S5: E9: Faith Lee - Reaching For The Stars

Randy Hulsey: 0:46

I have an up-and-coming artist on my show today who is creating waves right here in the greater Houston area. It's Randy Hulsey with Backstage Pass Radio, and I hope you guys are doing well. My guest today is a singer-songwriter that started writing songs at the age of 10 and currently calls Sugarland, Texas, home. She has her guitar in tow and is sitting right across from me, so if you guys are ready, I will introduce you to Faith Lee when we return.

Adam Gordon: 1:12

This is Backstage Pass Radio, the podcast that's designed for the music junkie with a thirst for musical knowledge. Hi, this is Adam Gordon, and I want to thank you all for joining us today. Make sure you like, subscribe and turn alerts on for this and all upcoming podcasts. And now here's your host of Backstage Pass Radio, Randy Hulsey .

Randy Hulsey: 1:41

Faith, welcome to the Crystal Vision Studios. It's nice to see you.

Faith Lee: 1:44

Thank you so much. It's so nice to see you.

Randy Hulsey: 1:46

Thank you for making the track all the way down from Sugarland. I know that can be a daunting task right now. That can be kind of daunting to get down here in Houston traffic. So thanks for being here.

Faith Lee: 1:57

Yeah, it's of course. I'm so honored to be here.

Randy Hulsey: 1:59

Well, I look forward to getting to know more about you and your music. So I'm going to make an educated guess about Dad coming with you, because that educated guess would be that I don't think maybe you even have a driver's license yet. Am I spot on or am I off base? There You're spot on.

Faith Lee: 2:19

I'm actually working on it right now. I got my permit and I've been practicing a lot. I go to driving school. I've been so excited to get my license. I've been waiting for so long and I'm just super excited. I've been working on it and trying to get it as soon as possible.

Randy Hulsey: 2:33

That's a big time. I remember that time in my life too, where it's like oh. I can't wait to get that again.

Faith Lee: 2:38

I know I can't wait at all.

Randy Hulsey: 2:40

You know, what's funny is I have three kids. Of course they're all grown now and I don't think so my two boys. They never cared about driving, they never cared about. It was the weirdest thing. I wanted a license, like you and I was like 12.

Faith Lee: 2:54

Me too.

Randy Hulsey: 2:56

And my daughter. She wanted it must be a girl thing she wanted her license, like when she was eight, I thought. I think she thought she could drive when she was eight, but the boys cared nothing about that, which was kind of interesting.

Faith Lee: 3:08

Yeah, I've cared about it for since I was so little. I used to have this Barbie car, this toy Barbie car, and I would like drive so recklessly with it, like around the cul-de-sac, and my parents were so scared. They were like I don't know what's going to happen when you start driving, and I was like I'm going to be driving like this one day and I was so excited. So I've been excited to drive since I was like very, very young.

Randy Hulsey: 3:28

Well, you got to get the rambunctiousness out of your system early in the Barbie car, right Before you get the real car. Those are a little bit more expensive, those are.

Faith Lee: 3:36

They're so expensive.

Randy Hulsey: 3:37

Well, I don't normally make a habit talking to my female guest about their age because it's just not what you do, right. But I did want to talk to the listeners about your age because it's a little different 15, right. It's so cool to me to see young adults like yourself already chasing dreams at that age, because you don't really see that too much. Most people are 25 and 30 sometimes and they still don't know kind of what they want to do. Talk to the listeners a little bit about the dream, like what do you plan to do with music?

Faith Lee: 4:13

Yeah, so music has been something that I've wanted to do since I was so young.

Faith Lee: 4:17

Like I got into vocal lessons at five and I just started performing with my vocal coach because she had these little showcases and honestly, I can't ever remember a time where that music wasn't something that I wanted to do.

Faith Lee: 4:31

I've always wanted to do it ever since I was a little kid and I kept chasing that dream. I started off with wanting to be on Broadway and then I did the Houston Grand Opera for a little bit and then I decided, oh, I really love writing music and by the time I was 10, I started writing songs and that was something that I was so passionate about. And I've just been really chasing that dream and like for the future, like I really want to go to Belmont University in Nashville and they have a really cool songwriting major, which is something that I've always dreamed of majoring in, because songwriting is a big passion of mine not just singing but songwriting and I want to major in that and just learn so much about songwriting as much as I can and just keep chasing the dream and wherever it goes, I'll be happy with.

Randy Hulsey: 5:16

And I think that I was talking to my wife Terry before we kind of got going and I said that's probably a natural thought process for a young songwriter to want to go to Belmont, right. Because now you're getting the best of both worlds. You're getting an education at Belmont right, and you're right in the heart of Music City which is super cool.

Faith Lee: 5:40

I love Nashville. If I could live there right now, I would.

Randy Hulsey: 5:43

Yeah, so 15 years old, this I guess I'm going to guess that. Does that make you a sophomore? Is that right?

Faith Lee: 5:51

Yes, I'm a sophomore in high school. Okay.

Randy Hulsey: 5:53

And tell me a little bit about the extracurricular activities that you have going on in school?

Faith Lee: 5:59

Yeah, so most of my life I've done singing. I've never really done many. Well, I've never. I've done swimming and stuff in the past but that was never something that I really wanted to do. It's kind of just for the exercise and stuff like that.

Faith Lee: 6:12

But ever since I was a little girl, another one of my dreams, which I didn't know was going to come true, was I wanted to do cheerleading. So this year I joined varsity cheer at my school and I've never done anything like that before and I tried out and I made it and yeah, I've just been doing cheer and that's been a lot of my life. This year in high school I've always wanted to do cheer and it's so much fun I actually really enjoy it. At first I was a little nervous about it because growing up doing singing that was always something that I did individually and now I'm part of a team and I have to learn how to work with teammates and kind of compliment each teammate and just kind of be all together. So that's been so much learning and it's been so much fun. I get to perform half-time shows at my school. We get to do little dances and learning how to stunt and just being part of a team was a new learning experience for me.

Randy Hulsey: 7:07

I think the common denominator here faith is that you're a performer. That's what I've learned about these reports. It's like instilled in you.

Faith Lee: 7:14

Oh, my goodness it is so fun you don't even know. They take photos at my school and every single one of my photos my face is all like crazy, just because I love performing, that's awesome. My smile. It's kind of funny. The faces are really interesting yeah.

Randy Hulsey: 7:28

Well, you mentioned varsity cheerleader, right? So you're at the varsity football games doing your thing. That's awesome, because I know a lot of. If I remember back, this was a thousand years ago when I was in high school, but it seems like, you know, unless you were really really good at cheerleading, some of the girls didn't make the varsity team until they were like seniors in high school, right? So is that kind of the same thing these days?

Faith Lee: 7:57

Yes, it isn't most schools. I should go to a really small school so we didn't have enough cheerleaders to do a junior varsity team, but our varsity team still does the same things we do. We can't go compete and we do lots of big stunts. We're learning how to stunt and we do go and compete in December, which is really cool.

Randy Hulsey: 8:18

That's awesome.

Faith Lee: 8:18

Yeah.

Randy Hulsey: 8:19

You started songwriting I think you mentioned at the age of 10, what was the draw to songwriting for you?

