New York City-based singer-songwriter Shayna Leigh is fresh of the release of her latest EP, Hey Shayna Leigh. She sat down with Music Times to talk about how she got her start in music, the inspiration behind her EP, and what she has planned for the future, among other topics.
Shayna Leigh grew up in Orlando, Florida, where she found her passion for music after getting involved in acting. She moved to New York City for college and stayed here to pursue her dream. She recorded a few unreleased records before dropping what became her self-titled EP.
"It was a process of finding out what I wanted to sound like, what my voice was and getting to a place where I really felt that I was saying what I wanted to say," she said about her development as an artist. "That was always the most important thing to me."
Hey Shayna Leigh was inspired, in part, by this journey.
"I feel like for me the EP came out of sort of a difficult time in my life where I was like, 'Is this what I want to do? Am I in the right place? Did I do the right things?" she explained. "I was feeling really down and yet I wanted to keep going for whatever reason. All the songs on the EP have sort of become about that. They were written at very different times with very different co-writers. One of them I wrote in Nashville a couple years ago. One of them I wrote in London last year, and the other three I wrote in New York. So they were all sort of benchmarks on the road to feeling like a strong, whole person."
Although she describes her sound as "singer-songwriter pop," Shayna Leigh says she isn't worried about being labeled in a specific genre. The most important thing for her is that the songwriting can stand on its own and tell her story effectively.
Shayna Leigh will play Pete's Candy Store on October 23 as part of the CMJ Music Marathon. Entry is free, and she is set to hit the stage at 11 p.m.
Check out the exclusive performance of her song "Drive" below, and let us know what you think in the comments section!
