00:00So I've always been really insecure and like self-conscious and struggled with the way I looked and this was
00:06before I even, you know, had, was doing this. I had this since a really young age.
00:24Hi, I'm Hannah Daly with Billboard and we're here today with Sienna Spiro.
00:28Hello. You look gorgeous.
00:30Thank you. You look gorgeous.
00:31Thank you. That honestly is a great transition into my first question.
00:37We talked a little bit about your look and it's very high glam.
00:42Can you tell me again about how you enjoy having this enhanced version of yourself to step into, how it
00:53gives you confidence?
00:55And also you mentioned that you like that it sort of separates work, professional life versus just personal life.
01:03You know, shit happens in your life and sometimes you can't always help the way you feel.
01:07You know, like I'm, I'm a 20 year old girl, stuff goes on and having something that feels very much
01:14like myself, but just elevated and enhanced that I can put on just, just allows me to just get on,
01:21get on stage, feel confident, feel, I guess feel confident is really, is really the thing.
01:28I feel, I feel like if I wasn't, if I wasn't confident, I wouldn't be able to do my job,
01:33but I love it.
01:35You know, I loved it from, I've loved the sixties for my whole life.
01:38And the moment I like tried it, the moment I found like how I guess I wanted to be and
01:43be presented and I wanted to look, I just, it just, yeah, I loved it.
01:47Do you remember the moment you first put your hair like that?
01:50So I, I've always been really insecure and like self-conscious and struggled with the way I looked.
01:56And this was before I even, you know, had, was doing this.
02:01I had this since a really young age and I never like knew how to dress.
02:05I used to dress in like big clothes and I wanted to hide myself.
02:08And then at one point I was dressing in tiny things that I hated.
02:13And I think I'd be lying if I, you know, if I didn't say that this job kind of like
02:18pushes you to find how you want to look and how you want to be presented.
02:23And when it kind of came to thinking about that, I always loved the sixties.
02:28I always was drawn to it.
02:29It always, I'd watch a sixties film.
02:31I'd look at Barbra Streisand.
02:32I'd be like, oh wow, like just glamorous and, and so much character and personality.
02:39And when I tried it, I remember we were just like, I, it like came slowly.
02:42It came in like bits.
02:42I first tried like the side part and then I tried it like back a bit and then it got
02:46a little bit higher, a little bit higher.
02:47And then, yeah, I don't know.
02:49It just, it just happened and, and I love it.
02:51Yeah.
02:52You kind of have a similar story with the music that you make too, in terms of like kind of
02:57trying to do things that weren't, that didn't necessarily feel like you.
03:01And then finding the thing that you were good at, that you were passionate about.
03:07Tell me more about that process.
03:09I think it was cyclical.
03:10You know, I always started singing like this, started singing jazz, standards, soul music, ballads.
03:16And then I kind of felt, you know, I was a teenager.
03:19I, I didn't feel cool and it didn't feel like, I don't know.
03:23I guess I'd, I saw other people doing like, I don't know, faster stuff, more produced stuff, stuff with synths.
03:31And I loved it.
03:31And, you know, that's such a big part of the music I love.
03:34I love hip hop and I love pop music as well.
03:38But I was trying to be someone I wasn't.
03:40And it was so evident.
03:41Like anyone could see there like, okay, like, that's cool.
03:45But, you know, it wasn't me.
03:46And, um, I guess I did that for a bit and it was just obvious that it was the wrong
03:51thing to do.
03:52So I went back to my, to my roots and what I knew and I love it.
03:56I can't lie.
03:56You know, you asked me yesterday if I'd ever, if I ever felt like I could experiment with something else.
04:02And of course I feel like I could, but, you know, it's not, it's not my place and it doesn't
04:10feel, it wouldn't feel like me.
04:13Yeah.
04:14Your songs are so demanding vocally, or at least.
04:17Tell me about it, honestly.
04:19So how do you take care of your voice?
04:20I don't know.
04:21Sometimes I'm standing, I'm like, why would I make something like this?
04:24I actually got nodules in my voice.
04:25So it's really hard to maintain it.
04:29I remember I found out like two, three years ago, three years ago now.
04:32And I had like a year of basically being silent.
04:34I had to go on vocal rest every other day and it was really lonely and really isolating and weird
04:42because I talk a lot.
04:46But I try my best now.
04:48I've really, I feel like I've, I've gotten a lot better at it.
04:51You know, I, I do sprays and teas and honey and all, all the, all the things to do.
05:02I do them.
05:03And I, I'm quiet quite a lot.
05:04That's good to have kind of a routine down before.
05:08Yeah.
05:08Tour.
05:08Tour.
05:09Yeah.
05:09I'm warming up.
05:10Yeah.
05:10I never used to warm up.
05:12I never really did a singing lesson till I needed to.
05:16So I didn't actually know how to warm up.
05:18Is this tour going to be the most demanding one that you've ever done?
05:22I guess so.
05:24Yeah.
05:24It's like almost 60 dates and it's all over the place, but I love tour.
05:31I love it.
05:32It's one of my favorite things to do.
05:35Yeah.
05:35So.
05:35And it's funny.
05:36We were talking that you still get nervous to go out on stage, but at the same time, you
05:40really love to do it.
05:42Yes.
05:42What?
05:43You know, it would be, I think I'd be doing something wrong if I wasn't nervous.
05:46We were talking about how there's sort of an expectation of young female artists to be
05:54really confessional and to like spill the tea and give all these details in their songs.
