We are always developing recipes here at Southern Fellow; when writing music, what recipe do you use?

My recipe for writing music varies with each song, as I’m sure yours varies with each dish. It depends on if I start with a melody or a lyric idea. If I have a song title to begin with, I start by outlining my story. What am I trying to say in my first verse? How will that transition into the chorus? What is my hook? Once I have a basic plot laid out, then I fill in the details. Sometimes I throw all of that out the window and end up writing an entire chorus first and then build around that. Like I said, it changes every time. But I do find it’s typically easier to plot the story first.

If we declared you queen for the day what would you try to accomplish?

If I was queen for a day, the entire country would quickly be ruled by cats.

What is your first fond memory of food?

When I was little, my parents had to tell me that literally everything was chicken or I wouldn’t eat it.

There are many young women that may not feel they fit a particular mold when they dream of being a music artist. What advice do you have for these women?

I would tell them to screw the mold and kick it’s ass right out the front door. I have had people in the industry try to “mold” me into what they wanted or thought was the best fit for me as an artist. You know what I learned? The only good fit is being 100% YOU. Don’t let others try to change you or let the comparison game make you feel like you need to be something other than what you naturally are. People will admire your transparency and self love above all else.

Tell us about your song “Kiss It All Goodbye”.

I wish I could say that “Kiss It All Goodbye” was easy to write but it really wasn’t. It was one of those songs I mentioned earlier that didn’t fit my usual recipe. I wrote the chorus first on a whim. I don’t even remember how I came up with the idea of it, I just remember sitting alone at home on my couch one afternoon and it poured out of me. That was the only easy part about writing any of it. For months I sat on this song, tweaking the verses but was never able to get them to feel like they fit. I almost gave up on it entirely but eventually I decided to bring it to a co-writing session with my friend and fellow artist Kayla Woodson and she released me from the box I stuffed myself into. We finished the song in an hour and I’m so thankful for the life she breathed back into it. I’ve had several people tell me they love listening to this song in the car with the windows rolled down and that’s the best compliment I could hope for.