Photo courtesy of Danica Robinson

Since I was a kid, being creative was always a meditative thing for me. Concentrating on something I was making gave me focus and made me feel present. I would zone out and draw these characters, taking time to get every line right. It made me feel really good to make something from nothing.

I taught myself guitar when I was about 15 years old. I would play covers of my favorite songs at the time and that’s how I learned some basic chords. Once I started that, playing music instantly became part of my life. I always kind of felt out of place in my high school years, so music became a light and fun place for me to escape to when I was daunted by my hormonal teenage self.

My mom used to read my siblings and I all her poems from her college years. She had boxes filled with yellow-lined paper pads that she had dated and spilled her experiences onto. I will never forget the sparkle she had in her eye as she read them out loud to us. She was instantly taken back to a memory or a time in her younger years. Sometimes she would even shed a tear. It made me emotional to see her so transported.

This is when I realized how powerful writing can be. I was so inspired by my mom and how she expressed herself in such a simple and personal way. She wrote about experiences and feelings that I had not yet known at the time because I was just a kid but they still had the power to affect me. The fist song I put together was one of these poems that my mom had written. I put some chords to it and sang a melody and just like that a song was made. Once I realized I could make original songs, something clicked and it felt like my life had begun.

I moved to New York City when I was 17. At that point, songwriting was a part of my life. With more life experiences living in a new city and meeting so many different people, I had so much more to write about. I felt energized and inspired by the city. I started meeting other people who play music or write songs. There was so much to learn from the experiences I was having and the people I was meeting. I felt like a sponge, taking in as much as I could while at the same time trying not to overflow.

I’m a very sensitive person, so I think I was always going to need a creative outlet. The more I grew, the more vulnerable I was able to be. The more honest I became with myself, the more honest I became in my lyrics. This was around the time that I started to feel like music was my calling. About a year ago I connected with my producer, John Eatherly. We had an instant music connection and songs seemed to flow out of us effortlessly. We're always talking about how music is magical. I’m not a religious person or anything, but when melodies are created and songs come together so naturally, it almost feels like they’re given to us from something higher. Something I can't really describe. But it’s something like magic.