SC Unplugged: Singer-songwriter Aminta Skye talks about heartbreak and healing in her music

Singer-songwriter Aminta Skye is a sophomore studying popular music performance with a songwriting emphasis at USC Thornton School of Music. Skye knew from a young age that she wanted to pursue a future in music. Originally from Senegal, Skye grew up in Oregon and attended an arts boarding school for high school. Her artistic brand “Aminta Skye ‘’ is rock focused with indie songwriting influences, but her role as a topline writer goes across the many genres she pulls inspiration from. Skye’s writing finds connection and emotion with listeners through the personal and common experiences it touches on. Her recent song, “Canyon,” centers themes of abandonment and the mixed emotions that come with a heartbreak.

Annenberg Media spoke with Skye to learn more about her inspirations and creative processes while working on “Canyon.”

SC Unplugged graphic by Steven Vargas.

Full transcript has been edited for clarity.

[Musical Interlude: “Canyon” by Aminta Skye]

Skye: My name is Aminta Skye. I’m from - I’m actually from Senegal, West Africa originally. But I moved to the States when I was little and I lived in Oregon. So like Eugene mainly, Portland a bit. And I study popular music performance with a songwriting emphasis at USC. I think my role within music now - and obviously this is something I want to go deeper into as I grow in my career - but obviously my artist project, which is Aminta Skye, so I like to write and play and release songs for myself. But I also am a topline writer for pop singers and like indie singers, R&B singers, so writing melody and lyrics with instrumentalists or with tracks or doing it all together. But yeah, I just love songwriting for other people too. Like, I think songwriting is so fun and being able to work for other people allows me to be more creatively stimulated from other places because I listen to so many genres. But my music is definitely more rock focused. And so to be able to write straight pop songs or more singer-songwriter or more folky or whatever is a really fun way to stay connected to all of those places creatively. But also just the more you’re writing, the better of a writer you are, you know what I mean? And then, of course, it doesn’t hurt to have multiple streams of income. So I’m really excited about writing, songwriting in general. And then I also really love writing for film and it’s something I’ve dabbled with more. In high school I went to an arts high school, so I was able to work with filmmakers a bit, but I actually just started working on a feature film with a USC student team to help sync and score for that. So I’m super excited.

[Musical Interlude: “Canyon” by Aminta Skye]

Skye: All the way back. Well, interestingly, I always knew that I wanted to be a musician. I think in music that’s more common of an answer than it is in life. But I just thought for some reason that everyone always knew what they wanted to do. And then as I got older, especially in high school, I was like, ‘Oh shit. Most people don’t know and are figuring it out,’ which obviously is so fine, but also is stressful. And then I’m like, ‘Am I crazy that I am doing the same thing I wanted since I was five? Is that like, unrealistic?’ I definitely had a moment of panic senior year of like, ‘I’ve invested my entire life into this - left my family when I was 14 to study music at this random ass school in SoCal and like now at USC. And I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t do music.’

[Musical Interlude: “Canyon” by Aminta Skye]

