Life & Work with Gabrielle Henderson of Los Angeles

Today we’d like to introduce you to Gabrielle Henderson.

Hi Gabrielle, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
My love for music began at a young age. I began taking piano lessons at age 7. I was always singing and writing songs as a kid, performing in things like my church’s talent show and recitals. In high school I joined the jazz band as the main singer and two choirs. My interest in jazz really started then and I continued to study vocal jazz in college. In university I split my time between my film sound design degree (which I received in 2020) and studying privately with a jazz voice teacher and performing with my schools big band and jazz combos as the vocalist. I was able to utilize my technical audio engineering skills to help me produce my own music. I put out my first single as a solo artist in 2019 called ‘Western.’ I started releasing contemporary jazz/alternative RnB under my given name Gabby Henderson. I self produced an entire album called “Time Can Change So Many Things” in 2022. I decided that I wanted to take a different approach in 2023 when I moved to Los Angles from Chicago. Thus my current music project softpower was born.

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?
The road has been anything but smooth. Trying to monetize work when it is your life’s passion is very difficult, and I have and still am struggling to make it work. Music is an industry where no one really tells you what path you should take to find success. And with the ever changing landscape of social media, AI, and things of that nature, I have found it harder and harder every day to cut the noise and just do what I love. I truly wish I was a few decades older and had the chance to put out music in the myspace days. I admire musicians from that era because niche internet communities were able to rally around artists and discover such unique music in those days. That is definitely still something that can happen today, however it is far more difficult, and I hate the pressure to contrive originality.

I am still very much in the beginning of my journey, and I know that it takes a lot of determination and honestly, delusional optimism to get to the place that I want to be. I will keep trying, as I really have no other passions that I want to pursue. But it is not lost on me the difficulty of my end goal.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I am a musician, music producer, composer, and audio engineer. I would like to known for the work I do as a musician mainly. I have self produced 2 EPs under my moniker softpower. My favorite thing to do musically is live performances. I often perform solo and love to do full shows with just my vocal looper and my voice. As someone who came up in jazz improvisation, I love being able come up with new arrangements of my songs on the spot, and give myself the room to create and spontaneous while on stage. I don’t pin myself to any genre. My first EP as softpower titled “The Knife In My Side” is an alternative electronic pop concept album. My latest project “Power House” is a Chicago House inspired dance EP. For me, the genre that I write a song in depends completely on the song itself. I never want to force something and let the ideas form naturally.

What was your favorite childhood memory?
I enjoyed taking lessons with my first piano teacher whom I studied with from ages 7-10. I was a fast learner and she taught me how to read music and play Mozart and Bach. I continued making my own classical compositions after studying with her. Those were some of the first songs that I wrote.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://Instagram.com/softpower.wav
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@softpowerxmusic/featured
• Other: https://linktr.ee/softpowermusic

Image Credits
Gabi Padilla
Winnie Mu
Raul Morales Jr.