Nashville based rising star Savanna Leigh has spent years honing her craft and finding her sound, and has finally found her most authentic voice on her upcoming EP, reminders of you, set to release on August 20th. Starting her career performing in a country-pop duo with her sister, Savanna Leigh eventually went solo, exploring various pop-adjacent subgenres before settling into a more stripped-back, singer-songwriter style. Her storytelling remains at the forefront, and her current sound allows her lyricism to take center stage.
Savanna Leigh’s latest single “mason street” signifies a new era for her as an artist in many ways. Not only has she discovered her most authentic sound, but “mason street” is also her first release where she is the sole writer, which is an incredible milestone moment. It’s the perfect way to kick off this new artistic era, and to gear up to share her fourth EP with listeners in August.
In the midst of this exciting time for Savanna Leigh, I was able to chat with her about “mason street,” the upcoming EP reminders of you, and how she’s feeling at this point in her impressive career.
Brigid Young: Thank you so much for taking time to hop on here today! Congratulations on the release of “mason street,” how are you feeling about the response to it so far?
Savanna Leigh: I’m feeling really good. I think I was really nervous to put this song out, just because of how personal it is to me, [and] because I was the sole writer on this song. I think there’s a lot of pressure that I was putting on myself. No one was doing that to me, it was all me, internally, for a long time. I was excited for it to be my first solo song that I put out, as a writer, but [there was] that fear of it being received. It’s been really great to see people’s response to it, and see that people are really connecting to it. Also, having it be not just mine anymore. I think I’ve just sat with it for so long. It’s been since… last February? So, over a year that I’ve been listening to it on my own. It’s really nice to have it out there, and have other people make it theirs now, and not have that pressure anymore. Feeling good that it’s out there, happy it’s out for sure.
BY: Like you mentioned, you were the sole writer on this song. What did that journey look like? How do you feel your songwriting process has evolved since you first began releasing music?
SL: I think when I first started releasing music… I was releasing music before this, I was in a duo situation before I was doing my own music. We had released music, me and my sister. It was not really anything I had written, or taken pride in. It was a lot more creatively her vision rather than mine, when it came to the writing. At that point I hadn’t really dove back into songwriting. I started writing when I was like 6, and there would be on and off periods where I was writing a lot and then writing nothing. It would go on like that for a long time. The journey to get here has been a long time coming. I moved to Nashville when I was 18, I’m 24 now. I’ve been doing music pretty much full time ever since then. I think my first release was 2021. I’ve just been working really hard on finding my voice, what I want my music to sound like, how it was going to be different than what I’ve done previously in the duo. It never really felt, genre wise, like it was really connected to me and what I was going for. I didn’t really know exactly what my sound was. What my voice would sound like through the lens of songwriting, as well. What I was passionate about, what I wanted to say to people.
I think it took a lot of years of reflecting on myself, also experiencing life. Not putting so much pressure on music and work, to give me things to write about and be inspired by. It’s been a crazy time. I never thought I’d put out a song I wrote by myself. I was never thinking that, even when I was 21. I guess it just took some time to build that confidence, and some time to get my reps in. Just write so much to get to a point where I don’t know if anyone else in the entire world can come in and make this song better for me. Make it feel more like me. I just felt like it was one of those songs that was so personal that I needed to do it alone, to get the result I wanted. It was really awesome to get to a point where I was like, ‘no, you’re the only person who can make this song happen.’ It felt really empowering, after all these years. A lot of years of writing with other people to get me to this spot.
BY: That’s a huge milestone to achieve, so congratulations! This is also the perfect song to have be your first as a sole writer, because it’s so personal and authentically you. Can you tell me a bit about what the creative process looked like for ‘mason street’? What was it like channeling those emotions into a song like this?