05:59And you're more interested in a different approach that's more universal, more so capturing
06:05a feeling.
06:06Why do you favor that?
06:08I guess I just don't feel the need to give every tiny detail about everything.
06:17And I, you know, like I said to you yesterday, I love songs that suggest how you could feel
06:24and don't just force, force you to feel that way.
06:26Like a lot of my favorite, you know, Nina songs, Aretha, the songs, the Beatles, like
06:31they don't, they don't, like the song Sparks, for example, by Coldplay, that is like my favorite
06:36sad song ever.
06:38It's a good one.
06:38And it's not so hyper specific, but you know, everything they did and where they were
06:42and this, so it's like almost feels actually a little bit unrelatable because you're like,
06:46well, I guess I wasn't in California and I wasn't doing.
06:49So it's like just specific enough that you know the feeling, but you can apply it to how
06:54you feel.
06:56And that's kind of what I love with songwriting and the way I like to write.
07:00Yeah.
07:00So it's kind of like, it's something we all feel, but it's specific enough that it feels
07:04personal, but not too much.
07:06It's not unrelatable.
07:07Yeah.
07:07I mean, I am interested in talking with you about this because I feel like a lot of people
07:12don't appreciate that that's an art in and of itself, that type of songwriting is like,
07:19there's totally a craft to that as well.
07:21I think you're right though.
07:21It's like a weird expectation that's suddenly risen for female songwriters to lay it all
07:29out.
07:30And I don't, I think that might be a product of social media and TikTok and trends and
07:35grabbing people's attention.
07:37That's like a thing now you kind of have to, like a TikTok is like a mini audition and you
07:44have to kind of like say something crazy for people to like, to stay.
07:47I guess somehow that's like translated into music and yeah, I don't, I don't think that
07:53should be an expectation for people.
07:54I think you've got to write with what speaks to you.
07:59What's your relationship with your fan base like?
08:02With my fan base?
08:03Yeah.
08:04I think it's amazing.
08:05I'm really lucky and blessed.
08:07I have, from what I know, I've got, I'm a mostly female fan base, which, which makes a
08:13lot of sense.
08:14They are quite young and I think I feel really seen by them and I think they feel seen by
08:23me.
08:24And I think the content of my songs, I guess, allows for a very specific kind of person.
08:30And so I feel very safe during the shows.
08:34And I also feel a sense of like responsibility as well, which sometimes scares me a bit.
08:38In what way?
08:39Well, I guess when you have a lot of people like, you know, I'm 20 myself, I, I've got
08:44no idea what the fuck is going on most of the time.
08:46I'm, I'm winging it.
08:47And when people are like looking, looking to you for an answer or like, you know, the right
08:52thing to say, sometimes it's really intimidating and scary.
08:56But I'm, I'm really lucky with the people that support me and how kind and open and, and,
09:02and real they are.
09:03That lyric in pure.
09:05Yes.
09:06The, I wish I was real.
09:07Yeah.
09:07What does that mean?
09:08I'm a really existential person.
09:11And sometimes, sometimes I just don't feel like a real person.
09:17And it really just means that there's no like hidden meaning.
09:20Sometimes I get really existential about my life and who I am and what I'm doing.
09:24And sometimes, you know, when you look in the mirror, you're like, oh my God, I'm a,
09:27I'm a person.
09:29And it is just that.
09:31It's just like, you know, when you kind of feel depressed, you're like, am I even real?
09:35Like, yeah, it really just means that.
09:38So does it have anything to do with the audience that's growing around you and perceiving you?
09:44That's kind of the song, you know, the song is, is this kind of, it opens with the line
09:48used to do also pure for the love of the song, nothing more.
09:51Now I think about an applause when I open my mouth.
09:54And that was really something I had to just admit to myself.
09:59Something I really, the whole song is basically things I didn't want to admit to myself.
10:03But that one specifically, I guess I was, you know, I've sang my entire life.
10:07I've sang from, since I could talk, since I could open my mouth, I've been singing.
10:12And I've done it, you know, I love singing.
10:16I love it more than anything else in life.
10:18And I remember a time where I was singing and I wasn't doing it with my heart.
10:23And I wasn't doing it because I felt something.
10:25I was doing it and waiting for somebody to react.
10:28And I was like, mm-mm, mm-mm.
10:32I'm going to, I'm going to die if I keep up doing something like that.
10:35So I just have to check myself.
10:37And I guess the whole song is just hoping everything you're doing and everything you're doing in your life means
10:45something.
10:45It is adding up to something and not something superficial and something that feels, you know, real and pure.
10:50So that's kind of, you know, the whole song is, I guess, wanting that feeling.
10:55I think the most well-known thing about you is your voice because you have such an incredible voice.
11:00You're a really magnetic performer.
11:02Would that be enough for you?
11:03Or do you also hope to really establish yourself as a songwriter as well?
11:07Yeah.
11:08I really, you know, I really appreciate when people compliment my voice.
11:12But to me, like, I, you know, I want to be an amazing musician.
11:17I want to be an amazing songwriter as well.
11:21And I really care about that.
11:22So definitely.
11:24And you're taking music lessons, right?
11:26I'm back on the piano.
11:27I have another lesson later today.
11:29Awesome.
11:30So, so yeah.
11:31Thank you so much, Sienna.
11:32It was great talking to you.
11:33You too.
11:34Thank you so much.
