wider audience, efficient in communicating emotions, despite having a clear, intricate, relevant, and meaningful message.
5. You’ve experimented with many styles—from pop-rock and electronic to classical crossover—and even collaborated with members of the Hungarian National Radio Choir. How important is musical exploration to your artistic identity?
I love the freedom of experimenting with different genres and the idea of not being limited to a particular way of expressing ourselves. I like to discover and to try new sounds and styles. It’s like dyeing your hair a different color from time to time.
6. Beyond music, you work as a practicing psychiatrist. Do your experiences listening to people’s stories and emotions in that field ever influence the themes or empathy found in your songwriting?
My work certainly has an influence on my music, and my professional experiences probably impact my songwriting. However, I don’t think I’ve ever written a song about a specific case I’ve witnessed. I almost always express my own feelings, even if it’s concerning something that hasn’t actually happened to me – I don’t wish to misinterpret or misuse something that doesn’t belong to me.
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