Speaker 1: Hello, everyone, Welcome to inside the Studio on iHeart Radio.
Speaker 1: My name is Jordan Runtalg But enough about me. My
Speaker 1: guest today laid it all out there with her new EP,
Speaker 1: Young Life Crisis. It's her musical journey of self discovery
Speaker 1: and self acceptance over the course of six songs, steeped
Speaker 1: in an intoxicating blend of vulnerability and swagger. When you're
Speaker 1: not streaming her music, you can also find your on YouTube,
Speaker 1: where she dissects her songs piece by piece in an
Speaker 1: amazing series called Stripped, and of course, like so many
Speaker 1: of us during lockdown, she's on TikTok, where her clips
Speaker 1: have earned the attention of millions, including a special shout
Speaker 1: out from Lizzo. I'm so happy to welcome ups. Thanks
Speaker 1: for having me. I's to be here. So you just
Speaker 1: released an EP called Young Life Crisis, which is probably
Speaker 1: the most perfect title I can imagine. You said that
Speaker 1: the first song you wrote for this EP was Fake Bitch,
Speaker 1: and the last song you wrote was Young Life Crisis,
Speaker 1: the title track. That seems like a hell of a
Speaker 1: journey between those two songs just from the titles alone.
Speaker 1: Can you tell me a little bit about the journey
Speaker 1: of the CP and where it came from. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: was quite the emotional roller coaster for sure. I started
Speaker 1: writing the EP in Quarantine pretty much like I was
Speaker 1: on I was on tour in March at the beginning
Speaker 1: of and then got sent home from tour and just
Speaker 1: kind of like went back home to like hang with
Speaker 1: my parents. I was like, oh, this will take like
Speaker 1: two weeks for this COVID ship to die down, Like
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna just like make music care for a
Speaker 1: few and then, however, many months later, like five six
Speaker 1: months later, I'm still in Arizona with an EP now.
Speaker 1: So it's like I kind of just started doing writing
Speaker 1: sessions over zoom, and without really realizing it, I was
Speaker 1: accidentally like narrating the young life crisis that I had
Speaker 1: in because songwriting was very just like therapeutic for me.
Speaker 1: So I just just kind of writing about how I
Speaker 1: was feeling so out of control and like I was
Speaker 1: such a mess, and um, yeah, I don't know. The
Speaker 1: whole EP was pretty much just like what was going
Speaker 1: on in my head. When you write from such a
Speaker 1: personal place like you do, did the lyrics come after
Speaker 1: the facts sort of after you figured it all out
Speaker 1: in your mind or is it almost like free associating
Speaker 1: You write it all down and then you make sense
Speaker 1: of it later and think, oh my gosh, this is
Speaker 1: this is where I'm at right now. That's a cool question. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think I think it goes hand in hand. I
Speaker 1: feel like I use songwriting as a way to work
Speaker 1: through my issues, which probably isn't healthy. I should probably
Speaker 1: like go to therapy instead. But yeah, yeah right, I'm
Speaker 1: like it's for it's good for the content. But yeah no,
Speaker 1: I'll definitely like step out of writing a song and
Speaker 1: be like, oh, so, like that's what I'm feeling. Like
Speaker 1: with the title track Young Life Crisis, I remember it
Speaker 1: was the last song that I was writing for the EP,
Speaker 1: and I had all the other four songs picked and
Speaker 1: I was kind of trying to find like what is
Speaker 1: the consistency, like what is the over arching thing? Yeah,
Speaker 1: and um, I remember like I was in a session
Speaker 1: with this producer Duilly on Zoom and I was talking
Speaker 1: about I was just kind of listing off all my
Speaker 1: life issues and I was like, I think it'd be
Speaker 1: cool if we had a verse that was like listing
Speaker 1: off all my problems. And then he just was like
Speaker 1: it sounds like you're having a young life crisis. And
Speaker 1: then I that was kind of just like like the
Speaker 1: light bulb moment where I realized that I in fact
Speaker 1: was having in a life crisis, and that was the
Speaker 1: title of my AP. It was just this big moment
Speaker 1: for me. So, yeah, songwriting definitely helps me like process
Speaker 1: my feelings for sure. What is the Zoom songwriting session
