Garrett Hazen

Catch up with singer-songwriter Garrett Hazen and listen to his new single "Some Brutal Love" off his forthcoming debut solo EP.

What would you say first got you interested in music and songwriting?

Garrett: I first got interested in music from a guitar teacher I had back when I was in 5th grade; he started showing me a lot of Nirvana and Radiohead and Led Zeppelin and, pretty much from that point, I just really started getting invested in music. As I grew up I got involved with jazz and playing with different groups in high school and forming different bands. But I would say my interest in songwriting really started a little more recently. As I started to work with Spencer Riley, the producer on this single that came out and on the EP that I'll be releasing soon, I started recording guitars on his record and our workflow was pretty natural so we just started to write some music together.

Do you remember the first song you wrote that you were happy with?

The first song that we wrote was actually one that we'll be releasing on this new EP that I'll be dropping and it's called "Can't". I remember we were listening a lot to artists like Blake Mills, Led Zeppelin, Nirvana, Radiohead and stuff like that and I came up with this guitar line that was very Blake Mills-ish and we ended up just writing a song around it. I was really happy with it and it was a great feeling.

Which other musicians would you say you've been influenced?

Blake Mills is one. In my earlier years I was really influenced by, as I mentioned, Radiohead and Led Zeppelin. I've also just really engaged with jazz music throughout my life, artists like Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, and Jim Hall; I love all that kind of stuff. Recently I've really liked artists like Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros and folksier things like Hozier.

If you were going to make a playlist for your fans, what are a few songs you would have to include?

I think I would put, just for the sake of listening to it, "Someday My Prince Will Come" by Miles Davis, I love that song. That doesn't speak too much to my sound, but it speaks a lot to who I am as a person and the music I've engaged with early on in my life. I would say "Whole Lotta Love" by Led Zeppelin is pretty big and that was very foundational to me. Oh, and "Gimme Something Good" by Ryan Adams is a song I really like.

Is there an artist you'd recommend everyone take a listen to?

Blake Mills is probably the number one. He's produced a lot of records that people have probably heard but as far as his own original music, it's not as widely spread as some of the stuff that he's produced but I think his artistry is unreal.

Do you have a favorite place to get coffee or lunch?

Yeah, I live up in Sherman Oaks and I just moved there so I'm trying to vibe out the area a little bit but one of my favorite coffee shops is Intelligentsia, I love that coffee shop. There's a great lunch place in our area called Crave Café that I really like too - and they have great coffee.

If you had to pick, would you choose cats or dogs?

Definitely dogs! 150% dogs.

Otis Redding or Sam Cooke?

Otis Redding.

Cold War Kids or Hozier?

Oh man. I would say Cold War Kids.

Kid Cudi or Drake?

Kid Cudi.

Beyonce or Taylor Swift?

Beyonce, probably.

How would you describe your sound to someone who hadn't heard your music?

I would describe it as raw and a little bit broken down. I think a lot of music today is very influenced by '80s sounds and certain pop things and chorus and guitar and stuff and I don't think that's this sound, this sound is very focused on raw and natural sounds and certain gritty sounds. I would describe it like that and raw and natural are the two big words that I would use.

What were your inspirations behind your new single "Some Brutal Love"?

I was inspired by a lot of those rock sounds and a movement from a lot more processed sounds with big delays and choruses and a lot of effects like that; I was interested more in just overdriving my guitar through [laughs] an old, crappy, Fender amp that I've had for a long time. As far as the sound of it, that's really what I was influenced by. Lyrically, I would say I've been influenced by my experience growing up in Orange County in LA and interested in what my relationships have become and certain frustrations I've had with myself in experiencing what it's like to be in the music industry, both as a player and now as an artist. I'd say that that's what it's about.

Could you tell us more about this upcoming EP and what we can expect to hear?

We'll be releasing soon the date in which I'll do my EP release show and release the EP. As far as what they can expect to hear, I think "Some Brutal Love" is a pretty good taste of what they can expect. I think that's probably all I want to say about that [laughs].

