Nadia Vaeh

October 16, 2026

Interview By: Page Walters

We had the chance to interview Nadia Vaeh, a Nashville-based independent musician who describes her music as “solar-powered poptimistic rock” with a heart of hope.

Tell us a bit about yourself. When did you first get into music?

Hi! I’m Nadia Vaeh. I’m an Atlanta-born, Nashville-based independent artist making what I like to call solar-powered poptimistic rock:) big pop hooks, alternative-rock energy, a little emo nostalgia, and ultimately a current of hope running underneath it all.

Music became especially important to me after I lost my mom to suicide when I was 17. I was trying to make sense of grief at an age when I didn’t really have the language for everything I was feeling, and music became a place where those emotions could exist. I remember sitting in my bedroom with my little boombox, listening to songs over and over and studying the lyrics. A lot of the emo, pop-punk, alternative, and Warped Tour-era artists resonated with me because they weren’t afraid to talk about painful or complicated things.

Eventually, I realized I wanted to create that kind of connection for other people. Music became a way to turn some of the hardest parts of being human into something that could hopefully make somebody else feel a little less alone.

Could you tell us about any recent releases or songs and the inspiration behind them?

My latest release is “Dressing,” which is definitely one of the feistier songs I’ve put out. It uses food, dinner-party, and “eat the rich” imagery to talk about some much bigger frustrations; corporate greed, political lobbying, medical debt, inequality, and systems that can feel like they’re quite literally making people sick.

I love using metaphors in my writing, so the whole song became this increasingly unhinged dinner party where the people at the top of the food chain suddenly find themselves on the menu. There’s satire and humor in it; lines about politicians “buttering us up,” serving someone on a silver platter, red velvet birthday cake; but underneath the campiness is very real frustration.

The song also wrestles with the difference between wanting accountability and becoming like the very thing you’re angry at. There’s a line, “While poetic justice sounds super romantic / I don’t know of many who’d stoop to your antics,” that gets at that tension. It’s angry, but it’s also asking: what values are we unwilling to surrender, even when we feel completely fed up?

Then you have songs like “Honeysuckles,” which lives on the much softer, nostalgic side of my writing. Being from Atlanta, honeysuckle immediately transports me back to childhood and the South, so that song explores home, memory, and the strange way a smell can suddenly unlock an entire universe inside you.

And “Warped Tour” is basically my love letter to the alternative music that helped raise me. That scene was hugely formative while I was navigating grief and mental health as a teenager. All three songs are very different sonically and emotionally, but I think they show what solar-powered poptimistic rock means to me. “Poptimistic” doesn’t mean pretending everything is positive. It means looking directly at grief, anger, anxiety, injustice, or whatever else is real; and still searching for the spark inside of it.

Who are your biggest musical influences?

My influences are honestly all over the place, which probably explains my music! I grew up loving artists from the emo, alternative, pop-punk and rock worlds. Paramore is definitely a big one. I’ve always admired artists who can make something incredibly catchy while still saying something emotionally honest.

I’m also inspired by artists like P!nk because of the power and personality she brings to her performances, and I love artists who build an entire world around their music.

More than any particular genre, though, I’m drawn to artists who make me feeeeel something. Give me a huge chorus and a lyric that emotionally destroys me and I’m probably happy.

What is your favorite song you’ve ever written and why?

This is such a hard question because songs become little time capsules for different versions of yourself.

“Warped Tour” is definitely one that means a lot to me because it connects who I was as a teenager to who I am now. There’s something really full-circle about making music inspired by the music that once helped me survive some of my hardest years.

But I also have songs that haven’t been released yet that are becoming some of my favorites. As I grow as a person, I feel like I’m getting braver about what I’m willing to say in a song. The goal is always to find the most honest version of the story; even when that honesty is a little uncomfortable.

Tell us a bit about your creative process. Do the lyrics or melody & rhythm come first for you?

It changes every single time, which is part of what I love about songwriting.

I’m very lyric and concept driven, so sometimes everything begins with a phrase, metaphor, title, or weird little thought I typed into my phone at 2 a.m. “Dressing” is a great example of how one metaphor can start multiplying until suddenly there’s an entire dinner party happening inside the song.

Other times somebody plays a chord progression and a melody falls out of me before I even know what the song is about.

I LOVE visual storytelling. Once I find the central image of a song, my brain starts building an entire world around it. I’m already imagining colors, artwork, lighting, textures, music videos and how it could translate to the stage before we’ve even finished writing the second verse.

I try not to force one process, though. Some of my favorite creative moments happen when you leave enough room for the song to tell youuu what it wants to become.

What is your favorite venue or show you’ve ever played?

There have been so many special ones for completely different reasons, but winning the People’s Choice Spotlight at NACA Midwest this year was a really meaningful moment for me and my band.

Being an independent artist means you spend a LOT of time wondering whether all these tiny steps are actually leading somewhere. Then every once in a while, you have a moment where you look around and realize, “Oh wow…we’ve actually come really far.”

I’ve also gotten to play some wonderfully weird and memorable shows over the years, and honestly those can be my favorites. I love festivals, college shows, and spaces where you get to win over people who may have had absolutely no idea who Nadia Vaeh was five minutes earlier. There’s something magical about watching strangers slowly become part of the world with you.

Do you have any upcoming shows?

Yes! We’re currently heading into some Midwest dates, including a college performance at Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota on September 12, and we’re continuing to build out more shows, pop-ups and creative little stops around the tour.

Touring is something I’ve been working toward for a long time, so getting to bring this music into new rooms and meet people in different cities feels incredibly special. I share the newest dates and adventures on my socials as they’re announced!

Anything else you’d like to share with us?

The biggest thing I want people to know is that the heart behind all of this is hope.

Funny enough, “Nadia” means hope, and over time I’ve realized that hope has quietly been the connective tissue of almost everything I create. That’s part of where this idea of solar-powered poptimistic rock comes from.

But I’m not interested in toxic positivity or pretending everything is sunshine. Some of my songs are about grief. Some are about mental health. Some are nostalgic. Some are angry enough to metaphorically throw politicians a dinner party where they’re the entrée. To me, hope is meaningful specifically because darkness exists. It’s choosing to keep looking for a little light anyway.

I’ve spent years building this career while working side hustles, navigating setbacks, making art independently, and figuring things out as I go. I’m actually documenting a lot of that journey in my first feature documentary, “One Poop Scoop Away: A Journey To A Dream”, which explores what it really means to “make it” as an artist today.

And creatively, I’ve been finding myself pulled further into this galactic universe; stars, planets, aliens, crash landings, and the feeling of trying to find where you belong in this enormous universe. It feels like the visual world around the music is finally catching up to something that has always been there underneath it.

Maybe that’s what solar-powered poptimistic rock really is: music for the weird little aliens who have been through some shit and are still reaching for the light.

If somebody hears one of my songs and feels a little more understood, a little more hopeful, or a little more empowered to keep chasing whatever makes them feel alive, then I feel like I’m doing what I came here to do.