Vika: Luck Is All You Need
- Jenna Mitchell
- 1 hour ago
- 4 min read
If you’ve immersed yourself in the Spokane scene over the last few years, you know that Vika has become a well known name in the Inland Northwest. As a band, Vika and the Velvets have been making waves around the PNW for some time now. And if you’ve heard them live, you know they’re only getting started in making a big name for themselves.
Luck is All You Need
Some artists talk about hard work. Others talk about timing. But when Vika talks about her music and her life, one word keeps resurfacing again and again: luck. Luck has followed her since birth and throughout her life, time and time again, pushing her to keep going towards her dreams and making those dreams a reality.
And luck hasn’t just followed her as she navigates the world - it’s the emotional foundation of her latest album, Like a Spade, and the lens through which she understands her entire creative journey.
Beneath the genre-blending and musical evolution of Vika sits something a little more personal. She has a deep awareness of how circumstances, choices, and chance shape a life. And rather than dismissing those moments as coincidence or chance, she is continually building meaning from them through the stories she tells in her music.
Luck, in her eyes, isn’t just something that happens to you. It’s something you learn to recognize and shape.
“Yes, luck is given to you, but you also have to create your own luck.”
Luck as a roadmap
Like a Spade, captures a specific moment in time built on memories, emotions, and experiences that unfolded within the same chapter of her life.
The record marks a noticeable shift away from the pop-leaning indie textures of her earlier work (like “70’s Haze”), leaning instead into folk warmth and reflective storytelling. Still, traces of past influences remain as Vika and the group grow and build off of them. Their sound marks where they’re going as a group, while also staying connected to their roots.
Since forming in 2020, Vika and the Velvets have grown through lineup changes, sonic shifts, and the familiar artistic cycle of thinking you’ve found your sound — only to realize you’re still discovering it.
Blues, jazz, folk, country twang, and indie influences all swirl together in their music, grounded by rich horn arrangements and an incredible live energy built on connection.
“I feel like those influences stay with you — even if you change slightly, there are always hints of what was there before.”
That sense of continuity mirrors the album’s emotional center. You can change direction, she suggests, but you never leave your story behind.
Luck from the beginning
Vika’s luck spans more than just her music. She speaks openly about being adopted from Russia as a baby and growing up in a supportive family that encouraged her creative risks, even when she wasn’t sure she wanted to take them. Her mother pushed her toward music before she fully believed in it herself. With luck by her side, opportunities seemed to appear at pivotal moments in her life. It started young - Competitions won, doors opened, and unexpected chances led to bigger opportunities.
Today she’s playing stages all over the Northwest and beyond with a trusted band by her side.
Vika and the Velvets had a big year in 2025. Not only did they release an album, but the group played some iconic stages in the PNW. We caught them on the last day of Bumbershoot, a Seattle staple, which was the last stop on their tour post-album release.
Vika also highlights their opening set for Kansas at Festival at Sandpoint - and that even though they had a slight stage malfunction, it was an experience like no other - marking a historic moment for them, playing their biggest stage to date.
“Bumbershoot was a great way to end the tour — that was incredible. But the Sandpoint Festival was magical. We had never played to such a big crowd before...my guitar string broke, but somehow playing acoustic made it even more magical.”
Connection takes you far
Vika's music leaves a lasting impression upon hearing her and the band live. If you are a Spokane local, you likely have been lucky enough to catch one of their sets - whether they’re kicking off their album release in Liberty Lake, hitting the road, or playing a show at one of Spokane’s iconic venues, they have something special that puts them on the map as Spokane icons.
At the root of it all, is connection - with fans, with friends, with the music. Vika hopes that their love for making and sharing music isn’t something people brush off. She’s in it for the real connection and presence that only music can make you feel. It’s the why.
“The whole point for me is connection. Yes, I love making music, but there’s something different about sharing music — listening together, being present together.
We’re all here, creating something together at that moment. We want listeners to feel part of that — to connect with us.
That’s what it’s all about.”
It’s why some of her favorite venues are intimate ones, like The Chameleon in Spokane, where the atmosphere feels personal and immersive. And it’s why her dream stage is The Gorge Amphitheatre. A place vast in scale but deeply intentional, where audiences gather in the middle of nowhere for the singular purpose of sharing music.
Carrying luck wherever it takes you
With luck still guiding the way, Vika stepped onto a national stage with her audition for American Idol this year, surrounded by support from fans, friends, and her community. Another step in her musical journey that shows that luck isn’t just something that finds you. It’s something you follow.
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