Hotshot #8

“I grew up in the southwest suburbs, Lisle. Me and my two best girlfriends, we started a little girlband when we were younger and did all the talent shows, sang the national anthem, and took voice lessons together. For me, it served a dual purpose: I loved singing, but it also gave me an excuse to hangout with my friends. That’s why I’ve always liked being in groups and creating harmonies.

Growing up, we mostly listened to classic rock in my house, The Cranberries, REM, Peter Gabriel... There’s so many videos of me and my sister dancing to music with my dad. Music was always around our house. And I got into singing because it was what my sister did. She started choir, so I started it too!

I went to Luther College in Iowa, a small liberal arts school. They had an awesome choir program so I took voice lessons, did choir and was in an acapella group. I studied psychology and women and gender studies while working as a barista. Afterwards, I worked at a startup, but it was really intense and I wasn’t happy. It wasn’t until later that I realized it was because music was no longer in my life.

After I left the startup, I started writing music and putting out cover videos on Instagram and a producer reached out to me from Nashville, offering to write together. I took 3 months off and focused on that. We wrote 5 songs together and we recorded them and put out an EP last April. I was nervous every step of the way, but recording was a ton of fun. I didn’t think much of it and figured it would just be friends and family that would listen to it, but then one of my songs did pretty well, so I figured I’d keep going! It’s been very organic this whole time. The goal is to see how far I can take it.

I always thought I’d end up in Chicago and I love it so much. I come to @HeritageBicycle several times a month to work and I have a lot of meetings here. If I get to chose, I meet people here. I just had a meeting here a couple weeks ago with someone who’s going to do my next music video. This is always my go-to spot!”

- Grace Coletta, Musician