Faith Lee: 8:28

Yeah, so songwriting it was actually something that I wasn't really interested in at first, but we were talking to somebody who was just helping me, kind of like you know, see what I wanted to do in the future and music and stuff, and we're just trying to find other opportunities, and she mentioned, oh, like you should try songwriting. It's something that a lot of artists do these days, like a lot of them write their own songs, and it's just a really great way to be able to share your art with other people. So you know, we were kind of talking about that. I was like, you know, as a 10 year old I was like, oh, whatever, like maybe I'll try and write a song Like that kind of sounds interesting. So, of course, as a 10 year old would.

Faith Lee: 9:07

I wrote a song called Dream On about butterflies and it was just kind of like encouraging people my age to keep dreaming on, and that was the very first song that I ever wrote and I actually really enjoyed writing. And then I proceeded to write more songs. I wrote a song called Just Stop, which is kind of just about like living in the moment.

Randy Hulsey: 9:26

Yeah.

Faith Lee: 9:27

And I just kept writing and writing and trying to improve my writing.

Randy Hulsey: 9:30

And that's abnormal for a 10 year old to really be into anything, I think, for that matter. But songwriting, that's pretty impressive as a 10 year old that you're even going down that path at that age. Because so was there a musical influence that you feel like really got you excited about being a musician or that made you want to be a musician? Can you think back that far?

Faith Lee: 10:00

Yeah, so one of the biggest ones when I was younger was actually Lauren Dagle. I went to one of her concerts when I think I was like seven years old and she was really small at the time. She didn't like not many people knew who she was and she was opening. I forgot who she was opening for, but she was opening for a band and I actually got the opportunity to get to meet her in person and she was one of the sweetest, most genuine people that I had ever met and it really inspired me to like want to keep pursuing my art because she I loved her music and I loved the way she sounded.

Faith Lee: 10:34

And when I got to meet her in person, I was like wow, she's a really genuinely nice person and that was something that really inspired me to like do my art and also just be a good person to like the people around me, because she was very humble and that was something as a seven year old that I really admired because I was the last one to meet her. There was a couple people got to meet her and I was the last one and she spent the most time with me. Like she spent like each one got maybe five minutes and like all of them had left because, like she spent so much time with me and that was something that I really, really admired. So growing up, that was definitely she was my favorite singer, she was my number one. Like I would tell everybody, oh, this is my number one. But yeah, growing up, when I was younger, she was definitely somebody that inspired me to pursue what I wanted to do.

Randy Hulsey: 11:20

It's amazing what kind of impact a whether it's a musician or we talked about hockey before we hit the record button right it's amazing what kind of influence these people can be if they take the time to be a positive influence, and I had this conversation with somebody not too long ago when I was in professional hockey. You know when the players would come through the tunnel to go out on the ice, you know kids would hold their hands over the deal to kind of bump gloves and a lot of the players would go out of their way to do that. But there were always those players that didn't do that and it would really anger me because it's like you know what you were the little boy at the game at one time that aspire to be that player.

Faith Lee: 12:08

Yes.

Randy Hulsey: 12:09

And if those players are not setting great examples for the youth, just like Lauren Daigle did with you, I mean because of her. I mean you could go on to be the next superstar, right, Just because of her positive influence, right. So it's so important for the people that make a name for themselves to not forget where they come from. That's important, and it's so bad that a lot of them do you just kind of get lost in the moment, right, and it's not cool to do that.

Faith Lee: 12:39

You're young, but there's an old adage that says don't forget where you came from, right, and I think you understand what that means right, yeah, she was so, so humble and that was something that I really admired because, like you said, anybody could kind of get lost in the moment and they could, you know just not.

Randy Hulsey: 12:57

Just push you aside right and not even spend time with you.

Faith Lee: 12:59

Yeah, and just push you aside and the fact that she spent the most time because I was the youngest one everybody else was adults and like I was the last one and she spent the most time with me just because she genuinely it felt like she loved talking to me. It was so genuine and I really, really admired that.

Randy Hulsey: 13:12

And I think that a lot of those artists genuinely loved doing that, because they're good humans at the end of the day right.

Faith Lee: 13:18

Yes, for sure.

Randy Hulsey: 13:20

So, from a professional musician perspective, you know you spoke of Lauren Dago being an inspiration when you kind of started out, but who influences you these days?

Faith Lee: 13:33

These days definitely Probably every single teenage girl would say this but Taylor Swift, I really admire her because something that really I really admire about her is her songwriting. She writes so many songs and a lot of them really do come from the heart, and I got to go to her Eris tour. I'd never been to see Taylor Swift I did like her when I was younger, but I wasn't like a die heart fan yet and she is just somebody who's very passionate about what she does and she's not afraid to talk about how she feels and stand up for herself. Because, you know, for a long time people were really hating on her and like she hid from the public for years. And then, you know, she came out with her reputation album and it was just kind of like she was defeated at first but then she got back up and she kept pushing through, even though you know she had all this fame and then she didn't. She got back up and kept pushing through.

Faith Lee: 14:30

And something that I also really admire about her tour that she just did was it's a three hour tour. She doesn't take any breaks. Her dancers get breaks, but she doesn't take any vocal rests. She's going on tour for her fans. I mean, you know she's been, she's been around for so long. It's not like she absolutely needs to be on tour all the time, but it really does feel like she does it for her fans and she's so dedicated and that is genuinely something that I admire. Just because you know she'll let her dancers take breaks, she'll let you know all of her staff take breaks, but those three hours she's still singing, dancing, performing for her fans.

Randy Hulsey: 15:06

That's super cool and I can't say that I was ever a Taylor Swift fan. In fact, if I heard Taylor Swift, I may not. Maybe I would know some of her songs if somebody pointed it out. But you can't deny the fact that she's a superstar, right, and people. You have to remember that people are always going to hate. Even if you're a local musician, you're going to have haters. Yeah, if you ever make it to the level that Taylor Swift makes it, there's always going to be some people that don't like what you're doing. But it's important to stay true to yourself and you cater to the masses, but you can't cater to everyone at the end of the, because you're never going to please everyone at the end of the day. Well, you mentioned it a minute ago, but it's my understanding that before the age of 10, when you kind of first started writing, you were performing in the Houston Grand Opera's Children's Chorus. Share that experience with the listeners. I'm not familiar with it, so educate me and the listeners on that.

Faith Lee: 16:07

Yeah, so I auditioned for the Houston Grand Opera when I was seven and I said earlier that I started performing at five years old with my vocal coach and she had showcases. So when I was seven, this was the very first professional performance that I had ever auditioned for, and I was really nervous, like I didn't know what to expect, because I was seven years old. I didn't really know exactly what I was doing. All I knew is that I wanted to audition for this big opera and this would be super fun and it was a show. So I went into the audition room, I auditioned and it went really good and I ended up making it and I did the Little Prince, which was an opera about a little prince, and I was part of the children's chorus and I was the youngest one who made it onto the children's chorus and it was one of those experiences that I'll never forget, because there are so many older peers that I got to me who really encouraged me, who showed me like you know how to do this and how to be mature and how to work with other people, and it was just one of those experiences that I had such a great time with.