Speaker 1: has been like for you? Is that Has that been
Speaker 1: a weird adjustment or has it been pretty easy? It's
Speaker 1: been weird. At the beginning of Quarantine for a solid
Speaker 1: few days, I was like, you will never catch me
Speaker 1: on a Zoom. That's so weird. A'll only right in
Speaker 1: the studio. Then, once I realized that I would really
Speaker 1: only have the option to work on Zoom for much
Speaker 1: longer than I expected, I just started working with the
Speaker 1: producers that I already loved and know um from working
Speaker 1: with in the past, and kind of fell in love
Speaker 1: with it. Like it's very it's totally different. Um. I
Speaker 1: feel like it's an added layer of like communication skills
Speaker 1: because you're not like in the room to like feel
Speaker 1: each other's energy, and songwriting is so much about energy,
Speaker 1: So that's been interesting. But I feel like, I don't know,
Speaker 1: I've gone into a fun group with that. I've gotten
Speaker 1: to write for other artists on Zoom. I wrote the
Speaker 1: whole ep on Zoom, So I don't know, I kind
Speaker 1: of I kind of dig it. Now, How has it
Speaker 1: been from a creative standpoint being back home with your
Speaker 1: parents in Arizona? I went home and stayed with with
Speaker 1: my folks for a while too. It just being back
Speaker 1: in my childhood space and just around my parents. It
Speaker 1: puts you in a weird mindset? Did that sort of
Speaker 1: come through it all? How was that for you? Was
Speaker 1: it nostalgic? Was it getting back to your musical basics
Speaker 1: in a way or I think it was a little
Speaker 1: bit of everything, like positive and negative. For sure, it
Speaker 1: is so weird being in your your childhood bedroom as
Speaker 1: an adult because you're like, what is It's so strange
Speaker 1: and like my childhood bedroom is now like a guest room,
Speaker 1: so it's not even like it doesn't have like from
Speaker 1: when I was a kid. Um, Yeah, it was cool.
Speaker 1: I think it definitely brought me back to my musical roots.
Speaker 1: We had a band room and the house, so getting
Speaker 1: to like jam with my dad now during quarantine and
Speaker 1: that was like something I did growing up with him,
Speaker 1: so that was really cool. I think getting to like
Speaker 1: really like record all my own vocals for the e
Speaker 1: P in my childhood bedroom was just something that was
Speaker 1: kind of like a full circle moment for me, which
Speaker 1: I thought was fun, but it is a weird energy.
Speaker 1: I think being home was amazing, and I think a
Speaker 1: lot of people got to spend way more time with
Speaker 1: their families than they were expecting to last year, and
Speaker 1: I loved it, but it also kind of sent me
Speaker 1: into a spiral some days. You know, you wrote the
Speaker 1: song people, I Don't Like, one of my favorite tracks
Speaker 1: during Grammy's Week in l A last year. I wanted
Speaker 1: to know, is there a correlation between Grammy's Week in
Speaker 1: l A and and that song? Of course? Yes. Yeah.
Speaker 1: That was kind of my first a proper Grammy Week
Speaker 1: experience of you know, hopping around to all the industry parties,
Speaker 1: and I just quickly realized I was just kind of observing,
Speaker 1: and I was also a little tipsy because like, what
Speaker 1: else are you going to do with these things? And
Speaker 1: realized I was reintroducing myself to the same people like
Speaker 1: every day, and we would all just be like, yeah,
Speaker 1: we should all totally get drinks, like knowing, damn well,
Speaker 1: that was never going to really happen with half these people.
Speaker 1: And I was coming from one of the parties into
Speaker 1: a session a little drunk, ranting about like why does
Speaker 1: everyone go to these things? Like no one wants to
Speaker 1: be there, like you can tell, like everyone's just like
Speaker 1: going through the motions, And I was like, everyone at
Speaker 1: these parties are so fake. Then my co writers will
Speaker 1: Giants Johnny Short like Taylor you went to the parties
Speaker 1: to like you're part of the problem, and so then
Speaker 1: we just turned it into a song about the people
Speaker 1: I don't like, including myself. It was very fun. So
Speaker 1: this would have been around early and you said that
Speaker 1: around that time you were going through, I think, to
Speaker 1: use your words, like a musical identity crisis in a way.
