Conversations with Tiffany Dennis

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tiffany Dennis.

Tiffany, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I started singing songs with my dad when I was a little girl. He’s a drummer and he’d take my mom and I to his band’s original shows. Our home has always been filled with musical sounds and people. I grew up in an Ohio suburb just north of Cincinnati. Our music world was cozy and special to us.

Throughout elementary school, I took up piano and eventually joined a musical theater group in Cincinnati after seeing my first musical live (High School Musical 2 Jr.!). I was in the group within the next year and fell in love with singing songs on stage.

Then my family and I moved to California just before I began high school. I still loved musical theater, but my new school offered a popular music program. Kids were on stage with bands made up of their friends, performing their own songs as a full production! Their shows looked like concerts. I was in awe. I joined the program and wrote my first song. I even got to perform it with a band at our concert. It was incredible.

After high school, I decided to study at UC Irvine. I didn’t study music, though. I picked psychology. Halfway through, I wondered what I was doing. I knew I what I didn’t want, and I was stuck in the middle of it. I finished my studies early to get back to making music.

Since graduating, I’ve been writing songs and working on my next steps for both me and my music. A lot of the time, I’m just figuring out how to navigate life post-graduation in general. Making music has always been a dream of mine. I think little me would be proud.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Not completely smooth! There have been a couple bumps. I think a lot of my challenges stem from perfectionism. I’m the oldest of three girls and a raging perfectionist. I live for pats on the head and gold stars. Once I got older, all of that went away. A lot of my confidence came from external forces, but I didn’t really recognize that for a while. I wrote songs and ended up hating them because I always found something bad to say about them. Nobody was there to tell me otherwise, so I usually settled on my conclusions. The writing was fun. The critiquing ruined it. A lot of those songs have never seen the light of day.

I know what I should probably say to negative thoughts and depending on the day, I win. I’m getting a lot better at challenging those thoughts but still, allowing my music (and anything else I make or do, really) to be subjectively “bad” or have “mistakes” has been my biggest obstacle. I’ve started reminding myself that perfect art doesn’t exist. I think that there’s a charm in a voice crack or someone shifting in their seat in a recorded song. I’m finding a new love for my humanness.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I sing and write songs! A lot of the stuff I write about comes from the odd dynamics of becoming an adult while still feeling like things haven’t changed since high school. It’s strange having your own car payments and tax forms when you live in your childhood bedroom. It can feel like everything around you just keeps shifting and evolving while you’re in the backseat. I love writing about transitions and the fear of change. I’ve always been nervous about change, but I’m learning that so much more lives beyond fear. I am so excited for that growth to make its way into my songs.

I’m the proudest of my song called “this house”. When I wrote this one I was struggling a lot with finding happiness in stagnancy. I had just graduated college and was back at home with my family again. I didn’t like our outdated house or my high school bedroom and I wished something had changed. But I started writing on the details that make the house what it is. Writing “this house” helped me find beauty in stagnancy and patience. I loved writing that song.

I think my songs give a new perspective to stories that happen every day. I’m sure every feeling I’ve ever felt has also been felt by someone else. Yet at the same time, no one person has the same collective experiences as I do. I think that’s so cool. Same message, different story. I like making my lyrics super specific to my experiences whenever I can. I like to think someone out there has also has a functional yet super outdated kitchen stove from 1981 in their house.

Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
Fall in love with the process.

With social media, it feels like everyone is moving at a million miles an hour. I’ve rushed into things and rushed out of things because I didn’t get the results I wanted fast enough. I was so scared of losing time. Paradoxically, I probably lost time doing that.

I still feel afraid when I think about how quickly time passes. So much of it is spent on the process of building our own projects and dreams that we feel discouraged when we don’t reach the summit fast enough. I did that and still do a lot of the time. Being goal-oriented leaves room for disappointment if that long-term goal doesn’t come out the way you planned. There is still joy and satisfaction to be found if you enjoy the process in the first place. I think keeping that in the back of your head is so important…or read through The Alchemist a couple times.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.tiffanydennis.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tiffanydennismusic/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TiffanyDennisMusic/
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@tiffanydennismusic?si=FQcZGwSffxmtlwPl
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/tiffany-dennis-495409007
• Other: https://linktr.ee/tiffanydennismusic

Image Credits
Jasmine Dennis
Chloe McDanel