bayleaf. Visits Section 36 Music!

Section 36 Music has another visitor! bayleaf. is a fantastic artist with an upcoming project, "Champagne", that you won't want to miss. I was thrilled that she wanted to visit with us to discuss the release and the rest of her music career. I'm sure you'll love what she had to say.
 
So, let's see what happens when bayleaf. visits Section 36 Music!

I am incredibly excited about your upcoming single, “Champagne”. What can you tell me about it?

Thank you so much! I’m super excited too! “Champagne” was originally supposed to only be one track, but I ended up writing two songs back-to-back and I felt like both of them deserved the title. The result is two singles released together, “Champagne 1” and “Champagne 2.” I considered releasing them individually, but truthfully I couldn’t bear to separate them! They were written together, recorded together, and produced together, so it felt right to release them together.  

“Champagne 1” is about how achieving a goal doesn’t always lead to the outcome you hoped for. For me that thing was getting my law degree. It was a huge bummer to work so hard for something just for the outcome to not feel like a real achievement. By the time I had my diploma in hand I had already realized that all I really wanted was to go back to music. The way I dealt with it was to celebrate anyway. It was a hard decision to not pursue the career I invested so much time and energy into, but I got the degree, I did the thing, and it’s okay to feel awesome about that. Treat yourself, rest up, then on to the next. “Pop a bottle, walk it off.”

“Champagne 2” is definitely the more personal of the two tracks. I wrote the lyrics while I was housesitting for my family in the suburbs and was frustrated that I couldn’t find anywhere to eat after 10PM. The area I grew up in was frustratingly puritanical for an artsy queer kid in the early 2000s, so I was pulling from my own teen angst in a very direct way. I’ve been a city girl since I left home and I don’t see that changing any time soon. 

Do you have a favorite memory from the recording process?

I usually record everything at home in my apartment, but in the very early stages of “Champagne 2” I was still housesitting and had brought my laptop so I decided to lay some of the initial MIDI. I was working from my mom’s living room couch, and she has two very friendly Siberian huskies. The youngest is still a puppy and he just wants to be involved in whatever the humans are doing. He kept nibbling at my clothes and trying to snuggle and I had to oblige because he’s such a good boy <3 Eventually he curled up beside me with his head in my lap and took a long nap. Even though I didn’t get much done until I got back to my home studio it was still the part of recording that brought me the most joy.

What is your favorite part about performing on stage in front of an audience?

Performing gives me a real adrenaline rush, so much so that my nerves sometimes struggle to keep up. I’m an introvert at heart, so performing is my way of connecting with people without social anxiety getting in my way. It's easier for me to play music for strangers than it is to talk to them. Music generally encourages a sort of emotional vulnerability that I feel is sorely lacking in day-to-day life. Sharing in that emotional vulnerability requires a huge amount of trust in the people around you, so being able to feel that trust and participate in a shared vulnerability is incredibly fulfilling. 

Who or what would you consider your biggest musical influences?

As someone firmly in the millennial age bracket, my tastes are a wild amalgam of every Gen Xer I ever thought was cool: club kids, trad-goths, 90s girl group baddies, 80s punks and dancing queens, Xtina’s “Dirrty” era, Robert Smith, Trent Reznor, Debbie Harry and Alanis Morissette - my influences are all over the place, and I pull from all of them with reckless abandon. I think somewhere in my heart I’m still a 20-something metal head with elitist opinions about Scandinavian melodeath, but somewhere between graduating Berklee and my stint as a performer in a duelling piano bar I developed a healthy appreciation for how diverse and exciting the pop-genre can really be. 

What is the most challenging part of your music career?

I think the biggest challenge so far has been my decision to lean into my introverted nature. I’m a very solitary creator and I have a habit of not sharing things with anyone until they’re “ready.” Historically this has led to fewer opportunities for collaboration with other artists, though I’m always open to it. The other big issue with being a career-introvert is that social media outreach does not come naturally to me. I really struggle to see the vision of  what social media is “supposed” to look like for an artist and their brand. It’s easy to get caught up in metrics and keywords and all the stuff you’re supposedly doing wrong. It feels easier when I stop worrying about algorithms and visibility. I like treating social media like it's still the early days of the internet. It's a useful tool, but you can't get too caught up in it or you lose sight of the process of actually creating.

What are your immediate musical goals?

I have a few more singles I’d like to push out before the end of the year. They’re in the early stages, but keep an eye out! I’m also slowly putting together an album of public domain works! I am a huge copyright nerd and I love the public domain, so I have big plans to do modernized covers of some of my favourite tunes that have entered the PD in the last couple of years. I was considering timing it with Public Domain Day 2026, but it’s an ambitious timeline and I want to make sure I do the songs justice since they’re timeless classics. 

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I'm definitely excited for that upcoming music!

As always, I want to thank bayleaf. for visiting with us, and for sending along the pictures to accompany the interview.

I'm sure you’ll all want to follow her and see what she has going on. I would follow her on Instagram, and Spotify to make sure you don't miss a thing. 

Thanks, bayleaf., and good luck reaching your goals!