Self-Actualized Sound

BY JOE PAYNE PHOTOGRAPHY BY JULIA ILLIA

Local singer-songwriter Madeline Allen is her truest self when she’s singing.

Or, at least, it’s been her favorite mode of communication since she was a young girl, whether singing a song about putting her socks on or belting out an improvised original from her car seat at three years old, she explains, “In the back of our minivan, I told my parents to turn off the radio because I wanted to sing a song. So, I don’t know, I guess I’ve always been just, making up songs and wanting to sing them to people.” The sound of Allen’s music has matured since then. Now that she’s the one in the driver’s seat of the car, coming up with lyrics and hooks over looping beats happens on her way to work in San Luis Obispo.

Allen has released several singles and collaborations with more to come, demonstrating a talent for soulful R&B and hip-hop sounds with a playful lyricism. She credits her sound to formative influences growing up in the Santa Maria Valley, namely former Righetti High School choir director Denise Paulus, but also a group of friends who love hip-hop and freestyling verse. “The energy that it gave me and the motivation it gave me going from a teenager into my young twenties, l just feel like it’s music medicine,” she shares. “I need that kind of energy that rap music gives. It’s very triumphant, and I feel like there’s a lot of benefit in that.”

A great example of this style and mindset is found in “Scorpio SZN” (pronounced “scorpio season”), the single and produced music video Allen released on her eponymous YouTube channel last year. Most of her earlier work was self-produced, but her latest tracks were recorded at Room 33 Recording Studio in Santa Maria and produced by Lil Bonez and provide a polished sound.

The video opens with a riff on the classic trope of an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other and the struggle to do what’s right versus what feels good. Ultimately, she finds a way for both to dance together in a celebration of success, hustle, and passion for play. “If you want it then we can run it/I don’t do shit unless I’m blunted/I walk in lookin’ like money/If you want it then we can run it,” she sings over a trap beat.

But Allen isn’t an artist who endlessly engages in hyping herself. She sings about love and pain like the rest of them, but she also sees the need for young people and musicians to be positive about their own goals and achievements. “It was cool to capture that successful energy for me,” she recalls. “And since most of my songs aren’t like that, I think it’s a good balance to have one song in there that does give people that kind of confidence that is a fun going out, turn-up song that isn’t something serious or something about a boy, something that’s just, like, bad bitch energy. Something for the girls.” SLO LIFE

More information is available on Instagram @_madelineallen_ and her music can be heard on Spotify and YouTube under Madeline Allen.