Music city holds my heart and it's home to me in more ways than one.
M E E T B E T S Y L A N E
Age:
20
Hometown/currently live:
Nashville/Nashville
What made you want to start writing
songs and singing?
A lot of it has to do with my dad. He was a songwriter and an
artist when he was about my age, and he always talked about it. When he would
go out of town for business trips, he would leave us with an old cassette of
him and his band and we would fall asleep to it so we didn’t miss him so much.
He would make up songs on the spot about getting us dressed in our pajamas or
songs about our belly buttons and just about life things. I grew up around that
sort of creativity. I started singing as soon as I could talk, and when I was
seven I was in my first musical with a solo. I wrote songs in middle school but
didn’t tell anyone because I was already a ‘weird girl’ and didn’t want to make
myself a bigger target– then I went to high school and met my friend Bella. Her
dad is in the music industry and was working with huge acts in the country
industry at the time, and her love of music and songwriting made me realize
that I wasn’t a total odd ball. There were other people like me! yay! We had a
notebook that we passed back and forth in between classes filled with lyrics
and us fixing each others songs and helping each other with ideas and advice– I
think that’s when I really started to grow and realize that I could do what I
loved and not worry about what everyone else thought.
Do you play any instruments?
I do! I play the violin/fiddle, guitar, and piano and am currently
teaching myself the banjo, ukulele, harmonica, and mandolin.
Did you teach yourself?
I was classically trained in
violin for 9 years, and took on/off piano lessons for about 6 or 7 years.
Because violin is such a difficult instrument to play, it was SO easy to teach
myself other stringed instruments like the guitar. I’m still teaching myself
things on the banjo, ukulele, harmonica, and mandolin and love learning new
stuff everyday.
I grew singing Shania Twain
and Martina McBride all.the.time. – I will always love those artists. Also, I’d
be lying if I didn’t throw Taylor Swift into the mix – she’s just a powerhouse
and represents women in the industry so well.
Where do you get inspiration to write
your songs?
A lot of my inspiration comes
from situations I’ve been through, or situations that my best friends have been
through – typical. I’m always honest with my lyrics, but the thing that I love
the most about being a songwriter is that you can be whoever you want to be.
Favorite songs you have
written/co-written?
What about 18 from my last EP is a song that will always be close to my
heart. It’s extremely personal and it’s kind of my way of giving my younger
friends, family, and fans advice on not growing up too fast.
Also, a song called Enemies
that I wrote with my friend Emily Waynt is a favorite. Right now, everyone
is rooting for a girl takeover in country music, but there are some girls that
you run into that are on their own team, and use you to social climb, and those
people just don’t really sit right with us, so we wrote a song about it! It’s
SO sassy. Hopefully I’ll release it soon!
What moment in your music career
is your favorite so far?
I was given the opportunity to tour the UK last summer and I
started singing one of my songs, and every single person started singing it
with me. That was a surreal moment. I ended the tour in London, and we all
huddled in a circle and I thanked everyone for travelling to see me, and for
singing along to songs that I had written in some of the hardest times of my
life. That’s a favorite. For sure.
Finish this sentence...if I could
write a song for or with anyone I would choose______.
For: Danielle Bradbery With: Hillary Lindsay
Finish this sentence...if I could
sing a song with anyone I would choose______.
JAMES TAYLOR.
Where do you see yourself in a year? 5
years?
In a year, I’ll be in my last
semester as a college student – I want to graduate with honors, so I’m really
focusing on that right now. I would love to snag a pub deal in 2015 if that’s
in the cards for me. In 5 years, maybe I’ll be married or engaged, but either
way, I hope to be touring and hugging lots of fans – whether that’s opening for
someone, or headlining my own tour. I just want to be doing what I love, and
I’ll do whatever it takes to get me there.
If I wasn't a singer/songwriter I
would be...
LORD, I don’t even know! If I wasn’t a songwriting major, I
would have gone to college undeclared, so who knows what I’d be studying.
I'm afraid of ______.
elevators
I never get tired of_______.
Breakfast food. I think it’s my love language if we’re being
honest here.
Okay, I always ask people to tell me
one thing about themselves that is random or strange that most people don’t
know!
I used to live and
breathe sports. I played basketball & softball for 9 years, ran
cross-country, played soccer, and swam. You name it, I probably played it,
haha! I was on two Varsity teams in high school, but then decided music would
make me happier in the long run, so I opted for that route in college.
I N H A L E T H E E A R C A N D Y
C O N N E C T
twitter || fb || insta || web
Purchase Southern Crazy EP here:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/southern-crazy-ep-ep/id892876983
I N H A L E T H E E A R C A N D Y
twitter || fb || insta || web