Interview: Brianna Cash

I've met a number of Philly based artists now, and all of them are extremely talented. Recently, I got chance to sit down and chat with singer/songwriter/guitarist/pianist (she does it all), Brianna Cash to discuss everything from musical inspirations, independent vs major label, and the quality of music today.

After only 8 months of making a career out of music, Brianna is already racking up shows and performances, she's been nominated for a Philly Hip Hop Award, and she's been getting support from some of Philly's heavy hitters. She has 3 events coming up, which I'll post info for at the end of the interview, so make sure you make it out to at least one.

Get comfortable and check out the interview below.

What was it that made you decide to pursue music as a career?
Okay, so it's a long story *laughs*. My mom said that I was singing before I was talking, you know humming and stuff, and I played instruments throughout middle school and high school. I actually went to college for human resources, but I didn't like it; I had a 4.0, I was a great student, very smart, just didn't like it so I stopped going. Afterwards I started going to hair school, because my mom wanted me to have a backup plan, you know how parents always tell you that you should have a plan B. Then I was dating this guy and he was like "Yo, you're really good, you need to start doing things". The main reason that I stopped is because when I was 16, my older brother got cancer and I ended up taking care of him and stuff like that when I was 17, so I basically stopped doing everything and he passed away in February of my senior year. Going back to the relationship, he inspired me to start writing again; then my little brother passed away when I was 19 (in February 2012) and I almost stopped, I really almost stopped, but I pushed through it and kept going. I feel like I was meant to write and perform songs in front of people because I have a story to tell and when you're meant to do something there's just no running from it.

The fact that you've only been doing this seriously for the past 8 months is impressive because I know you've already done some shows and you have 3 more shows coming up.
Yeah, like it got to the point when I was in school and my teacher was like "What are doing here? You should be doing your music", so I started putting videos together. Then I met Lauren (my manager) like 8 months ago and we started working together. Like I'm blessed to have people come to us about doing shows. It's really a blessing and I'm very lucky because I know it's really hard for a lot of people; like right now I see myself in the spot of somebody who's been doing this for like 2 years and I'm like "Wow, this is cool." I'm really grateful.

Yeah, I've talked to other artists who didn't really think of making a career out of music at first, but then they have...somewhat of a realization that this is what they're meant to do.
It's like..you kind of grow up, like it clicks. I had a problem with my parents taking me seriously, but I was like "Look, this is stressing me out; I'm in school full time, I'm working full time, I can't do both and manage my show schedule". Like, I'm not gonna half ass anything in my life, I' work for now because I have to, but eventually I'm gonna have to for much longer because of the work that I'm putting in. I told my mom to give me a year to show her that I could do it and that was 4 months ago, now my mom and my dad take me seriously. After I dropped episode 3 of the Journey After June series on YouTube, they immediately took me seriously and my dad surprised me and built me my own studio back on Oct. 5th.

When I hear your music, it definitely doesn't remind of any mainstream artists who's out right now, which is a good thing, but are there any artists out today that you would compare yourself to?

I don't think there's anybody out now that I could compare myself to; I think that what I'm doing is very refreshing, it's not new, but it's refreshing. I've had people tell me that I remind them of Norah Jones, Joss Stone, and even Adele. You know, I go to a lot of shows and artists are like playing tracks and some of them do play guitar, but there aren't that many of us. 

Okay, cool. I can definitely understand that. So who would you say some of your musical influences are?

Stevie Wonder definitely. Like I begged my mom to take me to a Stevie Wonder concert when I was 15 and I was probably the youngest person there and I knew every single song. Another person is Tupac; I listened to a lot of rap because I had other brothers, so I think that's where I started getting my writing techniques. It's weird, like I write songs in bars: 4 bars here, 4 bars here until I have 16 and I think I got that from listening to rap so much. Also Frank Ocean; I really look up to him. I like the way he does things because he's an artist, but he also writes for other people and he isn't commercial, he's his own artist.

Speaking of commercial artists, being as though more artists are starting to find success with being independent, would you rather be independent or be backed by a major label?

I wanna be independent as long as I can be. I know one day it may come to a point where I'll have to sign to label, but I wanna be independent as long as possible. I feel like being independent, I can really appreciate everything and look back and see that I really worked hard to get what I have. One thing I don't wanna do is end up signed to a label and getting shelved; then I won't really be able to reach out to people and share my stories.

Definitely. I feel like it's better to be independent then, if you feel as though it's needed, to take a label offer. That way you can have a list of stipulations that the label would have to agree to since you've already proved yourself.

Right. That's exactly how I feel it should happen. Like, you'll never hear me on a track saying "Let's turn up" or talking about getting high or anything unimportant. Labels tend to tie your hands and make you put out certain songs and I don't wanna get stuck like that.

Yeah, I definitely feel you on that. So tell us about your upcoming project "Journey After June".

It's a story, you know it goes up and it goes down, but I did it in a way where everyone can relate to it. Every song has like a different personality because it's really like a timeline of my life; it's sorta like a movie. There are quite a few love songs on the project, but it's not all love songs. As far as the title,  I wrote a bunch of songs (like 10 songs that I never recorded) and when I started writing again, my style was totally different. So this has literally been my journey after June, like my thought process, my writing process, etc. so that's where I came up with the name.

 

As far as your vocal style, when you were younger and when you first started, did you find yourself trying to sound like the artists that you listened to or did you always have your own unique voice?

I always sounded weird *laughs*. Everyone always told/tells me that my voice is unique, but I used to hate my voice. Like when I was younger, I wanted to sound like J-Lo and my mom was like "You're not gonna sound like J-Lo, you voice is too different". *laughs*

Is there any song or project that you've heard where you listen to it and you're just like "I wish I could've worked on that"?
There's a lot of things that I write that I wish I could give to Miguel. When I heard Kaleidoscope Dream, I was just like "This is a dope album, I wish I could've worked on him with that".

Awesome. Thanks for taking the time to sit and chat with me. Do you have any upcoming shows that you want readers to know about?
Yeah, obviously the Girls Like nicethings event on the 24th. I'm also a part of the Michael Jackson Tribute at Sigma on the 30th and I'll be performing at an event for Chubby Cherub Cupcakes on Dec. 7th. Be sure to get Journey After June on Dec. 1st too!