Creator/Musician/Songwriter - Eleanor Berntsen

My name is Eleanor Brentsen

and I am a creator, musician and songwriter.

I grew up in Des Moines, Iowa, for the most part.

And as a child, I was a serial hobbyist.

I just bounced from one thing to the next,

and they were always creative hobbies.

I was 11 years old when I wrote my first song.

My mom took me to a Taylor Swift concert for my birthday.

Seeing her perform was not something

that I had ever witnessed before.

Just general performance like that, where it's a show,

they're there to entertain.

They're there to,

you know, not just sing for you, but to tell you a story.

I mean, within the time of watching

that two hour performance,

I think the trajectory of my life was completely changed.

And that was what I knew I wanted to do.

I started performing when I was 12.

I started performing as Eleanor Grace when I was 14.

So sixth to eighth grade were

some incredibly challenging years for me.

I think my best advice when things don't go

your way or things are stagnant or there's, you know,

a little push and pull is could be good luck.

Could be bad luck.

You never know whatever situation you're in,

what that's going to do for you later on.

I am 19 years old now

and music is my number one priority still.

I'm also a student at Berklee School of Music

Online.

Performing is

my favorite thing about being a musician.

It's like a form of enrichment, you know?

You read about things to put yourself

in a different character.

You are trying to figure out how to put yourself in the mind

of another person, or you're just

sitting in your emotions and you're figuring out,

How do I feel about this?

When I started

making music, I define myself as indie pop

and the first song I ever released was called Lighthouse

when I was 15 years old.

And it's gone on to now

reach over a million streams on Spotify,

which I think is a crazy achievement

and something that I'm very proud of.

I actually missed my first homecoming dance

because I was in this studio recording Lighthouse all day.

I think it was worth it, though.

I decided to record another version of Lighthouse

just to say Thank you for listening.

Thank you for supporting that song.

I am ready to go.

So I had a gut feeling that

this version of Lighthouse was supposed to be recorded

at Golden Bear Studios with Brian Vanderpool.

It was done within 5 hours, which and I was like,

is incredibly fast to record a song.

And we started working on

another demo immediately after

and it just kind of snowballed into a whole record.

Some of the songs that we ended up recording were

Dream About a Cowboy. There's a song called Outlaw.

That was the first real country song that I wrote,

and I kept bringing these songs to Brian, and he kept saying,

I think we have a country record here.

I think we can make a country record.

And at first I kind of thought he was

crazy for saying that.

I was like, I'm an indie pop artist.

I'm a pop artist. I don't know about country.

We decided that this is the direction to go.

Something that I think

I've gotten better with not only in my songwriting, but also in

just being in the studio and recording, is being able

to say exactly what I want and what I mean.

And I think it's

beautiful how we all can find

common ground with words through songs and lyrics.

And I'm honored

that I get to have a life path or that's something that I do.

What can I do for myself and what can I end up doing for

others with my music is my greatest inspiration

and motivation.