How has your creative process evolved over the years?
The first answer to this is by finally honoring and acknowledging my creativity. For quite a long time I was so much about classical technique and studying the way the masters performed and trained, that I really don’t think I was being creative at all. It actually made me afraid of being creative. The stakes of failure are so high in classical music that I was literally terrified of putting MY ideas out there. It took a lot of life, challenges, and resilience to finally be present in my own creativity. Now, I am most organically creative when I have a ton of space and quiet… and productive in my creativity when there’s a pressing deadline. Not really an in-between, but you kind of need both the organic with the productive for anything to actually happen. I find most of my melodies and arrangement ideas come to me when I’m walking, gardening, or staring at a fire pit outside at night with all that amazing stillness around me. That’s when they come organically and I’m not expecting it. Also, sometimes in the middle of the night nursing my son. I have tons of notes in my phone with song lyrics. Again, it’s being present and still.
When it comes to productivity in that creativity, I need a deadline. During the recording of this album I was pregnant and then in the 4th trimester with my son after he was born. I had a last- minute opportunity to record my original Good and True for a documentary which meant I had to make the most out of little time. So, the horn tracks for Good and True and I’ll Fly Away were done in 10-minute-power sessions at the piano with manic scribble on paper. I ended up really loving those tracks too!
Who or what has been inspiring your music lately?
I don’t think I can answer this without giving attention to the influences of my past, because they are always present in everything I do. Growing up I was always hearing country and blue grass around me. My granny would hum and sing mountain music and Baptist hymns. I don’t remember really tuning in to that when it was happening but I would say it soaked in. I fell in love with Beethoven, Rachmaninoff, and Chopin when I was about 9 years old. Prior to that I loved listening to motown, classic rock, 50s and 60s… pretty much whatever grownups were listening to. I don’t think I ever fit in with my age. The performers that influenced me were Dolly Parton and Tori Amos as vocalists, Julie Landsman, Gail Williams, and Nancy Fako as horn players, and any composer from the romantic era. It wasn’t until adulthood, after hearing a traditional blue grass album of Dolly’s, that something just kind of snapped into place. At that point, tracking down the mountain music of my childhood became a little bit of an obsession. I highly recommend listening to Sheila Kay Adams. She is as traditional and pure mountain as it gets. My family came from the same area in North Carolina (Blue Ridge and Appalachians). The Secret Sisters are really on my mind currently… but in general, my influences are incredibly broad. Folk, country, pop, jazz, classical, even hip hop peaks my interest! Whenever an artist is incredibly honest and vulnerable, I’m hooked.
If you could collaborate with any artist, living or dead, who would it be and why?
There are two incredibly influential artists that dominate my playlist that I would just lose my mind to collaborate with. Rhiannon Giddens and Sarah Bareilles are incredibly passionate and skilled songwriters with a gift for melody and story telling. Plus, their voices are just beyond perfection. Each of them has stirred my soul in so many ways and been a comfort in both dark times, and when I want to dance like no one’s watching. They’re also absolute lady bosses that just keep me motivated and in awe at the same time. Such authentic artists. I would love to hear our voices together, add horn to their vibe, and honestly, just be in the room for some songwriting.
What’s a piece of advice you wish you had received earlier in your career?
I would tell myself to be braver, sooner. To throw away my checklist, my expectations, my “timeline,” and take more chances. Some think going after a career in orchestral performance is enough of a chance… and it is. But I also placed too much fear and energy into making it my validation of success. I suppressed what made me unique, authentic, and special in favor of a goal that defined me by other’s expectations. I would tell myself to prioritize creating. I would tell myself to prioritize my journey of discovery in that process to get to my most authentic voice, in all its forms. Meaning as a vocalist, pianist, hornist, songwriter, arranger. I would tell myself to nurture my curiosity.
What’s next for you—any exciting projects or goals on the horizon?
I am so excited! My record label, Parma Recordings, just informed me they chose my album to submit for Grammy consideration. It is officially submitted and the campaign for a nomination is ON! It is so validating they believed in my album enough to be one of their curated choices. It is competitive to get submitted by them out of all the projects they produce every year. I am also working with Vox Novus again on a commissioning call for his “Fifteen Minutes of Fame” project on the theme of Heroines. I am in the process of choosing the final 15 selections as we speak! And, as always, still writing and arranging. I have about 75% of an album of original folk songs ready for workshopping and experimenting with new instrument combinations, and sound concepts. I just can’t stop exploring right now!