SOUND ON with
Savannah Hudson
Join us for our first-ever SOUND ON show with Savannah Hudson. Watch her exclusive performance and interview with us.
Q. Hi Savannah, it is so nice to have you. Can you give us a quick introduction of yourself?
A. Hi, thanks for having me! Well, I’m Sav - I make music with my brother in a project called BETWEEN FRIENDS. I grew up and currently live in Los Angeles, California. Being creative in any way is incredibly important to me. I collect (cute and small) pocket knives and synths and my favorite color is green.
Q. What did your journey to becoming a musician look like? (Our followers would love to hear how you started, if you were always interested in music and knew that you wanted to become a singer, or if it was a new found passion? How did you get to where you are today?)
A. Music has always taken up the most space in my head and heart. I didn’t grow up with musically inclined parents or family members but my household definitely had a beautiful explorative pallet of so many different genres. My parents would make my brother and I mix tapes of all their favorite songs and we’d spend hours listening and rewinding. I really don’t remember a time in my life where I haven’t had music in it. It's the first thing I can remember truly loving and not knowing what to do about it. As I grew a bit, my brother and I had a conversation in my grandma's closet about our shared love for music and we decided to make a pact to create together and it's been like that ever since. We’ve gone through many phases (as any growing human does) but when we created the safe space of BETWEEN FRIENDS, we knew we wanted to stay for a while.
Q. Where do you get your musical inspiration from?
A. To me, inspiration can be found anywhere; you just have to be open to it. I find it in the most random things or encounters. I think growing up in LA gave me a wonderful base of constant inspiration without even realizing it. I've lived here my whole life and still find so many new things daily that inspire me about this city. I am inspired by friends, I’m inspired by my brother, I’m inspired by nights out and nights alone.
Q. How would you describe your style and how do you decide what to wear everyday?
A. Ahhh it's hard to say, haha. I am a very ‘feeling-based’ dresser. I think how someone puts themselves together is such a cool part of human expression and I normally dress myself based on how I’m feeling that day. I like to think I’m pretty spontaneous when it comes to what I wear. Whether it's making a shirt 20 minutes before I leave the house, or wearing two different shoes (purposefully), or wearing a full men’s suit and tie. I just like to express every side of what’s going on inside my head; it makes me feel comfortable and good.
Q. The tagline of this SOUND ON project is “Play Live. Stay You.” What does that phrase mean to you?
A. I like this tagline. It feels very open to any aspect of humanism. I've spoken a bit about how important expression, in any form, is to me and staying present and going for things are all in the same category as that. In my opinion, being true to who you are and maximizing that is the best part of figuring yourself out! Being able to try things without fear and doing the things that make you happy all tie into this. I hope everyone, at some point in their lives, finds that. It’s wonderfully fulfilling.
Q. How has it been to be a woman in the music and entertainment industry? Do you feel there are certain experiences, pressure, or hardships unique to women? How do you cope with that?
A. Being a woman in music has made me stronger than I could have ever imagined I could be. I also like to think that the industry is coming to a point where these things don’t define your art and it can speak for itself which makes me really happy. Being so young and throwing myself into music and all the things that come with that, I of course learned the hard way in so many different categories. I truly feel grateful that I have learned so much and that I am constantly learning. I just want to make things that someone can relate to and feel something with. To me that’s worth whatever obstacles I have to go through to be respected in a room.
Q. Based on your own experience in the music industry and in life so far, what advice would you give to your younger self, say, 5 years ago?
A. I would probably say, stop worrying so much about everything. I would tell myself to relax and enjoy growing up, growing pains included. I realized something recently about feelings and it has given me so much light. All feelings are important and good to a certain extent, we wouldn’t be able to appreciate good things unless we go through things that aren’t so easy. Being able to feel is so cool, I would probably tell myself to let go and let all the feelings in. We only have so much time on earth, why not feel it all?
Q. How would you describe the feeling of being on stage? How does performing live feel?
A. Playing live is probably the top 5 best feelings ever for me. The whole experience of being on the road and meeting and connecting with new friends and playing music has been one of my favorite parts of my life so far, and we’ve only just begun. Being on stage feels like a warm hug. I can’t wait to start again.
Q. Being on stage and often in the spotlight must come with a lot of stress and pressure sometimes. Our followers ask how do you de-stress and practice self-care?
A. I value my alone time. a lot. I think being alone with your thoughts and navigating where you’re at mentally all comes from allowing yourself the space to do so. That's the cure for de-stressing in my opinion. Giving yourself the time and caring for yourself like you would care for someone you love. At the end of the day, we are the caretakers of our bodies and minds and we need to keep ourselves content by allowing ourselves moments. I also think acknowledging yourself and being proud of yourself is super ok and super important.
Q. Which of your songs have been the most personal to you?
A. Every song has a large piece of my heart. Our new mix tape ‘I like when you shine!’ has taken up a huge space in my heart personally. It goes through phases of old feelings to current and listening to it makes me feel so much. I hope you find a song or two in there that makes you feel that way too.
Q. What’s something you love about yourself that you would never want to change?
A. Hmmm. I like to think that I’m a very honest person, in many ways. I can’t sit with a feeling for too long. I have to express it or externalize it in some sort of way in order to feel normal. I have learned to like that about myself but that also takes some time to do.