Would you say you've got a favorite song from this EP?

Yeah, there's definitely a favorite song. I won't give away the name of it yet but I've played it at a couple of shows, so if people want to hear it before the EP release they can come out to one of my shows. In that song, I think I dive a little bit deeper into those kinds of relationships that I mentioned previously and there's definitely one song in the EP that I think I put a little bit more of myself into and it was a little bit less of an analysis of my outside world and maybe a little bit more of an analysis about myself.

How would you sum up this EP in one sentence?

This EP is focused on the raw and the natural, both in emotion and sound.

What do you hope your listeners are able to take away from your music?

I would hope that people can listen to my music and that it wouldn't just be a fleeting moment or something that's just caught up in the noise on a playlist or something, but I hope that they would actually engage with it and respond to it with some sort of interest; whether it be emotionally engaging or just being interested in even the sounds that we created. I hope that people can react to it in a way that would be substantial.

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Omar Alhindi

Catch up with singer-songwriter Omar Alhindi, listen to his new single "Lust" off his album Bedhead Part 1, out now, and look for much more to come soon. Read more about Omar in our last interview here.

Tell me what you've been up to since we last spoke, since you released the Back To Me EP.

Omar: Oh my God, is that the last time we talked? [Laughs] Let's see. I've shot various music videos, one of them just hit a million views two days ago which I'm pretty excited about, it's my "My Intentions" music video. I realized an album called Bedhead Part 1 and I'm promoting that right now as well as trying to make a music video for every single song off the album; just like full ideas, more-so than big production videos, it's going to be like, 'oh that's a cool idea, it's artistic'. I've been talking about a reality TV show with a producer so that's in the works right now and I'm getting calls from a director for a movie so I'm looking forward to all of that and hoping that comes through. Just a lot. I've been keeping myself busy. I'm in college right now and I have a job with my parents - they hired me - and I don't really go anymore [laughs] but I used to go all the time. I've just kept myself busy with that and, right now, my focus is 100% on my music so I'm slowly getting away from my normal life to try and focus on that.

Is there a musician that you're hooked on now?

Okay. My favorite artist at the moment is John Bellion. He's just phenomenal. Lyrically he's really cool, I like what he writes about. The way he produces his songs and structures everything, he's just amazing. I'm a big fan.

Do you have a guilty pleasure song?

[Laughs] I'm a big fan of this show called Adventure Time on Cartoon Network and I'll be listening to this song Marceline's mom's song "Everything Stays". I really like it and I leave it on loop when I do stuff, it's kind of funny [laughs].

If you were to make a playlist that you shared with your fans, what are a few songs you'd have to add to that?

Ooh, I'd have to add John Bellion. I'd want them to listen to songs that are kind of similar to mine so I'd probably add in covers as well like from Conor Maynard. Then there's these two guys that are doing really well right now, William Singe and another guy that he always collabs with. Probably people like that around my age group who are doing similar styles of music. I can't tell you specifically because I don't listen to a lot of music, surprisingly, but yeah.

Do you have a favorite place to get coffee or lunch?

I'd say my favorite place to go out for lunch is just Panda Express, to be honest. The food is great - even though it's not great - and they're very generous with their servings. I'm not a big fan of coffee so I like to make my coffee at home.

Dogs or cats?

Oh, it's so hard. That's such a hard question because I like cats a lot because they're independent and you don't have to worry about them, they just want to cuddle up with you, but dogs are just so much more fun. But they need your attention and they need to be taken out to the bathroom and constantly and what animals eats like that?? [Laughs] I don't know. I think, just because I don't like to go 100% percent out of my way, it's probably gotta be cats. They're independent.

Kendrick Lamar or Drake?

Kendrick. I really like Drake and the way that he writes his stuff, but Kendrick is more political and I really like what he's doing with his flows; he's just unique. There's a million and ten Drakes right now.

Adele or Beyonce?

To be honest, if it's the old Beyonce I prefer Beyonce but Adele 100% now.

