Bailey Bryan Talks Her New EP ‘SBB Music Vol. One’ and More

Bailey Bryan Talks Her New EP ‘SBB Music Vol. One’ and More

Bailey Bryan is an independent singer-songwriter creating Sensitive Bad Bitch Music. I recently had the chance to chat with her about her journey with music. Originally from Washington State and growing up in the Pacific Northwest, she is now living in LA. Keep reading below to hear more about Bailey perfecting her craft and her newest project Sensitive Bad Bitch Music Vol. One, out now.

When did you realize you wanted a career as a musician?

“I have never wanted to do anything else with my life. This was always the thing I wanted to do. I would say to everyone ‘I’m going to be a famous singer when I grow up’. That was the phrase I used.”

What made you coin the term “Sensitive Bad Bitch Music”?

“I started referring to my music as Sensitive Bad Bitch Music sort of as a way to escape having to tie myself to a specific genre label. First, I started making country music and every project that I’ve put out has had a very different sound. I like all kinds of music. Now I do more Pop and r&b. I felt a lot of pressure to label myself, especially as a female in the industry. People really want you to pick your vibe. They want to know if you’re the sexy girl, the sad girl, or the confident girl. I never felt comfortable reducing myself to one label, especially when my music has so many different influences.”

“The common thread in all of my music though, no matter what it sounds like, is a balance between vulnerability and confidence. In my saddest songs, I feel like you can still hear me knowing my worth and vice versa. I like to try and cover the whole span of human emotion and I am a sensitive person in general. For a long time, I felt like being a really sensitive crybaby type bitch disqualified me from being a bad bitch. I really feel my feelings and I wasn’t seeing that represented in that bad bitch community as much. So I just wanted to send the message of you can be really vulnerable and emotional and that doesn’t disqualify you from being a bad bitch and having confidence. That’s the overall message I want to send with my music.”

Who are some artists that influence you?

“When I started making music I was in a massive Taylor Swift phase. That’s how I stumbled into the pop-country space because at the time I was learning how to make music. I feel like when you’re figuring out your sound as an artist and you’re learning to write your own songs, you start by imitating what you love at the moment. You take a piece of your favorite artists and keep what resonates with you and Taylor Swift was huge for me in the beginning. I also grew up on some 90s r&b like TLC, Brandy, and Destiny’s Child, that was my mom’s shit. My dad loved funk music so I grew up on some of that and also singing in church.“

“As I got older I started to really gravitate toward artists that in their own way, refuse to fit themselves into a genre box and have created their own lane. Frank Ocean is probably my favorite artist ever. Post Malone and Doja Cat, I want to be seen the way people see those artists. They’re not known for being the best rapper or pop singer, she’s just Doja Cat and she does what she does and I love that.”

What’s the inspiration behind your latest release “RIP”?

“I feel like I’m a person who is constantly changing, which I guess just means I’m a person because everybody is constantly changing. It’s something that inspires me a lot in life, looking back on who I was a year ago and noticing how different I am and how much I’ve grown and grieving old parts of myself, but also celebrating them. I wrote “RIP” in a big transitional period of my life. I was getting ready to move to LA and letting go of some toxic business relationships that I had allowed to be in my life for way too long. There were people who told me that I wasn’t a good enough songwriter to write my own songs by myself. People told me there was a lot I couldn’t do in music that I wanted to do and they were lying.”

“So “RIP” was kind of me just shedding the fear that others placed in me about change and growth and making the move to LA, which was a huge, risky move. There were definitely some people in my life that were like ‘Are you sure you want to do that?’ and I’m like yeah, I think I’m good enough. It was always going to be scary, but I felt like I’d outgrown the person that I was in Nashville and I needed to make this change and leave some people and things behind. “RIP” was me trying to manifest the confidence that I needed to have to step into the next chapter of my life.”

Can you tell me about your newest project, SBB Music Vol. One?

“These are some of my favorite songs I have written in the last year. I’ve been waiting to put them out for a while. The move that I made, parting ways with my label, there were a few things that delayed the release of these songs. It makes me that much more anxious and excited to finally put them out. It’s my first release as an independent artist, so I feel like I have something to prove a little bit. But, I’ve also gone through a lot in the last year, so I’m still feeling my feelings about all of it. Those two vibes are the epitome of Sensitive Bad Bitch Music.“

“I wanted to lean into this and call the project SBB Music Vol. One, because all the songs and projects I put out til I die will be Sensitive Bad Bitch Music to me. These songs and the energy of the project do a good job representing where I’ve been in the last year. There’s been a lot of good, a lot of confidence, a lot of fun, but some really sensitive and tough moments too.”

What is your favorite track you have released to date?

“That’s tough. Recently, my favorite is probably “Tragic” off of the SBB EP. It’s really honest songwriting for me. I feel the most like myself as an artist when it’s just me singing over a guitar. I’ll always do songs like that to some capacity. I feel like that’s my most vulnerable and real song on the project and song that I’ve put out in a while. That’s my favorite right now but there is an outro on this EP too called “Credits”.

“That I’m really excited for people to hear, and it might be my other favorite. It’s not even a minute long, but I feel like it said what I needed it to say. I wrote it a few days after finding out that the label I had been signed to for 7 years was dropping me, so I wrote it kind of like a breakup song. I like the double meaning to it because it felt like a breakup to me and the emotions were really similar. So you can listen to it as a breakup song or me talking to my old label.”

What is your favorite line from “Tragic”?

“One of the most vulnerable lines in the song would be the top of the second verse. It says, “Probably why I wanna cry when I realize how much I like you.” I have this thing where as soon as I admit to myself that I really have a crush on somebody I have to cry. I think it comes from having been hurt enough times or having that feeling of falling in love with somebody and then having it end. I’ve experienced that so I can associate the feeling of getting excited about someone and starting to have a crush with like ‘Oh F*ck, now there’s a good chance this is going to end and this feeling that I’m having means that it’s really going to hurt’. That encapsulates the feeling of the song “Tragic” to me, so I like that line.”

What artist would you like to collaborate with?

“I mean Frank Ocean would be my number one or SZA. Post Malone too.”

What is something you want your listeners to know?

“Feeling your feelings doesn’t disqualify you from being a bad bitch. And being a sensitive person doesn’t disqualify you from blasting “Passion,” “RIP,” or “Upside Down” off my EP and dancing around and shaking your ass. You can do both. You can shake ass and cry at the same time. That’s something I feel really passionate about, and that’s what I want. I want my listeners to feel and embody that when they listen to the project.”

Listen to Bailey Bryan be a sensitive bad bitch on her new EP Sensitive Bad Bitch Music Vol. One below!