SL: I think right before last year, so 2022… that year, I spent a lot of time being surrounded by people I was close to… and in a relationship that was very up and down. It was with someone I was on and off with for most of my life, since I was 16, up until 2022. I had a lot of people in my life at that time that made me feel more alone, if anything, than I felt when I was single and by myself. That happens with friends too, and family, just people. I had a lot of people I could go to, but I didn’t feel super seen or heard by anyone at that point. I feel like that was a mix of the company I was keeping, and just some things I was struggling with internally when it came to processing my emotions.
I’m a really big psychology person, so I love deep diving into my attachment style, enneagram, personality type things. Just to give me language to better describe what was going on. I was going through a lot of different emotions that I didn’t know how to process, so that whole year I just felt really alone. Not only because of the people, but also not being able to talk about what I was experiencing with anyone. I had a habit of repressing my own needs, and not thinking I need anything. Sometimes I’m a little too hyper independent, where I think I don’t need these things, but I definitely do. I don’t know how to necessarily ask for them all the time.
That year was just a lot of reflection that I did to get to a place where I could understand what was going on, and that next year, early on, I was trying to write about it. I spent a lot of time writing about things I was comfortable writing about, like relationships and things like that. I wasn’t really comfortable writing about myself at all, let alone putting it out anywhere. I dabbled in writing songs about me, but it was never that specific or lyrically obvious what I was talking about. I’d say a lot of those things led up to it. In 2022 I was doing a lot of sessions, I started working with my manager earlier on in that year. I was going through sort of a speed dating time, I was writing with a new person every week. Sometimes multiple sessions a day. I was learning so much from those people, getting inspired in different ways. But, at the end of the day I was still feeling drained from all of it. I definitely took a little break. All of that combined led me to writing ‘mason street’ the way that I did. A lot of reflection.
BY: I feel like what you were describing, about feeling alone despite having a lot of people surrounding you, is something that a lot of people experience in their early 20’s. It’s cool to have that immortalized in a song that other people can find solace in.
SL: Totally. I really wanted that to get across. I get worried sometimes, at least I used to, about writing songs that were so specific to me. Just because I want people to be able to make it their own. I guess even if the lyrics are particular to my situation and my life, people will find a way to relate to it. There’s a universal undertone, hopefully with every song I put out. That’s always my goal, to connect people. I appreciate that.
BY: I wanted to also ask you about the video you put out alongside the song, can you tell me about the vision for the music video and what that creative process looked like?
SL: I 100% wanted all of these songs on the EP to have a Florida aesthetic to them, build a world around that. I grew up in Florida, and spent most of my life there until I moved to Nashville. I go back there a lot too, because a lot of my family is still down there, and a lot of my friends that I’ve known for 7 or 8 years are all still in Florida. It still feels like home to me. I think Nashville is starting to feel that way, but it took a long time to get there. It feels like I work here, and go home to Florida. I really wanted this project to have that creative vision, I wanted it to be all based around the place I grew up. To have the water, the ocean, tie into it because there’s a lot of references to Florida in my music, especially in this next project coming out. A lot of the lyrics are referencing things from my childhood and from Florida.
[With] ‘mason street’ specifically, lyrically it is so impactful to me. I really wanted that to be the primary focus. I didn’t want the video to be too flashy, or [have] storytelling [with] characters or anything along those lines because I felt it might take away from the story the lyrics are telling. We wanted it to be visually matching, in whatever way we could have it match. Working Holiday, the creative team I worked with based in Nashville, we all flew to my hometown and filmed. They’re the ones that came up with the treatment: the ocean, the lantern, the lighting, all of those things. I will say, all of the places we shot at were places that I had given to them as places that were impactful to me growing up.
BY: What part of Florida are you from?
SL: I’m originally from Brandon, Florida. Nobody knows where that is, so I say Tampa, it’s about twenty minutes from there. It’s a small town in Florida. Now when I go back, I go to the Apollo Beach area, which is where my mom’s house is, so that’s home now. But yeah, I grew up in the Tampa area.
