Molly Baker is a singer/songwriter hailing from Washington, D.C. in the States. We recently fell in love with some of her tunes like ‘Beautiful Chaos’ and ‘Stunt Double’ and wanted to know more about the talented artist.
Thrilled that she accepted to be interviewed by us, the solo musician talks us through her writing process, what success looks like to her, and which song she’d “steal” if given the chance. Please give a warm welcome to our new friend Molly Baker!
Welcome, Molly! It’s great to have you here! Before we get into the nitty-gritty, could you tell us a little bit about your musical journey? What has led you to your brand new single ‘Stunt Double’?
Thanks for the interview! It’s been a long journey even though I’m still young. I started singing when I was ten, and have worked with many producers, songwriters, and other people in the industry who led me to the people I created my debut album with. The album, ‘Plot Twist’, was co-written by me and Jenni Rudolph and will have 10 songs. ‘Stunt Double’ is the second single from this album! I’m so excited to release another song that I co-wrote as writing is new for me!
Other tunes of yours like ‘Lightning In A Bottle’ and ‘Go With The Flow’ have over 42,000 and 79,000 plays on Spotify respectively. How does it make you feel to know that so many people have been listening to and enjoying your music?
It’s really crazy and proves that a song’s success doesn’t just depend on how many streams it gets on its release day. That was definitely interesting for me to learn. I’m so glad people are enjoying the songs, and I love it when I get tagged on Instagram when someone uses my song for a reel/post! That’s starting to happen a lot with ‘Go With The Flow’ which is SUPER cool.
Who would you put down as some of your biggest musical influences and who would you ultimately credit for helping shape and mould your overall sound?
My biggest influences ever since I was young have been female artists (usually in the pop/alt genre) who can write instrumentals and lyrics/can play all their original songs. That’s a place I’m trying to get to as I’m starting to create new original songs from scratch, and I respect the creativity that goes into that talent. If I had to nail it down to one person, however, it would HAVE to be the one and only Taylor Swift. She’s such a clever lyricist and a skilled guitarist/pianist. I saw her live in May and am just in awe of her talents.
What does being successful in the music industry look like to you?
I think now more than ever it all has to do with social media. Followers are important, of course, but trending audios are starting to bring a lot of independent artists some fame. I think to be successful in the industry you also have to be successful on social media. To me personally, it would look like getting a song on the Billboard Chart… that’d be sooooo cool.
Could you tell us a bit about your songwriting process? Not specifically for any song but just in general. How do you take an idea and turn it into a piece of music?
The credit goes to my AMAZING co-writer Jenni Rudolph. I had zero songwriting experience and zero ideas of what my process looked like before I worked with her. Now, I can explain it in phases. Usually, I’d set a timer for 3 minutes and ramble about what was happening in my life, in my friends’ lives, and about the plot of a book or movie that I was reading. Jenni would usually write down anything interesting I said, any emotional words, imagery phrases… and we’d figure out almost a “plot” of the song. That includes figuring out what we wanted to say in the first verse, the pre-chorus, the second verse, the bridge, etc so we’d have enough time for all our ideas. Sometimes we even made charts! Then we’d just brain-dump words that related to the story. We’d look for the most amount of words that rhymed and started with that rhyme scheme. Lyrics, then melody, then harmonies, and the song was done!
I imagine this might be like asking you to pick a favourite child, but which song of yours are you most proud of releasing so far?
That really is hard! Either ‘Must Be Nice’ or ‘Beautiful Chaos’. ‘Must Be Nice’ is probably my favorite song that’s currently released, but I’m most proud of how ‘Beautiful Chaos’ was received, and the connections it got me. It’s tricky to pick since all my songs are so different!
If you were allowed to “steal” any song in the world and claim it as your one, what song would you choose and why?
‘Long Live’ by Taylor Swift. And I hope I can relate to it someday! It’s just such an incredible song, lyrically and instrumentally. The vocals and harmonies are so magical. I love songs that feel like the ending of a movie. That sense of finality, normally they have a lot of buildups, upbeat, etc. ‘Long Live’ should be in every movie soundtrack in existence in my opinion.
Thanks so much for chatting with us, Molly! I have absolutely no doubt that you have more music up your sleeve, and I can’t wait to hear it! In a broader sense though, what do you hope for in your musical future?
I do have much more music to release, and I’m so excited for everyone to hear it! I really hope that I can learn to write songs from start to finish with just me and my piano. It’s been a dream of mine for a while and I’m starting that process right now. It’s tricky, but I’m excited to see what I can create all alone with just my emotions and thoughts.
