Secrets of Sound, also known as SOS, is an extraordinary girl group that emerged onto the music scene in 2022, captivating audiences with their exceptional talent and dynamic performances. Comprising of four immensely talented members, Ayiah, Cayla Rose, Ellie, and Z, Secrets of Sound brings together an incredible fusion of singing, dancing, and instrumental skills that sets them apart from the rest.

As Secrets of Sound continues their musical journey, they have an unwavering commitment to pushing creative boundaries and delivering performances that leave a lasting impression. With their incredible talent, unique blend of skills, and unwavering dedication, Secrets of Sound is destined to become a prominent presence in the music industry, leaving their mark with their powerful performances and remarkable artistry.

Sound of U Live caught up with the emerging girl group to talk about their upcoming music, favorite parts of the making music process, and their headlining performance at Sound of U Live’s concert series in Hollywood.

Introduce yourself to the Sound of U Live readers!

I’m Cayla Rose. I’m Ayiah. I’m Ellie, and I’m Z, and we are Secrets of Sound.

One of you is graduating high school pretty soon, right? 

I’m graduating on the 31st! I’m really excited. I mean, I’ve been at my school for a long time, so I’ll miss it. But it will free up a lot more time for my girls! It’s a performing arts school. I’ve been there for six years. When Z [Zamantha Jean] was there in seventh grade, I studied there for eighth grade, so we went to school together for a little bit. It’s the sister school of my high school as well so we all went to the same sort of like program, and so did my sister. Actually, we’ve all been through the same thing for different amounts of time. 

How did you all meet?

We actually have really fun little individual stories. I’ve known Z since she was three years old and I was four. This is my sister, so I’ve known her my whole life. When we talked about starting the group, Ellie and I were talking about it, and the first person that I called was Z. So that’s how she met everyone else.

Cayla had come to me with the idea, so I was like, ‘are you sure that’s the route that we want to take? Are we sure we want to do a girl group?’ I was like, ‘alright, let’s do it. Let’s go full steam ahead.’ So then Cayla had called Z because they were long-term friends, and you know we’ve had a lot of different kinds of energies enter in. Some have stayed and some haven’t stayed.

But I feel like now where we’re at synergistically, like it’s really special, because obviously we’re sisters. I’ve been with Cayla since she was very young. She’s known Z. So together like we’ve really been able to just hone in with one another.

Ellie: And we were already a family before the group really became the group. I was the last one to sort of join. Even though I was, I was in a more managerial position in the beginning, but it’s been since November. So it’s really not that long of me kind of being in it. It’s crazy. But I did all the backend work, with the music and everything else sort of on the other end.

So it’s really fun though. I love it. I started the group with Cayla and Z. She was our creative director. And now she’s in it! And now I’m in it. Cayla started the group. 

Cayla: I called Ellie. ‘Ellie, I want to start a girl group.’ And she goes, ‘why?’ Well, I gave her some really good reasons. And she appreciated them. And so she didn’t want to be in the group at the time, even though I wanted her in it. And so she decided to work with her being the creative director. I wasn’t even a manager.

Then I called Z. I had a group of girls that started off as a group. And some energies weren’t working out. Ayiah happened to be at the first rehearsal. And her energy just matched really well.

And by the second rehearsal, she was a part of the group pretty hard. There was never like an eye of joining. I just kind of, she’s like, ‘I’m here.’ I remember Ella was like, ‘can you be in this music video?’ And I was like, ‘sure.’ I mean, I always wanted her in it, because I’ve developed. I’ve been a part of Cayla’s journey for a long time. And obviously, my sister I’ve been involved with. And Z, I’m involved with as well.

But it was always something that I wanted Ayiah, my sister, to do because it was really special. It was a special project for me with being so invested in the girls already and just like, who they were as people.

So I was like, ‘do you want to try it out?’ She’s like, ‘sure.’ And she really liked it. So it all worked out. And then I joined, so it really worked out in the end. 

So you started off on the management side. Would you say that? 

Ellie: Yes, definitely on the management side, doing a lot of the creative development of the group itself. I’ve been in a lot of groups throughout my journey of life. So it was something that I felt like I could kind of guide them through.

