INTERVIEW INTRODUCING YOU TO LAUREN HALL
This week's interview is with US singer-songwriter, Lauren Hall who I have had the pleasure of discovering since the start of the year and she is one artist, I am very excited to have discovered.
Good Afternoon, Lauren. I hope you're well.
Thank you so much for agreeing to this interview with me, it's wonderful to be featuring you!
Good Afternoon, Lauren. I hope you're well.
Thank you so much for agreeing to this interview with me, it's wonderful to be featuring you!
Hey y’all! Well first off, thank you Kellie for wanting to interview and feature me on your site. I really appreciate your support for independent artists!
My plans / goals for this year are first, release the new music and get all this content out to everyone! It’s been a long time coming for me to get new music out, so I’m super excited that 2020 is the year I get to share these songs with everyone! Other than that I want to keep playing shows and traveling some with my band. I’ve talked about moving to Nashville for awhile now, so I think once this project is out I will probably start thinking about moving there and making more trips to write. Who knows, you can always make plans but honestly this is such a crazy business that you never know what’s going to happen. There’s a lot more opportunities now being an independent artist, so one song could completely change your career pretty quickly even without a label. It can be a lot of pressure to try to do everything right and promote it all by yourself, but I really believe if a door is meant to be opened for you then God will put you in the right place at the right time.
Thank you so much for your time today, Lauren.
I wish you all the very best! Hopefully speak again soon.
Thank you again, Kellie for taking the time to reach out to me and for following my music. I can’t wait to share this new EP with you and your followers very soon!
Firstly, I would like you to introduce yourselves to our readers?
My name is Lauren Hall and I am from the beautiful city of Charleston, South Carolina. I was born and raised here in the “low country” as we call it, and I love Country music with my whole heart. I’m 23 years old and have been playing gigs with my band around the SC area since I was 17 and writing my own music since I was about 14. I released my first EP when I was about 16 years old and have new music coming out this year. Over the last year and a half I’ve been traveling back and forth to Nashville writing and working on an EP that is coming in the next couple months! My sound is definitely more organic and not as produced as a lot of stuff coming out of Nashville right now. I wanted a modern sound, but with a touch of tradition to it as well. I’m so proud of the way this EP turned out and can’t wait for the world to hear it (SOON)!
How old were you were you decided to start writing your own songs? And when did you write and perform your first song?
I was pretty young, but the official age I really sat down and decided songwriting was what I wanted to do with my life was when I was 14 years old. There were lots of earlier attempts and “scraps” of songs as I call them, but the first song I actually finished was when I was 14, just a couple months after I really dug into my writing. It took me a little while to perform in front of people because I’m more of an introvert and when I was younger I was really shy about singing in front of people, and by really shy I mean like terrified haha. Eventually though I performed the song for an audience later that summer at a little coffee shop called Troubadours (funny story actually, will explain).
Where did you first perform any of yours songs and how old were you?
So, like I mentioned above I was 14 and my first ever performance was at this little coffee shop opening for a band my dad was in at the time. I was a very shy kid, so naturally this was kind of a stressful situation for me to share a song I had written, or even just play in front of an audience in general. I had four songs prepared and it was an acoustic performance. My dad was playing guitar with me and there was this one Taylor Swift song I was nervous to sing, so he told me to just stop playing my guitar at a certain point in the song and he would carry the part while I sang. Well, there must have been a misunderstanding because I got to that part and both of us stopped playing at once, so what did I do? I naturally yelled in the mic, “You stopped!” And everyone in the audience bursted out laughing. It was kind of a good thing because it loosened me up a good bit and I was able to see that making mistakes on stage isn’t that a big of deal if you don’t take yourself too seriously. It was definitely a memorable moment ha!
So, like I mentioned above I was 14 and my first ever performance was at this little coffee shop opening for a band my dad was in at the time. I was a very shy kid, so naturally this was kind of a stressful situation for me to share a song I had written, or even just play in front of an audience in general. I had four songs prepared and it was an acoustic performance. My dad was playing guitar with me and there was this one Taylor Swift song I was nervous to sing, so he told me to just stop playing my guitar at a certain point in the song and he would carry the part while I sang. Well, there must have been a misunderstanding because I got to that part and both of us stopped playing at once, so what did I do? I naturally yelled in the mic, “You stopped!” And everyone in the audience bursted out laughing. It was kind of a good thing because it loosened me up a good bit and I was able to see that making mistakes on stage isn’t that a big of deal if you don’t take yourself too seriously. It was definitely a memorable moment ha!
What is your favourite country song and who is your favourite country artist (can be more than one)?
Oh goodness, don’t know that I can pick a favorite song honestly. There are just so many great ones and for me I always have favorites by the same artist a lot of times. So I’ll just list a few favorite artists… My favorites would have to be: Dolly Parton, Reba McEntire, The Dixie Chicks, Shania Twain, Loretta Lynn and Miranda Lambert. Some newer artists/bands that really inspire me right now in Country music are Carly Pearce, Ashley McBryde, Maren Morris, The Highwomen, Runaway June, and Tenille Townes.
What is the most inspirational song you have heard?
There’s a lot of inspirational songs out there, so maybe I’ll just list the most current one that comes to mind. I absolutely love Ashley McBryde and the music she is creating right now. I think “Girl Goin’ Nowhere” is one of the most inspirational songs I’ve heard in a while, especially for aspiring artist and songwriters. It’s kind of an anthem for the underdog and for anyone who’s trying to make it out there in the music business. If you go watch her Opry debut when she plays that song it’ll give you chills!
Now to talk about your music and plans for 2020.
Lauren, your 2020 has seen you already perform at many wonderful events and venues, how do you see 2020 shaping up for you?
