Austin, Texas-based singer, songwriter, guitar player who earlier this year signed a multi-year co-publishing deal with BMG Music. Last September she released an acoustic EP of original songs but she is also part of a trio whose debut EP was reviewed by Rolling Stone. Both she, as a solo artist, and her trio – which is called Nobody’s Girl – were selected as an official performer for South By Southwest. She also was awarded a full scholarship by the Buddy Holly Educational Foundation.
"Ever since I signed my pub(lishing) deal I've been getting just constant texts from, like, musician and songwriter friends going, like, 'When are you moving to Nashville'?"
"I kind of have, like, a love/hate relationship with Nashville 'cause it makes you work for it. It's a hard town but it can also be a really rewarding town. There's obviously a lot more opportunity there than a lot of other places for musicians."
"Somebody told me once, but I thought this was good advice, that, like, when most of my work is in another town, say Nashville or L.A. or New York, then, like, that's the time to move there, is when I'm spending so much time there anyway."
"Some years it felt like a waste of time. Some years it just felt like you're just schmoozing for a couple hours with people who are all going to forget you by the next day and you follow up on the business cards and call it a year and then go back to playing your gigs."
"I think there were just people in the wings that believed in me and wanted to take a shot and wanted to give me a chance, but were just sort of waiting for an opening."
"It's just this long game of making friends and showing up and just consistently, like, proving yourself and just making yourself available for those opportunities."
"The seeds that you're planting and the relationships that you're cultivating and the friendships that you have, like, those are the things that are going to support you in years to come if you, kind of, give yourself a proven track record."
"The owners of the studio and the label happened to be there the next day - they aren't always there, it's kind of they're there sometimes - and they happened to be there and so, like, the next morning we just played them all these songs we'd written, with the three-part harmony, and it was pretty immediate. They just, a few days later they offered us a record deal."
"You just never know. It might be three people in the audience, but, one of them might become a really good friend... So... you don't know who's there and you always gotta play a good show, even if it's just two or three people."
"The point is getting into this contest and then getting to hang out at Kerrville with, like, 30 of your peers who are incredible songwriters who are going to be your friends for the next couple decades and your co-writers and people that you trade gigs with and stay on their couches. So, that's, like, the real value of it. That and just kind of being around all these great songwriters. It just soaks into your skin. And, like, you always write something when you come home. And you always write something when you're out there."
"I made a point not to learn anybody's last names because I would've been too intimidated to write with anybody and that served me well 'cause I knew I had to hang out with them as people and not as, like, these songwriting gods, so, I tried really hard not to learn anyone's last names or know why they were important until the end of the week."
"In terms of just making art, I think anything that keeps you from creating stuff is bad."
"I used to drive for Uber and Lyft when I wasn't on tour when I didn't have any shows, like on a Monday or whatever in Austin I'd be driving for Uber and Lyft. So I took the stickers off my car and it sort of supplemented that income."
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