Representing Michigan, Hope Waidley, the 20-year-old self-taught singer, lyricist and guitarist, chats with Variance's Ethan Ijumba to discuss her latest single “Sad Song” as well her career beginnings, musical influences, and plans as well as goals for her future.

After releasing just two EPs, Waidley has garnered over 40,000 monthly listeners on Spotify as she exhibits immense talents beyond her years and her unique rasp and breezy sounds that give her an identity of her own to be recognized by her growing fanbase. Be sure to read the full interview below as well as stream and watch her latest single “Sad Song” on all streaming platforms.

Ethan Ijumba:
So at 21 and emerging out of Michigan exhibiting this folk-pop mixed with soft rock new blend of sound. Initially, you started writing music at age six; was there anything that inspired you at that young age to pursue a career one day? Such as films, artists, or specific figures in your life at all? 

Hope Waidley:
Honestly, artist-wise, probably Johnny Cash because that was the only cd that my dad and I would listen to his and I started listening to Johnny at 5 and my first song that I wrote, I may not have known was influenced by him, but when I remember what they sounded like it was completely Johnny Cash style. So I'm sure he influenced a big part of that, I think he was the one who showed me how emotional music can be because I remember being five and him talking about wearing black for the prisoners that have long paid for their dues and five year old me is like, ooo that hits my heart and then I think that emotional connection made great songs. 

EI:
So growing up you also listened to a variety of classic artists aside from Amy Whinehouse, Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, and Neil Young. What was it exactly about these artists that influenced you to pursue a career in music yourself? Was it like their image, lyricism, charisma, showmanship, etc? 

HW:
I think when I started listening to Amy Winehouse she was the one that made me realize I don't have to sound like everybody else and you don't have to sing inside the lines, which I think is quite common, especially nowadays. She showed me you can sing however you want to and you can do whatever, so I think singing wise she really influenced my voice. And then I grew up in the church, so I think that had a big influence on how I sing and listening to good songwriters like Jim Croce, or Bob Dylan, and artists that sing super metaphorically really stuck out to me and influenced my connection with words and sentences and how they can appear like this, but they really mean that. 

EI:
With that being said, based on how you've learned and grown so much with these different songwriters and singers that have impacted your career. Did you find it natural for you to just learn how to do that? Or were you self-taught or did anyone help you? Or did you have to go through the lesson plans for anything of any sort? 

HW:
It was supernatural in both ways. I can't explain how I prolonged, I really think it's a God given thing because it's a coping mechanism for me, I have no choice. and it's like a relief thing. I could assume that’s how people are with cigarettes and the feeling they get when they're like, oh, I need a cigarette and they go outside and smoke that's how it feels for me with writing songs, I have no choice really. But if I get that urge to write a song I just have to do it and I don't really know where it comes from. So that part was supernatural and then I did voice lessons for a year in middle school with a lady that was a big into classical opera music...and I'm not an opera singer. But she did teach me how to breathe and I learned the guitar and took piano lessons when I was younger. 

EI:
So with how you compare songwriting as something you have to do like how it is for some with cigarettes. Do you normally find the stories that you were aside from personal experiences or others’ perspectives or any specific influence when you are writing though? 

HW:
Yeah I think every song of mine is personal and if it's not a story of mine there's a metaphor that's connecting to me somehow so it's always personal. 

EI:
So to go with that, I read that you consider your songs like your friends based on how to help you cope and the way that you use music to overcome any hard time that you're going through life issues. Are there any specific tracks viewers that have helped you the most personally grow, learn and develop as a person or just as an artist as well? 

HW:
Mhm, I think all of them benefit me in some way because they just help process or serve like a blanket of comfort. But for instance, my song “Closure” was a massive help to me. I was going through a weird time for me. It was my first-year college experience and I was just overthinking everything in my entire life and that song was like medicine to me every time I sang it to remind myself that sometimes in situations we might not get closure with somebody because I was thinking, oh my gosh, what if I hurt somebody or what if they hurt me and they feel bad about them, they don't know what I'm fine and I still overthink all that and the song was just medicine telling me you just have to trust this and it’s okay to move on even if you don't get closure. There's also this song I wrote called “Wonder” about how I really had a big crush on somebody and I was imagining how it would be if I said I liked them but I never told them. So I would sing that song as kind of a way to just have the conversation over and over again and processed. 

EI:
So you said you wrote that pretty much back when you were still in college, so that was back in 2017 when you were a freshman attending Michigan Grand Valley State University. Take me through the process, because after that, three years later you released “Wonder” in 2020 and you were going through the states till finally settling in California. ideally, what was the spark behind that huge leap of faith that caused you to be like, I'm gonna release an EP this year while I'm still balancing college courses, and then how was it for you to say I'm gonna travel, go through it, go and see what's out there for me you as an artist? 