Faith Lee: 17:17

I met some amazing friends that I still like, even follow on Instagram to this day like it was one of those experiences that I won't ever forget, because I met so many great people and I had so much fun. And you know, it was an opera and for the children's chorus we're not singing like all the vibrato opera, but we're just kind of like, you know, a little chorus. And it's still a great experience, though, and I got to learn so much music theory and I got to really have a great community, and I did multiple operas after that and I just built a really great community as I got older, sure well, there's some musicians that I know that are over 50 years old, that don't even know what vibrato is right?

Randy Hulsey: 17:55

so that's pretty cool that you knew it at a young age, right? So it was the music teacher, or the the voice teacher, that exposed you to to performing to perform. Yeah, she.

Faith Lee: 18:07

I started out. She was my very first vocal coach. I don't even know how I got there I was so young. Somehow I ended up at a vocal coach and I just started going over songs and she had these showcases and my very first showcase. I sing a song from Cinderella I thought it's called, but it's when they're dancing, you know, in the ballroom. I don't even remember what it's called, but I sang it. I had a little bun and a little dress and I looked just like a princess and at that very moment, like even. I still remember what it felt like to be on that stage. You know, I was only five years old and at that little moment I was just like this is what exactly, when I want to do like I want to be on stage, I want to perform, I want to sing it's powerful, isn't it?

Randy Hulsey: 18:49

yeah, the power of performance in I can, I think, unless you've ever been on stage whether it's an acquire or orchestra or whatever right just performing in front of the public, it's a very powerful experience and I've heard so many rock stars over the years give interviews and say you know, it's not in common for old rock stars to have been drug addicts at one time, right, and they say that the stage is way more powerful than any of the drugs that they've ever done right.

Faith Lee: 19:22

It's so real it is. It's just one of those things in an adrenaline rush yes, it's one of those feelings that you just can't like compare it to anything else. You just have so much fun and it's like. It's like you're on top of the world, like you, literally that's the right kind of high by the way right yeah, well, let's shift gears real quick.

Randy Hulsey: 19:41

I want to talk about your music a little bit. So in August of this year, where you released a single called forgive but not forget, and I am going to ask you if you would play that live for us. But once you get set up with the guitar over there on the stool, share with the listeners a little bit about the song and then jump into it, if you don't mind yes, of course, so I released this song on August 25th, and this was a song that was in the process since March, I believe in February, march.

Faith Lee: 20:15

I started writing it in February and it I came up with the idea of like there's a saying forgive and forget. And that was a saying that just came to mind, and this is one of those songs that just kind of is very gut wrenching. It's very sad, and it was kind of just the concept of like I'll forgive you, but I really can't forget what you did to me. So this is what this song is about forgive but not forget why you playing games.

Speaker 4: 21:04

It hurts me when you don't even have a reason. Boy, you've left me on my bathroom floor. It's getting really lonely. Are these tears worth crying for? When next you'll make me happy? And I'm still suffocating over thinking everything you said. Why can't you just stay out of my head and I'm calm, lady.

Speaker 4: 22:21

Everything I never said I can't forgive, but not forget why you keep bringing up that other girl. It really makes me nauseous. Like you didn't say that you miss me, or when you call, you seem so over thinking everything you said. Why can't you just stay out of my head and I'm calm, lady. Everything I never said I can't forgive, but not forget the way that you helped me when I sat there anxious alone, but then the next you want and things over the phone. It was random and careless and it hurt me, but you would never know the way that I would smile every time that you fell asleep or I would listen to you when your mom was with you. It was random and careless and it hurt me, but you would never know how I'm still suffocating over thinking everything you said. Why can't you just stay out of my head and I'm calm, lady. Everything I never said I can't forgive, but not forget again, never again.

Randy Hulsey: 25:16

I can't forgive, but not forget that was lovely, thank you, great job. Thank you, and I kept pulling the headphones off just to hear because I wanted to hear what your voice sounded like in the room. And it's really big. You have a nice fun, you sound great. So that was forgive, but not forget, and I think the song is self-explanatory. From what I hear and I don't want to dive into the meeting too much because over the last few years I think the artist, when they write songs, they really want the listener to interpret the song how they want to interpret it.

Faith Lee: 26:01

You already know how you interpreted because you wrote it right but, allow the listener to make it their own, and that's what makes a song special for us there's a great chance for us to listen to it and create music for people to go back and listen to that and make it a song.

Faith Lee: 26:14

You can't forget the song you wrote. That is the most important thing to me when I'm writing music and ever since I was like 10, I wanted to write songs that I could make relatable to people, because that has been something that's always been important to me. I want the listener to listen to it and be like wow, that really resonates with me, like I really relate to that, and that's why I do what I do, like I create music for people to be able to resonate with, to be able to listen to you, because that's what really draws the listener listening to music. Like, if it's a song that I can relate to, I'll listen to it 24-7 because I'll remember exactly how I relate to it, and that's a really important thing to do and that's exactly what the artist wants people to do is listening to it 24-7 right, that's important.

Randy Hulsey: 26:56

Where does? How do I phrase the question? So I guess it's kind of all over the map, but I don't want to put words in your mouth. But where does most of your inspiration come from? Is 50% of your song's kind of like made up, or do they come from life experience kind of talk to the listeners about where you get some of your ideas from when you write.

Faith Lee: 27:18

Yeah. So some of it is definitely made up, and then some of it is also based off of other people's experiences or my experiences. So, like I might hear you know a friend, she's talking to me and she's like this happened to me today and like I'll be like, oh, my word.

Randy Hulsey: 27:35

Inspiration.

Faith Lee: 27:36

It's a great song idea like that's perfect, and I'm like I write a song about that. They're like, thank you, I need it and I'm like, okay, so yeah, a lot of my inspiration sometimes comes from made-up scenarios that I think of in my head and I'd be like, oh, that's a great song. I'm sure a lot of people relate to it, even if I don't, like I know some people do. And then there will be inspirations from other people that I'll tell you like their stories and you know what they go through. Or it'll be my own, what I go through, my stories, and always something that I can make for people to relate to.

Randy Hulsey: 28:12

Yeah, and it made me think of a song that I grew up listening to by the Statler Brothers, who I was very fortunate enough to have Jimmy Fortune from the Statler Brothers on my show not too long ago and they had a song called Class of 57, right, and they talked about all these people in the song and I grew up listening to the song forever and until I interviewed Jimmy he said all of the names that we drop in that song, like Nancy's fixing hair, jerry's driving a truck for Sears, charlotte's on welfare. They're talking about all these people and what they wound up becoming after school, right. So it's really cool how people interpret that, and for the longest time I thought that those were just fictitious characters, but I had no idea that those were actually schoolmates of the Statenbrother.

Randy Hulsey: 29:02

So it was really cool. So, like you said, some of your stuff is fictitious, it's made up, maybe somebody else provides inspiration for it, and then some of it's just life experience from yourself. Now for the recording of that song. Did you stay local to record the single or did you go somewhere else to do it? Talk to the listeners a little bit about where you record it.

Faith Lee: 29:25

Yeah, so I did it pretty locally. It was in the woodlands, so it's about an hour away from me, but I still count that as local and I recorded it with my producer. His name is Sweetman and his name is Jonas, but he goes by Sweetman.

Randy Hulsey: 29:39

Okay.

