Singer, songwriter, guitar player currently working towards her next single release. She is one of the busiest performers in this area, having averaged 334 bookings a year over 2021, 2022, and 2023. In the leadup to this interview she had back-to-back weeks of performing six out of seven days. She has performed at notable venues and events from the Hard Rock here in Tampa to The Bitter End in New York City to the House of Blues in Anaheim, California, where she also played at the massive NAMM Show. Plus, she has been featured at songwriters festivals along the way as well. Last September she started a “Songwriter Diaries” vlog series that she has been publishing on her YouTube channel and talks about during this interview. She was a guest on this show way back on Episode 279.
“I feel like I got so caught up with trying to write a hit song and writing things that just didn't feel like they fit my personality and just trying to please other people and what other people thought I should be.”
“Theodora is the wife of Justinian, an emperor in the Byzantine era. And so, I remember learning about her. For some reason, she just stuck out to me. She's kind of like, in my mind, one of the first women's rights activists. She did a lot during her time. And for some reason, it just popped in my head, Theodora. And I got this feeling of women warrior kind of thing. And … I just put it all together.”
“My aunt is friends with someone who works at The Bitter End. And she shared a video of me playing guitar and singing. That person reached out to her and said, ‘Hey, I'd like to get, is that your niece?
I'd like to get her at The Bitter End’.”
“I'm walking around with my guitar on my back and we're just kind of killing time before our flight and a producer walks up to me, she says, ‘Hey, I'm one of the producers for Comedy Central Daily Show. We're doing a segment with Michelle Wolf where we're going to just talk to women on the street and would you like to be a part of it?’ And I said, ‘Absolutely’ because why would you say no to something like that? … And they said, ‘Oh, you have a guitar, so why don't you play a song?’ … And as I'm setting everything up, as I'm standing there waiting for them to get the camera set up, Jon Stewart himself walks up and says hello.”
“He lays down a beat and then he adds bass and then he goes in with the keys because he's a really talented musician. He knows theory really well. And then he starts adding stuff on the keyboards and then he'll take my guitar and add some stuff and I'm responsible for melodies and lyrics. And it's been so nice just focusing on that. But it's been a challenge, a good challenge because I'm so used to writing songs in an organized way… this will be a good writing exercise for me.”
“A lot of these places I've been playing at for so long that I honestly, they feel like family … there's a few places that I walk into where I'm there every single week and I walk in and it's the same regulars, it's the same bartenders, it's like Cheers – where everybody knows your name.”
“I used to be a very shy, reserved person, I had a few really close friends, but music has gotten me to the point where I have just such a great support system.”
“I thought it was a full-blown hemorrhage. When I went back to the ENT he said, ‘Well, nothing,’ he said, ‘You were close to hemorrhaging, but you just had a lot of really bad swelling and nodes… if you just do, 30 days of complete vocal rest, you should be fine.”
“It's been a lot easier for me to handle all of this since I've been taking better care of myself, going to the gym, eating right, making sure to drink at least two to three liters of water a day and just taking my vitamins.”
“Songwriting… I've always written straight from the heart. I've always written about whatever is going on in my head, things that I'm scared of, things that I'm insecure about. And each song is like peaking into my diary.”
“As a society we're kind of just really on edge and everyone seems to be shouting but no one's listening.”
“Back to You”
“Foot in Mouth”