HW:
Yeah, so I had put out “Closure” back freshman year 2017 and I'm so impressed you know all the dates. But, I put that out and that got a little bit of attention and that made me start to think, “okay, am I going to pursue music wholeheartedly?” because if not then I have to do something else because you can't just dabble in it. and I figured, you know these songs helped me so much then they can be used to help other people and it's practically selfish to just keep them to myself and so I decided as I was praying and said “okay, I'm gonna do this because I want to help people,” not necessarily for myself because I know that there's a lot of sacrifices that come with being in this industry. Then I released “Hitchhiker”, which was the next song is in 2018 and then I had signed an indie record label deal and before I had signed my sister and I were sitting in a coffee shop and I was like, “dude you know what we should do, we should go straight from around the country and live in my station wagon because this is the perfect time to do”. I came up with that in the Bigby coffee shop near Grand Valley and then we traveled around the country, street performed, and just slept in our station wagon in Walmart parking lots. Then I had this weird feeling that I needed to soak up my time at home, so after traveling around, we did the east to west coast and all the northern east coast. I lived at home, did some music stuff in Detroit when it was happening, and then would drive up the Grand Valley once a week for class and I was also a mentor for kids in a youth group. So I would go drive to our Grand Valley once a week, stay there for a few days, come back home, and just soak up time with my parents because for some reason I felt like I was supposed to. Then my indie label said, I think you should go out to California and try to record an EP. So they put me up in a place and that process took a lot longer than it was expected to for various reasons, but I had the songs done basically a year before they were ready. 

EI:
So that's an amazing story first off and crazy persistence. What exactly was it that kept you stay motivated and could go, I mean trying to really make this dream of people into reality because that's just you as a person where you feel that I know I can do this because I put my mind to it and everything else that I have, whether it's money or Aspirations and time and two or was it like, I don't know exactly, just take me through it. Because what exactly was it for you that you said like, I'm going to be doing this no matter what it takes?

HW:
Because there's a lot in life that I don't know and one thing that I knew was that I was meant to do that and I think that there's a lot of reasons why I'm clueless about a bunch of other things is because I can build my trust and not just think that I know everything super humbling experience. But this like I knew my whole life I just knew I was gonna sing and so it's something I can't just make up. It's like, I know that I meant to do, and writing songs is the one thing that is so natural. I don't even know where it comes from couldn't just ignore that. I know that music is so powerful and really my dream is to help people, especially emotionally and mentally, and I know that songs can help people, and hearing about the songs and hearing about the experiences while you're going through writing songs can help people. That's what keeps me going, if I was doing this for myself I probably would quit a long time ago because it was so brutal, but I know that these songs are meant to be heard in order to maybe save someone’s insanity. 

EI:
So to go along with that as an artist, I'm sure you receive in here a lot of opinions, two cents and comparisons to other artists, which is a gift and the curse in its own way because it's nice to hear if somebody tells you like, “oh, you remind me of Michael Jackson”, but you don't want to be the next Michael Jackson. You want to be Hope Waidley. With that being said, is that the impact you want to have in your career to accomplish, to set yourself apart from others by making music that people can relate to. Or do you want to have something to where it's even past music that you want to create something that involves more of that mental health advocacy or have some kind of movement to that sense. But is there anything specifically that you have set for yourself, goal-oriented wise to accomplish one day? 

HW:
Yeah, when it comes to helping people nothing is really ever on purpose. it's never like, “oh I'm writing a song to help somebody,” it's just like, I know it helps me and I hope it helps other people. My mom is a therapist so I grew up really understanding and appreciating being able to process and understand yourself and understand your emotions and where they're coming from and why and feeling everything, and I think that there's a lot of that that is not necessarily touched on in the world. I think it's actually better the more the days go on the more people are focusing on that, which is awesome, but I think that's just a natural thing that I hope would come from my music and for me, is helping people figure out their own thoughts and their own feelings. Whether it's listening to the music or listening to the story behind it. 

EI:
That's dope actually, regarding your first EP, Hope it contains a lot more pop elements with piano chords and the downtempo with ambient hip hop sounds and a little bit of electronic mixed in there, and it was like all produced by 29. Compared to your second EP, Wonder, you incorporated more traditional pop elements with folk sounds and a bit of acoustic themes here and there on that project. Was the transition sound wise natural for you to adjust to and make the general switch genre-wise?

HW:
Totally. Going from the first EP to the second EP, my producer, 29, and I grew up in the same city, and so we ended up getting together, and I didn't care, to be honest, what the production was, as long as I got my words out. Then as I got older, I realized what I wanted. It just came down to wanting musicians to play it and record it themselves because I think that, you know, they have a God-given talent, and I think you can feel the difference when someone is playing it from their hands versus the computer, at least for me.

EI:
What was it that kind of sparked that? Was it just from going to live shows and going through a live recording process of seeing actual instruments. 