Faith Lee: 29:40

And I recorded it with him. And I actually recorded my previous single, nightmare, with him as well. And I went into the studio and had been a while since I had recorded and I'd been wanting to record for a really long time. But recording is obviously very expensive and it costs a lot of money. So I had been playing a lot of shows. I saved up my money and once I finally got enough, I was like, okay, I can finally record again because I've been wanting to get in the studio. I wrote that song and I was like this is the perfect song to record. I even posted that song on Instagram and everybody in my comment section was like when is this out on Spotify? And I was like actually that's such a good idea.

Faith Lee: 30:18

So I saved up my money. I finally had enough and I was like, okay, I'm going to get into the studio. And I played him the song and he was like, yeah, we're recording this one. Like, this is the song. And he is an amazing producer. Like he always puts my visions to life.

Adam Gordon: 30:35

Like.

Faith Lee: 30:35

I'm a very over-explainer, because I really want it to turn out the way that.

Randy Hulsey: 30:40

I want it.

Faith Lee: 30:40

It's for you yeah exactly and he always knows exactly what I'm trying to say, even though I have no clue how to produce anything. I've tried to get on Logic and stuff, but it was a little bit too much for me, too overwhelming. But he knows exactly how to create my vision for the song and he has such great harmony ideas, even just stuff that I wouldn't even think of. Like he's like oh, try this harmony. Instead I'm like this is the best harmony ever. Like it works so great for the song.

Faith Lee: 31:09

So, yeah, I recorded it in the Woodlands with him and he actually is part of the Sarah Kelly Music School, which I do a lot of songwriting with their teachers and I do vocal lessons and they've always been a big inspiration because they're very loving and they're very like. You know you can just tell that they do it for their students and you can just tell like they always make time for you. They always like every time I don't live there so I take virtual lessons, but every time I go in hugs from everybody. They're all so sweet, they're all so happy to see me and they're all like. You know, even though you're a virtual student, you're still part of our family and that has always been something that I've really like just appreciated, because you know, sometimes not being able to be there can be hard, but, like they always have made me feel like I'm part of their family, so yeah, that's super cool.

Randy Hulsey: 32:00

Now I'm going to assume, but you can educate me differently. Have you formed a band or are you still just a solo act?

Faith Lee: 32:08

Yeah, so I've actually still been a solo act for the most part. Most of my friends don't really do much music. They might play guitar or something, but not seriously to the point where they want to make a band. But if I actually did have the opportunity I totally would, because I feel like that would be really fun.

Randy Hulsey: 32:24

But how cool is this? That you have recorded music and you're streaming and all of your friends you're a sophomore in high school, right? And your friends can say, oh, I know her, that's fake lead, right? Yeah, Because back in my day it was like we recorded on demo cassette tapes and it was always a trashy recording that had no quality to it. Right, Technology has certainly changed over the years, but that was our demos. And it's so cool how a producer can be that visionary and they can take an idea like a demo and bring it to life. And so many big bands if you hear their demo tapes. I think I was listening to a band, Def Leppard, the other day, and I was listening to a couple of demos that before Mutlang, who was a world renowned producer, has produced everybody from ACDC to Def Leppard. But if you listen to that demo and then listen to that finished product and how much it changed, it's amazing what they saw, that I can make this a hit song if we do these things with it.

Faith Lee: 33:29

Yeah, yeah, it's amazing. Well, with my single before Nightmare, which she also produced, it was one of those songs that isn't like, it's like 10 times better recorded because it's just was made into something totally different. Of course you know for giving up for getting Nightmare with two totally different songs, but the craziest part is that he was able to like completely get my vision for both of them.

Randy Hulsey: 33:52

Sure.

Faith Lee: 33:53

Even though there were two very, very different songs, like style wise, and it was just so crazy seeing them come to life. That's my favorite part of recording is seeing like the song that you wrote really come to life.

Randy Hulsey: 34:04

Yes.

Faith Lee: 34:05

Everything that you had dreamed about. It just come to life.

Randy Hulsey: 34:08

Yeah, that is cool, and I was going to say that very thing. How cool is it to just pin a song and come up with the three or four chords to it? You're strumming it out, kind of, and you record this demo and you take it in and then the next thing you know, you have this full orchestra ban playing behind you. It's like wow, that's what it was supposed to sound like the whole time, exactly. Well, back in, I think, 21, 2021, at the Ripple age of 13, 13, you recorded and released, yes, another single called In my Head, and I was wondering if you'd mind putting the guitar back on and treating us to that song.

Faith Lee: 34:48

Yeah, I'd love to Perfect. So this song In my Head was my very first single. I got into the studio for the first time. It had been a dream of mine to like get to record and release music, and this one was actually a co-write. So I went into the studio, I co-wrote it and then the plan was to record it after. So I went into the studio and the person that I was co-writing with asked me what do you want to write about? And something that I'd been really struggling with at the time was anxiety and like mental health, and I had gotten really stuck in my head all the time and I, like I said earlier, I really wanted to write a song that I could relate with the listeners, and this one was off of my personal experiences. And we wrote a song called In my Head just to help people maybe get stuck out of their head while they're listening to this.

Speaker 4: 36:02

I'm not sure if I can do the motions. Even when I make everything seem so good, I can't help it. If someone looked into my sword, I'd ask does it get better? I've let go. I need help in my head and every time I'm pushing through, it blows up in my face in the end, and I forget that I am living, that I'm not only existing. Our depression makes me question everything. All the struggles that you're going through I know what you are going through. What do you know about those endless nights where I'm alone with tears and I've cried? I've let go. I need help. I'm in my head and every time I'm pushing through, it blows up in my face in the end and I forget that I am living, that I'm not only existing. Our depression makes me question everything. I've let go. I need help. I'm in my head In the end. In the end, I forget that I am living, that I'm not only existing. Our depression makes me question everything.

Randy Hulsey: 38:16

That was In my Head by Faith Lee, wonderful song.

Randy Hulsey: 38:22

I could see the emotion and the power in that song, and anxiety and depression are a very real thing, and there's something that I've talked openly about on my show over the years and I've had people that have been on the show and have shared their stories about their battles with anxiety and depression, and I've always told the listeners that my phone is always on if they ever need somebody to call and talk to. It's not an easy thing to go through. There is help that you can get for that. So that's my public service announcement for the listeners out there.

Randy Hulsey: 39:03

The great write there it sounded amazing.

Faith Lee: 39:06

Thank you so much.

Randy Hulsey: 39:08

Would you consider yourself a prolific songwriter, meaning do you write a ton of stuff, or is it just like maybe a song a month? Like talk to the listeners a little bit about your writing habits?

Faith Lee: 39:22

Yeah, so it honestly it totally depends. Like I'll go through phases where I'm like writing so many songs and I'll go through like phases where I'm like I don't have anything to write about. You know, like Riders Block is a very real thing, but when I wrote Forget but Not Forget, that was like through one of my phases of writing a bunch of songs and I wrote a ton of different songs and I had so much inspiration to write a bunch of different songs and I just kind of go through different phases. Occasionally I'll just not really have much motivation and I'll kind of work on other things like my performance, my covers, you know, and then sometimes I'll be very motivated to write and I'll really just devote time for writing. And that's kind of my habits when I'm writing my music.

