Springdale Student Musician To Release Album

High School Senior Works With Nashville Musicians

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

SPRINGDALE — Lindsay Will has yet to graduate from Har-Ber High School, but she’s already working with musicians in Nashville, and is about to release her first album.

Her love for music started in first grade, Will said. She started singing in the school choir and, in fourth grade, she started playing guitar. In ninth grade, she started writing songs she felt were good enough to take her somewhere in the music industry. She said she’s written about 60 songs.

“I always wrote, but nothing was really that good,” Will said.

Ninth grade is when she wrote “Break It Fast,” Will said. She used the song to create her first music video in February as a project for her video production class at Har-Ber. She had previously recorded the song at Crisp Recording Studio in Fayetteville.

Will, 17, said everything changed when she met Billy Dawson, a Nashville musician, in December 2012. Her mother’s friend grew up with him in Texas. The friend told Will’s mother to send Dawson an email. Dawson looked at Will’s YouTube videos, said she had talent and wanted to meet her.

Will said she met other artists through Dawson with whom who she now cowrites songs. All of the songs on her album were cowritten with other artists.

“He knows everyone,” she said. “He’s just a really friendly guy.”

Dawson is producing Will’s early preview album, commonly known as an EP album, Will said. It will feature three song written and recorded over five days in Nashville last summer.

Dawson said he’s lived in Nashville 10 years and worked in the music industry for 16 years. He described Will’s musical style as a mix of country and pop — somewhere between Taylor Swift and Alanis Morissette.

Will is a talented songwriter and is good at using soft rhymes in her lyrics as opposed to hard rhymes like “far” and “car,” Dawson said. She also has a good work ethic and good stage presence.

“I think she has a bulldog tenacity that will allow her to shine through a sea of people,” he said.

While producing Will’s album, Dawson said he was able to get artists who have worked with Keith Urban, Carrie Underwood, Swift and other popular musicians play on the album.

“I got the best of the best on this project,” he said. “It’s gonna turn some heads.”

Chad Raymon, a songwriter in Nashville, said he’s written three songs with Will. He cowrote “Sapphire Lies,” one of the songs on her album, with her last summer. The song is about a boy she dated and wanted to make him look unappealing through the lyrics in the song.

“We ‘Taylor-Swifted’ him,” he said.

Raymon said Will’s best attribute as an artist and writer is she wants to learn everything she can about music and the business. A lot of people aren’t willing to work hard, but Will is, and that sets her apart from other artists.

“She’s got a great voice, but she knows it can be better,” he said. “She is just a sponge and wants to absorb everything.”

Will said she takes voice lessons and guitar lessons on a weekly basis. Recently, she’s worked on singing with a more powerful tone.

Will said her favorite part of performing is connecting with the audience. She likes when people tell her they can relate to her lyrics.

“I love being on stage and seeing people’s reactions to my songs,” she said.

While she loves to perform, Will said she likes the process of writing music, too. Most of her songs are about her experiences. She said a lot of her songs are about boys.

“I want to be an artist, but I want to be a writer, too,” she said.

Will plans to release her album by the new year, she said. The album will be available on her website for $5. It will also be available on Apple’s iTunes website along with her second music video, which will be released at the same time.

As for her future, Will said she will major in music business at Middle Tennessee State University starting in the fall. The campus is 30 minutes from Nashville, which will allow her to perform, make connections in the music industry and work with local artists on a regular basis.