Singer aspires towards professional music career

What is Circus about?

The song is about my experience as an artist and the importance of overcoming my fears and doubts about succeeding in a really tough industry. Like most of my songs, I wrote it in a general and metaphoric way so that the listeners can interpret the words the way they want to so they relate to their own experiences.

How did you find making your first video?

It was really, really difficult — I’d never done a video before so I was shocked about how much work it was but it was good fun and the team was really good to work with. It was Bayard’s idea to do make a video for Circus — everyone agreed it was a strong song.

The shooting took about three days, but it took from August until March for Bayard and Andrew Kirkpatrick to edit it and get it to look so well produced.

You have mentioned you want to get the video played on MTV — how is that going and what other avenues are open to you?

Hopefully it will get some notoriety online first and I’ll see where it goes from there. I have a contact at MTV — me and my dad know him from my hometown of Princeton but we haven’t talked to him yet.

I’ve also had a meeting with the Tisch School of Music at New York University. I’ve been in contact with the head of the programmes of the recorded music programme and I’d love to go to a school as amazing as that. The grades are also a big part of it but hopefully all that will be good enough.

The producer of the song (Circus) might be sending the video to a guy at Disney in California.

Bermuda’s a really big part of who I am and my childhood so it’s really important that my music is shown there.

Tell me about your next song All A Blur being released on the Ride the Wave CD.

Anthony Krizan of the Spin Doctors is a really amazing musician — he plays everything on it. The song has an island theme — it’s really about relaxing. I want everyone to be able to relate to it.

I’d love to do another video using my experience from Circus.

What’s the next step for you?

I am working towards a demo album of around four or five songs. Hopefully it will be out after recording this summer.

This summer is going to be a lot about music for me and also in between high school and college I’d like to take a gap year to kind of focus on music and get a full album of seven or eight songs.

Anthony Krizan is the producing it — we are recording in his studio in New Jersey called Sonic Boom.

My parents had heard about him from a family friend and we went to check out his studio and his views about my music coincided with mine.

How did you first get into music?

I’ve always been singing but never really took it seriously. I sang Don’t Know Why by Norah Jones at my 4th grade talent show — she is one of my biggest influences and inspirations.

When I got on stage I realized I had terrible stage fright but also that I really liked performing. I got a little more serious about it and so I started experimenting with writing songs and playing the piano.

Other influences include The Beatles, Adele, Corinne Bailey Rae and James Taylor.

What has been your best and worst experience?

When I was in seventh grade I sang with the Princeton Symphony Orchestra and it was my best and worst experience at the same time. I was really, really terrified and there were about 800 people in the audience. It was my first really big audience and I was so scared but at the same time it was an unbelievable experience to sing with an entire orchestra.

What are your ultimate career goals?

To get as far as I can get while still staying true to myself and my music. I don’t want to be one of those sell-outs but I definitely want to make it my career but I understand it is one of the most difficult careers to succeed in. If none of it works out I’ll have to figure something else out — I really enjoy English and writing so maybe I could do something with that.