Randy Hulsey: 40:09

Yeah, I've seen that all over the map from artists because I've asked that question about their songwriting and I think they have to be in the mood to songwrite. A lot of them, definitely, definitely. But then I've talked to others. I had the wonderful Michael Sweet from a rock band called Striper on my show. He's been on twice and I think they've sold in excess of 10 million records worldwide, right, and Christian Rock Band. But he has a set schedule. Like every day at a certain time that's what he does. He goes and he closes the door and he writes. But some people they have to just wait until that thing, kind of like ding dong, the light goes on and they have to sit down and write at that point in time.

Faith Lee: 40:52

Yeah, that's very much how I am, like I really have to be in the mood, because if I'm not, I really can't. I just can't get anything.

Randy Hulsey: 40:59

Nothing comes out.

Faith Lee: 41:00

Nothing. It's not just good Like nothing really comes out. I feel like I'm writing like some random poem or something. I very much have to be in the mood and I have to have some sort of inspiration to write about before going into writing.

Randy Hulsey: 41:16

Yeah, I would think you would have to have or have been feeling passionate about something in order for something good to come out of it. Right, yes, if you had to plug yourself into a genre with your music, what do you think you would plug yourself in? Who is faithfully as an artist? Are you a pop artist? Do you sing a song layer Like? Have you ever given that much thought? I know you're a young performer.

Faith Lee: 41:42

Yeah, so I have given it some thought and I definitely I feel like I do lean more towards the pop side. I've tried other genres. I actually started out doing country, but then that was something I actually kind of moved closer to pop because pop was something that I like to listening to. I don't dislike country, but pop was something that I like to listen to and it was also something that I really like to sing, so I kind of veered towards the pop direction. Also, another thing about pop is that there's not many pop artists my age, at least. Where we live I do see a lot of country artists my age, but pop was something that I haven't really seen before. So I just wanted to do something kind of new and fresh and different.

Randy Hulsey: 42:27

Yeah, and the two songs that you have shared with the listeners so far. They seem a little more on the singer-songwriter side, which is a cool vibe as well. Yes for sure.

Faith Lee: 42:38

Yeah, it's definitely very much singer-songwriter sometimes going to pop. It's kind of I don't even know. I just write something and I'm just like there it is. It is what it is. Yeah, it is what it is.

Randy Hulsey: 42:52

And I think for the most part, artists hate to be boxed in to a genre anyway, because they want their canvas to be their canvas. And if you think it's pop, great, if you think it's rock, great, it's like interpret it however you want. So the, the genre is just four walls for the music. But you know as well as I do when you put anything on Spotify or Apple Music what genre are you? They want to know where you're rock or you pop, or you new wave, or you pop synth Like. I mean, there's 75,000 like sub-genres out there that it can be a little on the silly side. Well, what is the end result for you with the music stuff Like, is this what you want to do for a living?

Faith Lee: 43:38

ultimately, you think yeah yeah, I think definitely something related to music is something that I want to end in, because that's something that I started with, like I said earlier, like I can't remember a time when I didn't want to do music, like I can't remember ever a time that like I didn't know what I wanted to do, and that's something that I started with. So it's very much something that I want to end with, whether it's like performing, going on tours or even like I've explored other options, like just being a songwriter. That even sounds appealing to me as well. I definitely want to go some somewhere in the music industry, but I'm kind of open to whatever happens happens with my music. Like if I do get the opportunities to go and tour, then I'll be like, yeah, that sounds great. But if I'm more like just wanting to be a songwriter when I get older, songwriting for other big artists, that honestly sounds super appealing to me too.

Randy Hulsey: 44:36

Yeah, yeah, well, I've had some wonderful musicians on my show who were in big bands. I wouldn't say that I mean they were big, they were not local bands, they were global type of bands. But one of them in particular went on to write number one hits for Leanne Womack and Kid Rock and Keith Whitley and we talked about this on the show and this is mailbox money, what they call mailbox money that will continuously come in for this songwriter for the duration of every time that song gets played somewhere.

Randy Hulsey: 45:16

So how amazing is that to just show up at the mailbox and it's like, hey, faith Lee, another check for me, right?

Faith Lee: 45:22

from all this all these screens or whatever.

Randy Hulsey: 45:25

That would be super cool.

Faith Lee: 45:26

It really would be.

Randy Hulsey: 45:28

Well, if you weren't doing music, if you put music aside and you said well, I've got to go get a nine to five somewhere, what do you think it would be? Have you ever thought much about it?

Faith Lee: 45:39

Yeah. So I mean, not really I what I did want to go into law school when I was a little bit younger. That sounded really interesting, just to learn more about politics. Not really exactly what I want to do, but I kind of wanted to go to law school, kind of learn more about it. But I don't. Honestly, I've never really thought about it. My mom was a speech pathologist so I thought about, oh, that'd be fun to follow in her footsteps, do that. But honestly, it's sane, has always been. I just want to do something music related, because that's something that I'm passionate about.

Randy Hulsey: 46:15

That's great, and you should focus on that for sure, if that's what you want to do. I just thought it would be a fun question to ask you like what's what's the fallback like, if I guess option A doesn't work out? What's option? Because you should always have like an option.

Randy Hulsey: 46:31

B right, but you should always push the limits of trying to succeed and exceed success in the field that you want to choose right there you always have to consider like well, maybe you know everybody wants to be a professional baseball player growing up, but not everybody makes the pros right.

Faith Lee: 46:50

So that's kind of why I've like tried to like be more open like anything music related, like being a songwriter, being a performer, maybe even going into music business like anything like that. I kind of I was thinking about maybe minoring in music business at Belmont, so just kind of exploring my options. But music is something that I'm really passionate about and it's something that I feel like I'm confident in for sure, so that's something that I want to pursue.

Randy Hulsey: 47:15

Well, you should do just that. I wanted to chat for just a minute about some of the accolades because I find them pretty remarkable. So is that cool if we check about how wonderful you are for just a minute.

Speaker 4: 47:28

It's my show. I get to do what I wanted to do so.

Randy Hulsey: 47:34

You had a song called Nightmare, which was a single that was released when you were, I think, 14, and that showed up on a Grammy ballot, okay, so there's a lot of listeners on the show that have no idea what a Grammy ballot may be in your own words. Explain to the listeners what it means when a songwriter has a song that shows up on the Grammy ballot.

Faith Lee: 48:02

Yeah, so kind of how I got there was my producer. I have such an amazing producer like, oh my goodness, he like put he I don't really know what the correct wording is for it but he nominated me for a Grammy ballot or he submitted me something like that, something along those lines and honestly I'm not really sure exactly what it is, but it's kind of under, right under the Grammy nomination. So it's kind of like right the process before getting nominated for a Grammy. So you know, just kind of having a list of artists in different like categories, like right before the nominations so so the ballot.

Faith Lee: 48:45

There could be maybe thousands of people on the ballot, and then that gets narrowed down to the nominations and then you have the Grammy winner like that's when the nominations are, when the big artists, like you know, taylor Swift, ariana Grande, all those people but yeah, it was a really, it was a really cool, because not everybody gets on the Grammy ballots like it was very, it was very surreal. Like I was like I was like what? Like you're telling me what I'm on the Grammy ballot. I was like I literally jumped up, like I saw the text from them hey, you're on the Grammy ballot. I was like jumped up and I was like ran to my house or into my parents, like it was a very cool moment for me.

