by Melanie Bryan
You’ve never heard anyone quite like Baybe. A classically-trained artist, she forges a unique sound by blending pop, rap, and metal to create something that’s all her own. With lyrics like, “Role play yeah tonight, let’s get naughty, I’ll be Dahmer, and you can be the body.”, Baybe isn’t afraid to stand out. She just released her EP, "God's Favorite", which you can check out below the interview.
MSM: Do you want to start out by introducing yourself and just explain a little bit about your sound for any potential new fans?
BAYBE:
My name is Babye. My sound has evolved over the years. Like we all have, we all change our sound as we find new inspirations and stuff, but I try to like get that genre description from people that listen to my music because I never know how to say it. So, lately the term has been metal hip hop.
MSM:
Yeah. I love it. So tell me about your journey with creating music. How did you get started? Was it something that you always knew that you wanted to do?
BAYBE:
Oh yeah, definitely. I started as a voiceover artist when I was three years old and then I was taking piano lessons around like 10 years old for a couple years and just started learning every instrument that I could.
MSM:
Wow.
BAYBE:
And then when I was a teenager I was in a couple bands playing like rhythm guitar or synth or something, just anything I could get my hands on, anything that anybody would throw at me to learn. And then I started writing my own music when I was 17 for a folk project that I started. I listened to every single genre except for country. And so I thought folk was my avenue for a while just because that's who was around me and I was in South Florida at the time but then I've always listened to metal and hip hop and rap and stuff like that, so it wasn't till I got to Nashville and I started working with producers that were experienced in those genres and could show me kind of where I could take that. Which is funny because Nashville, everybody thinks it's like just country music and it's just not.
MSM:
Yeah.
BAYBE:
So I got to work with a lot of cool people that I still work with and just kind of landed on this specific sound that I really love.
MSM:
So, speaking of that, your music often defies easy categorization. You blend elements of different genres and styles. So how do you approach the genre and style whenever you're writing music? Do you aim for something in particular? Like how do you end up with you sound?
BAYBE:
I never aim. I like certain sonic elements and sometimes they come together to be hip hop and sometimes they end up being metal. I like guitar-based music generally and then, yeah, it just depends on the mood. I feel like if it's an angrier song, it usually ends up having real drums and screams and metal guitar and it's just, that's what happens that day. Or if I'm feeling, I don't know, writing like more of like a love song or something like that, it ends up being weirdly enough more hip hop and trap based.
MSM:
What makes your music unique and how do you stand out in a crowded industry?
BAYBE:
That's a tough question because I don't know if that's something I think about too much. I just I hope I do. I like when things are new and interesting to me and I haven't necessarily heard it before. So, in sessions, I try to mix different sounds together and take inspiration from different things to try to just, I just want the feeling of being in a session and going Okay, I have not heard this specific thing before in music. So I guess that's my answer. I don't know how to answer that without sounding like really pretentious.
MSM:
Okay. Can you talk about the creative process behind the EP? Are there any themes or messages that you wanted to convey?
BAYBE:
I think there's a lot going on on the EP. And it's mostly religious content on the EP, so I just always veer towards that in my sessions. I feel like everybody has a little bit of religious trauma or some kind of experience with that. So yeah. It ends up coming out in every lyric I write and I'm like, oh my gosh, I need to write about like, anything else. I just always end up doing that. So with every song I try to have a different energy towards it though. Like some of the songs are more aggressive and in your face, and some of them are more just about the relationship aspect of that. And I don't know if there's a continuous message in it. I chose those songs because they went well sonically together as well and I feel like they're a good representation of like every single genre that I like to do.
MSM:
Do you have a favorite song or a favorite lyric from the EP?
BAYBE:
Hmm. Every time I finish a song, I like run it into the ground in terms of listening to it in the car, so every time I finish one, that's my favorite song for like a month and then I'm like, I never wanna hear that song again in my entire life. And so the most recent song on that I think is Love and War, which is the fifth track, and I think right now that's my favorite. But when I first put the EP together, the first track was my favorite. "Yes, Please". Because that's one, the only one, that I produced myself, so I'm proud of that one. As far as lyrics, I don't know if I can come up with one off the top of my head. I think there are a lot of lyrics I'm proud of on "Dinner for One" because there's just a lot of tongue in cheek innuendos and I love that kind of stuff.
MSM:
Do you plan to do more producing since you mentioned that?
BAYBE:
Yes. That's, that's primarily what I do. Okay. Like, on a day-to-day basis either for myself or for other artists. I love producing, so yeah, definitely.
MSM:
So what have you been listening to lately?
BAYBE:
Well, that's a good question. I'm just gonna have to pull up my Spotify. My brain empties out when someone asks me that. So I've been into lately my favorite genre is indie rock. And so I've been into this artist, big pig. I really like her lately. And the new boygenius record is like my favorite thing in a long time. I'm a big Snail Mail fan, too, so I listen to her almost every single day. Soccer Mommy, who I think is from Nashville. Oh. And then for the last like six months I've been obsessed with Imogen Heap. I feel like I've missed the initial train in the early two thousands so I'm just getting into her discography.
MSM:
Better late than never! Do you have any goals in particular for your music? Where do you see yourself in the next few years?
BAYBE:
My main goal is to tour. That's all I want to do. I just love playing shows and I wanna see the world. Yeah, I'm a big like traveler and I love to go road trips and just see new places, so, so I feel like that's the perfect, I thought that a long time ago. Like, how can I see all the things I wanna see while also playing music? Yeah. So I think touring is like anything else is kind of like an afterthought. Obviously writing and releasing music is my passion, but I just, that's all I wanna do is tour.
MSM:
What else are you passionate about besides music?
BAYBE:
I'm passionate about a lot of things, but music definitely takes up like 99.9% of my thought processes and time. I love hiking. I love going to, this is counting as music, but I go to coffee shops and sit on my computer and work on music and that's like my happy place. So I love finding a new coffee shop. Being in Nashville, I can drive like an hour and a half, two hours and I'll drive any length to go find a new coffee shop and check out. I like playing pool. I'm really into pool lately. I have this key chain that I just got, so I'm obsessed. I'm learning all like the geometry of it and bank shots right now.
MSM:
What's your go-to coffee drink?
BAYBE:
That's a good question. I'm on a black coffee kick right now because I'm just trying to limit my sugar intake. Because I do like crazy sugary lattes if I don't. If I go to a coffee shop and they have something on the menu like caramel white mocha latte, I'll do that. Or I do ice lattes usually, but yeah, I'm trying to be good. I'm trying to do black coffee. I have some brewing right now...but it's pretty gross so I don't know how long I can keep this up.
MSM:
And then my last question for you is, what messages would you have for your fans?
BAYBE:
I feel like the only thing that comes to mind is just the thank you because I have a lot of people that have stuck around from the folk phase, which is crazy to me. I definitely listen to multiple genres, but I just thought I was a little bit strange for that, like listening to both folk and metal in the same sitting, but people that have stuck around for that whole evolution of mine and still are like supporting my music and coming to shows, I just think that's awesome. Just in general, thank you!
KEEP UP WITH BAYBE
Website // Instagram // TikTok
PHOTO PROVIDED COURTESY OF BIG PICTURE MEDIA ONLINE