Speaker 1: Why was that? Where did that come from? I don't know.
Speaker 1: I think I'm still so young. I mean I just
Speaker 1: turned twenty two, so I feel like November December. Oh,
Speaker 1: let's go, wait, what's your son? Then you're not a Sagittarius, right,
Speaker 1: I'm a sadge cap cuss. I'm on the day. But
Speaker 1: I just had an astrology reading recently, and I have
Speaker 1: never been into astrology until now. I'm like, it's I'm
Speaker 1: such a sad just from this like one hour of reading. Um, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's great. Sorry. What was the question? So this musical
Speaker 1: identity crisis at the at the beginning of last year,
Speaker 1: where did where did that come from? For you? How
Speaker 1: did you get out of it? Yeah? I think being
Speaker 1: so young, Yeah, being so young and making music every
Speaker 1: single day, My life emotionally is such a roller coaster.
Speaker 1: So my music is changing on the daily, and some
Speaker 1: days I'll write a song that is produced in a
Speaker 1: way that I won't like a week from now, you know.
Speaker 1: So it's like when I just started putting out some
Speaker 1: songs that I was really hype about in the moment,
Speaker 1: and then once they came out, I was like, this
Speaker 1: isn't who I am now, Like I need to figure
Speaker 1: out how to like meet in the middle with my
Speaker 1: writing and like what I'm releasing. And it wasn't even
Speaker 1: a super negative experience. It was actually like pretty dope.
Speaker 1: I was just kind of like, oh, I just me
Speaker 1: to figure myself out, and now I feel like honestly,
Speaker 1: it kind of started with writing people I don't like
Speaker 1: and starting to work with Johnny Shore and will J
Speaker 1: all these people I work with a bunch that kind
Speaker 1: of established this like sound that later on became the
Speaker 1: Young Life Crisis CP. And I think getting to work
Speaker 1: over Zoom honestly and being more involved in production has
Speaker 1: been something that's been really exciting for me and like
Speaker 1: helped me get out of that identity crisis. For sure.
Speaker 1: It must be hard because on one hand, you want
Speaker 1: to keep some level of consistency in your music for
Speaker 1: you know, for the sake of the brand, you want
Speaker 1: to carve out your lane. But you also want to
Speaker 1: give yourself freedom to explore and not not have yourself
Speaker 1: in Is that Is that a challenge kind of rationalizing
Speaker 1: those two. Yeah, I think for a while I was
Speaker 1: always stressing about that, and then now I feel like
Speaker 1: the way that music is, and especially pop music, like
Speaker 1: you listen to the radio and there's no sound them anymore.
Speaker 1: Like everyone is just making cool music and that's such
Speaker 1: a cool place to to be in right now. It's
Speaker 1: like everyone is just genre bending left and right, which
Speaker 1: I love. So yeah, I don't know. I feel like
Speaker 1: as long as the song or the sound or the
Speaker 1: lyrics just feel authentic to you as an artist, you
Speaker 1: can do whatever you want and people are going to
Speaker 1: buy it. I feel like people can tell when your
Speaker 1: stuff is like inauthentic, you know, so as long as
Speaker 1: you love it, I feel like other people will love it.