Randy Hulsey: 49:25

I would venture to bet I will go on record to say this that 98% of the listeners to this interview have not been on a Grammy ballot so. I think it's pretty cool. At the end of the day, I have not been on a Grammy ballot, so the song Nightmare. I believe that it was also nominated for pop song of the year at the Josie Awards. Right, talk a little bit about the song and the Josie Awards yeah.

Faith Lee: 49:54

So the Josie Awards I've been going to for years and it started out I think it was some sort of tonight show, today show in Pigeon Forge and that's where it used to be, and then it kept growing. I was like it was pretty big when I got there. It's the top like national awards show for independent artists. So it was something that I started doing when I was young. I did actually win.

Faith Lee: 50:24

I started out by winning junior vocalist of the year and then the next year one young adult vocalist of the year, and then it got really, really big and like they kind of blew up a little bit more and they moved to the Grand Ole Opry. So that year I was nominated for a couple things and I got to actually go to the Grand Ole Opry, which was super fun. My song got nominated, which it was nominated against a bunch of different artists, and it was really cool that I got to like see all the other artists and it's such a great experience to go to because first of all I got to go to the Grand Ole Opry, like I always wanted to go there.

Randy Hulsey: 51:00

That's cool, isn't it?

Faith Lee: 51:01

yeah, it's so cool and it was just like you know, people, all these great artists have played it, have been on these likes on the stage, like it is just so cool. So, yeah, I got to go and my song got nominated, with a bunch of other great talented artists. So, yeah, I was super proud of nightmare.

Randy Hulsey: 51:20

Well, I think, a songwriting achievement award. You've received one of those right and you had a fans choice for under 18, which is super cool, I guess, for the listeners out there. The Josie awards are held each year in Nashville and therefore, like a faith said, the independent artists ones that are not signed to major record deals right that they're producing and distributing their own stuff. So that's important to recognize all the indie artists out there yeah well, how cool are all these awards.

Randy Hulsey: 51:52

Wow, I'm kind of honored to be sitting in your presence right now. Congrats on all the accolades. That's so cool. What do the awards mean to you, though, as an artist? Because I think so many times people don't really care about the accolades, but then there are some that thrive on the accolades. Where does faith lease it with the accolades that you receive? How important are they to you as a artist.

Faith Lee: 52:19

So for me, I think I'm kind of in the middle, like it's a happy in between. I don't thrive off of the awards that I get, but I take them as like oh, this is, this, shows all my hard work that I've really worked for. This is something that shows the hard work that I did to really like write these songs and produce them and, you know, go through all that long process, and it's not something that I don't care about, but it's also not something that I thrive on. It's kind of like a happy medium, like I get really excited oh yeah, I want an award, like that's really great. Or oh, I didn't win an award but I still got nominated, like that's just. It's very much a happy medium and I see these awards as just a little congratulations of the hard work and I'm like, oh, it paid off.

Randy Hulsey: 53:07

I think that it would probably make you feel inspired to continue doing what you do when you get that recognition that, hey, faith, you're doing a great job, keep doing what you're doing right.

Randy Hulsey: 53:19

And I think that's we all need that encouragement, and sometimes even in corporate America it's, you know, everybody's out to make money, make money, make money. But sometimes it's the simple things like hey, randy, hey, faith, you're doing a great job. Today it's just about the encouragement that you matter and that you make a difference in what you do right. So I think that's important. Well, I know you've played all over Greater Houston and, if my memory serves me correctly, I stumbled across you, I think.

Randy Hulsey: 53:53

My friend Rachel made a post on her social media page, rachel being the owner of Clancy's down in Richmond and she said, oh, my favorite artist in the world. And I looked at that and I'm like she forgot about me again. Gosh, dog it. I said, well, let me see what this is all about, let me see who this faithly person is or whatever. I've never heard of faithly before and we both play at Clancy's right. So I said, let me see what faithly is all about and I want to have her on my show, kind of thing. But I did want to give a plug to to Sean and Rachel, the owners of Clancy's, if you guys are ever down in Richmond, great food great hospitality and they have and they have wonderful, wonderful musicians that play at that place, don't they?

Randy Hulsey: 54:42

faith so you guys, if you're in the Richmond area, make sure you patronize those guys and tell them that faith and Randy sent you.

Faith Lee: 54:53

But besides Clancy's, share with the listeners some of the other venues that you've played around town yeah, so I've gotten the opportunity to play at the Rustic, which was a great place to play at. I played seven shows over a couple months. That was really fun. The food there is really great. It's a great atmosphere, big stage it's always fun. Like you said, I've played at Clancy's. I've played at spectators bar and grill. I've played the very first place that I play at which, ironically, it burned down was Firehouse Saloon oh sure, right over off of 59, and yeah, that was one of the first shows at least like shows, shows, you know in front of people.

Faith Lee: 55:32

I played there. I got to open up for the Will Carter band. They got, they gave me the opportunity because I was a fresh new artist, like I was still building my guitar, still building my songwriting, my covers. You know all that. So, yeah, I've played it a couple places. I'm trying to think of others, but those are all the ones off the top of my head. But yeah, I really love getting to play. It's one of them. That's another. One of my favorite things is getting to share my music for other people and getting to just like play fun covers that people know, that people can sing along to you know all my favorites and also get to showcase my original songs what a wonderful gift we're able to deliver to people, isn't?

Faith Lee: 56:12

it amazing to share song with people.

Randy Hulsey: 56:14

It's amazing, so amazing tell the listeners about your experience with the Houston livestock show in rodeo yeah, so I did the Houston livestock show.

Faith Lee: 56:24

In rodeo there is a little competition I forgot the ages, but it was up till a 15 or 16 I think it was 15 and I got second place in it and I was one of the youngest there, which was really cool. And I sang a cover song and I got to sing at the rodeo, which was really cool, like that was. I was very young. That was the first time there was two rounds. I made it to the second round and then I placed, which was really cool for me because, like you know, being so young I think I was like nine years old playing, being so young, getting to place second place against like 15 year olds was for me. So, yeah, that was my experience.

Faith Lee: 57:12

And then I actually did end up getting a gig at the rodeo this past rodeo year. Whatever, I got to play in one of their. It was like a warehouse or something. It's where they had venues to buy things and all that. So I got a little stage and there was tables and stuff and people got to watch your form. I feel like that was definitely one of my best performances because I had so much adrenaline and I felt very confident on that stage. So, yeah, I got to play there. And that was even crazier, going from a little girl going to play for a competition and then actually getting asked to play at the Houston Livestock Show in.

Randy Hulsey: 57:51

Rodeo. That's an honor. I mean, there's a lot of people that can never say that they did that either, right yeah?

Speaker 4: 57:57

for sure.

Randy Hulsey: 57:58

That's a super cool venue to say that you play, but I think you also had a time or two singing the national anthem with the Astros.

