On Leaving Work Behind, Finding Her Soul and Creating Her Own American Dream

photos by Jason R. Hamilton-Chronis

“We used a lot of earthy, vibey instruments and some vintage effects on the Storydwelling album. You hear a lot of wood in it.”

“I just KNEW that if I went ahead and had babies and got tied down by a mortgage, I would most certainly regret not listening to this constant voice in my heart.”

Where did you start with music, where are you now, and where do you hope your music might bring you?

I have memories of singing from every season of my life. I recall singing publicly in front of others in church when I was a small girl, and then I sang in school, too. I have a vivid memory from when I was pretty young – a lady came up to me after I sang somewhere and she asked if I’d ever recorded a tape. [laughs]. A tape. Recording was something I always wanted to do – recording, performing, and traveling. It was always inside of me, a dream to simply BE a singer. Though I had other ideas cross my mind, singing is all I ever wanted to do – really, truly, deeply.

Heatherlyn – “Wayfaring Stranger” by performermag

I never stopped making music, but there were things in my life and in my thinking that made me wonder if I was just, perhaps, like anyone else who wanted to be famous. It seemed selfish and impossible. I gave up my dream at some point in college.

It was a couple years later when I realized that making music had been a significant part of me and had been calling to me my entire life. I had a good gig, working with youth, doing music and arts. Pretty fun. But I couldn’t shake this deep, deep desire, a sense that this would never leave me alone if I didn’t at least give it my very best shot. I was 25, had been married a couple years, lived in a suburb where it seemed like everyone my age was either buying a house or having a baby – beautiful, wonderful things – but I had an epiphany, incredible clarity that if I went down that road, without seeing what could happen with music and this unquenchable thirst to share music with people beyond my own work, even my own city or country…I just KNEW that if I went ahead and had babies and got tied down by a mortgage, I would most certainly regret not listening to this constant voice in my own heart.

I had to make a change. My husband supported me. So the first big risk we took was for me to work part time, using the other time in my life to discover what it meant for me to be an artist, a songwriter, a performer. What would this look like for my life? I began to sing in coffee shops and house concerts, small gatherings of friends inviting friends and neighbors to enjoy music in their living rooms.

I gradually got some freelance hired gigs, worked on and released the first album with a very low budget and the help of friends. After three years of discovering, learning, creating and growing, we took our second big risk. I had no supplemental job at all.

Eventually, my husband, who has shared this dream with me, came on board with Heatherlyn Music full time as well. “Full time” is a silly term here. Really, it’s our full-life vocation. We live, eat, sleep, breathe this stuff and all that we need to do is simply share the gift we believe we’re meant to share.

Can you talk about your new album, Storydwelling? Where the idea came from, what it was all about?

The word itself came to me during a walk along the Columbia River in Portland, OR when I was thinking about the various people we’d been encountering in different parts of the country, stories we heard and times when we felt we were entering and experiencing people’s stories with them while we shared time with them. Though our minds never changed and our own truth never changed, our hearts were more open to love as we could begin to see how their experiences shaped the way they saw the world around them.

I define “Storydwelling” as cultivating a compassionate and courageous curiosity for one another, deeply listening and authentically sharing our stories of life. It’s saying “no” to fear and isolation from “those people” and recognizing that we are indeed in this together.

I like to say that “Storydwelling” is music and its movement. It’s an album and it’s action, a way to groove and a way to be. The album is a collection of songs that share some of my story, reflect some of our shared human stories and songs that hopefully inspire imagination for the new chapters in history that we are writing together, here and now and into tomorrow. I hope it might have the honor of being a soundtrack for personal, relational and communal reconciliation.

Do you have any favorite instruments? Or gear for recording/performing?

My faithful Taylor 312ce acoustic guitar is with me at every gig. Sometimes for writing, I also enjoy my Baby Taylor as its smaller size fits me perfectly. It actually has incredibly warm resonance for its small body. I’m madly in love with my sunburst Telecaster. It’s so sweet with custom humbucker pickups and an F hole that adds nice warmth. I’ve just barely begun to perform with an electric guitar, but the new album is leading me more and more in that direction. As we involve the band more, I’d like to grow into playing more electric rhythm guitar live. We used a lot of earthy, vibey instruments and some vintage effects on the Storydwelling album. You hear a lot of wood in it.

Your voice is definitely the most powerful instrument in your music. What sort of training have you had?

I started out as a vocal performance major in college, but I just found the approach too confining for my style. A couple years of vocal training truly helped me learn how to sing for the long haul, making the most of what I’ve got without overdoing it. But a lot of the formal training made me too tense, so I ended up studying Theology, something more philosophical.

It wasn’t until I realized I needed to find my own voice that I discovered I’ve got a more soulful thing going on. Soul is not something that can be taught. It’s more caught or evolves out of struggle and wonder.

www.heatherlynmusic.com