Panic! At the Disco or Twenty One Pilots?

Oh, depends on the song. I grew up with Panic! At The Disco and Twenty One Pilots is pretty new so I'd probably have to... I don't know! I like both, I've just gotta say both.

How does your sound now compare to your previous releases?

Bedhead Part 1 I wrote at the same time I wrote my EP Back To Me. Literally, the EP was just four songs that I wrote for the album that we decided to release early because we had to start to get a buzz and they just wanted to put that out so we had something. As far as Bedhead Part 1, it's pretty similar in that childish stage because I was around 15/16 at the time except for one song which is "Lust" which I wrote in 2015. It's a very sensual song and it has the newest sound to it and it changed the whole idea of where I wanted to go with my sound. Right now I'm working on a mixtape and I'm really looking forward to it; every body that's listened to it has really liked it. There's a couple songs on it that I think are going to be kind of shocking for people to listen to. One of them is called "Daddy's Angel" and it's very graphic in the sense that it's a very visual story and it's kind of like, "whoa, what the heck? Are you okay, Omar?". [Laughs] I've literally had people go, "are you okay? What's going on? Talk to me," but it's just a story. Then I have one that's more relaxed and I'm just honest with my music, more-so now than I was back then. That's who I was back then, but I always wanted to portray myself with this image and now it's like, well, I don't want to look like anything I'm not, this is how I really am. This is how I've been. It's hard to explain, you have to listen to it when it comes out so get ready [laughs].

What were your inspirations behind your new single "Lust"?

It's actually kind of funny. I wrote that with my friend Joe. He turned on some bedroom lights - those Christmas lights that are white - in his room and it's kind of funny because we're just two dudes but we totally have a bromance and so he set up those lights and he lit those candles and turned on incense so he had it all set up. Then his mom called him over and so he left the room and I had this room to myself and he had played the first chord on the guitar and had been like, "is this a chord?" and I was like, "nah, but we can make it one". So I altered it and wrote a song in the fifteen minutes that he was away. He came back and I was like, "yo, check this out," and he was like, "you already wrote!". I sang it and he was like, "bro, that's your best song yet". It's just a sensual song and I wanted to write something different than the rest of the album. I was 19 at the time and I had just turned 19 and I was like, "yo, I really just want to branch out from all this kid stuff that I have been doing and I want to be viewed as an adult," and this is a statement, in a sense. It was never about an actual situation, it was just like lust in general. If I lust for somebody, this is what I want to do with them, I guess maybe. I went into detail in the song and it's not too graphic, but it's pretty graphic.

Could you tell us more about Bedhead Part 1?

Bedhead is like a pop R&B love story where it's not even about a love story, the whole central theme is 'break-up'. Break-up/make-up, good life/bad life. No matter what, it's about love in that sense. Except for "Stay Strong" which was supposed to be a bonus track but I was like, "no". It's a song that I wrote for my grandma so I was like, "let's just put it in there as one of the songs". It's just relatable. When you listen to it you're like, "yeah, I've been heartbroken before, that's real, I wish this worked out or I'm glad this didn't work out". When you're in love with somebody like in "Neverland", it's like, "let's go to Neverland, let's fly away there so we can stay young and by ourselves forever". It's just about love for me.

You're working on the mixtape now but are you also going to release a Bedhead Part 2?

Yeah, I'm going to releasing this mixtape before Bedhead Part 2. Within the next month I'm going to start releasing songs one at a time and the music videos that go with them. The first one I'm going to shoot for the mixtape is called "Daddy's Angel" and it's the dark graphic one that I talked about and it's going to be crazy. It's just going to be crazy and I'm so excited to shoot it. I think it's going to get a crazy reaction from all my friends and family and fans, so I'm looking forward to it.

Would you say you have a favorite track from either Bedhead Part 1 or the mixtape?

