We recently connected with Haley Osier and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Haley, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

I released an album in 2024 called A Letting Go. It was the first music project I had worked on in nearly a decade. There was a part of me that really thought I’d never make music again. I was outed as queer and ousted from my high control religious community in 2016, instigated by a girl I had been seeing in secret. This experience truly up-ended my life, and it ended my relationship with religion and the hetero act I was putting on. It took me a long time to figure out how to relate to music apart from it being a calling from god and apart from writing sad songs about men. Then the time finally felt right to tell this story about my first sapphic heartbreak and the betrayal that came from her and the church. That writing became A Letting Go, which is the first of many projects to come from finding my voice as a lesbian artist.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’ve been singing and performing for as long as I can remember. I was the kid who made everyone in the house stop what they were doing so that she could perform an all-out routine to a Britney Spears song on a classic 90’s karaoke machine. Then my parents put me in piano lessons when I was 4, and I have been writing songs ever since. I grew up in Texas, playing a lot of local festivals. As a teen, I played shows for Six Flags and Radio Disney and had the opportunity to work with several talented musicians local to Fort Worth. In my early twenties, I put out my first two albums–sappy and sad songs about the boys who broke my heart. Then I took an unexpected and somewhat accidental break from music, while losing god and finding myself as a lesbian. Now I’ve re-emerged as the moody sapphic pop artist my younger self could’ve only dreamed of being. This act of becoming has been so healing and freeing for me, and I just hope anyone who hears my music can claim even a fraction of that for themselves.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

My favorite part of creating is collaborating. I know that a lot of artists find a lot of freedom and value in the DIY approach, but where I’ve found the most rewarding experiences is in collaboration. I have had the opportunity to work with a lot of talented people in my career, people who I looked up to when I was younger, people who have gone on to have those big wins we all aspire to. But what’s more interesting to me than their objective talent and success is that they each bring a new perspective to the project. I’ve learned so much from my collaborators–about life and the way humanity expresses itself, not just about craft and what it takes to make “good art.”

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

Right now I think there’s almost no better support to artists and creatives than protesting the use of generative AI. It can feel impossible to opt out when we are living in a capitalist society that has made generative AI an invasive part of our everyday lives. But every time you choose to buy art from an artist or license photos from a photographer or pay a writer for copy or hire a real producer instead of asking AI to do it for you, you’re making a difference. You’re telling the system that you do have a choice, and you are choosing to side against the powers that be who are stealing art from artists and ruining the environment in the process. That choice is also empowering the artists to keep going and helping us stay employed while we all facedown the uncertain future that generative AI has created.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.haleyosier.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/haley.osier/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/haleyosiermusic/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/haleyosierofficial
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@haleyosier

  https://haleyosier.bandcamp.com/

Image Credits

all photos taken by Haley Osier