HW:
So I had gotten this van when I was at school and I would sleep in my van when I was at college and it had a cassette tape player. It was like, it was actually really cool. I had a cassette tape recorder in the van. So I got into listening to cassettes and there was something about the music just knowing that someone is in the studio playing what I'm hearing right now and that's it's harder to just switch to a song unlike today when you have streaming and you can’t just pick what song you don't listen to. So I would be on my long two hour drive and would listen to the entire album and it made me really, really, really appreciate this kind of, that lack of ability to change the song and I have to listen to everything and listen to the songs and the instruments in them. Honestly, that changed a lot for me because I just would hear the way that musicians were playing the studio and there was something about knowing that someone is playing that as I'm listening to it and It's just really cool to me. 

EI:
I think that's a major too. Because a lot of times what's released, I would say this generation doesn't really listen to an album thoroughly. Maybe I'm just an old soul because I'm still the one that kind of listens to an album like track by track. But if you were to listen to like a really I'd say for example, maybe the last album even do it for a long time for at least the one that comes to my mind is like Kanye West’s, My Beautiful, Dark Twisted Fantasy Or if you listen to what's that one on my Lana Del Rey’s album, Born to Die. You can't just play it by shuffle because you could really miss so much by just shuffling.

HW:
I totally agree, and even Lana Del Rey’s last album I thought was so awesome. I think she did such a good job. Taylor Swift’s folklore and evermore and even Machine Gun Kelly—his last album, Tickets to My Downfall—I was so impressed and I thought he just did such a good job on how it just all flows so well. I think I noticed as an artist even though I haven't made an album yet and it's more of a challenge because I just didn't really grow up too much where albums weren’t that big anymore. The only album I really remember coming out that was like a big deal to me was Khalid's album (American Teen), my senior year I thought that at eighteen he did such a good job.

EI:
So for your first album, whoever knows what it would be not to put any pressure or rush or anything like that. Do you have anything that you truly really want to have? Like, any bucket list things that you really want your first album to be like or have such as specific features or songwriters to work with etc? 

HW:
That's a great question...and I should think about that more. Honestly, I definitely want to incorporate good visuals 100% because I love that. But other than that, I think I'm super open just seeing how it starts and how it ends. It's not like, “oh, I want to specifically work with somebody”, but yeah I'm super open.

EI:
For your past 2 EP’s, you said the first one, you just wanted to put your lyrics out,. but then when it came to making Wonder, did you have a direction or process that really helped compose it together since having changes such as not working with 29 anymore, signing to an indie label, etc?

HW:
Yeah, I just knew that I wanted live musicians on it, and um I worked on it with this producer named Tim Bullock and then my manager Rex Rideout produced a bunch of it as well and brought a musician. Just to touch an awesome job and it just came together like that to be honest, and I think that they did a great job of just feeling the emotions of the songs and adding the production emotionally versus wanting it to be radio and to trend. that wasn’t it was just feeling the emotions of the songs. And then when it came to the visuals of that EP I think a lot of those songs had very similar aesthetics and colors like yellow which is the color of the EP, and I got that from Wonder. But then you know the rest of the songs kind of all felt the same tone the same color and so I'm still super happy about that EP, I think it just all goes together really well. 

EI:
So with that being said, So your new single, “Sad Song'' involves way more pop-rock themes and its elements rather than like the folks lives. So how was the idea and the composition process of that song? Exactly. How about 

HW:
So when I originally wrote that song, it was very sad and slow and I just kind of heard fast drums and I was like, I think this should be kind of a rock song. I grew up listening to that genre, the Avril Lavigne of our generation, you know, I grew up listening to that and honestly like Hannah Montana, like I grew up singing, performing those songs for my family, so that was like a genre that I was very used to. And it's sad that I really hadn't emphasized it just because I think the other songs for that time we're meant to be produced and then this song came along and both Rex and I were like yeah, there needs to be a good drummer and add electric guitar and it's gonna work and it did.

EI:
So would you say like, this is like your inner Disney channel original music vibe embracing that teenage spirit? Because as you mentioned, I don't know, no, I really didn't think of it that way, but I'm not saying that's like its peak, it just really does kind of give you that nostalgic vibe where it could be on a commercial saying, “Hi, this is Hope Waidley, and you're watching Disney Channel,” or how what would you say that really kind of influenced it? 

HW:
Yeah, it was just like let's just have fun with it. It's a sad song, but it was kind of like a pick me up type of sad song. The point of it would be to listen to it and then don't dwell on it whatever the situation is, and  that's like what I grew up on and so I was I'm really glad because I think that working with Rex on that song opened up a side musically that I haven't really spent much time, and I think I'll find more of that to just sides musically that I haven't stepped in yet, that I'll probably step in just because I listened to everything growing up.

EI:
With that being said, do you have a specific direction that you're trying to focus on going forward for your next EP or project? Do you have any specific types of sounds you want to incorporate on whatever is coming next? 

HW:
I think it will probably be a good mix between “Sad Song” style and “Wonder” the EP. I think it'll be a good mix between those two. 

EI:
Is there anything that anyone can expect next? Like that's in the forthcoming or near coming future? Like is there anything that's supposed to come update wise?

HW:
So there's no dates yet, but I'm working right now to get a project together.