How accomplished do you feel at 15? Could you be a singer, songwriter, dancer and actor all while juggling school work?
British pop star Freya Skye has done all this at just 15 years old. Skye is already a multi-hyphenate, as a singer and songwriter, as well as an actress and dancer. She recently signed a record deal with Hollywood Records as well as a publishing deal with Disney Music Publishing. Freya has also landed a holding deal with Disney Branded Television and stars in the upcoming “ZOMBIES 4.”
Liberty journalism students were given a special one-on-one opportunity to interview Skye over Zoom on Feb. 7 in order to promote her new single “Can’t Fake It,” released on Jan. 7. In this interview, Freya was asked questions about her musical career as well as her acting career, and took the opportunity to promote the song as well.
“Since from when I could talk to maybe like 10, I would just sing along to songs in the car, on the radio, or watch ‘High School Musical’ and ‘Descendants’ and ‘Zombies,’” Skye said.
In terms of acting Skye talks about her time during COVID-19.
“The passion came a lot later on for sure. It was during the lockdown when there was nothing really to do,” Skye said. “I was like, let’s join some Zoom acting lessons just for a bit of fun and a bit of a laugh and I really fell in love with it and my passion grew on from there. I would do self-tapes and auditions and things like that. And obviously after so many no’s, I finally got that yes. And that yes was Junior Eurovision. And I ended up representing the UK at Junior Eurovision in 2022.”
Freya represented the U.K. with her song “Lose My Head.” She placed 5th overall and was 13 years old at the time.
“That was just like a dream,” Skye said. “I feel like it was my two favorite things, you know, singing and performing. It really gave me a platform to then get noticed by Disney and things. So I think from there, everything feels like it’s just happened so fast, but it’s been so great.”
Skye said her hardest moment of her career was also at Eurovision.
“I actually lost my voice the week of [the show]. I trained for so many months just to make sure this song sounded perfect and my dance moves were clean. And when I got there, I caught like some virus thing and my voice was completely gone,” Skye said.
Despite this, “I think definitely I came out of that so much more resilient and I don’t think I realized how kind of like resilient I was in the sense of it was a really tough time but I did always stay positive and kept being optimistic of the fact I was going to perform,” Skye said.
When asked about how she handles school with this lifestyle, she had a rather simple answer.
“I do like a homeschool program, which I can do anywhere in the world, which is so helpful, whereas before I was in like a in-person school and I would miss like two weeks at a time to do like something in a different country and I would then fall so far behind which was really like determining my grades,” Skye said.
Skye approaches her songwriting process by starting with a concept about what she wants to write about.
“I think the concept about finding what I kind of want to write about, if it’s going to be sad, if it’s going to be fun, if it’s going to have like a driving beat or like just a simple guitar. I think finding that is such a great like groundwork to kind of start,” Skye said.
Skye also added that “Melodies are definitely like not my best thing. I always admit this in sessions. I always go in with amazing top liners who can come up with some incredible melodies and I’ll write the lyrics,” Skye said.
Freya will be starring in the upcoming Disney+ Original “Zombies 4,” and is joining other Disney stars on the Descendants /Zombies Worlds Collide Tour, which comes to St. Louis on Aug. 2.
Skye released her newest single “Can’t Fake It” on Jan. 7, and asked us to review it.
After listening to the song, I feel that it’s a fun, catchy song that almost anyone could enjoy. It’s a pop song that actually has some elements of indie rock sprinkled on. The music video, which is available on Youtube, features Skye in an office building, simply singing during the verses, and doing a choreographed dance during the chorus, accompanied by back up dancers.
The lyrics tell me the song is about looking back on an old relationship.
“I’m not even sad about it, maybe just bitter.” By the second verse of the song, this changes with her saying, “I’m not even mad about, maybe a little,” showing that this does still affect her. Overall, it’s a fun song to listen to, and a fun music video to watch. I feel that the lyrics are easy to relate to for many people that have been through a relationship.
Thank you to Moxie for allowing me and fellow journalism reporters to interview Freya, and thank you to Freya for giving us her time.