Speaker 1: You know. Things that I hear artists say is one
Speaker 1: of the most important things is is just you know,
Speaker 1: listening to your gut and and and trying to just
Speaker 1: tune everything else out and listen to what you really
Speaker 1: really think is the way to go. Is that is
Speaker 1: that hard to do? How do you find sort of
Speaker 1: the bravery and and single bidedness to to follow that voice? Sometimes? Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's hard to do, especially because I'm still so young,
Speaker 1: and I still like question myself. I'm like, well, I
Speaker 1: love is right now, but like is that the right
Speaker 1: thing to to do or to believe in? Like I
Speaker 1: don't know, but I think yeah, just especially doing music,
Speaker 1: I have to remind myself, like fans and people who
Speaker 1: listen to your music and like live and breathe it,
Speaker 1: like they want that kind of like fearlessness, you know,
Speaker 1: And it's like, I don't know, I feel like that's
Speaker 1: kind of what inspires me to just do whatever the
Speaker 1: funk I want, which is really fun. It's cool. I
Speaker 1: love the music video for Money on my mind and
Speaker 1: it had that that fight Club edge. How was it
Speaker 1: acting with yourself? It was very fun. It was weird,
Speaker 1: just like having to stare at an empty chair and
Speaker 1: pretend it was me. That video was very fun. We
Speaker 1: filmed it in the middle of the night in this
Speaker 1: warehouse in l A. So I was very delirious and
Speaker 1: I feel like that energy was very Tyler dirt in
Speaker 1: for me. Um. It was very fun that music video.
Speaker 1: I was really stop to tell that. How did you
Speaker 1: land on the fight Club angle? It was funny because
Speaker 1: I've been working with this music video director, like on
Speaker 1: all the Young Life Crisis visuals, George, and in a
Speaker 1: couple of weeks before he sent in a treatment with
Speaker 1: his idea for the music video, I had seen Fight
Speaker 1: Club for the first time ever, which is so embarrassing
Speaker 1: that I hadn't seen until. I was funny but whatever,
Speaker 1: it was obsessed with it. I watched it like four
Speaker 1: times in a row, in like the span of a
Speaker 1: couple of days because I was obsessed with it. And
Speaker 1: then George hits me and and he's like, Okay, I don't know,
Speaker 1: this is crazy, but what about like a Fight Club vibe,
Speaker 1: and I was like, you just read my mind, like
Speaker 1: I just saw it him obsessed with it. Let's do it,
Speaker 1: and so yeah, we just kind of tag team did
Speaker 1: and made it happen. Yeah, it was fun. Aside from
Speaker 1: watching Fight Club multiple times and writing this TP, what
Speaker 1: else has been helping you through the last nine months
Speaker 1: or so? I quickly realized in Quarantine, I was like,
Speaker 1: I need to find other hobbies that aren't music or
Speaker 1: going out to restaurants, because I'm gonna be miserable if
Speaker 1: i don't. So I started like painting. I've been I've
Speaker 1: been trying to to try some new hobbies. I tried surfing, skateboard, yeah,
Speaker 1: some skydiving. I don't know. I'm just trying to like
Speaker 1: try new exciting, you know, casual. Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I've been just trying to do whatever to just kind
Speaker 1: of escape from music. You know, now that it's my job,
Speaker 1: I'm times it's nice to take a break from it. First,
Speaker 1: how did you wind up skydiving that? I can't even imagine, Like,
Speaker 1: you know, when you're so afraid that you can hear
Speaker 1: your own heartbeat, just like that's just even thinking about
Speaker 1: doing that right now is where I'm at. So how
Speaker 1: how was that? Like? It was pretty rad. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think there's a there's a moment where you're in like
Speaker 1: the really long, horrible, stressful plane ride up before you
Speaker 1: even jump, which is horrible. But then this once you're
Speaker 1: up there and they're like we're going to jump in
Speaker 1: a couple of minutes, you reach this moment of peace
Speaker 1: where you're like, sick, either will live or die. I
Speaker 1: have no control over it, so I'm just going to
Speaker 1: enjoy jumping out of this plane right now, and it's
Speaker 1: the most like inspiring thing. I also am so cheesy
Speaker 1: and like spiritual with it where I'm like I'm leaving
Speaker 1: all my negative energy like when I jump out of
Speaker 1: this plane and it's really rad. I'm I really want
Speaker 1: to get my skydiver's license. So you're serious about it.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it's very fun. I've only done in a
Speaker 1: couple of times, but I highly recommend trying it. The
Speaker 1: ultimate case of just letting go. I mean, somebody if
Speaker 1: is just especially I imagine being an artist too, and
Speaker 1: you really want to like have some level of control
Speaker 1: over over your art, what you're doing and everything. Just
Speaker 1: the moment of finally it's like, no, I'm letting go.
