Sabina Vavatu: “Writing music is a form of therapy for me.”

Sabina, 15, joined our Bromley Academy programme back in 2023 as a talented, budding singer songwriter. She sings, plays guitar, piano and ukulele, and also produces her own songs and film music.

Sabina blogs about songwriting as a deeply personal experience, her artist inspirations and hopes for the future.

Music has always been part of me. Ever since I can remember I was singing and playing instruments anytime I could. At the age of 4, I started piano lessons and from then on I’ve never stopped playing and singing. I started writing songs at the age of 7-8 for fun, but then quickly realised there’s nothing I’d rather be doing all day than just that. Since then, I’ve never stopped developing it and I’m glad I’m able to create music at any point now.

I’ve always had a passion for songs, I guess something in my mind clicked at that age that said, ‘I can actually create them myself’ and from that moment on I felt much more free writing and creating. My mother always encouraged me to sing and to play instruments, I guess I just realised I can make my own songs to play on them.

Songwriting is a way to express myself without excuses. I always feel a lot better creating something, whether that is just an instrumental, a full song or a couple of lyrics.

“Writing music is a form of therapy for me. Being able to block everything out and be with my mind for a while really helps process things and calms me down.”

Sharing my lyrics with people, or even knowing that they might see them, is a very scary thing for me. I pour my heart and soul into every single line, as I mostly write from my own experiences, so showing them to others feels very personal. I force myself to not think about it too much because if I do, I’d never end up releasing any music. 

“Sharing such a personal thing with everyone never gets any easier. It feels like I ripped a part of my heart and handed it over for everyone to see.”

Collaborating with others can be tricky for me, as I've always created and written music on my own. ArtsTrain has definitely helped me work with other artists on projects and I can say that now I enjoy that process.

The artists who have inspired me have changed throughout my life, but I‘ve taken certain things from each of them to create my style. It’s very freeing not having any rules to follow in music, it’s my little world and no one can tell me what to do or how to live in it. I’d say Lana Del Rey is such a big inspiration for me. I remember hearing one of her songs for the first time and falling in love with it (and with her). Lana and Billie Eilish have this really cool way of creating music that always stands out. I’ve always looked up to them in such an admiring way. They have their own styles which I think is very important to have as an artist. 

“I want people to recognise me by my unique style as a musician, rather than just the sound of my voice.”

Everything can inspire me at any point - things like nature, the weather, someone’s perfume / a scent or eye colour, anything can turn on that part of my brain that’s like  ‘yep, I need to create now’. Even though I write my songs mostly from real events in my life or memories, it’s fun to imagine myself in a situation I made up and have full control over – makes the process more interesting, giving me more freedom to write the story however I want.

I see myself creating all the time in the future, just like right now. I never want to stop singing and writing. I hope to develop on producing music more and collaborating with other artists. That would be amazing. I want to make this into my career, so I’m always happy to learn new things and try new ways of doing it. A goal of mine would be to have my own live shows, that has always been my #1 dream. It doesn’t have to be the biggest stage in the world, but being able to sing with thousands of people the songs I’ve written is my ultimate goal.

Listen to Sabina’s new single on Spotify here.

Check out Sabina’s YouTube Channel here!!