Off Bedhead it's going to be "Lust" but off both projects together, I don't know. There's a song called "Reflect" where it's literally just a full four minutes of me rapping and I'm not a rapper but I'm rapping and I'm talking crap about myself and my habits and it's one of the lows that I really went through and I like how it came out. It's probably my favorite just because I feel so honest on it and the fact that I'm telling my fans that I'm not doing this and I'm not as brave as I thought I'd be because this shit's hard. It's just different. I'm excited about it because, like I said, it's completely different. There's no hook, I'm just literally rapping. It's maybe not going to be other people's favorites, but I enjoy it - not to sound conceited or anything! [Laughs]

How would you sum up the new mixtape in one sentence?

The mixtape is honest. [Laughs] It's different, it's honest, it's very genuine.

What do you hope listeners are able to take away from your music?

I'm hoping that they get to know who I am. More-so than relating to my music or anything like that, I want them to know me and I want them to fall in love with me - not in that "oh my God" way, but in that 'this guy is real, I respect him as an artist and a person'. Growing up in the industry, I always got made fun of based on the kind of music I was doing and every body around me was doing stuff and getting somewhere with it - although none of them have gotten anywhere with it - and it's crazy. My whole goal when I was younger was, 'I wanna show you, you're gonna see how well I do,' and until I'm very successful I can't really say that. And I wanna be better than I was three years ago and I'm always reaching for, like, "ten years from now, how good am I going to be?" and I want to be better than him today.

Is there anything you want to add?

Make sure to follow me on my social media @wewantomar on my Instagram and Twitter; my Facebook is omarmusicx, give that a like, it really helps me out. If you guys ever get a chance, check out Bedhead Part 1 and get ready for the mixtape. I love you guys.

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Graham Elliot

Catch up with singer-songwriter Graham Elliot and listen to his latest single "Psycho", out now.

What got you interested in music and in songwriting?

Graham: This starts way back. I used to sing with my mom when I was a little kid and I guess that's where the very original part started. I formed my first band in high school with a couple kids from my P.E. class and we played cover songs - like Red Hot Chili Peppers covers - out in the quad [laughs] after high school rallies. Over the years of high school, we started getting more serious and by the end of high school we were playing local venues and sold a couple out actually. Then I had to go off to college so I was like, "well, I'm not going to stop doing music," so I started another band, did that for a couple years. Then I was like, wait, hold on [laughs] I want to do music for the rest of my life as a professional musician and I was talking to the guys in my band and they were like, "we're going to be engineers and defense contractors," and that kind of thing. I was like, "oh, okay, well, I want to be a musician," so I went solo and that's how the Graham Elliot thing started.

Do you remember the first song you wrote?

Ooh, let's see. Yeah, actually I do [laughs]. It would have been 2008/2009 and I wrote a song called "Beach Ball". It was called "Beach Ball" because [laughs] when we were writing it, we were on a Mac and we were recording it and it turns into a beach ball thing when it gets stuck loading, so we called it "Beach Ball" [laughs]. There was no 'beach ball' in the lyrics, that was the only reason. That was the first song that I think I wrote.

Which musicians were you influenced by?

Back in the day, the first band that I called my own - that wasn't just my parents' music - was the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I listened to a lot of '90s alt-rock stuff to start with but since then my tastes have really shifted. I still love the Red Hot Chili Peppers, but nowadays I listen to a lot of '80s-influenced pop/funk stuff. I love Bruno Mars, of course. Mayer Hawthorne is one of my favorites - sometimes I say Mayer Hawthorne and people are like "who?" and I'm like, "you have to listen to Mayer Hawthorne!" 'cause he's awesome. I like Kendrick Lamar and the way he tells really intricate stories through his music. I like a lot of different genres. I'm actually really into Snakehips right now, too. They're a little more on the electronic side but they still have that funky vibe going for them. There's this new guy called Midas Hutch and I want to give him a shout out; he just came out - at least I heard about him - only this past summer and this guy is killing it. He's making '80s-influenced stuff and it sounds really, really cool, so that's one of my more contemporary influences. I could go on all day about this [laughs].

If you had to pick a favorite artist, who would that be?

