Name 3 Songs: You notably won The Voice when you were 15 years old, and now you’re 20 and releasing your debut album. In thinking of this journey, was there a point when you were younger where you knew you wanted to be a singer? 

Brynn Cartelli: Yeah, I mean, I loved performing as a kid. I loved attention and I was dramatic in all the best ways. So I wanted to do something with eyes on me, but honestly I thought being a singer was a very far-fetched, pop star dream. Well, I’m gonna dream of being a film director instead, as if that’s any easier. Like I just had no idea. 

I like being in control of a story and really, that was always what I wanted to do. I was coming up with long stories [where it was ] talking, making plays or writing songs. That was at the core of what I wanted to do and now I realize it. 

I did like talent shows when I was younger and I would perform for others, but it was also just something I continue to just do for myself. I don’t have a ton of music friends. I have a lot of other different kinds of creative friends. It’s so personal for me. It’s not something I wanna talk about every day with everyone, I mean, I love it with this, but my friends every day it’s not something we wanna do.

You moved to New York for college and that’s a huge move. And having experienced so much on this cusp of adulthood – some of these are things that every teen goes through, but also like at the same time, you’re channeling everything into your music. Does it ever feel like you’re living this dual life of being a student  but also a musician? 

Yeah, completely. It is definitely a double life thing. I just live to write and I love it so much. And it feels like it’s my little secret. Like my songs, truth, they live in my phone, my computer, my journals for months, years before anyone else will ever know about them. They’re so personal to me, they’re very honest. 

And most times when I’m writing music, I say things that shock myself because it’s usually like [my] creative mind knows the truth about how [I] feel about things before [I’m] able to process that. And so I do like keeping it separate because I also just like to learn new things. And like I said, if you’re always focused, I feel like I can expand my world that I can write about if I’m not only thinking about what I’m writing about every day.