Speaker 1: I release has got to be really really liberating. It's powerful. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's cool for sure. What have you been listening
Speaker 1: to during lockdown during quarantine? Because I don't know about you,
Speaker 1: but I've been returning the songs that I haven't been
Speaker 1: listening to since I was a teenager, just like musical
Speaker 1: comfort food. Have you been feeling that way same? That's funny.
Speaker 1: I thought I was crazy and boring for listening to
Speaker 1: like all this stuff I grew up listening to. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, I've been listening to a lot of like
Speaker 1: Frank Ocean and Sissa and like all this sad girl
Speaker 1: stuff like Boni Ver and all that. But I've also
Speaker 1: been getting back to a bunch of No Doubt, which
Speaker 1: I grew up listening to, like Wheezer, the Shin Spoon, Outcast.
Speaker 1: I don't know, I've just been kind of like going
Speaker 1: back to what I listened to when I grew up,
Speaker 1: which has been fine. You mentioned you're playing music with
Speaker 1: your father. You grew up in a very musical household.
Speaker 1: Was it always a given that music was going to
Speaker 1: be kind of your direction in life? Yeah? Yeah, my
Speaker 1: dad was in punk bands like all throughout me growing up,
Speaker 1: so as a kid just observing that whole culture, Like
Speaker 1: I would wake up and there would be a band
Speaker 1: who was touring sur Phoenix, like crashing in my living
Speaker 1: room and I would like be like five years old
Speaker 1: having my cereal in the morning with these like punk
Speaker 1: rockers whatever like on tour. So I was obsessed with
Speaker 1: the vibe of it all, and we had a band
Speaker 1: room in the house, so I naturally just gravitated towards
Speaker 1: piano and guitar and my friend on the drums, and like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't think there was ever really another option for me,
Speaker 1: Like since before I could remember, music and singing was
Speaker 1: the only thing I've ever wanted to do and the
Speaker 1: only thing I was like good at at all. So yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, like my parents put me in this dope
Speaker 1: performing art school when I was ten, and I graduated
Speaker 1: high school from there and then fulls into too l a,
Speaker 1: like there was never another option for me besides music,
Speaker 1: which is cool, but well, there's some who were some
Speaker 1: of your early songwriting influences Deaf Really, Weezer and the
Speaker 1: Shins from like a songwriting perspective, like Weezer, to me,
Speaker 1: is like iconic as far as like pop writing goes,
Speaker 1: and as far as just like looking up to artists,
Speaker 1: like when Stefani was kind of that person for me,
Speaker 1: I think it was so rad to have just this
Speaker 1: badass woman front leading a band like it was amazing.
Speaker 1: It was really inspiring as a kid to like watch it.
Speaker 1: Do you remember the first song you ever wrote? Yes,
Speaker 1: and it's probably somewhere out on the internet still. It's
Speaker 1: called Disturbance and so emo. I think I was like
Speaker 1: twelve and wrote this very disturbing, like really sad, depressing song.
Speaker 1: But I was a very happy kid, so my parents
Speaker 1: were like, what's going on? And then um I yeah,
Speaker 1: like went and recorded it in the studio and made
Speaker 1: an album when I was thirteen and like dropped it
Speaker 1: and did the whole thing. It was so fun. But
Speaker 1: I look back and I'm like, this is so cringe e.