Oh, that's tough. I'm going to say Mayer Hawthorne actually. I just keep coming back to Mayer Hawthorne. I discovered Mayer Hawthorne in 2012; I used to work at Hollister and he had this song called "A Long Time" and it would play every hour and 20 minutes when the playlist would loop in Hollister [laughs] and I would hear his song and I was like, "what is this?" and I wasn't allowed to pull my phone out while I was working, so I just had to memorize the lyrics so that I could go home and Google it [laughs]. So that's how I discovered him and I've been listening to him ever since; I think I've seen him 3/4 times now in different places. He's a big influence on me, for sure.

Which words would you use to describe your own sound?

I call it '80s-influenced pop. It's '80s pop mixed with modern pop sounds because I get a lot of influence too from older bands like the Commodores or Kool & The Gang. I don't know who isn't influenced by Michael Jackson, but Michael Jackson, of course. So I love those '80s sounds and vintage synths that they used and the way they write. I'm also trying to bring a fresh flavor to it with all of the new technology that we have now and listening to pop music and weaving that into the sound, as well. I'm trying to strike a balance between nostalgia and a new hit, I guess [laughs].

What were your inspirations behind your new single "Psycho"?

"Psycho" is an interesting song because I'm actually very political: I'm a very political person and my Facebook is filled with political things [laughs] and I like to go out and campaign for things when I see a cause that I think deserves attention and whatnot. Way back in the day when I was listening to Red Hot Chili Peppers, another band that I was listening to at the same time was Rage Against The Machine and I really loved how they were able to bring politics into their music and still make really good music. I've wanted to do that with my music for a long time, but I always felt that it would be corny if I did it because the political things that I was in interested in or that were catching my mind weren't really things that immediately spark a strong emotion, they were more intellectually centered; I think the best songs come from emotion, not from, "oh, this one tariff is going to do such and such," like how are you going to write a song about that? Then, of course, Donald Trump gets elected and I was in the middle of writing this song and I already had the hook and everything - [singing] "psycho, psycho" - and I was reading the lyrics that I already had and I was like, "holy cow, this is Donald Trump, this song is Donald Trump". I'm just reading through the lyrics and as I went to finish the song I just wove more and more of that in. I wanted to write from a new perspective because YG & Nipsey Hussle did the Fuck Donald Trump song, "FDT", so they already did that and I was like, "okay, I'm not just going to do that," and I wanted to do it from a different perspective. I was thinking, there have to be people who believed everything that Trump said and they voted for him and now they see what the actual effects of that are and that he flops on things that they totally thought he was going to hold his promises on and back-stabs them and his voters and I was thinking, that's an angle a lot of people aren't looking at; they're looking at the voters that thought he'd bring back their jobs and they're saying, "you're stupid, screw you, you screwed up," and I'm like, no, we shouldn't be saying that. We should be empathizing with the idea that - if they voted for him because they're racist, that's one thing - but if they voted for him because they genuinely thought that he was going to save their family and their jobs, I'm not going to laugh at them! The song is from this perspective of someone like that who voted for him and then is finding out as time goes on that it was probably not the best decision [laughs].

What do you think the role of music is going to be under this administration for the next few years?

I think that's a really good question and it's something I've been thinking about a lot. As a musician, I struggle with music as a career and how it intersects with my desire to really do something in the world to make the world a better place; because a lot of people see music as just entertainment and you're not really doing much and I'm like, there has to be a way to use music in conjunction with activism and direct action to actually make things happen. I'm slowly learning myself how exactly to make that work. I think that the main way that this will happen is to give voice to things that people are feeling, but don't necessarily know how to articulate. I think it's artists' jobs to sit and think a lot about these issues in and out and really find something that they feel strongly about and that other people are feeling strongly about and really articulate it in a way that brings it to the forefront and makes it very understandable and emotionally impactful.

Are you planning to release an album or EP with "Midwest Muse" and "Psycho"?

I don't think so. The way that I write is very encapsulated from song to song. A lot of people will write and do a story that spans an entire album; I find that, unless I have something really complex and really deep that I'm writing about and that's very difficult to explain, generally I'm able to condense what I'm saying and the message I want to get out in a song. And I take that as a challenge, to take a complex issue and boil it down while still keeping as much of the nuances as possible in the song. For the way I write, I think I'm just going to be releasing singles for the foreseeable future, but who knows? There might be a point where I'm like, "you know what, I should release a politically motivated EP," [laughs] and just do that. I'm producing tons of music right now and half of it, I don't even know what I'm going to do with it, so who knows? There's plenty of material, it might end up in an EP or it might not, but what I'm trying to do right now is release about a song a month just to keep things coming out there and keep myself active and creative. There's definitely going to be continuous content coming out.

"Midwest Muse" and "Psycho" are so different, is that eclectic style indicative of what we can expect to hear from you coming up?

Yeah [laughs] it's funny you say that, because I think "Midwest Muse" and "Psycho" are 2 of the most similar songs that I've written and yet they're still very different [laughs]. Basically the thread that I'm trying to keep through all of my music that I release as a solo artist is this '80s-influenced pop feel. Most of the stuff is going to be danceable, upbeat, life-of-the-party type music. There'll be a couple low-key, R&B type things too that will be coming out. Yeah, I think it's going to be eclectic [laughs]. I always try to put myself in a lane and I always end up swerving out of it; that may not be the best from a marketing stand point, but as an artist, sometimes you've just gotta do what you gotta do [laughs].

What do you hope listeners are able to take away from your music?

I think that the answer to that question is going to be different for every single song, and I think that's really where the eclectic-ness comes in, is that the message is different for every song. To speak on the songs that I have out right now, with "Midwest Muse", I took this trip to Chicago and met these people and for that song I really just wanted to paint the picture and convey the image and the feeling and the entire experience of being there at the music festival and then meeting people from Chicago who really wanted to come to California and just thinking about that. I want to draw people into that experience with that song. Now with "Psycho" there's a little bit of a different thing going on; I know that a lot of people are just going to listen to the song and they're going to think, "oh this is a cool beat and it's danceable so I'll listen to it," and then there's a smaller percentage that are going to listen to the lyrics and actually dig into it. I like to write in layers like that where there's one layer that just hits your ear nicely and then there's another layer if you want to dig a little deeper and hopefully, for the people that dig a little deeper into "Psycho", they'll understand the lyrics and think about the issues that we're facing in a slightly different light than maybe they've heard before.

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Laura Saggers

Catch up with singer-songwriter Laura Saggers and listen to her single "Surrender" off her upcoming album Chasing Dreams.

What got you interested in music?

Laura: I would say my first encounter was My parents had a friend who played classical piano hardcore and every time I'd go over to her house for babysitting I'd just watch the piano mesmerized by her and she was always training, training, training. I got on the piano and I was like, "I wanna try it," when I was like 3. Then one day I had a tantrum until I got my own piano. They rented a keyboard for me and my parents were like, "no, it's just going to be a stage, there's no one musical in the family, this is going to be something you're having a tantrum about" and then I wouldn't come off the piano and I wouldn't go to bed. I learned "Chopsticks" in a day and they were like, "oh, maybe this isn't a stage". So we got a piano teacher who was this crazy, Russian, ridiculously hardcore teacher who scared the bejeebies out of me but made me work really hard and I've never given up the piano since then. I started singing when I was 18, played some emo music and heavy metal and was like, "oh yeah, let's do that". Then I realized it's terrible for your voice and that I should start singing properly.

Do you remember the first song you wrote that you were happy with?

The first song? I don't remember the name of it. I remember I started writing when I was like 13/14 about some love I'm sure I had at the time I was also really into blues and jazz and I started writing a bunch of blues songs. The first song I was happy with was probably one that I wrote with a band I was in back home in England which is a very different style from what I do now, but I really enjoyed it, it was called "All I Needed". It got put onto a Playstation game and it was the first time I heard my own music being played on something else that wasn't in band practice, but actually hearing it on an actual product. It kind of confirmed that we were decent since someone else picked up the music and put it on their product. 

