The skyscrapers and lights of New York City have a way of taking people from their hometowns to the beauty of the fast paced culture. If you want to be an actor, model, fashion designer, or in SiairaShawn’s case a singer, the city is the place for you.
As a product of San Francisco, which in itself has a diverse musical culture with it’s roots in Jazz and soul, as well as a burgeoning movement coming out of the area, singer/songwriter SiairaShawn left the area for her new home of New York where she lived for a month and a half in the summer of 2010 for artistic growth.
The budding songstress, who started writing songs around the age of 15, cites the greats like Donny Hathaway, Nina Simone, Michael Jackson and Bilal as some of her influences and began her life as a singer and songwriter at a Performing Arts High School in San Francisco.
In 2010 Shawn released her five-track debut EP, The In Between, which explored the story of a woman going through the different stages of a relationship essentially, giving a passionate yet vulnerable vocal performance.
“I have a lot of sounds in my head and a particular way I want my album to sound,” she says, adding, “I need more resources than I have now. I’m probably going to need a full band.” Giving people something in the time being, Shawn has started to release singles in the form of “Dusk,” and “Icarus,” which will also be her first music video.
“I will release a mixtape eventually and then I’m supposed to release a series of EPs leading up to the album release so there’s definitely going to be some new music out in the next few months,” the singer promises.
She has also been doing covers of some of our favorite songs, Andre 3000’s “Prototype,” and Alicia Key’s “Unthinkable,” and has gone to share the stage with performers such as Goapele, Bilal, Kindred The Family Soul, Dwele, Zion I and Chris Turner.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19TFeYFiKvQ
Stay tuned.
SiairaShawn online: siairashawn.com / Facebook / Twitter / BandCamp / MySpace
Credit: Photography by DJ Harris, at SiairaShawn’s last show in the Bay Area, December 28th presented by 3680Photography. Check out Danielle’s portfolio online here.
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