Speaker 1: But it was a part of part of me growing up,
Speaker 1: so it's still very close to me. Yeah, you've spoken
Speaker 1: very highly about drugs. The song was song, not the
Speaker 1: substance drugs. Tell me about that. The song you've written drugs, uh,
Speaker 1: which wrote with with Shawn Kennedy's one of your favorite
Speaker 1: songs you've ever put out. What is it about that
Speaker 1: song that really makes it special to you? Um, I
Speaker 1: honestly don't know. I just remember the day we were
Speaker 1: making it in the studio, which is now like over
Speaker 1: two years ago now, which is crazy. There was just
Speaker 1: this moment where we were like, this song is so special,
Speaker 1: this is dope, and that energy was so exciting. Like
Speaker 1: I actually the other day was going back into my
Speaker 1: voice notes from the day we wrote it, hearing us
Speaker 1: like come up in real time with the just came
Speaker 1: into the body for the drugs, and that like made
Speaker 1: me so excited, just like watching the idea kind of
Speaker 1: like get Burst was really exciting. And I think it's true,
Speaker 1: like the song has been out for two years, and
Speaker 1: I think because it's so special to me, it continues
Speaker 1: to have these like second and third little lives over
Speaker 1: the years, which is is it's been dope because the
Speaker 1: song means so much to me, So it's been cool
Speaker 1: to More people are are getting to hear it, for sure.
Speaker 1: And I got to ask you about one to three
Speaker 1: or four five sex amazing song, amazing title. You were
Speaker 1: saying that that you worked a long time on getting
Speaker 1: that song writer. I went through a bunch of different incarnations,
Speaker 1: is that right. Yeah. I one day came up with
Speaker 1: the title and I was like, that's clever, that's funny,
Speaker 1: and so I just started bringing it into a bunch
Speaker 1: of sessions with people, and I think for a while
Speaker 1: I was overthinking it and trying to make the rest
Speaker 1: of the song too clever and like songwrity, And then
Speaker 1: I honestly was about to give up on it. I
Speaker 1: was like, it's maybe it's just not meant to be.
Speaker 1: I've tried it so many times, it's not working. Then
Speaker 1: I was in a session with Rick Knowles, who is
Speaker 1: like an iconic legendary producer and writer that I was
Speaker 1: just like so honored to even be in the room
Speaker 1: with him, and I was like, I'll try this again,
Speaker 1: like maybe this this title will work. And we wrote
Speaker 1: the song in like thirty minutes, recorded the song in
Speaker 1: those thirty minutes, and like that's the version that we
Speaker 1: put out. Like it just was so natural and it
Speaker 1: happened so easily, which I think is how both songs
Speaker 1: should have been. Um. But yeah, I was just this
Speaker 1: moment that just kind of clicked and makes made happen
Speaker 1: as fun and This is a question coming from someone
Speaker 1: who if you you put a gun to my head,
Speaker 1: I would not be able to write a song. I
Speaker 1: wish I could. To me, it's it's still like magic.
Speaker 1: I don't understand how people do it. You've been doing
Speaker 1: it since you were a kid, you know, almost ten
Speaker 1: years now. How does one improve as a songwriter? What?
Speaker 1: What do you get better at? Is it learning the
Speaker 1: craft of Okay, maybe this bridge should be a little shorter.
Speaker 1: Is it learning how how to write a better craft,
Speaker 1: a better hook. I'm always just curious, like, how does
Speaker 1: one improve as a songwriter? What does that mean to you?
Speaker 1: Improving as a songwriter. I think it happens for me.