Which musicians have you been influenced by?

It's been changing throughout the course of all my years I guess. When I was really little, it was all the Disney music because that's what I was first exposed to. My parents were really into the jazz standards like Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Dean Martin, all that stuff. My dad was a huge lover of the '80s pop like George Michael, Sting, Elton John, Billy Joel. All the great piano players of that time, I would just listen to nonstop, so I have a very '80s vibe to my music which is why I like to bring in a keytar as much as possible. My mom was really into Norah Jones and Eva Cassidy and Nina Simone, so then I have a very sultry, singer-songwriter type style that gets mixed in as well.

If you had to pick one artist to call your favorite, who would that be?

I could listen to Ella Fitzgerald nonstop without complaining. 

Which words would you use to describe your own sound?

Modern sultry. Some musicians will be like, "oh nothing sounds like me," and I'm like, no, there is, it's modern day, it's probably been done before [laughs]. You just need to own it and understand what it is [laughs].

What were your inspirations behind this new single "Surrender"?

I actually co-wrote it with my friend, Bill, and we were trying to come up with a concept and we had a little riff going and I wanted to create that sensation where you first meet someone and it's super innocent and you're trying to tell them you like them but you have no idea whether or not they're going to like you back and it's a little bit scary to tell them. It was trying to capture that moment where you think they like you back but it could be a massive fuck up if you expose yourself and they go, "uh, yeah, no, sorry, you're not what I was looking for". It was that intense moment where you're like, "oh God I'm going to go for it!" and then you see what happens. I wanted to create something like that that was super innocent and raw for whoever goes through that; initially, in the early/late teens you go through that moment but also for anyone where it's still new and exciting.

Could you tell us more about Chasing Dreams?

It's a mix. Most media and labels have told me that I need to stick with one sound which is fine, I understand why they need that to be able to market it, but I like telling stories and so I can't really do that - and I don't care 'cause it's me. I went through a variety and I say that the collective sound is very singer-songwriter-esque, but there's a also a quirkiness that runs through it. It basically starts with a story about when I landed in LA and my decision to come here and it talks about saying goodbye to family and everything but it's a very upbeat piece like, "yeah, let's go and do this!". Then it runs into problems you have and then meeting someone and the ultimate break-up and then finding your dreams again and going, "okay, screw this, I'm going to go do this". It's kind of a message for everyone to just don't give up on something you tell yourself that you want to go and do, because coming to this town is very easy to realize that you are a very tiny fish in a massive, massive sea of talent and it's very hard to keep motivated at times, but hopefully this album gives a little bit of support to people who just need a bit more of a boost. 

Is there one song off this album you're most excited to share with your listeners?

I'd say "LA Dreams" because a) no one's heard it, I haven't showed anyone and b) it's my most uplifting and commercial pop-y one; I'm a lot more singer-songwriter in my style, but this is very much like you can imagine doing a full on Britney Spears dance to this song. I can imagine being on the beach in LA and going all out dancing, not giving a damn that anyone's watching. It's one of those songs that lets you forget about life and just have a good time, so I'm excited about that one. I do love "Chasing Dreams"; it's very raw, it's very sweet. I've always enjoyed "Summer Fling" because it tells a great story about a Summer romance; it's very much a Summery type album and I'm looking forward to people getting it and then going on vacation and listening to it and being like, "this is my vacation music". 

How would you sum up Chasing Dreams in one sentence?

Fun-loving and quirky with a sense of rawness.

What do you hope listeners are able to take away from your music?

I want them to walk away smiling. It should be something they can easily flow through from track to track, start to finish and feel a journey that is supposed to come off when you listen to it or just take away track from track whatever they need: there's your break-up song, your uplifting song, your power ballad song, your sad 'I wanna split my wrists' song.

Is there anything you want to add?

Just go listen to it!

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