We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Silvia Passiflora. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Silvia below.

Silvia, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

I had a successful boutique catering company that was once my dream but I was burnt out. Meanwhile I was starting to take off as a songwriter and performer. I couldn’t stop writing songs if I tried! I decided to move to Nashville, Music City USA. But that wasn’t the riskiest thing I decided to do. I decided to buy a campervan.

A little backstory: I had already started dipping my toes into touring and called it the “This or Better Tour” after a manifestation practice of following each intention with this phrase, allowing the Universe to dream bigger on my behalf. With nearby regional cities, I was able to tour while still keeping my day job as a chef. At some point I decided to play Nashville more but it was a long drive back and I had to stay at hotels each time. It got expensive, and worse, lonely.

I was falling hopelessly in love with Nashville—a move inevitable. But the thought of which neighborhood to move to overwhelmed me. In part, I intended to continue touring and returning to the cities where I’d established relationships with local musicians. It seemed wasteful to pay a lease only to leave a week every month. Also, it didn’t guarantee that a place I found would allow me to practice my music sometimes late into the night if I was working on a new song.

During the pandemic lockdown, I followed several vanlifers on Instagram with their seductive stories on the road. When faced with my Nashville housing conundrum, it occurred to me to look into the vanlife of my fantasies.

I looked at several vans but when I saw Hermie, named by the owners for reminding them of hermit crabs that carry their homes on their backs, I knew he was The One. He had already been sound deadened and had solar panels. He also had a shower stall that could double as a vocal recording booth. What was there not to love? My first thought as he sent shivers down my spine the first time I saw him is now his hashtag name: #hottiemobile.

Silvia, 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 was born in the Philippines, trained as a chef in Hawaii and along the way became a certified master gardener and level-two sommelier. During the pandemic lockdown in Atlanta, I became a poet and songwriter. I write Southern parables about passionfruit, cornbread, machetes and hurricanes that touch on themes of love in all its shifting colors. My ballads are riddled with questions—crafty storytelling with cliffhangers! I focus atypically on underserved or cringe moments in relationships: the agony of long distance relationships, Civil War battleground love letters where the narrator is not sure of coming back alive, a marriage resembling a situationship. I also like a good laugh so I have several jug band banjo originals, one involving Bible Belt chicken.

As someone who moved to the South from Hawaii, I wondered why anyone would come out to hear a ukulele player in towns not known for ukulele music. My musical expression is deeply influenced by music from the South: blues, bluegrass and hip hop which I translate to ukulele and banjo. I am also a poet. My poetry-driven lyrics are informed by southern traditions and set in rural farmland landscapes from the perspective of a new arrival.

Nashville, a famed music city that attracts new hopeful arrivals, is where I think I fit best especially in cowriting environments. I’ve cowritten songs in Nashville and enjoy the “Vulcan mind meld” as much as writing solo. With all this, I’ve created a sound and story that’s lightning in a bottle—I invite you to experience my songwriting in person at a solo show or in a cowriting session.

I’m proud of my debut single, “Frame of Reference” about “trophies when you bleed” on all major streaming platforms which came out this summer. All my other work, including my poetry—the foundation of my song lyrics, can be found on www..silviaontheukulele.com.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My goal is to present a fresh take on why I love the South coming at it as a transplant from Hawaii and professionally as a chef, sommelier and poet-songwriter. My recent journey as a songwriter and vanlifer exploring new ways to make my presence felt in Nashville, Music City USA, is a story whose core is about the enduring value of community building. I’m posting on social media in real time showing how this town has laid down the welcome mat and I hope to encourage any aspiring songwriter or anyone hoping to make their dreams come alive by taking tiny leaps of faith daily.

How did you build your audience on social media?

My only advice is to lead an interesting life, and then write about it. The most important thing about social media is memorable storytelling. Everything else follows.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.silviaontheukulele.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/silviapassiflora
• Other: Spotify:
  http://bit.ly/3XaSTar