I first realized I loved music as a child. Some of my earliest memories are of sitting on the floor and learning songs by ear on my rainbow xylophone. The first song I learned was "Do-Re-Mi" from The Sound of Music. While that may not seem particularly exciting to anyone else, for me it was a huge moment. Connecting sounds I had heard with sounds I could recreate myself was incredibly exciting and eye-opening.
I also remember coming home from shopping with my mom when the instrumental song "Music Box Dancer" came on the radio. It was the first time I truly heard chords. I held those sounds in my head until I could run inside and find them on my keyboard, playing the chord arpeggiations and melody at the same time. I was completely smitten with the process.
In grammar school, my best friend and I would sit with tape recorders and create our own "musicals," singing made-up lyrics over beats I played on my mini Casio keyboard and recording our songs. Looking back, songwriting and recording were already becoming part of who I was.
Even with all of this, music mostly remained on the sidelines. As a rather tall girl, I spent much of grammar school and high school playing basketball—lots and lots of basketball. During high school, however, I did audition for the choir and ended up singing in two productions, which kept my connection to music alive.
In college, one of my friends mentioned that they were getting a guitar. Later that year, when my parents asked what I wanted for Christmas, I couldn't think of anything and simply said, "A guitar."
That gift changed everything.
I taught myself to play guitar, learning every Indigo Girls song I could find. I will always be grateful to the Indigo Girls because, without realizing it, they taught me how to sing harmonies and play guitar arpeggios. Their songbooks included tablature for every note, and I spent countless hours learning from them.
Since then, I've sung in church choirs, performed at gigs, written songs, recorded in studios, released CDs, and continued creating music in one form or another. Yet for many years, I still thought of music as "just a hobby." With every CD I released, I assumed it would probably be my last.
Then, during the pandemic, something magical happened.
I joined an online chat about sync licensing. During one meeting, the host suggested that everyone submit a song for the next listening session. I quickly realized that the assignment wasn't to share an existing recording—it was to create and record something entirely new that week.
At the time, I knew almost nothing about music production. I had GarageBand on my Mac, an audio interface, and a vague suspicion that my electronic keyboard might also function as a MIDI controller. MIDI was something I had never fully understood, but I knew it allowed musicians to capture performances electronically rather than through live audio recording.
For that first assignment, I literally unplugged the cable from my printer, connected it to my keyboard, and started experimenting. I recorded a piano track and then added a vocal on a separate track.
The result sounded pretty terrible.
But I was hooked.
Since then, I have created and collaborated on hundreds of tracks, signed with multiple agencies, and become a sought-after collaborator. Along the way, I've continued growing as a singer-songwriter, composer, and producer. I now create much of my music using Logic Pro, constantly working to improve my songwriting, arranging, recording, and production skills.
One project that reflects this journey is my self-produced song, Humans Basking in the Sun, which represents both my love of songwriting and my ongoing commitment to learning and creating.
Looking back, none of this was part of a grand plan. It all began with curiosity, a willingness to try something new, and a love of music that never really left me. Sometimes, following what you love and seeing where it leads can open doors you never expected—and result in something truly magical.