Singer-songwriter Tori Boltwood caught our full attention from the first notes of “Drown”, her captivating single.
Indeed, the splendid track sent us to our best memories and feelings, by unveiling old-school melodies, a melancholic pop, tinted by soulful-RnB hints.
Tori Boltwood’s voice doesn’t sound like anybody else. Authentic yet magic, once you hear it, it haunts you for the rest of the day.
Tori Boltwood is one of a kind, this is what we call a “star”.
Listen to “Drown” and discover our conversation with her below.
Welcome to our redaction! Could you introduce yourself to our readers and tell us how you started to make music?
Hi, I’m Tori Boltwood, a 25-year-old Independent artist based in Fort Worth.
My music though published as Pop is a mixture of many different genres and inspirations.
Currently, I describe it as indie pop / soft rock/ soul- mix but it’s forever changing just like me.
I’m a lover of thrifting and going on adventures and have grown up in a household that always had at least four-five dogs.
I am originally born and raised in Florida and moved to Fort Worth Texas about 3 1/2 years ago.
I started to write music after studying musical theatre in High school and college. After many auditions for musical theatre programs in Texas, I decided that I wanted to instead invest my passion into creating my own music. I released my first song on the 20th day of Feb 2020.. many because I thought it would be cool to release a song on 2/20/2020. Since then I have worked with my Co-writer Jameson tabor and my music team to make and release 4 other singles with many new songs still on the way.
It has been a wonderful journey that has taught me so much about myself as not only an artist/creative but also as a human being.
I hope you all enjoy my music and that you always feel empowered to chase your dreams.
You have quite a solid and amazing voice, also your universe goes from pop to old-school RnB, am I wrong? What are your main inspirations?
I don’t particularly enjoy labels when it comes to myself and my music. The only reason I decided to make music under the general label of “pop music” is that I feel like as a music genre it has evolved to be one that can encompass so many different vibes and mixes of music styles within it. I honestly love all types of music and draw inspiration from almost every style of music on this earth. I grew up listening to classic rock and being respectfully obsessed with Elvis Presley … I also did musical theatre for a large portion of my life including about two 1/2 years of performing with a jazz band. For many years I have dealt with people having opinions on my sound and I have just gotten to the point where I don’t desire to be anything but what feels right to me. What feels right for me now is letting my music have the freedom to be what it needs to be in each moment of creation and creativity. One day it may be more classic rock another may have heavy musical theatre inspiration. I have never aimed for RnB but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t suck its way into my music. I think we sometimes try to analyze music too much .. we try to break it down into formate we can understand. But to me, music is a force that can not be limited or controlled. It is freeform and beautiful in all its many formats.
I personally believe the future of music is shaped by those that blend and experiment with their creations. Artists of the past had the courage to forge what we now consider the pillars of music, if they simply stayed in the comfort zone of what had been created before … music would be a mere shell of what it is today. Genres of music should never become restrictions to artists. Creativity is personal and unlimited and should be respected as such
What is the story behind « Drown »?
Drown takes the view of modern love and dives deeper into it. Searching for hope and depth in sometimes a rather shallow world of love. the writing of this song was very intimate, poetic and authentic. taking my fear of “modern” love and bringing back a sense of fantasy and magic to my view of true affection and devotion.
I am dearly afraid of deep ocean water even though I was raised on an island. To me, Drown was the ironic expression that even though I am a person that views romance as a special beautiful thing I am also very scared of the vulnerability that’s required to truly love someone. Those feelings to me, mirror the fears I have of deep ocean water, they both give me a sense of feeling powerless and at the mercy of a very powerful force.
If you had to choose 3 words to describe your music, what would they be, and why?
If I had to choose three words to describe my music they would be: Original, authentic and experimental.
Why? Because I believe I have a sound that is “original” to me. Authentic because I always strive to have layers of meaning and truth in my lyrics and Experimental, because every song my team and I write is very different in style and sound. I like to blur the lines of ‘Pop”, and just make what feels right to me not what feels right to the “type” of music I’m making.
If you could keep one positive thing of the covid situation, what would it be?
I think one empowering thing I learned from Covid times was that even when the world faces drastic changes and extreme loss, that the music world was able to adjust to help bring people comfort through all the hardships we faced during 2020. 2020 took a toll on my mental health but it gave me the opportunity to write so much music in a way and fashion I had never been able to do before. I use music as a therapeutic outlet for all the struggles 2020 created and I think I learned much more about myself and my music through that process.
https://www.instagram.com/toriboltz/
https://www.facebook.com/vboltwood
