Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Tori Gilchrist. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Tori, 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.

Davenport is currently finishing up recording our first EP. All of the songs are really personal to me and getting to hear them fully fleshed out has been super exciting so far. We’ve released one single and performed dozens of shows, so publishing an EP feels like a step towards being a more “legitimate” artist. Having this project out is going to feel like a big milestone. I think having more music published will open up room to start working on new songs as well.

Tori, 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?

Davenport is an indie-folk-rock band based in Denton, Texas. The four of us met while we were music students at UNT – that’s how we got started playing together. After finishing school, I had more time to focus on my own creative projects. I’d always wanted to be in a band where I can perform my original music, and I had some great friends who also happened to be incredible musicians; It felt like the pieces just fell into place. Most of the songs we perform are ones I’ve had written for a while, but they’ve really come to life through Davenport. As a songwriter, having musicians around you who understand your vision brings a whole other level of fulfillment to the creative process. My favorite song on the EP, Bite My Tongue, is the one that had the most collaborative writing process and the one that best encapsulates our sound as a band. I’m really looking forward to honing in our sound with the next songs we write together.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

The thing that drives my creative journey the most is the ability to express my emotions through music. Sound is able to convey a lot of feelings where words fail – performing that music is cathartic, too. I hope to keep writing and performing music so that I’m always evolving the way I think, hear, and interpret the world around me.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

The best thing to make a thriving creative ecosystem is to encourage anyone and everyone to express themselves creatively. I think the number one misconception about creatives is that it’s an innate talent that you either have or don’t have, but creativity is a skill just like cooking or public speaking. The more you nurture it, the more it will come naturally; and the more you’re surrounded by it, the less daunting it is. It seems like there’s such a rift between artists and not-artists, but bridging that rift means more skill-sharing, more learning, more concerts, more dances, more galleries, more art everywhere.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: davenporttheband
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2IAKBPeG3dZdHfCl9KxOUO?si=Hbjqped7QJeNEH64zjNE1w

Image Credits

Maria Crane, Taylor Collins