Faith Lee: 58:06

Yeah, I got to do that too. I was probably about nine years old and that was crazy, Just being in the field with all those people around. I don't even think I was that nervous. I was so young. Now I feel like I get more nervous than I was when I was nine years old, but yeah, that was a crazy experience. That was something that I had never done before and it was also. It was just because you're in a baseball stadium and one of the biggest things was you have a time limit and then also when you sing, you hear yourself sing in all the different sections and areas.

Randy Hulsey: 58:41

So like you sing something, the acoustics almost like it.

Faith Lee: 58:43

You sing something and it's echo, echo, echo, echo, echo all around the stadium. But it was still so cool and it was definitely like a very cool experience because I got to experience trying to sing under a time limit with different echoes all around me, but it still went well.

Randy Hulsey: 58:59

So yeah, well, talk to me about the time limit. I wasn't aware of that. So they give you a certain amount of time to sing the anthem, I think it was like 60 seconds.

Faith Lee: 59:07

It was something like that 60 seconds, 90 seconds, something they give you a time limit and you can't go over that time, Otherwise you're cut off from the national anthem. So you have to make sure you practice it and time it and really make sure it's precise and you're not holding notes too long and all that.

Randy Hulsey: 59:28

That's interesting that you say that, and I do know that from my time in professional hockey. There is radio and television timeouts. Yes, and those. It might be a little bit different for baseball I've never been in professional baseball, but the hockey if it's being televised they have whistle stoppages and they'll get like a 30 second ad in or a one minute ad, and so they specifically stop the game for those ads, for the people that pay for those sponsorships. So, and what a lot of people don't know that are not behind the scenes, they're very, very rigid. Like they'll say this starts at 7.02. This starts at 7.12. This starts at, you know, at that time and they are on point with all of those times, otherwise the game just draws out and draws out.

Randy Hulsey: 1:00:20

So, and then the TV. You know, especially if they're on radio and television, all that has to be synced up to meet the timeline. So that's probably, I'm guessing that that's why they kept you on a timeline.

Randy Hulsey: 1:00:32

Well, I think most people have a general phobia about public speaking or performing and to go in front of probably I'm gonna guess with the Astros 25 to 30 to 35,000 people, depending on the time of week and whatnot and who's in town, but that's a big stage. That's a lot of eyes on you. At one time, like, were you really nervous about that or did you find yourself like kind of in your comfort zone?

Faith Lee: 1:01:01

It was kind of in between. I was a little bit nervous because I was like I can't mess this up, like if I mess this up that's gonna be bad. But then at the same time I was also something about being that young you're kind of more fearless.

Randy Hulsey: 1:01:15

You don't think about those things.

Faith Lee: 1:01:16

You don't think about those things. I feel like now I'd be way more nervous. I would still do it, but I feel like now I'd be way more nervous Because also the national anthem is something that you also just can't mess up, because you know the lyrics are very like. Everybody knows every single lyric and if you mess one up, you can't be like, oh, they're not gonna know, Like.

Faith Lee: 1:01:34

So I think I was probably in between because I was like, oh, I don't wanna mess this up, but at the same time I was like didn't even think too much about it, because I was so like young and you just don't really think of those things.

Randy Hulsey: 1:01:46

Isn't it amazing how it's a song that we've sang since we were this tall in school or in its sporting events. And it's probably one of the songs that people mess up the most. When they sing it live, Like they forget the words to it, like, which is incredible. And it's such a short song you would think, oh, that's no problem. But until you're ever put on that stage and you have to remember those words, it can be overwhelming right, it is very like.

Faith Lee: 1:02:15

It's like a lot of artists which I've actually messed up one time and it was not in front of a lot of people, it was at like a little cornhole event and I was so nervous, like I was just like I got in my head and I was like I can't mess up these lyrics, like I literally can't mess up these lyrics. So yeah, that does happen. It's a very real thing when you get on the stage and you're like I can't mess it up and just go and mess it up.

Randy Hulsey: 1:02:38

Tell me if you agree or disagree. But I had the Tom Ball Press interview me some years back and I remember one of the specific questions that they had to ask was do you ever get nervous before a performance? And I remember my answer. I said I think the biggest kind of like my shows, in particular the biggest crowd that I've ever played in front of, was like 3,500 people, right. But I said you know what I think, that whether it's 100 people or if it was 50,000 people, it doesn't make me nervous.

Randy Hulsey: 1:03:19

But what does make me nervous is doing what you just did, where you play in front of one person or two person, because you know that that one person or that two people are fixated on you and they're listening to everything that you're doing, whereas if you think about 35,000 people, there's a lot of them listening, but there could be a lot of them that aren't listening to kind of thing, right. So it makes me personally more nervous to play in front of one or two people than it does 3,000 people. Would you share those sentiments or would you say that even playing in front of one or two doesn't bother you, one way or another?

Faith Lee: 1:03:58

I would agree I've gotten better. That used to be the biggest thing, like I auditioned for a talent show at my school and because there was two judges, I literally was crying, didn't want to go. I was little, by the way, not now.

Faith Lee: 1:04:10

But I was really little and I did not want to audition just because there was only two people and I was like I can't do this. And yeah, I definitely agree, performing in front of like one or two people or even three, like it's very, it's just, it's more because, like you said, they're fixated just on you and it's just you singing in that room and it's sometimes a little awkward like awkward silence. So, yeah, I definitely, really I've definitely gotten better because I have had to be in those situations like even just singing.

Randy Hulsey: 1:04:39

Now I'm not nervous because I don't know, I feel very comfortable in this atmosphere, but if it's like an audition or something, I totally relate to that yeah, just when you mentioned the word audition, it takes the stress level to a whole different level versus that of hey faith, will you get over there and just do what you do and play your guitar. It's probably. It was probably very natural for you to sit in the studio here and play, because you know I'm a musician and I'm not gonna judge. But you know, being in front of a judge you're like, oh my gosh, I can't do this right, you didn't think exactly right judge you and musicians shouldn't judge other musicians at the end of the day.

Randy Hulsey: 1:05:17

Well, what's coming up for you as it relates to shows or maybe new music that you can talk about?

Faith Lee: 1:05:24

yeah. So I'm playing at Clancy's a couple more times, I do. I I don't have any music coming out anytime soon well, not, and I don't have any music that I know of coming out anytime soon but I'm definitely in the writing process and I eventually want to do an EP or an album like that's kind of the big project that I really want to do at some point. But I have been writing songs. I do have a plan of what I want to release, but at the moment I don't have any new releases, since I just had one, and then I'm just kind of taking not a break. But, like I said, it is very expensive, so I need to, you know, get more money to be able to do that, and so, yeah, I've just kind of been playing at different shows and that's pretty much what's coming up ask pops for a loan.

Randy Hulsey: 1:06:14

He'll give you some money. Where can the listeners find you on social media for your music, and if there's some type of merch site or something that you want to share with a listener, certainly feel free to do that as well.

Faith Lee: 1:06:29

Yeah, so on Instagram it's at faithly music and so is Facebook at faithly music, and I'm pretty sure Tiktok is faithly music underscore. The reason why there's an underscores because I had another Tiktok account when I made. I made when I was younger. It's a little embarrassing, so didn't want that anymore, but the username is already there, so it should be faithly music with an underscore for Tiktok okay, well, I have a few quick fire questions for you that I thought would be kind of fun and and just kind of.

Randy Hulsey: 1:06:59

I mean, if you want to elaborate on any of them, you can, but short answers are just as well, right. So TV or radio. Tv, I'd say TV is there a favorite show?

Faith Lee: 1:07:12

I love at our banks.

Randy Hulsey: 1:07:13

On Netflix that's one of my favorites. Okay, so you're a big Netflixer.

Faith Lee: 1:07:16

I'm a Netflixer. I love Netflix on the couch and watch Netflix forever.

Randy Hulsey: 1:07:22

So your couch potato then, top three influential artist for you. You kind of mentioned some earlier but I didn't know if you know if there were any others that were yeah.

Faith Lee: 1:07:38

So at the moment I would say Taylor Swift, gracie Abrams is a really big one. I love Gracie Abrams. I she opened for Taylor Swift, which is really cool.

Randy Hulsey: 1:07:49

And then I would say Lauren Deagle still just cuz, you know, since I was little yeah very sentimental to me, so yeah, can you think of a male artist that inspires you or that you really like? Does any, does any one male artist stick out in your mind?

Faith Lee: 1:08:03

that's a really I oh. Why am I? I know now I know Lewis Capaldi, I love Lewis Capaldi okay, I've heard that name yeah, he writes a lot of slower songs, but they're so beautiful, like he plays piano and it is just. They're very beautiful.

Randy Hulsey: 1:08:19

I definitely recommend listening, if you know absolutely, and that's what the show is all about. Right, I love being inspired by new music and they're.

Faith Lee: 1:08:26

They're definitely slower songs, but they're very, they're pretty, like they're just he plays piano and a lot of them have really cool piano lines and they're very pretty and just like good to listen to you when you're just kind of like in that mood yeah, I dig it.

Randy Hulsey: 1:08:40

I'll have to check them out for sure. Early bird or a night owl that is such a good question.

Faith Lee: 1:08:48

I used to like automatically say night owl, but I've been waking up early, so randomly, like the past nine months, I've been waking up at like eight, which is early for me at least, but I would probably say night owl okay. I still don't love getting up early, but I'm fine staying up late.

Randy Hulsey: 1:09:02

I was gonna say you're getting old. If you love getting up early, I'm the early.

Faith Lee: 1:09:06

I don't love getting up early.

Randy Hulsey: 1:09:08

I'm like I tell people all the time, it's not uncommon for me to find myself in the studio here, where you're sitting, at 3, 30 or 4, 4 o'clock in the morning on a Saturday morning that's sometimes I don't go to sleep. Yeah, somebody said the other day it's like wow, you're going to bed late. I said no, I'm waking up early. Can you think besides me a favorite local artist that's a good question.

Faith Lee: 1:09:36

I definitely that's a really good question. I would say probably. I definitely would say will Carter, because I got to open up for him. So he's definitely one of my favorites because he gave me the opportunity to get on the stage for the first time and he is really good music and I also. Yeah, I think that's pretty much yeah yeah, where is he based out of?

Randy Hulsey: 1:09:59

I'm not familiar with him.

Faith Lee: 1:10:01

I'm pretty sure it's Houston. I'm pretty sure it's Houston.

Randy Hulsey: 1:10:03

I have to dig a mom, yeah he's got a band super cool okay, I think this question's already been answered, or I think I assumed. But favorite guitar brand.

Randy Hulsey: 1:10:14

Taylor you're in the right place, well, you know, I was in Nashville a couple months ago and I I made the mistake of going over to the Gibson garage and I've always wanted an SJ 200 because it just sound amazing and there's something about spending $8,000 on a guitar. That is tough. Not that some of mine didn't cost a little bit of money, right, but 8,000 bucks for a guitar, you have to really think along and hard about it and I always justify it to Terry is like I'm going out and playing shows with this.

Randy Hulsey: 1:10:53

You know it's justifiable, it's easy, so I'm trying to sell it to her and she's really good about that kind of thing. Anyway, she doesn't give me too much grief.

Adam Gordon: 1:11:01

But Taylor's a wonderful brand. It's something that I've been playing forever.

Randy Hulsey: 1:11:05

And well, good choice by you. Well, would you come out and maybe song swap with me sometimes?

Faith Lee: 1:11:12

that one of my shows. That would be super fun. So I love song. Yeah, I play with Chris Hughes.

Randy Hulsey: 1:11:19

He's my he's my lead guitarist super cool. I did a song swap out at Mahoney's with Peyton Howie a couple of months ago, which was super fun. Peyton's a good friend, who she's. She's been on my show a couple of times here in the studio and so she came out and did a song swap. We had a great time so fun. Well, faith, listen. Thanks so much for sharing your amazing talent with the world and thanks for coming out and joining me in the studio. It's been a pleasure to get to meet you and I encourage the listeners to go out and follow Faith owner socials and make sure to get out and stream the new single and all of your music also.

Faith Lee: 1:11:59

Yeah, my pleasure so much fun that's awesome.

Randy Hulsey: 1:12:02

Thank you for being here, and if you guys are in the Houston and surrounding areas, make sure to go out, check show dates for faith and get out to support her and the establishments. You guys would be so appreciated if you did that. And faith, how about doing myself and the listeners a favor and maybe telling us about your single nightmare and playing this out? Would you do that for us?

Faith Lee: 1:12:27

yes, of course so this next song, nightmare, is the second song that I released and this is definitely one of those fictional songs that we were talking about. I wrote this song in 15 minutes. It was one of those songs that I just wrote super quickly. It all came out and I was just I was on my piano, I actually wrote it originally on the piano and it was one of those songs that I wrote really quickly. It all came out, probably did only a couple edits, like it wasn't like one of those songs that I drastically changed over time. It's just one of those that just came out all of a sudden. So this is called nightmare it started as a dream.

Speaker 4: 1:13:13

Guess who was your scheme.

Speaker 4: 1:13:15

Now I know where this was going, honey, you got into my head. Every time you said it's just a little joke. But it's just, baby, I don't even know why. Won't leave. It's like you're obsessed. I can't be in the same room as a reckless stalker.

Speaker 4: 1:13:41

But, baby, you're a nightmare. But I'm the night. You run it through the darkness. Eyes are blind. Baby, you're a nightmare. I don't cry, and even in my nightmares I can't control my mind. Baby, you're a nightmare. I used to dream, but I'm finally waking up from your little pain. There's my wounded heart. You tore it apart, but now it's a backbigger and better. You're really still here waiting for my tears, but I want you to know that I really don't care. I'm not fazed by your little games. I got away from the house, but it's okay. I didn't even want to play anyway. But, baby, you're a nightmare. But I'm the night. You run it through the darkness. Eyes are blind. Baby, you're a nightmare. I don't cry, and even in my nightmares I can't control my mind.

Speaker 4: 1:15:02

Baby, you're a nightmare. I used to dream, but I'm finally waking up from your manipulating baby. I don't even know why you won't leave. It's like you're obsessed. I can't be in the same room as a psycho pet. Baby, you're a nightmare, but I'm the night. You run it through the darkness. Eyes are blind. Baby, you're a nightmare. I don't cry and even in my nightmares I can't control my mind. Baby, you're a nightmare. I used to dream, but I'm finally waking up from your manipulating. Baby, you're a nightmare, I'm the night you run it through the darkness.