2020 has been a good year so far and there’s been a lot of fun shows! Unfortunately now with the corona virus becoming such a big deal it’s looking like a bunch of shows for most musicians are getting cancelled right now. It won’t be forever, but this season of 2020 is a rough one right now for a lot of people, especially in the touring industry. This is definitely a time to support each other and dig into discovering new music since we all can’t really go out for live music. It’s an interesting and kind of scary time for everyone, but I still think 2020 is going to shape up to be a good year once we get past all of this. I’ll just miss the face to face interaction with people at shows right now. In the meantime though, listeners can really help artists right now by streaming/downloading their music and buying merch. It won’t be the same as being at a live show, but I think one positive in all of this is people discovering new music and artists!
2020 has been a good year so far and there’s been a lot of fun shows! Unfortunately now with the corona virus becoming such a big deal it’s looking like a bunch of shows for most musicians are getting cancelled right now. It won’t be forever, but this season of 2020 is a rough one right now for a lot of people, especially in the touring industry. This is definitely a time to support each other and dig into discovering new music since we all can’t really go out for live music. It’s an interesting and kind of scary time for everyone, but I still think 2020 is going to shape up to be a good year once we get past all of this. I’ll just miss the face to face interaction with people at shows right now. In the meantime though, listeners can really help artists right now by streaming/downloading their music and buying merch. It won’t be the same as being at a live show, but I think one positive in all of this is people discovering new music and artists!
Going back to last year, what was your favourite memory?
Well last year had a lot of great memories. If I had to choose a favorite it would be the first time I was in the studio working on the new music when I came back into the control room after hearing the studio band playing through the first song on the EP. In Nashville the process for recording a lot of times is having what they call “session players” come in and lay down the music for your songs. In my case they just heard an acoustic phone recording as a reference for these songs, so I didn’t really know what they were going to sound like until we started tracking. Once I heard the first song being tracked with the band I felt like that was the moment I saw a dream I’ve had for a really long time come true before my eyes and I just couldn’t stop smiling. My producer looked back at me and just said sarcastically, “Why you smiling?” and I was just almost in tears because he didn’t know that the smile was the result of waiting and waiting and WAITING for this moment to happen. I felt like after years of wondering why it took so long to record new music, I finally understood why when I saw it coming together the way it was in that moment. I finally had the right team, the right songs, and the right sound. That was the best feeling in the world.
Well last year had a lot of great memories. If I had to choose a favorite it would be the first time I was in the studio working on the new music when I came back into the control room after hearing the studio band playing through the first song on the EP. In Nashville the process for recording a lot of times is having what they call “session players” come in and lay down the music for your songs. In my case they just heard an acoustic phone recording as a reference for these songs, so I didn’t really know what they were going to sound like until we started tracking. Once I heard the first song being tracked with the band I felt like that was the moment I saw a dream I’ve had for a really long time come true before my eyes and I just couldn’t stop smiling. My producer looked back at me and just said sarcastically, “Why you smiling?” and I was just almost in tears because he didn’t know that the smile was the result of waiting and waiting and WAITING for this moment to happen. I felt like after years of wondering why it took so long to record new music, I finally understood why when I saw it coming together the way it was in that moment. I finally had the right team, the right songs, and the right sound. That was the best feeling in the world.
In 2020, can we expect a single from you? Then maybe an EP?
Yes!! New music is coming very soon. It’s been a long process of getting the release plan together, but the first single will be out this Spring with a music video as well. We actually just wrapped the video so we’re in the editing process for that right now. I do have a release date picked but I haven’t announced it just yet. It’s sooner than you think though! The full EP will be coming later this year as well. I have 7 songs on the EP that I am dying to share with people. When I talked about the timing being right for this EP, a big part of that was the songs and things I went through while writing for this EP. I can honestly say this piece of work is going to display my heart in a big way and allow people into what’s been going on in my life for the last two years with relationships and things in my personal life. It’s a vulnerable thing to write from personal experiences, but anything I write I lived, so these songs are definitely my stories. It’s such a special feeling knowing you have these moments of your life captured in a song, especially when you see it connecting with other people’s lives that have gone through or are going through the same things.
And finally, before I let you go I feel like I have to ask you, can we one day expect you to perform in the UK?
Yes!! New music is coming very soon. It’s been a long process of getting the release plan together, but the first single will be out this Spring with a music video as well. We actually just wrapped the video so we’re in the editing process for that right now. I do have a release date picked but I haven’t announced it just yet. It’s sooner than you think though! The full EP will be coming later this year as well. I have 7 songs on the EP that I am dying to share with people. When I talked about the timing being right for this EP, a big part of that was the songs and things I went through while writing for this EP. I can honestly say this piece of work is going to display my heart in a big way and allow people into what’s been going on in my life for the last two years with relationships and things in my personal life. It’s a vulnerable thing to write from personal experiences, but anything I write I lived, so these songs are definitely my stories. It’s such a special feeling knowing you have these moments of your life captured in a song, especially when you see it connecting with other people’s lives that have gone through or are going through the same things.
And finally, before I let you go I feel like I have to ask you, can we one day expect you to perform in the UK?
Ah, yes I would love to visit the UK sometime! I’ve actually never been out of the US, so traveling to Europe would be a dream for me. I know the UK has a really strong Country music following and lots of dedicated fans, so that’s something I definitely hope to do in the next couple years!
Thank you so much for your time today, Lauren.
I wish you all the very best! Hopefully speak again soon.
Thank you again, Kellie for taking the time to reach out to me and for following my music. I can’t wait to share this new EP with you and your followers very soon!
You can follow Lauren on her Social Media
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