We recently connected with Abby Nissenbaum and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Abby, thanks for joining us today. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your creative career sooner or later?
I grew up in Connecticut and started performing in local/regional musical theatre when I was 6 or 7. I took vocal and acting lessons and performed all throughout childhood up to my first year of college, but then pivoted to an academic research route because I thought I wasn’t competitive enough to actually get anywhere in the musical theatre world. Looking back, I think I really internalized others’ negative comments about my body and other aspects of myself, and ended up creating self-limiting beliefs about my talent and capabilities. I put aside all music and acting to become a “serious” academic, and only started writing my own music years later when I was in grad school. Sometimes I wish I could have started sooner and gotten ahead of the curve in a way, but ultimately everything happens when it’s supposed to happen. I think now I have more self-confidence, can write better songs that I would have written maybe 10 years ago, and am better able to tune out naysayers.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I am an indie singer-songwriter currently based in Nashville, TN. My genre is kind of all over the place, but mostly centers on indie pop with some glimmers of rock and Americana. I started writing music years ago in grad school and, by chance, met producer and musician Riley Geare. I didn’t know the first thing about studio recording, and never thought it was something that could be accessible to unsigned/non-celebrity musicians, but he encouraged me to bring my music into the studio to be fully produced. I recorded my first EP between Los Angeles and Nashville (produced by Riley and my good friend, Memphis-based producer Matt Qualls) and completely caught the recording bug. My second EP, “Don’t Want To Cry,” was released in 2024, and I’m working on new music for 2025. My proudest moments have been getting my music featured in Nashville Scene and GLAAD, and I’m also very proud to be partnering with local domestic violence prevention organizations on awareness and fundraising campaigns. My research in grad school focused on IPV prevention and my songs touch on some of those themes, so it’s a cause I really care about and will continue to do work around.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
My goal is to make my listeners feel a little less alone in their experiences. Many of my songs touch on lesbian intimate partner violence, and that’s not a topic we hear about often in media. It’s been rewarding to have people message me and say that they’ve had a similar experience, but have never heard it represented until they came across my music. I also always try to provide little uplifting moments or rallying cries in my songs, and that hopefully gives them more of an anthemic vibe as opposed to being total downers!
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
I grew up in the musical theatre world during the early aughts, and everyone (but especially young girls) were sold this idea that we had to have an extremely thin bodies in order to ever “make it” or be worthy of validation. I grew up a bit on the curvier side, and it was hammered into me by adults and peers that regardless of how talented I was, I would be limited in what I could do. Luckily, we’re now in a more body-positive time, and even major stars like Renee Rapp have pushed back on unattainable thinness standards and body policing within the musical theatre/broader music world. As an adult, I am always trying to unlearn the idea that I need to shrink myself, or be less, in order to be worthy of more.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://abbynissenbaum.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/abbynissenbaum/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/abbynissenbaummusic
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@abbynissenbaum
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/abby-nissenbaum-969477337
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@abbynissmusic
Image Credits
Hannah Kik (outdoor snow photos)
Christopher Brown (only for the last two photos, wearing shirt that says “Girl’s Girl”)