Puzzle Pieces Zine Issue 2

Page 8

Making music isn’t just a job for indie singer/songwriter Bryn, it’s a part of who she is and how she communicates. However, during the pandemic she had to pivot into a more sustainable way of creating music; which as she tells it, was for the better. It allowed her to dig deeper and discover who she was as a songwriter and as a result, she created a better way of making music. Along with this fresh perspective, also sprung a writing and production team that includes her writing partner and a few others. Now that the pandemic is seemingly in our rear-view, she gives insight into her creative process as well as a few secrets on building worthwhile self-awareness.

Were you always a songwriter? I actually started off writing poetry-I was a huge fan of itwhich is weird because I don’t know how you could be that big a fan of poetry (laughs). Musically, when I was living in the UK as a kid, my dad would buy me CDs of Avril Lavigne and Leona Lewis and when I heard “Complicated” and “Bleeding Love”, I feel like I really fell in love with music. So you grew up in London? My family and I immigrated to Canada when I was 12 yearsold, which is around the same time I started transitioning into writing songs. I remember

that you’re a totally different person than you were - but then you look back and realize that on a fundamental level less has changed than you thought. That realization is so relieving, and I find, when I come to a personal self-realization, my writing immediately after is some of my best work. It’s just the idea of being free flowing that comes from a real place that makes my writing that much better.

Photo taken by Cass Rudolph. Instagram: @momentsbyblue

Creating a Safe Space for Vulnerability with Bryn helping my mom clean the dishes one day and I started singing to myself and I remember my mom was asking “whose song is that?” and I very nonchalantly told her it was mine. We spent the rest of that evening writing it out on post-it notes and her recording me singing it on this ancient camcorder - and recently we found that video and it’s appalling! I was this little kid so confident yet so awkward and insecure, it was funny to see how it all started. It’s crazy to see videos of when you were younger because you realize how much alike you really are to your younger self. How so little and so much has changed. I think it’s funny because as you grow up you go through phases and you feel sure

And vulnerability is a huge part of making art. I find I end up writing probably 90% sad songs and 10 % happy ones, and I find being vulnerable in a genuinely light space is so much harder. But I also think that we’re taught being in a vulnerable space means being in a negative space and though that is true sometimes, it can be hard (and quite damaging) if you think that. I don’t know the exact reason we feel that way, but I do think about that quite a bit. I think you have to have a balance when you’re approaching your vulnerabilities because there is a lot of pain coming from that space. It’s so important to have a good support system to help you through those complex emotions, as well as your own self-help techniques like writing. Which I was wondering, what’s your songwriting process like? When I first started songwriting I was around sixteen years old, I wrote and released music with the help of my mentor Alfred Chow. Those projects were fundamental to my development as an

4


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.