Today we’d like to introduce you to Haley Joelle.
Haley, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
To start off, I was born on Long Island, New York in 1999 to two of the best parents I could’ve ever asked for – Helen and Jeff. My mom and I moved out to Oregon when I was six months old and I grew up in a suburb outside of Portland. My parents were never married but have been able to have a lasting friendship all throughout my life. So even though I lived with my mom growing up, my dad was around all the time. According to my parents, the first years of my life I loved music – I would dance to it, fall asleep to it, and sing loudly to it. When I was really young my mom just so happened to take an upright piano that her father didn’t want anymore, so from then on we had a piano in our house. She noticed that I loved playing around on it, so I started taking classical piano lessons when I was five.
I was always singing around the house, so when I was about six or seven I started taking voice lessons and doing voice recitals. When I was eight years old, I remember going on a walk around my neighborhood with my parents and suddenly a melody came to my head. Then lyrics came. I went home and wrote it all down and practiced it so much that I wouldn’t forget it – and I can proudly say I still remember my first song word for word to this day! My parents wanted to help me develop this, but neither of them are musical at all. In fact, nobody in my family really did music. But still my dad and I would have weekly “songwriting sessions” where we would sit down at his table in his apartment, have a cup of tea and light a candle, and he’d try to help me write my songs (because my vocabulary was so limited).
At age ten, I went to a recording studio in Portland for the very first time to record “Imagine” by John Lennon because at the time I was also pursuing dance seriously, and for the dance recital that year I decided to dance to my own cover of that song, lol. The following years I started voice lessons again with a new teacher that I still have to this day, I kept writing songs on my piano, and I started recording and releasing them in middle school (even though they were so bad looking back!). I was also on a few dance teams with a local dance company that I loved (shoutout to Miss Kathleen) that had a singing branch of the company as well, so I started competing with my original songs at local competitions.
In high school, my parents helped me put together my demo CDs, and I became a member of a website called Taxi – you can submit your music for Film/TV placements, pitch for artists, to get feedback, etc. As a member, you can attend the annual conference, so when I was 16 my dad and I went to the conference. I learned so much that weekend, and it was at that conference that I learned about the Hawaii Songwriting Festival. It looked too good to be true, having access to such successful mentors as a young songwriter – and it was on Hawaii! So later that year my dad and I decided to attend.
I wound up being a finalist in the HSF songwriting competition that year, and as a result I got to perform in front of all the mentors and attendees. It was because of that performance that a guy named Richard Harris came up to my dad and I saying how much he loved my performance. He was a mentor at HSF and an accomplished songwriter/producer, and he mentioned that we should write together. Fast forward about a month, I’m still 16, and I took a trip to LA (did I mention how supportive my parents are?) for my first co-write ever – with Richard. We wrote two songs that trip, and one of them we wrote to a dance track, and it was called “Meet in the Middle.”
I started taking trips out to LA about every three months throughout high school to keep writing and working with Richard and other writers he would bring into sessions. I was too busy with school to leave for more than a few days at a time. It wasn’t until my senior year that me and Richard’s song “Meet in the Middle” was finally released with a Swedish DJ named Stonebridge. It got some radio play and stuff, but I didn’t think too much of it, until it started charting on the Billboard Dance/Club chart in November 2017. Being a senior in high school was crazy enough for me, and then in February 2018, “Meet in the Middle” hit #1 on the Billboard Dance/Club chart. I still can’t believe that happened to me as an 18 years old, and I really owe it all to Richard Harris, who is basically my second dad.
I’d applied to a few music programs at colleges around the US, but I didn’t get into my top choices, and I didn’t feel like the other ones were a good fit. So around the time of my #1 I’d decided I was going to take a gap year and move to LA. Then in March 2018, a songwriter named Emily Warren posted on her Instagram story about something called the Lillehammer Institute of Music Production and Industries (LIMPI). I decided to check it out – turns out it was a one-year pop music program in Lillehammer, Norway for songwriters, producers, and artists, and all you had to do was submit three songs on their website, so I figured why not.
A few weeks later I heard from someone at LIMPI, they sent me an application to fill out, I had a FaceTime interview, and then I got in. It was about to be the very first year of the program, so I had no idea what to expect, but I decided to go. I graduated high school, and in September 2018 I moved to Lillehammer, Norway to attend LIMPI. It was the best year of my life. There were only 48 of us in the program, and it was a small town, so we all got really close and got to be in the studios making music 24/7. We had the most amazing mentors come to teach us, we had showcases, and for the first time ever I felt like I really found my crew of people. I grew so much as a songwriter and musician, but also so much as a person.