And I have a mentorship program, which is how I met Cayla. initially. And so it’s just something that I’ve always kind of had a passion for. And I love that I get to do it now, because I’m just so into girl groups. I love them. 

So you were mentoring artists. 

Ellie: Yes. That’s my job. I have my own studio and we have incredible programs that kids get to go through either theatrically or commercially.

And so it’s nice to kind of be on the front end and the back end as well. So I just, I love it. I’m obsessed with anything and everything to do with music and performing arts. 

What are some of the pitfalls that you’ve seen with trying to create the group? What do you have to keep in mind when you’re trying to create a group like SOS?

Cayla: I think that especially when I was first planning out who to call and things to be in the group, I really wanted it to not be auditioned. There’s a million and one groups that all auditioned because they have the same goal and then management put them together and they said, get along or else.

And I have so many friends in the industry that are so incredibly talented from being a part of the industry for so long, because I started acting and performing when I was about three years old. And so I called in some of those friends, even one of them, we met through pageantry.

And so I started calling people in and the energy was just wrong. Everyone was there for the right reasons. And everyone was kind to each other. There wasn’t drama, but the energy wasn’t right. And we went through a lot of that of adding girls and then girls leaving or us separating because of creative path differences.

And it had a lot of bumps. There were a lot of times where we didn’t know where the group was going to end up, but no matter what, we were the four that were always here. We always said we’re the four that stayed, just in different pockets of reasoning.

But first rehearsal, I wasn’t in it yet. Ellie wasn’t in it yet, but they were still there and they still stayed. And that energy has really been consistent for all of us. And so I think that was the biggest hurdle to overcome.

Once Ellie joined the group, it was that missing puzzle piece of, ‘Oh, this is it.’ Yeah. It’s so interesting because I, because I’ve been in a lot of groups and, you know, there’s a lot of pressure. I feel like especially on girl groups because like, Oh, they never last.

And, you know, there’s always fights and there’s falling out. But I feel like it really comes down to not only understanding that there has to be a respect level creatively, but there has to be a love. There has to be a common goal. And I feel like for us, we’ve always had the same vision. So it’s just nice that it’s been really organic with the four of us.

It’s always good when everyone does different things really well, because then when you put all the pieces together, it’s a really cool puzzle that comes together. Is there anything else that you guys are really good at that kind of gel as well? What’s your favorite thing to do in the group individually? 

Z: I think like in the group, dancing and choreographing would be Ayiah. But outside of the group, I’m a surf instructor and I help teach martial arts at school. I’m also a secondary black belt in karate and I have my first Dawn in Taekwondo. And I’ve been surfing since I was seven and I’m 17. So 10 years.

Cayla: She’s so cool! And it’s really incredible how she brings those things into the group. She brings in her Latin training, her hip hop training when she’s choreographing. Ayiah is super intelligent with social media. And so she brings a lot of that knowledge of social media and algorithms into the group with our own social media platforms because we run those ourselves.

And Ellie with her entrepreneurship and her leadership and her management skills. from running a business and developing artists really helps guide us as well as being a songwriter. And she’s devoted a lot of music that she had written in the past into the group now that we sing.

I as well come in as a singer-songwriter. I did choir and so I help with Ellie to make some of the harmonies and arrangements and things like that for our songs. So it’s kind of magical how we all take these completely separate interests, experiences, storylines, and skills and find ways to use them in the group.

Each one of us is so intricate into what makes us grow and what makes us successful. And we would not be anywhere without using those special skills.

Ellie: Yes, I think as well it’s like, it’s very interesting coming in as initially as the more of the development side, seeing those skills from my end, how important it is to be multifaceted.

For me, like Cayla had said, songwriting is such a big part of my life. And actually our second and third single I wrote out of my graduation of high school.

And so I gave it to the group because I felt like it was a perfect fit because it was at a time when I was dealing with a lot of the same things. So it was really, really special. And I think like Kayla said, it’s very, it’s very cool to see how we can marry all together because we’re not just singers or dancers or actresses. We have so much more in our rolodex of things.

Ayiah: Well, I definitely do the social media and me and Z also kind of choreograph a lot of dances. So I just started social media like around a year ago.

So like I have 1.2 million followers right now. And I just started doing the social media on SOS. Yeah. She’s, she also helps. We choose a lot of our own color. Well, all of our own color palettes stylistically, so Aya will help come up with some of those colors that we wear for rehearsals or shows and stuff.

Everything we do is collaborative, which I love because we have so much difference with ourselves. But then when we marry it together, it’s so cool because we use all of those different energies and all of those different things that we like and bring it together in a really cool way.

And it’s all under one umbrella. Everyone always thinks that’s crazy because we don’t have a huge team. Like we are the team and we really utilize each and every person’s strengths. And I think since, especially since joining the group, I don’t know, I feel like we’ve all grown as people because of each other.

You have a song called ‘Goodbye,’ and you have a song called ‘Body Language.’ But what is your favorite song that you’ve made so far and your favorite song that you like to perform?

Ellie: Well we have a new single coming out in June, which we are really excited for, because it’s something that we actually did collaboratively together. It was the first song all four of us were in the room for writing it like this prior to that it was things that I’ve written, so it wasn’t anything because we had sentinel secrets that was just Ellie and I. Before that, we had ‘Santa’s Little Secrets.’

S.O.S. is our title track, but none of us actually wrote it. We weren’t even in the room what it was created. It was presented to us by some people that we work with and then after that came ‘Body Language’ and ‘Goodbye’ which were both by Ellie when she was younger. So this song coming up was the first song that all four of us actually got to participate in and write in. The music video that’s coming out was something that we did collaboratively too, and we were able to work with some of our friends in the industry. Amazing directors and people that we were able to bring in the video.

What’s a unanimous favorite song that you’ve made together?

I love ‘Myself’ which is the new one that’s coming in June. That sounds crazy. I love ‘Myself.’ But I love that one so much. I would actually say I think my second favorite is Santa’s Little Secret. I forget about it. Which was the Christmas song that we released.

Just because I love how sweet that is. And there’s some lines in there that metaphorically, I’m really proud of Ellie and I for writing because her show is so good. It was such a fun one. It was the first release.

You are all so young. Were your parents supportive in your journey to becoming artists? How important was that support?

Ellie: We love our momagers. They’re the best. So we obviously share a mom. So there’s only three.

I think without strong support systems from both of, I mean, both moms and dads, we would not, and aunts and uncles in our whole life support system, we would not be able to do half the things we do.

Our moms are so encouraging and so invested in absolutely everything that we do. They support us. They push us to be ourselves. They love us. And so they play a really, really intricate role. And in a way they are the honorary members of SOS.

They say it takes a village to raise kids. It also takes a village to raise a girl group!

Well, some of the biggest artists of all time have their moms as managers.

A mother is going to fight for you no matter what. They are- Oh, I have your back. So many greedy people. That’s right. Bad people in the industry that’ll lead you down the wrong path.

That could put you in a really bad situation or drop you the second they think you’re not lucrative anymore. But a mother’s love is unconditional and her support is unconditional. And so no matter what, she’s gonna have your back.

And we really are a family in a lot of ways. And I know that my mom will have all of their backs the same way that their moms are gonna have my back. And I think it’s cool, like us, the girls, we have really good synergy, but our parents have a really good synergy. Like their friends. You think our chemistry is good. You just think that our mom’s drinking mimosas for brunch. That’s amazing. That’s really, really cool. You guys, 

I feel like you are all going to go so far. If you could envision S.O.S in five years, what do you think that would look like?

On tour. World tour. We’ve all performed live our whole lives and it’s something we love to do. The biggest dream would be just world tour, maybe a couple world tours. 

That’s a long term goal – five years. What about short term goals? Do you have anything coming up this year that fans can look forward to?

Ellie: Yes we do! We have a brand new single coming out called ‘Myself.’ It’s almost our favorite song that we’ve ever written, as well as a super super dope music video coming out. We also have some merch for sale that we always sell at live performances, which will be on the website live very soon.

We’ve got a lot of performance opportunities coming up this summer. We’re doing almost like a mini tour over the summer on the east coast. Yes. And we also can’t forget about the 30th. We’re performing at Madame Siame. We’re so excited! We always love the opportunity to perform live in L.A., which is so great. That’s our home base. Our home base. So we’re really excited for it. 

S.O.S.: Make sure you check us out on all our social media platforms at Secrets of Sound. And stay tuned for new releases coming soon!