I met Robin at the CD Baby DIY conference last year in my hometown Austin, Texas. At the time, she was starting her senior year at Berklee School of Music in Boston. I was fascinated by the fact that she took classes from Pat Pattison, who I have developed a songwriting man-crush on over the last few years. Robin is a joy and inspiration and is a fountain of songwriting information and general music nerdery. It is a real gift having her part of our community.
Meet Robin
What do you do during the day?
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I'm currently pursing an MFA in Popular Fiction Writing and Publishing
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Do you have any guilty pleasures in music?
I don't! I'm a proud musical theater nerd and I still listen to Hannah Montana every once in a while.
What inspired you to want to write songs?
I didn't think about the fact that people write songs until I learned Taylor Swift wrote "Teardrops on My Guitar." Pretty immediately I knew that it was something I wanted to do.
What does your songwriting habit look like?
I want to be in the habit of writing daily, but more often than not (when not doing the 100 days challenge) I tend to write a couple times a week. I'm always thinking about ideas for songs and tinkering with them in my mind, but I don't sit down and force myself to write as much as I probably should.
How has developing a songwriting practice affected your life?
More than anything it's taught me how to find inspiration in everything around me!
Who are your influences? How have they shaped you?
I'm very inspired by Taylor Swift, Sara Bareilles, and Pat Pattison. I was lucky enough to study under him at Berklee and he taught me so much!
What challenge are you facing with songwriting?
Right now, with nothing going on in my life because of quarantine, I'm finding it hard to be inspired by my own life. While I like challenging myself to write about made up stories and situations and other people, I prefer to write about my own experience, and I'm running out of things to draw from!
What Day of 100 is your piece from?
Day 4/5 of 100
Lyrics:
The Queen of Back Bay
Her life started off charmed
She grew up in Manhattan
Studying art, studying dance, learning French and Italian
She moved to Paris at sixteen
Lived a young girl’s fantasy
Made some friends, walked the Seine, fell in love with love’s city
She saw an art house in Milan
And straight away it won her heart
Said if she ever had the funds
She would build herself one
Who knew she’d become
The Queen of Back Bay, one day
She’d be The Queen of Back Bay.
She couldn’t know it then
The beauty that she’d make, but she was
Precocious and ambitious even at that age
The Queen of Back Bay
When she returned to New York
Worldly and revered
Met a lover, one thing led to another
They were married within two years
But they were haunted by tragedy
Lost a son and his sister or brother
She lost a friend and then again when her nephews lost their mother.
She withdrew from society
The doctor sent them overseas
It did wonders for her health
She came back better than herself
And she became
The Queen of Back Bay, she became
The Queen of Back Bay
The papers printer her name
Next to rumors most uncouth, and she said
“Don’t ruin a good story with the truth.”
So her legacy grew into
The Queen of Back Bay
The Queen of Back Bay
She collected art and men of status
A socialite of her own design
The Gardners lived a life that was lavish
But Jack passed, and her life flashed
Before her eyes,
And so it was decided.
A girl’s dream, an old fantasy
Finally realized
Four floors high in a Venetian style and a courtyard with a skylight.
She filled the rooms and the hallways
With the art she had collected
Served champagne and the masses came to see a museum perfected
By The Queen of Back Bay, and it bore the name of
The Queen of Back Bay
And in her will she stated
Not a thing could be changed.
That March night of the evil heist
Isabella rolled in her grave, but she still remains
The Queen of Back Bay, even to this day.
She’s The Queen of Back Bay
Check out Robin’s music page here: