The German singer-songwriter joined Sam Steen, guest hosting The Lunchbox, to perform live and talk about her debut album under the Marla Moya name, Sanguine Soul, a record that represents something of a fresh start after years spent touring the world as part of a duo.
Moya grew up in Heidelberg and says music was part of her life from almost the beginning.
"I'm a girl from Heidelberg, Germany that always seeks the distance," she said. "I've played music since I can think."
That desire to travel has served her well. Before beginning her current solo chapter, Moya spent seven years in a duo and played more than 1,000 shows, with performances taking her across Europe and North America and to festivals including Glastonbury and Canada's Mariposa Folk Festival.
Tuesday night's appearance at Rotondes reunited Moya with an old friend.
She first met Tyler Ballgame while working on her album in the United States, before his recent rise and the release of his debut album For the First Time, Again.
"We met at a song circle and became friends before he blew up across the world, which is the best," Moya told RTL Today Radio. "So it was a pleasure to open for him because I'm so fond of his music."
For Moya, that American trip would end up producing considerably more than a few new friendships.
At the heart of Sanguine Soul is American singer-songwriter and producer Robert Francis, an artist whose music had a profound impact on Moya as a teenager.
She first saw Francis perform when she was 14, at a time when her own listening habits were considerably more pop-oriented.
"My mind was blown," she recalled. "I just listened to rock Americana music for the first time really."
The effect was immediate.
"I learned guitar that night and wrote my first song the next day after a show. And so he kind of made me a little bit."
Years later, when Moya decided to begin again as a solo artist, she wondered who could help her make the record she had in her head.
"I thought, who do I do this with properly? And I thought, you know, dream big, ask your idol."
She sent Francis a message without expecting much to come from it. Instead, he replied saying he'd love to record her.
"I was like, God, now I need to follow up," she laughed.
Moya borrowed money from her parents, flew to Los Angeles and made the album with the musician who had inspired her to start writing songs in the first place. "It was the best decision ever," she said.
Released in November 2025, Sanguine Soul was recorded live to tape without a click track, deliberately favouring feel and spontaneity over chasing a perfectly polished performance.
Francis produced the record, with Moya joined by an impressive group of musicians including Joachim Cooder, son of Ry Cooder and a longtime collaborator with the musicians of Buena Vista Social Club, and guitarist Doug Pettibone, whose credits include work with Lucinda Williams, Tracy Chapman and Keith Richards.
It's quite a leap from discovering Americana as a teenager in Heidelberg.
"I'm still this Heidelberg small-town German girl," Moya laughed while recounting the musicians she suddenly found herself recording alongside.
The songs themselves deal with change, fear, belonging, relationships and finding your feet again, with Moya describing love as the "golden thin thread" that runs through much of the album.
During her visit to RTL Today Radio, she performed Nomadic Hobo, the first single released from the project, which you can listen back to below.
The Los Angeles story didn't quite end with the album.
Through another chance encounter, Moya was offered the opportunity to record at Shangri-La, the legendary Malibu studio closely associated with producer Rick Rubin and originally built for The Band in the 1970s.
"I met someone who was assisting at Shangri-La," she explained. "He said he could take some people in to record on off days when no one's in the studio."
Moya used the opportunity to record stripped-back versions of two songs from Sanguine Soul, including Nomadic Hobo. Both acoustic recordings are due to be released this Friday.
Moya is already looking beyond Sanguine Soul, with plans underway for a full-band tour next spring.
"I'm planning the next tour with my band, which is a five-piece band, for March and April," she said, adding that there are discussions about Robert Francis potentially returning to Europe as part of those plans.
Before then, there are more shows in Germany and an appearance at the Blue Bird Festival in Vienna.
Moya closed her Lunchbox visit with Radio, a song she described as being about the gradual monotony that can creep into a long relationship.
"You start maybe not being as nice to one another and then just living through the days," she explained. "If you just maintain that humbleness, being nice and respecting one another, it could go a different way. So it's about fading out of a relationship, I think."
From a teenage Robert Francis fan learning guitar after one of his shows to making a record with him in Los Angeles, it's been quite a journey already. And with Sanguine Soul now out in the world, Marla Moya's latest chapter is only just getting started.
