We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Brianna Bollinger a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Brianna , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?
Unlike most musicians whom I’ve met, I wasn’t born into a musical family. I still remember being 16 and staring at this Yamaha which my mom and dad had gotten me for a birthday present (which I picked out) and releasing I was in too deep when I had to spend an hour googling ‘what is a fret’. It was a steep learning curve, and now that I just turned 22, I still can’t believe how far I’ve come since then. If 18 year old me, sitting alone in my room and writing (awful) sad songs to my cat could see me today, she’d be so proud. All I ever wanted to do was to make music which did for other people what music had done for me. Music has gotten me through the hardest times in my life – it’s always been there for me. 16 year old me with a new guitar from amazon had no idea how to get to this vaguely described place of ‘being a musician’, but I knew that, somehow, music was now the most important thing in my life. If I hadn’t spend years learning guitar off of an awful app called Yousician, that would have certainly sped up the process, but everything happens for a reason. I think the most important skill was I process is simply the skill of not quitting – I may not always be the most talented in the room, but I’ll certainly be the most determined. I joke with my friends that I’ve turned from a procrastinator into a professional bug. (Who are we kidding – I’ll always be a procrastinator :)
Brianna , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I’m a singer-songwriter, guitar player and singer. I’ve been playing out in Nashville since last spring, and I’ve had the pleasure of playing guitar for several amazing musicians, as well as playing my own original music in countless rounds and showcases. I spend a lot of my time songwriting, both with fellow musicians and with just me. I’m finishing up a degree in Music Business, and one of my goals is to sign a publishing deal with a company where I can make music with and for the amazing creatives in this beautiful city. I had the pleasure to intern at Carnival Music over the past fall and spring, and the degree of pure talent, drive, creativity and love which I witnessed and felt from everyone there has been so inspiring to me.
I love rock and roll, and nothing scratches that itch inside my brain better than a good hook. One of the things which I’m currently most proud of is the fact which I’ll be playing a show at the Bluebird Cafe in January – I still remember taking an afternoon off from homework in 2019 to go and simply watch the Monday night open mic show at the bluebird, and at that point, I couldn’t even imagine playing an actual show there. The awe and history of that little venue is something I’ll never stop loving.
I also also released my first two singles this year, which probably was the most chaotic, fun, stressful and rewarding thing I’ve ever done! My latest single, Montana, has over 125,000 streams as of today, and I can’t tell you how much that means to me. I’ve been able to put together a full band this year, and my first full band show ever was at one of my favorite venues; Bobby’s Idle Hour on Music row. And today happens to be the day when I announce my headlining show at the Well Coffeehouse on music row – I’m soooo excited about that! It’ll be my ticketed show ever, and I’ll be joined by my amazing friend Sammy Kay and bestie Chloe Duvall. I don’t do anything halfway, and when I tell you I’ve been cooking up this show for a while….well, you better just be there.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
My biggest goal is to make music which satisfies me, creatively, and to reach people with my music the same way I’ve been reached, touched, changed and saved by music in my life. It’s not about numbers or money for me – it’s truly the fact that I can’t survive without music. I don’t have a plan B, and I can’t imagine my life any other way. Some days are diamonds and some days are like the dirt from which you dig up these diamonds, but in the end, it all evens out. I have this theory – I think musicians get a high unlike any other from being on stage, from successfully pouring your heart into a song, from watching your thoughts take shape like an alchemist..and I think we have to pay for it with the lows. (Truly spoken like a person who uses songwriting for therapy.) There’s nowhere else I’d rather be and nothing else I’d rather do with my life.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
Okay, so buckle up. When I first decided that I wanted an internship at a Nashville publishing / record company, I’d never even been to music row before in my life. I thought the term ‘music row’ was some sort of nice, quaint, outdated little term used to describe the fact that some publishing companies are located in Nashville….naive little me. Turns out that music row is an honest to god street…a very long street…several very long streets. The first thing I found out was that there is NO parking on music row – if you know where Belcourt taps used to be, I parked there. Yes, I know it’s a mile alway from music row. And I walked. Now mind you, I’m wearing jeans, boots, a scarf and a leather jacket in the middle of August, so I can make a good first impression. I had a list of around 15 publishing companies which to which I’d planned to go and give out my resume. How did I go about it? Let’s just say this is one instance when I should used used a map. I did the most inefficient thing POSSIBLE – I walked to my first publishing company, then to the next, then the next…without any knowledge of where any of them were in relation to each other. As a result, I ended up walking around Nashville from about 10 AM to 4 PM in 90 degree weather, passing the same landmarks and publishing companies over and over again, all because of my massively inefficient strategy. I remember several things very distinctly – I remember bringing hot tea indeed of water. I remember almost passing out from heat stoke and dehydration, and I remember stopping at some random bar at around 2 PM just to get some water. I remember passing Warner Music and Carnival Music over and over again, slowly realizing that my plan was taking me in endless circles over endless miles. The one thing I do remember best is that I refused to give up – I didn’t stop until every publishing company on my list had been visited by me, regardless of whether or not I could even get through the front door. I remember getting to my truck and just laying there in the front seat for like 45 minutes….I’ve never been more exhausted in my life. (I did marital arts at the time, and now I do crossfit.) Moral of the story? Work smart, not hard…and get a dang map.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://briannabollinger.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/briannabollingermusic/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BriannaBollinger1/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCw7Iz7g8ThHGKX0SqJRO-ew
- Other: Linktree: https://linktr.ee/BriannaBollinger Tickets for my November 28th show at the Well Coffeehouse on Music Row: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/brianna-bollinger-at-the-well-koinonia-tickets-460583476577
Image Credits
Chloe Duvall, Anthony Romano, Olivia Steele, Alex Amato