Q: Tell me about your career as a musician?

A: I started when my mom taught me how to play the guitar when I was 11. Then after I that I got into playing little school talent shows and I had my first performance at the fair when I was 12. And then, I don’t know it just kinda escalated from there. My friends wanted me to play at talent shows and more places and stuff. Last year (my freshman year) I started to book gigs at coffee shops and bars (laughs).  This year my mom and I had the idea to start doing bigger shows at high schools. I had my first high school show at Bremerton High School and that was awesome. I’m excited to come to Wenatchee.

Q: I hear you’ve won several awards, tell me about those?

A: Last year I won a songwriting award at a restaurant, which was cool because it was a whole bunch of adults and I went there not knowing it was a competition but I got into it and it ended up being a tie and the audience had to vote. It was a tie between me and these two really really good people from Tumwater something. We had to do a sing-off, which was awesome because I won that. This year I won Best Teen Songwriter for my song “Flawless” in the Indie Music Channel awards and the Best Country Songwriter. I also made the 56th Grammy Ballot this year. I made it to the final round, it was pretty awesome how far I got into that for Best Country Album.

Q: What made you want to become a country artist?

A: I always listened to country growing up with my dad and my mom isn’t really into country but she likes it. Growing up around country made me want to sing it and perform stuff like that. My family is real musical and I just grew up around it.

Q: Where do you draw your inspiration from for writing your music?

A: All of my songs right now are love songs. I’m just 15 years old, I don’t really know like a lot about love but I have this tiny, little understanding of it. I write about what I see and a little bit from personal experience.

Q: Besides music, what are your interests? Do you have any hobbies?

A: I really like baseball, fastpitch, stuff like that. I like sports. I like swimming.

Q: Do you think music holds a place in your future?

A: Definitely. I think that somehow, I hope that it will grow into something bigger. I mean, it already has. I didn’t really expect it to play this big of a part, but it’s growing. It’s pretty cool, I definitely see it in my future.

Q: So if you were to go into a career that didn’t have to do with music, what would it be?

A: I don’t really know about that one. I’m still thinking about that. We’re actually just doing an essay in my English class about what we want to do out of high school. I’d have to think about that.

Q: Have you toured for your music frequently?

A: Yeah. I’m starting to get bigger shows. I have a show in Hollywood at Whiskey a Go Go, which is like a famous place that a lot of people have played at before, in April. And then I possibly have a show in Nashville in June during the Country Music Awards.

Q: Where have you been to so far?

A: A lot around Washington. Bremerton, Cloverdale, Pasco, Wenatchee, Seattle, Tacoma.

Q: What’s your craziest experience?

A: I think that playing in bars is pretty crazy it’s like all of these older people and some of them are kinda ghetto. (laughs) Ha, okay don’t say that, don’t say that in there. (laughs) But yeah it’s different because there isn’t a lot of people your age, it’s pretty cool.

Q: What are your plans for the immediate future?

A: I don’t know. I’m hoping to record more songs in Nashville. Just keep performing. I’m hoping to get more radio stations to play my music and stuff like that. I have more songs that I’ve written so I hope to record those.

Q: I saw that you just recorded an EP? What was that like?

A: It was awesome. I did it in Nashville, I was 14. I wrote all of the songs pretty much by myself. It was awesome to be able to go down to Nashville and to have that experience and record in a real studio. That was awesome.

Q: Who released the EP?

A: The record shop. The producer was Shaun Geovanny. He is really young so it was really cool.

Q: What are your goals as a musician?

A: I just want to continue to perform and I really hope that people can relate to my songs; Not only to the songs on my EP but the future songs too that I want to record.

Q: What are your goals for school and life in general?

A: I get really good grades in school. I have all A’s right now and I think one B. I hope to keep my grades up and at the same time be able to keep singing and keep performing. I like the benefit concerts because then the community benefits from that. I really like doing that kind of stuff and helping people for non-profit organizations.

Q: Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

A: I don’t know, hopefully somewhere good. (laughs) A Grammy might be cool.

Q: What are the best and worst parts of being a country artist?

A: I think the worst would be that, I don’t know. I can’t think of anything.

Q: How about the best?

A: Well I know a lot of people who like country music. Country music tells a story, and I really like telling stories. And it has a lot of emotion so writing songs with a lot of emotion and singing songs with a lot of emotion and I really like the feel to country. That’s definitely the best part, the emotion and the storytelling.

Q: Has your age ever been an obstacle for you?

A: No. I mean it’s always nice because people are always like, “You’re 15 and you write songs that are so above your age level. I don’t even know how you can do that. You don’t know a lot about love but you sing about it and you write about it.” It’s always really cool and to start so early.

Q: So if you could go back in time, would there be anything you would want to do differently?

A: I don’t think so. I think that everything, somehow, worked out really good. My mom helps a lot, she’s like my manage. It’s really cool, it just like grew on me. At first, I didn’t really know that I wanted to do this, like perform more places than the fair and the talent show. It just got to something bigger. It’s all time.