We gathered together on a lukewarm Tuesday night in a secret garden hidden away in the middle of a maze of pink houses and guarded by a rolling electric gate.
I was there to see a show featuring Leah Simmons, Flo Olavarria, and Avery Chapman, the show was celebrating women in music for Women’s History Month. The venue is called Selina Miami River, but I have also heard the name Casa Florida tossed around. The crowd and I were sitting on blankets provided by Sofar Sounds, a DIY show production company that throws local events featuring up and coming artists in 400 different cities around the world. The company promises to give avid listeners and fans the key to high-quality, intimate performances with their favorite local artists. I had heard a lot about the event company, but had never gotten the chance to check one of their shows out.
The night opened with Leah Simmons singing and playing acoustic guitar. Leah’s performance was inviting and warm. She proved she loves cracking a silly joke or two to keep it light. She engages the listener with her honest and vulnerable songwriting and does it all with a vibrato that could make Brandi Carlyle cry. Getting to hear live acoustic versions of Leah’s song’s was a real treat, having only heard her music on Spotify previously. Keep reading to check out my interview with Leah below!
Next up was Flo Olavarria, who sang and played piano with a supporting musician on electric guitar. Her music explored themes of love, loss, desire, and soft-hearted self care. In one song, Flo sang about an electric romance that was taking over all her thoughts and she couldn’t ignore. Follow her on instagram and keep up with her journey.
Avery Chapman closed the show, keeping with the stripped theme, she sang and played acoustic guitar. The most notable characteristics of her songs were witty lyrics that make you think and her silky smooth voice. Her song’s themes ranged from social critiques to true love. She’s a singing poet of the likes of Paul Simon or Joni Mitchell. Check out her songs The Kitchen Sink and Theresa.
Well, there’s a lot of different types of careers that you could take in the music industry, but I think if I were to sit down across from a young woman who said ‘I want to play music for a living’, I would say ‘that’s amazing! It’s going to be a constant hustle, keep your head up, don’t be afraid to share your vulnerabilities, but keep your tough skin.’
Leah Simmons
I was able to sit with Leah before the show started to talk about her music, what women experience in the music industry, and some awesome advice to young women songwriters everywhere.
Who or what inspired you to become a musician and songwriter? Was it the same inspiration that lead to both?
So, I remember growing up I was really involved in my church and my youth group, and I remember going to summer camp one year. I think I was 13 or 14 years old. They had a praise band, and the drummer I thought was incredibly cute. So I was like, dang… one day they gave us an opportunity, you know you can go play Ultimate Frisbee outside, or you can have a “how to learn an instrument quickly” session and, and I was like ooo, alright I got this (Leah laughs). I learned a basic beat on the kick drum and realized, okay this sounds pretty naturally, I want to see what else I could do with it.
I had other influences, growing up my dad was always playing music in the house, so I think my passion was always there. Dancing along, singing along. I did a lot of mimicry when I was younger like repeating Avril Lavigne or Hilary Duff and singing along to that trying to make my voice to sound like them. But in hindsight I was just trying to be in the right key or do what they were doing, but to my little 8 year old ears I was just “how do I do this?”
So I just kept playing and would do that and grew up listening to a big variety of music. I just kept learning things. I started on the drums, I joined a band, we had a drummer already. They all said to me, “well we don’t really have a vocalist”. I said, “I think I can sing”, so I just did a couple of lines of—I don’t even remember the song anymore—and they were like, “oh my God, why haven’t you done this and shown us sooner”, and I was like, “I didn’t know it was anything other than what I did in my bedroom” kind of thing.
So then I was singing, and well I realized I just don’t want to only be singing cause I felt awkward—I don’t know what to do my hands. I thought, well may as well play the guitar. I was 15 by the time I got my first guitar and then the songwriting just came naturally after that.
Was it a curiosity about how to songwrite that made you start, or what got you going?
So it was definitely joke songs. My friends and I would go upstairs to my room on a Friday night to record for fun. Generally it would be me and one other friend and we would shift lines off of each other, just for fun to see what we could come up with. Like a poem almost, a popcorn poem. I just learned the basic couple of chords cause I had a chord chart in my bedroom, so I would just look over at the G chord and we would just play along and it just kind of grew from there.
Also of course, word of mouth. People saying, “oh you play guitar”, “oh you sing, how about this?” So I started doing Open Mic nights and playing with other people. Unfortunately, I never really to the drum career… yet, (she pauses for a laugh) but I am currently loving still playing drums, I just don’t have a kit at home cause I live in an apartment, a town home. I’m not trying to have my neighbors hate me or anything, but I love playing drums plus I just started playing bass recently.
So it’s an ongoing process!
When you’re writing your music, who do you write it for? For your fans, for yourself, or for specific people?
I write for myself generally, as a way it kind of almost feels like therapy, you know what I mean? When I first started songwriting seriously I was 22 and off of a pretty serious break up, and I had moved across the country and I didn’t have any friends.
Where did you move to?
Oh I was in school in Arizona and then I moved here. I had a lot of time to play music and just hang out. I remember playing at this coffee shop called Grind Coffee Project, which is where I met Jared, my fiance. His friend was the owner of this place, and he hired me to play there twice a week, which was amazing!
He said, “the catch is I need you to play only original music”, which you never hear any venue requesting, so that was like, “Amazing!” I had so much free time, I was working at the same time as playing these shows at the coffee shop. It was so exciting to think I could have a social life outside of nannying, which is what I was doing. I would work all day then on Friday night I would go to the coffee shop to have my show, and we would all go to have dinner after and it was always great. But if it wasn’t for that push, I don’t know if I would have ever gotten as serious as I did about songwriting.
Now it just comes very naturally, it’s all about just storytelling and although I think I do write for myself about my experiences, I don’t think that makes it so that other people can’t relate to what I’m writing about. I think that lyrically, if you can find a connection to a song you know and turn it into a definition in your own life, I think that’s really beautiful. So I might be writing for myself, but—hey—if it speaks to you then I guess I wrote it for you, too, you know?
As a woman in the music industry, what would you say are the greatest challenges you and, other women still face in music today?
It’s obviously hard to speak on behalf of other women, but I’ve definitely also noticed, still to this day after playing music for the last 15 years, I still get a lot of disbelief that I could possibly have written this song, that I can even play guitar, and perform at all. You know, there’s this element of… it’s not even disrespect… but it’s kind of like you walk into a place and you’re not taken seriously right off the bat, you’re overshadowed. Then you play your songs and afterwards people come up to you and will be like, “Wow! Oh my god! I didn’t know! I had no idea!” and for me it’s like yeah okay, that’s cool…I guess, welcome to my music!
Sometimes they’ll say “Oh, well, you sounded great, but you know this is what you could do for next time…”. and it’s a lot of trying to tell me what I should do with my art. I usually say something like, “thanks for your opinions and they can stay yours, and I’m going to do what feels right to me and the authenticity of my music”. So yeah, there’s also just a couple things I think that could be better, like safety. I wouldn’t necessarily go to a show by myself without a safety buddy with me, just because you never know what could go on.
I think there are a couple of challenges, and while I feel like we’re coming really far in the sense that most of the performing music community does believe in equality first of all. And they say, “oh this person can shed just as good as this person… it doesn’t matter what gender sexuality we are, they’re just a good musician”. I think there’s a lot more of that openness now, but there’s always going to be those people that kind of look down at you and just don’t think you’re anything yet until you have to prove yourself. So it’s about constantly having to prove yourself.
Do you feel like, as a woman, you have this kind of obstacle put in front of you more often?
Yes, “wear this, wear that, oh well you have to wear makeup… if you’re going on stage, better show a little bit of cleavage, you might get more tips.” That kind of thing, it’s like, it’s different expectations than for a man. Everyday struggles.
What advice would you give to a young woman who wants to pursue a career in music?
Well, there’s a lot of different types of careers that you could take in the music industry, but I think if I were to sit down across from a young woman who said “I want to play music for a living”, I would say that’s amazing! It’s going to be a constant Hustle, keep your head up, don’t be afraid to share your vulnerabilities, but keep your tough skin.
Don’t let anyone get in your head about what your sound and your art should be, do what feels right, that’s the whole thing to me. Consistently check in with yourself about what your message is, who you want to be, and just do that. Don’t be afraid, there’s going to always be people who are not going to not be interested, who might even talk s. There’s always going to be haters. So the whole thing is just you know, know what you’re getting into. You’re never going to not have to hustle, like, it’s constant. You’re going to have to keep learning, you’re going to have to keep maintenance of stuff, you going to have to keep booking gigs, you’re going to have to keep sharing your songs, and you’re going to have to be doing all these things while people are telling you you can’t do it. You’re just going to have to say, “f the haters”, and you’re just going to have to do it.
That’s it, that’s the advice for young girls: To do it! Also, to remember that no one gets to say that what you’re making is right or wrong there’s no rules really about it, so you can bend whatever rules you might think there are and make something that you’re actually happy with. Don’t be afraid to share that with the world, and just hustle, hustle, hustle hard. Then maybe just go into music therapy or something that gets you actual money, because there’s no money in this s*** (we both laugh)… unless you play gigs.
What are you working on now?
I luckily am working on a couple of different projects right now. I am constantly writing for myself, a lot of unfinished material, whether they come as lyrical ideas, melodies that I hear in the shower, or they start off as guitar. Then after a year, finally, I piece two things together and I’m like “oh s***, that’s why I can’t put this and that”, it just took me a minute to figure it out.
So I feel like actually right now I’m honing in on the details of my latest songwriting, cause I know I want to take some of these songs I’m working on to the studio this year. So just kind of like solidifying: Does this song get a lead guitar and drums and bass, or does this song just say pretty and melodic and maybe add strings? Just pre-planning so that way, when I do get into a studio to record, it’s efficient and goes smoothly. I’m in pre-production for my solo stuff, really.
For my side projects, I have a lot of side projects… my favorite thing that I’ve been doing lately is with two of my good friends, Chad and Lisa. We are like Dream-Pop Noir, imagine you’re listening to Beach House but there’s a witch casting a spell on Beach Souse to make them like a little bit sinister. We go into drop D, there’s like three electric guitars and a drum machine with the bass—there’s a lot going on.
We’ve been jamming and writing and it’s been very groovy. I dance to my own solo stuff that I write a lot, but it’s more rock elements, I can head bang and stuff. The stuff we’re writing with our Dream-Pop Noir group is very much like Khruangbin meets Beach House with the witch casting a spell on it. You just can’t help but make your whole body groove. We’re having a lot of fun writing this in the living room, we’ve been meeting up pretty frequently.
Otherwise, I’m always open to talking to people about their song structure, give advice, stuff like that. I’ve always got an open ear kind of thing. Some projects just come and they just want to show me this thing or that thing, and I’m like this is amazing, you know a harmony on this line or every third line every other would sound really cool… here’s the harmony by the way (Leah sings a note and laughs).
I’m trying to get into more video elements too, I’ve got a lot of creative ideas and things I want to try out, it’s just finding the time and the money to do it all, so lots of projects, exciting and creative. Just having fun seeing what comes next playing a lot of shows.
When is your next show?
April 12th at Dangerous Minds Brewery in Pompano Beach!
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Check out Leah’s music on Spotify and follow her on Instagram for more updates on her upcoming shows and projects.
