“The Voice” alum Halley Greg has a voice as smooth as silk, as exemplified in her rendition of “I’m Like A Bird” that made judge Kelly Clarkson turn her chair around before the chorus even hit when she auditioned for the show.
“To me, it was about leaning into my wildness and kind of the beauty and sadness of potentially leaving a relationship because you’re not feeling fulfilled. You’re not feeling like you’re getting to be your full self,” Greg said of her audition song. “I made it something that I could really connect with, so I just let that show on stage and it felt really raw and honest.”
Bluesy, feminist rock
Raw honesty about relationships is a hallmark of Greg’s songwriting style, which she describes on her Instagram page as “bluesy feminist rock.”
“When I first started writing music in earnest a couple years ago, I was coming out of a relationship that I really felt pretty constricted in, where I felt like I couldn't be my full self. I was also in my late twenties and starting to learn way more about feminism that I never learned about before and was feeling just like really inspired and empowered,” Greg said. “And that's basically what I started writing music about. I wanted to write about kind of everything from like, women having a voice to like the differences in the ways that we are socialized to hold emotions and hold space for emotions and then also talk about, like, more non-traditional relationship narratives.”
Greg has released two albums: “American Harlot” in 2020, and “Straitjacket” on July 30 of this year.
“[The “Straitjacket”] album is a product of the pandemic, and actually my time on “The Voice” too. [...] There was so much going on in the world in 2020, you know, and that's when we were filming, and early 2021. There were so many social things unfolding, I mean, so much going on in the social justice world, so much going on in politics. That was kind of my focus, it was all I could write about at the time.” Greg said.
“I was like, ‘If I'm gonna write songs right now, then I have to write about all these things that we're going through.’ And not only that, I tried to write a couple of songs about basically just how vulnerable it was, you know, for all of us to be going through that pandemic. I kind of dove into my own experience, and how it felt for me personally, and what was vulnerable about that for me, but I feel like it's probably relatable for a lot of people.”
Three city Midwest tour with James Tutson kicks off in Des Moines
Greg met Iowa native James Tutson while they both competed on Season 20 of The Voice, where they bonded off-stage about music and life. Greg said that they will both be bringing their full bands to the November 17 All Access performance, and that audiences can expect “to be grooving and also moved” by the show. They are starting a small, three city Midwest tour in Des Moines.
"I remember this moment, I'm sure James remembers this too, where I was about to head back inside and head up to my hotel room, and James just says to me 'Hey, Halley, I think we should be friends.' [...] I was super honored. And so, yeah, we just like, you know, sat down outside, socially distanced with masks on and just got to know each other and super, super bonded," Greg said.
Listeners can follow Greg’s music career on Instagram and on Spotify.
“That's like the most underrated way to support indie musicians. When you follow me on Spotify, it means that whenever I release new music, it'll pop up on your release radar and give me those Spotify plays that we all crave,” she said.
Find tickets to the in-person show on Eventbrite, or turn notifications on and watch at home on IPR Studio One's YouTube channel.
