Tess Druckenmiller is a self-proclaimed singer/songwriter who balances both college life and a career in music. This New York City native credits her environment for her start in the industry and multiple producers for her pop, folk and indie sound. With the recent re-release of her first album “Storyteller,” featuring her new single “Black & White,” she hopes listeners find the songs relatable and appreciate the album’s variety of genres. We caught up with the up-and-coming artist, and here’s what she had to say:
Q. What inspired your new single “Black & White”?
A. That one is about a boy — surprise! Well, I was writing it this summer and this was kind of one of those things where you finally just realize everyone has that person from when they’re a teenager and don’t really know what’s happening and they just get fixated on one person. And I think that was kind of my realization that that wasn’t actually what I wanted, and I was over it.
Q. What sets your music apart from what is out there right now?
A. It has a live aspect to it in the recording, there’s not really any electronic instruments and a lot of the performances are not literally live from shows but are mostly acoustic, not all, but (majority are) not electronic sounds. And then also a couple things, like “Black and White,” … I did that only with my friends. Everyone was in college, so they all went to NYU. The producer is one of my good friends. Everyone is in school so it’s kind of fun for us doing it, as everyone is trying to be an artist. Even the producer has his own band. That was kind of interesting to really have something that was all produced by college kids who are still in school.
Q. How is it balancing school and pursuing a career in music?
A. I’m at Brown, in Rhode Island, studying computer science. It’s a lot. Obviously it depends on the semester … freshman year and sophomore, year there was a lot less work, so I was able to go home on weekends to do the recording, and there’s still time every once in a while to go home for a show. This fall, we did a show in Nashville, and I just left for that weekend and did work on the way there and on the way back.
Q. What does this album mean to you?
A. It means a lot to me obviously because I wrote it all, but it’s super nostalgic because there are recent ones where I’m like, ‘Oh, I wrote that last year,’ but there’s ones from when I was 17 and they’re about my best friend when I was 17 or the boy I liked … So it’s really nostalgic for me when I listen to it and it’s kind of just like … a storybook for me of stuff that happened to me, which is funny to be able to look back. It’s like I don’t have a diary but if I did it would be this album.
[A version of this story ran on page 10 on 3/27/2014 under the headline "Songwriter talks balancing college, music"]