Speaker 1: I feel like it has happened naturally, just through working
Speaker 1: with other other songwriters and just kind of observing and
Speaker 1: learning from them. And I think like when I started
Speaker 1: doing sessions three years ago and moved to l A,
Speaker 1: I had only ever written songs like a own in
Speaker 1: my room, and I thought they sounded cool, but didn't
Speaker 1: really know that there were some like little rules that
Speaker 1: you can follow in songwriting that where if you go
Speaker 1: listen to all the songs Max Martin wrote, like the
Speaker 1: chorus and the verse and the pre like all start
Speaker 1: on different parts of the measure, and like certain ranges
Speaker 1: that like you if the verses here in this low
Speaker 1: range and the PRIs a little higher in the course,
Speaker 1: it needs to be even higher. Like just little things
Speaker 1: that I never knew before getting in the room with
Speaker 1: other writers and I was like, oh, like, that's why
Speaker 1: pop songs are so dope. There's like this little formula
Speaker 1: formula you can kind of follow, and then just through that,
Speaker 1: I've just kind of like taken in as much information
Speaker 1: as I could and tried to apply it to my
Speaker 1: own writing. But I'm still learning. It's been cool being
Speaker 1: able to write like so much over Zoom too. I
Speaker 1: feel like I've learned a lot about songwriting, just like
Speaker 1: in the past year for sure, I've been loving the
Speaker 1: stripped down videos where you go piece by piece and
Speaker 1: kind of build a song layer by layer. How did
Speaker 1: you start putting those together? How did I think? Yeah,
Speaker 1: that was a result of quarantine boredom. One night I
Speaker 1: got drew and get my parents house in the band
Speaker 1: room and just started trying to piece the song together
Speaker 1: from like in loop it and make it happen. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And then I was up until five in the morning,
Speaker 1: Like I kind of like got my mind set on it,
Speaker 1: and I was like, I'm not going to sleep until
Speaker 1: I get this video film. I feel like this would
Speaker 1: be so sick. Yeah, I just like started with the
Speaker 1: drum loop and then added just whatever the different layers
Speaker 1: of the songs were, and now it's like my thing
Speaker 1: that I love to do for every song I put out.
Speaker 1: It's so fun. It's just so amazing just to watch
Speaker 1: you go from instrument to instrument to instrument and just
Speaker 1: be a one woman band. Is there an instrument that's
Speaker 1: your go to? I mean, do you write always on
Speaker 1: the guitar, always right on the piano and you have
Speaker 1: a favorite. I feel like it's a toss up between
Speaker 1: guitar and piano. Piano is kind of like the instrument
Speaker 1: I feel most natural, but guitar is way more convenient,
Speaker 1: so you can just like pick. Like I don't have
Speaker 1: a like an actual piano in my house and that
Speaker 1: I just have like keyboards. So I think I read
Speaker 1: do most of my songwriting on guitar, which is fun
Speaker 1: and mostly like on stage, I'll play guitar based too,
Speaker 1: so it makes sense. But yeah, I don't know. I
Speaker 1: feel like if if if I am just like playing
Speaker 1: an instrument like for myself, it would definitely be piano
Speaker 1: for sure. I have to say, I've seen you play
Speaker 1: bass and sing on stage at the same time. I
Speaker 1: don't know how you do that. I play bass myself.
Speaker 1: It's like I can't like the padding the head and
Speaker 1: rubbing the stomach thing. I can't. I don't have the
Speaker 1: coordination to sing and play at the same time. That's amazing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that same it's very difficult. I've never I think that's
Speaker 1: been the hardest thing to learn in the past few
Speaker 1: years is learning how to play the bass. I was
Speaker 1: in the middle of touring and I finally one day
Speaker 1: Fender sent me this bass that was like I was
Speaker 1: obsessed with, but I was like, I don't really know
Speaker 1: how to play bass, but I don't how to play guitar.
Speaker 1: Figure it out. There's based in my songs and then yeah,
Speaker 1: but trying to play it and saying at the same
Speaker 1: time took me a minute. But now it's it's so fun.
Speaker 1: I love playing bass live. It's it's it's very fun. Well,
Speaker 1: in addition to your your stripped down YouTube videos, like
Speaker 1: a lot of us during quarantine, you've gotten really into
Speaker 1: TikTok Unlike a lot of people, You've made some really
Speaker 1: amazing songs using other people's vocals, like like Lizzo's example.
Speaker 1: How did you start doing that? Another Quarantine boredom moment. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I just remember one day there was this viral video
Speaker 1: of this person just kind of ranting about life, and
Speaker 1: I around the house would kind of just like sing
Speaker 1: it or like make fun of it or whatever. When
Speaker 1: my friends we would all just quote it all the time.
Speaker 1: And then finally I realized I was like, oh, this
Speaker 1: has like a little rhythm to it, like if you listen,
Speaker 1: there's a beat behind this that like they're they're kind
Speaker 1: of talking in like song form or whatever. And so
Speaker 1: then I turned into a song. And now anytime I
Speaker 1: see somebody like ranting and it has any sort of
Speaker 1: rhythmic vibe to it, I turned it into a song.
Speaker 1: It's very fun. It's a it's a good way to
Speaker 1: pass the time. And Quarantine for sure, I'm gonna say.
Speaker 1: I mean, some people make like banana bread, and then
Speaker 1: you not only make an EP but make music out
Speaker 1: of just other people's conversation. It's incredible. It's fun. The
Speaker 1: Lizza thing was fun too, because when I saw that,
Speaker 1: I was like, this is it no brand? Now I
Speaker 1: have to do this. This is perfect And then yeah,
Speaker 1: like she Lizza saw it, which was crazy because I'm
Speaker 1: a huge fan of her. But then I had to
Speaker 1: take it a step further when I was drunk on
Speaker 1: Zoom with a producer that I love, there's a trend
Speaker 1: here and I was like, we need to actually make
Speaker 1: this a real song and I want to drop it
Speaker 1: on soundcloads. So we turned it into like a full song,
Speaker 1: which is the first time I've ever turned one of
Speaker 1: my TikTok's into like a real song. But it was fun.
Speaker 1: I've been loving the TikTok game right now. It's very,
Speaker 1: very exciting. I have a very crucial question to ask
Speaker 1: you before I let you go. Sushi is one of
Speaker 1: my favorite things on the planet. My dad's been taking
Speaker 1: me since I was probably six years old. I know
Speaker 1: you are also a big sushi fan. Where are some
Speaker 1: of your favorite sushi places to go? I know you're
Speaker 1: in l A or live in l A, which is,
Speaker 1: you know, sushi mecca of the United States. Yes, that's amazing.
Speaker 1: I never it's so hard to find people that love
Speaker 1: sushi as much as me, Like I'm obsessed with it.
Speaker 1: That's very I have it every day in my life.
Speaker 1: Me too, Yeah, it's the every day I wake up
Speaker 1: and I'm like having a five arge to not get
Speaker 1: sushi again, Like it's really bad. I'm pretty basic though,
Speaker 1: Like Sugarfish in l A is kind of like go
Speaker 1: to because they never miss, like it's never not good.
Speaker 1: But I do want to go to um. I hear
Speaker 1: Sushi Park is very good out here. I don't know,
Speaker 1: but sugar Fish has been my quarantine go to for sure.
Speaker 1: And there's one too that's just open to New York
Speaker 1: and that's been like when I'm getting them to go,
Speaker 1: it's not quite as good as getting them when you're there,
Speaker 1: but it's still pretty good. It's not the same, but
Speaker 1: it's it'll do for now. I can't wait to actually
Speaker 1: sit down there and eat it. Sugar Fish when it's
Speaker 1: allowed again, it will be iconic. I'm very excited. Well
Speaker 1: that leads into my my last question. When we've been
Speaker 1: been doing these these episodes, these kind of lockdown episodes,
Speaker 1: I always end with this, aside from going to sugar Fish,
Speaker 1: if you can snap your fingers and have everything go
Speaker 1: back to normal, whatever your definition of normal is. What
Speaker 1: would be the first thing that you would do? People
Speaker 1: you'd hug, places you'd go Oh. I was gonna say,
Speaker 1: go play a live show, but then you said people
Speaker 1: you hug, and I was like, am I bad person?
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to, I think no, I think yeah,
Speaker 1: hugging is something I definitely do. Miss. It's weird that
Speaker 1: it's like rude now if you see someone going for hug,
Speaker 1: they're like backup, which is it's so strange. But I
Speaker 1: think I would definitely like book a live show and
Speaker 1: make it like because I think about the last actual
Speaker 1: live show I hadn't it makes me so sad that
Speaker 1: that hasn't happened for a year now. So yeah, I
Speaker 1: think playing live show would be the very first thing
Speaker 1: that I would make happen. Get your back out there soon.
Speaker 1: So well, thank you so so much for your time today.
Speaker 1: It's been such a pleasure. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1: This is very fun. We hope you enjoyed this episode
Speaker 1: of Inside the Studio, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: For more episodes of Inside the Studio or other fantastic shows,
Speaker 1: check out the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts,