Formula Indie Sessions _ Interview with Shaunie Littlehawk

My latest release (that should hopefully be out on streaming platforms beginning of February) is a song named “Gray”. It’s about a woman who apparently has a successful corporate career in the big city, but is dreaming about a vastly different life…

What is your earliest memory connected to music?

Probably my dad playing songs on the toy xylophone I had as a toddler and us singing along.

How did your passion for creating music begin?

Started out writing poetry since I was 4. It was my way to express myself. Then in 2nd grade, our teacher took our class outside to look around after the first rain of the fall. 6-year-old me was sooooo excited that I knew I had to write a poem about it. Except that this time, the poem came to me with a melody and a full structure of verses, chorus, and bridge (even though I knew nothing about song structures back then!). And thus my first song “The Rain” was born… once I realized I could write words that also had a melody, I never stopped. Original songs, song parodies, you name it. It’s still my way to express myself but now with melodies and counter-melodies and compositions I constantly hear inside my head.

What’s the story behind your current music project?

“Gray” is a song about a corporate professional living a boring life in a boring gray city who’s dreaming about a life of outdoorsy adventure. This is actually a song I heard in my dream, so I have no idea why my subconscious came up with it (I don’t even remember the dream, only the song). I’m definitely not any kind of corporate professional myself, and my “adventurous” side is pretty limited to the artistic realm, so I don’t know whom this song is about. So even being the artist behind the song, in a way I’m more of a listener trying to decipher it and figure out what it means to me.

How would you describe your sound to someone who has never heard your music before?

Guess I’d call it “eclectic”? Different and probably mixed genres, depending on how stuff sounds in my head. I also like to experiment with the different software instruments on my DAW and sometimes more obscure/unusual sounds because I don’t like when stuff sounds all the same… “Gray” I think came out sounding closer to “mainstream” rock/pop music than my other songs. But in general I don’t have a “signature sound”, it’s more of constant exploration and experimentation.

What is one thing you’ve learned that completely changed the way you make music?

This is probably gonna be the most laughable answer ever, but how to use automation on the DAW. For the longest time I was too clueless to even know it existed!

What tools, instruments, or software are essential in your creative process?

Logic Pro X and a midi keyboard. Also, apparently a pillow since my subconscious comes up with so many songs in my dreams.

Which indie artist or song are you loving right now?

I’m TOTALLY biased about it (because we’re related) but “Hawkbaby One” and “Hawkbaby Two” (that’s what they go by on streaming platforms LOL). I just love how they’ve been at it from a young age like me, and seeing how they grow and develop in their skills (for the longest time when they were younger all their songs would be about the weather, because my first song was about rain and so I guess they thought they were supposed to follow suit LOL). I love working with them and helping them produce their songs.

How have your personal experiences influenced your music and artistic vision?

Growing up, writing was my only outlet and so that’s how I’d express myself, writing lyrics about whatever I was going through. So a lot of my songs reflect my life, from rock-bottom despair and hopelessness to a humorous depiction of waiting at the bus stop on a hot day, and everything in between. Though a fair amount of my songs I hear in my dreams, so when it comes to those, they don’t usually depict my life and experiences, like for example my songs “Break Away” and “Wrong Side of the Street”, both of which depict to some degree someone living a fake life, following the crowd, chasing glamor etc, and a warning about the devastation this kind of life leads to and to turn away before it’s too late. So I can’t relate to the hypothetical person these songs describe, having never been the crowd-following, glamor-seeking type myself, but I find myself relating to the observer/narrator of the songs.

What emotions or messages do you hope listeners take from your work?

I guess it depends on the song. Some of my songs are more thought provoking, while others are pretty much just there to laugh at. Not everyone will find the personal experiences I write about relatable. A recurring theme especially in songs I hear in my dreams is about living authentically rather than being a glory-chasing crowd pleaser (I don’t know why, you’d think it’d get repetitive but somehow they all managed to be different LOL).

What’s the most important lesson music has taught you so far?

That it’s pretty much the universal “level up” for everything. Like, you can be a weird little goofball… or you can be a weird little goofball WITH MUSIC! You can gossip about your incompetent coworker… or you can SING ABOUT HER! You can be annoyed at the flies in the kitchen… or you can be annoyed at them TO THE TUNE OF “O COME ALL YE FAITHFUL”! Basically, music makes everything better.

What is a dream venue or festival you would love to perform at?

I don’t actually have one, think I’ll just stick to recording because I’m too shy to perform in public, plus with performing there’s the added pressure outside of just making music like being a good entertainer and looking good etc, and I’m none of that stuff… I’d probably choke if I had to stand in front of an audience LOL.

If you could collaborate with any artist, past or present, who would it be and why?

It’s kinda silly but there was a movie where everyone was fighting about which music genre was the best, and in the end they agreed that all the genres had their place and performed a song together that was supposed to showcase all the different genres they liked, except that the song was all just pop. And it got me thinking how I’d do things differently if I were in charge of making that song and incorporate actual different genres that don’t all sound like pop, and started hearing it in my head etc. So if I could collaborate with any artist, I’d love to collaborate with a bunch of artists, known or unknown, who create music in a variety of different genres, and remake that song with parts for all the genres.

Where can our listeners follow and support your music? (Website,Spotify, IG, links)

https://music.apple.com/us/artist/shaunie-littlehawk/1710560422

(or any of the streaming platforms)

Looking toward the future, what’s your dream for the next chapter of your musical journey?

Mostly to catch up with the previous chapters LOL. I have so many projects on my to-do list and not nearly enough time! Also to get better at the singing and production aspects. So everything. Just get better at making music.

What do you hope listeners will discover about you along the way?

Honestly I don’t know, I’m not that interesting a person. A lot of my songs are on the serious side, and I don’t know how that happened, because I’m actually a pretty silly person. So I guess just that I don’t take myself too seriously?

If you want here you can add a representative Youtube video to insert below the interview 🙂

This is a little music video for “Gray” that I put together out of stock video: