Are there any artists on your radar right now that we should check out?
stevestevesteve, he’s an artist from Chicago and I’ve had his track “Way Out” on repeat for the past few months. It’s a beautiful, introspective track. I’ve also really been enjoying Lucy Park’s recent releases.
What albums are currently on heavy rotation on your Spotify playlist?
Apart from DAMEDAME’s debut, I’ve also recently been listening to MM…FOOD a lot again. It almost feels like I’m rediscovering it, which is such a treat.
What do you like to do when you’re not making music?
I read a lot. That’s probably where most of my time goes. I’m also currently learning French. I love learning languages, it makes me feel like I’m exercising my brain haha.
You’re hands-on with both songwriting and production. How important is it to you to also produce your own tracks, and how did you get into it?
I used to be very meticulous about ensuring everything was done by me and me alone. I guess I wanted to prove that I was able to do everything myself from start to finish and I’m so glad I did because I was able to cement myself as not just an artist but a writer and producer too. Now, I’m a lot less rigid about this and have enjoyed writing with some amazing people and working with producers I would have otherwise missed out on by trying to be a lone wolf.
Getting into production felt like a natural progression from playing piano for me. I could essentially produce an entire song using the skills I already had, so it was more a case of trial and error and getting comfortable with Logic.
What’s one lesson you’ve learned about trusting your instincts when creating, especially when you’re pushing yourself outside your comfort zone, and what advice would you give?
I think it can be scary to change your sound or style when you have certain tracks that are popular from a time when you were less evolved creatively. For me, I’m constantly discovering new music, so it feels inevitable that my sound would change somewhat and I always remind myself that this also means growth. I used to get really in my head about new songs not being liked because they were a bit different but people who genuinely connect with your music, stay for all phases. Writing is such a gut instinct, so my advice would be to trust that instinct and allow yourself to evolve.