In September 2019 I moved to LA! I’m now 20, and since then I’ve been focusing on my work as a songwriter because I realized the making of the music is my true passion. I’ve been doing songwriting sessions with other writers and artists and going to as many events as possible to meet people. I’m also an assistant for one of our mentors from LIMPI (that lives in LA), and I’ve truly been having the time of my life. I’ve been home in Oregon since quarantine started, but I’m still working and writing songs all the time, either by myself or with friends on Zoom. I have so many things I want to accomplish in and outside of music, but I’m so grateful for music and all the people it’s brought into my life, and I’m so excited for what’s to come and the songs that haven’t been written yet. 🙂
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Like any unconventional path, there’s been some bumps along the way for sure. I grew up in a town called West Linn, and although it was a great place to grow up and will forever be my home, it was a very sports-oriented town from my perspective. So I felt like a lot of people in school growing up didn’t fully understand what my passion was because it wasn’t like what everybody else was doing. The school district I grew up in was also extremely competitive academically, and I wanted to get into my top choice colleges. So I spent a lot of my time in high school at home doing homework and studying, or getting help from teachers, or prepping for the ACT, etc. But unfortunately it didn’t leave too much time for music, which was why my trips to LA had to be so short.
One of the biggest set-backs for me was not getting into the music programs at my top choice colleges after working so hard to reach that goal. I really didn’t know what I was going to do at the time. But it was only because that happened that I even found the program I wound up going to in Norway, which was the best experience I could’ve asked for. Since deciding to attend that one-year program in Norway, I’ve also had to deal with different opinions about not going to a 4-year college, which has been a challenge. I don’t believe in one right “path.” But I do believe in going full force after your dreams, working really hard to get there, and not giving up despite different opinions. That’s exactly what I’m doing now.
An obstacle I’m still overcoming now is actually getting my songs “placed.” I’ve never had a publisher or manager, so it’s always been up to me to find a home for my songs, and most of the time that doesn’t happen. There are songs that I’m so proud of that haven’t even come close to seeing the light of day. But I know that I have tons of room for improvement, so I’m working towards being the best songwriter I can be, and I think as a result the rest will work out.
Can you give our readers some background on your music?
Songwriting is at the forefront of everything for me. I’d like to say music and the music industry is what I’m about as a whole, but really songwriting is my true passion. For my whole life, I’ve always performed at the piano whenever I’ve done a performance, and the stuff I write at my piano is my favorite because it feels the most honest and raw to me. That being said, I really enjoy writing in any and all genres, although the music that I usually create is pop-leaning. The best part about songwriting for me is that I can write a different type/style of song every single day so I never get tired of one thing.
Although it doesn’t always happen (depending on the day) I try to take my lyrics from true stories and make them as specific as possible. Melodies, however, are my favorite and I try to make them into a perfect blend of catchy and emotional. I think these things set me apart from others because nobody has the exact same way of expressing things as I do and obviously they don’t have my experiences. I’ve always been told I’m mature for my age, and I feel like that also comes across in most of the songs I write. So yes, my songs have a youthful vibe, but I also think they have a classic vibe as well.
Sometimes I sing on songs that I didn’t write and that’s also a part of my business. I have a pretty wide range vocally, and a little studio set-up to record vocals whenever I need to. One thing I’m proud of is that I never lost the ability to write a song by myself. And it’s one of my most favorite things to do. But the thing I’m most proud of is the vibe I bring into the room when I go into a songwriting session with others. I try really hard to leave my ego at the door, to listen to everyone, give every idea a chance, and to just have fun. Anything can be fun if you make it that way.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
To be honest, my immediate plan for the future is to make joy my priority and not sweat the small stuff. This whole quarantine thing has really taught me that. As for music, I plan to keep writing songs with different combinations of people. I’ll probably release some stuff soon that I’m really proud of, but that’s more of an artistic release for fun than anything else. I have a few songs coming out with other artists soon too, so I’m looking forward to that. I’m also trying to get better at vocal producing so I don’t have to rely on anyone else for that! The ultimate goal is to be able to make music with amazing people all over the world.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/itshaleyjoelle/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/itshaleyjoelle
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/itshaleyjoelle
Image Credit:
Gareth Peck, Kendra Frankle, John Richard Rolseth, Khaled Tabbara.
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