BY: Sweet, I lived in Orlando for a bit so I’m familiar with Tampa. Living in Florida is so interesting because it’s mostly a vacation destination for people, it’s interesting to see the dichotomy between locals and tourists.
SL: Yeah, 100%. I travel within Florida to go on vacation, and I’m like, what’s going on? I’m from here, but we go to different cities in Florida because it’s so beautiful.
BY: There’s something special about that state, seriously! So this was the first single off of your upcoming EP, reminders of you. Can listeners expect more of these nostalgic, introspective themes? Is that the vibe for the rest of the project?
SL: I would say yeah, it’s very introspective. A lot of the time, I feel like not only in music, but in pop, I haven’t really heard many songs from the narrative… Relationally, there are so many songs about the narrative of you and an ex, or you in a relationship, but I really wanted these songs to be about me. But, through the lens of what I learned in the relationships. I think that there’s so much that you find out about yourself when you’re in a relationship with someone, whether it’s a friendship or partnership. I spent a lot of time writing about this person from the lens of what they did to me, or how they treated me, just my side of the story. That was entirely what my EP the way i see it was about, ‘this is how i see what happened between us.’
I really wanted this project to be like, what did I contribute to some of the pain and the experiences I’m going through? How did I let some of these people in my life treat me this way? How long did I stay in a relationship that wasn’t serving me? It’s very reflective, very introspective. There was a lot of hurt and pain that happened in those years to lead me here, in my family life too. It’s not only about a partner, it’s kind of a mix of all the things. Friendships, my parents, my childhood, my ex. There are just so many things that are tied into it. That’s really the big thing, I wanted the title reminders of you to encompass a multitude of areas. The you… we italicized it on the project so that word looks a little different than the first two words, so that people understand that ‘you’ could be an ex, a past version of yourself… there are so many ways to make that fit. That was kind of the goal of the project, to encompass a lot. A reflection project.
BY: My next question was literally going to be asking about the title, so you read my mind with that answer! It’s cool because like you were sharing, the common denominator of all of these experiences and songs is you. The title has so many meanings, I love it. You’ve put out a few projects, how did the creative process for reminders of you differ from your past EPs?
SL: It’s 100% different, in a lot of ways. This project is the closest I’ve ever felt to a body of work, the most connected. A lot of the time when you write songs and put them out, it feels like forever. It can be a year later, and you might not feel as connected to the songs as you once did at the time you wrote them. These songs feel like… similar to my last project, I guess, in the way that they feel very real time. When I’m putting them out, I’m still going through a lot of those same emotions and things that I was when I wrote them. They aren’t all a year old, some of them are less than that, which is awesome, because it hasn’t really been something that’s happened for me in a long time. I think this is definitely the most connected I’ve felt to anything I’ve released.
I definitely also think the writing process was different. I was doing so much… similar to what I was saying earlier, writing with a lot of different songwriters in Nashville. Making music with all kinds of people, which was a great thing, but at the same time, it made the project not feel as cohesive as I wanted it to. Or, even if I got to the point where the production was cohesive, I still felt like the messaging wasn’t always cohesive. It was one of those experiences where it’s like, how do I make this project exactly what I want? Me and my management really spent a lot of time picking the small group of writers and producers that we wanted to work on this project with, being really intentional. I think that’s one of the differences between this one and the last few projects, it was one of the most intentional projects I’ve done. Everything was super thought out, and planned, and talked about over and over again. Sometimes it got annoying and was tedious, but I’m so glad we did it, looking back. I also wrote some of it in Nashville and some of it in LA, that was different for me too. Most of my writes were here, in the past. Overall, I think narrowing down the group of people we worked with made it feel more concise, in the vision I had for it, and the production, and the messaging. I think a lot more of my voice is in this project than it has been in the past, as a writer. So much more of my lyricism is in this. That is something I really wanted to shine through as well.
BY: Absolutely. Your sound has evolved so much, even since 2021. It was cool to listen to your discography and hear that journey. What was that journey like for you, finding your sonic space?
SL: It’s been a time! My first project was so pop. I love that project, it was my first EP and it always will matter to me in that way. I try to look at my releases as moments in time that I can go back to, instead of nitpicking it apart. I know that every song in that moment was needed to get me to the next place, or next era of my music. I think sonically, it’s been really hard to find out what my sound was. It took me a really long time, this project feels like the most ‘me’ in that way. I grew up on country music, really old country. That was such a huge part of my childhood. I really love the storytelling aspect through country writing, and that’s always something I wanted to be a huge part of everything I do. I am always intentional with my lyrics, even something like the tracklist is so thought out and planned. I really care about that.
Finding a way to mix that storytelling writing from country…I also love the instrumentation of country, real, raw acoustic instruments being used in the song. Mixing that with pop was hard for me to figure out. I went really pop, then I slowly lessened that. That’s where I’m at now, just finding instruments and production that feels really organic and real, and the storytelling is really prominent. I love pop music and I love the way that it can be so different, there’s so much you can do with it, it’s such a wide spectrum. Synths, keys, all of those things that are within pop music. Everything you can do within that world is so intriguing to me. Finding a way to blend those two was hard, but I think we’re getting to a point where we’ve figured it out. That’s the beauty of it, I guess. Finding your sound and knowing how long it took you to get there. It’s rewarding, at the end of the day.
BY: Absolutely. Shifting gears a bit, you recently opened for Night Cap on their most recent tour. What was that experience like for you?
SL: That was the longest tour I’d done with another band. It was so much fun! They were awesome. It’s hard sometimes as an opener because you come out there and these people don’t know your music, they’re there to see the headliner. You’re kind of out there on your own for the first time. You’re trying to get the audience to fall in love with your music, and like you. There’s a lot more anxiety that goes into it as an opener. I’m sure there’s a whole other struggle that the headliner will experience as well, when I’ve headlined my own shows there’s pressure for sure. There’s always something. I really enjoyed them. As a band, they’re incredible, but also as humans. They made us feel really welcome, their audience made us feel really welcome.
I’d never been to Colorado or Utah, it was my first time in those cities. Sometimes when you haven’t done a lot of touring, you wonder how you’ll feel when you’re out there. Am I going to be cut out for this lifestyle, or not? I always felt like I was, but I haven’t had too much extensive experience being on the road for a long period of time. Since I’ve been able to do these short runs with artists, whenever I come home I’m super excited and waiting for the next opportunity. I think getting out there and knowing that this is something I knew I’d love, and actually getting to do it, has been awesome for me mentally. It was just awesome, getting to be out there. Getting to meet all these people and make my music connect to them in a real way.
BY: That sounds really fulfilling! To wrap up today, what do you hope listeners take away from reminders of you?
SL: At the end of the day, I make music for a lot of reasons, but the main ‘why’ behind it is to make every person not only feel seen and heard by what I’m saying, but also to make people want to think deeper about things. I do tend to overthink a lot, and I think music has always been the place that I go when I struggle to put the words to everything I’m going through internally. It’s always given me a place to feel my emotions. Despite how sad my music is, I’m not someone who’s outwardly emotional with other people. I’m not always very in touch with my vulnerable side. Music has always given me a place to feel things, and see things in a different way. Or to give me a language to express things to people in my life. That’s ultimately my goal, I want people to hear the project and be able to understand me as a person and artist, and be able to understand themselves better.
Also, just make them want to think. I think some people don’t want to know what’s going on, they zone out and ignore everything, and live in a fairytale land. I did that for a long time. I think it’s so important to learn the ‘why’ behind a lot of things. There is so much growth and healing in that. That’s something I’m really passionate about. I’ve taken a lot of [steps] toward mental health and healing in the past years, because I feel like it’s so important. I want people to feel inspired to do the same.
Listen to ‘mason street’ here!