Skye: When we moved to the U.S., I watched a lot of Hannah Montana and complete, honest to God truth. I was like, ‘I want to be in Montana. That is the life. It must be my life. This is what I’m meant to do.’ Since then- well, I’ve always sang since I was little, you know, just for fun. But I realized I really wanted to do music professionally since then. And then with, like, “Victorious” and all these shows about young musicians and art schools, I was super interested in that. So I decided when I was in elementary school that I wanted to go to an arts high school. This is so weird, but I literally drew on a piece of paper my life plan and it was like, ‘do online school for eighth grade’ because I was dancing, all my sisters are dancers, and my mom’s a dance teacher. So I was dancing like six hours a day, six days a week. And I didn’t really have time for music other than piano lessons here and there and singing lessons or whatever. So I was like, ‘I’m going to take eighth grade off and I’m going to have so much time and I’m going to just prepare and then I’m going to go to an arts high school. I wanted to go to LACHSA and then I’m just going to be ready for the industry as soon as I graduate. Like, I don’t need to go to college, whatever.’ And I basically did everything. I did take eighth grade off and do online, discovered I have a learning disability, did not have extra time. But I got into a different high school because I needed to. My mom didn’t want to move, so I ended up going to a boarding school. But then I realized I needed to go to college because it was good - I think it was good for me because I learned that I had so much to learn. And it’s not just about being ready as young as possible, which is how I saw the industry is like a Disney oriented person, like artist, you know what I mean? I was interested in like Disney, going into Disney. So I was like, ‘You need to be as young as possible.’ And then I learned you just need to be as good as possible. And I’m definitely so glad that I’m going to USC. I was not even applying to USC. I was going to go to Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts and I wasn’t even applying to any schools on the West Coast. I think the only U.S. school I was applying to was like NYU or something. And then my best friend, I was telling you, Lexi, we have our own band together, which is called Nobody Else, and we do shows around USC, whatever. So we’ve been playing together since high school. We met freshman year of high school and she’s two years older than me and she’s a music industry major here. So she basically said, ‘You have to come here, you’re going to love it, just trust me.’ And between applying and hearing back, it moved from like, ‘Why the fuck am I applying to my top choice.’ So then it was definitely the right move. I’m glad with how everything went down.

[Musical Interlude: “Canyon” by Aminta Skye]

Skye: And then eighth grade, I started taking guitar lessons, which really changed things for me because with piano it was more classical focused and I didn’t know enough to describe what I wanted to learn. But basically I wanted to learn music theory, and I was just learning how to read music and play. So it didn’t end up being super helpful to what I do now. But vocal lessons, I guess were kind of helpful. But it was all very classical, you know. So then in eighth grade I started taking guitar and I started taking songwriting and vocal lessons all like with guitar from the same person who’s an incredible musician in the city where I live, named Emily Jensen, who fronts many different amazing bands in Oregon and Pacific Northwest especially. So that’s when I learned that songwriting is its own thing, which is cool and you don’t have to just songwrite to be an artist and it’s its own art that has its own technique and study. So I got super excited about songwriting in itself, and I also learned- for some reason I thought that everyone just wrote their own songs, you know, like all singers. I just thought that that was kind of standard. Apparently not. And at first it felt weird because I was like, ‘You guys are lying. This isn’t authentic.’ I felt some weird moral thing about it. And then I realized, I think it’s actually super cool because some people are so gifted as vocalists, but just aren’t gifted or aren’t interested in writing. And to be able to be like, ‘Oh yeah, that’s not really what I do. But like I am an instrumentalist with my voice. And if someone can give me a great song.’ You know, like I’m glad that we all heard like Ella Fitzgerald sing, regardless of whether or not she was writing, I’m so glad that we were able to, as a society, benefit from that. And it gives people like me a job because it’s so cool to write for other people. So yeah, and then I was going to go to high school as a jazz vocalist because they didn’t have like contemporary whatever. And then after I was accepted, they asked me if I wrote songs, and I think songwriting was kind of a new program there. And I was like, ‘Oh yeah, I write songs, I’d be cool.’ I just thought you didn’t get to play too, if you were already major for some odd reason. And then I ended up transferring before the year started. So I did four years as a songwriting major and it was cool.

[Musical Interlude: “Canyon” by Aminta Skye]

Skye: So, my biggest music inspirations, certainly Paramore is number one. They have been my favorite band since fourth grade, literally. I’m so happy that they’re more mainstream. I do not feel gatekeeper-y at all, like everyone should be obsessed with them and know them. I’m so proud of them. So yeah, Hayley Williams, incredible songwriter, obviously an incredible vocalist. Huge, huge influence. Jeff Buckley is another huge influence. Third, probably Taylor Swift, which I think everyone would say that. But there’s a reason, you know, that a whole generation of women and musicians and songwriters were so influenced by her. And I think she’s really mastered the technique of making something detailed enough that it feels personal, but general enough that it feels universal. So it’s like you’re hearing into her mind, but also she’s hearing it into your mind, if that makes sense. And that kind of technique of songwriting, I think, is so powerful and especially for women, like creates such a bond with artists, you know? So yeah, I think those must be my top three. But I’ve listened to everything growing up like so much Kendrick Lamar, so much Beyonce. Hip hop in general. Also like Damian Marley, you know, literally all over the place. Phoebe, obviously. The 1975.

[Musical Interlude: “Canyon” by Aminta Skye]

Skye: I definitely used to always write from personal experience, and I think it’s something a lot of songwriters do when you’re starting. Because, you know, they say, ‘write what you know,’ whatever, and you’re a kid and you have lived like ten whole years on the earth and you’re just, you know, telling your story. And a lot of it, I think, is regurgitation like I listened to so much Akon. He’s also Senegalese. So my family just loves Akon. And you know the song ‘Mr. Lonely? Lonely, I’m Mr. Lonely’ and I thought that I was going through a divorce listening to that song, like that whole album. I was so moved. I was like six and just writing these, you know, songs about heartbreak and whatever. And then in high school I had a topline teacher who basically was like, ‘Why would you only write from your own life experience when no one else is doing that? Like, you’re limiting yourself creatively because of some weird moral complex that isn’t limiting anyone else.’ And like, basically, she said, Your goal- this sounds so simple and condescending, but it’s so true - ‘Your goal in writing a song should be to write a good song. That’s it.’ Like no one cares what happened. No one knows what happened. It’s just whatever serves the song, you know? So even if I take inspiration from something personal, I’ll change it. Whatever the story, a lot of times it’s interesting because the one “Ring Around the Sun,” my first single and “Canyon”, that just dropped, are both very personal and very truthful. But I would say in terms of songwriting in general, I really just write about anything that inspires me, you know, like reading books and getting inspiration from that or even talking to my friends and different things. That’s so funny. Like, ‘yeah, I’m writing about my friends.’ You can’t say that, But it’s true. Like all songwriters do that. I think just creatives in general, you just take inspiration from life and just do whatever makes the best song, you know?

[Musical Interlude: “Canyon” by Aminta Skye]

Skye: If we’re getting technical, I first started releasing music back in high school on SoundCloud. To be honest, nothing wrong with SoundCloud, love SoundCloud, and I had an album on Spotify. But I, this is so embarrassing to say, I did not know a single thing about music promotion at all. When I tell you I didn’t know that you had to submit a song for distribution like minimum five weeks to have it on the release date. I thought it was like Instagram. So I would just put a song up the day that I wanted it to release. What? That makes no sense. And of course it doesn’t come out that day. So then I’m like, ‘Oh, well, it says it’ll release within this week. So I guess we’ll see when it comes out.’ No promotion at all, no emails, no PR. That’s crazy, right? Also, it was terrible music. Like, okay, okay. I don’t think all those songs were awful. This album was called “Peachy.” I don’t think all those songs were awful. I actually wrote “Ring Around the Sun” when I was a sophomore in high school when I was 16, the same time that I wrote most of those songs. So they weren’t all terrible but like. They were just so not ready for the world, not produced in any way. Literally mastered live recordings. What? I don’t know what I was thinking. So yeah, needless to say, it is off the internet as much as it can be. And then I really kind of redid myself as an artists, rebranded, you know. Well, also, I changed my genre a lot. I used to make more singer-songwriter kind of folky music. And I think it’s what I felt like I could do with the resources I had and with the knowledge or lack of knowledge I have about production and things like that. So it’s just simple to do. And it really was just about the songs themselves. But then I realized that’s not what I want to do. I love rock music and I love singing that and playing rock shows. And so I just thought bigger. And I found key collaborators, like my current producer in Portland, Yu [Kiatvongcharoen]. And yeah, started again with “Ring Around the Sun,” which I think is a very quintessential song of my genre, what I sound like, which is a mix of things of course. It’s rock, but it’s also indie and it’s also singer songwriter and whatever.

[Musical Interlude: “Canyon” by Aminta Skye]

Skye: That’s such a big question. How have I changed as an artist since I released “Ring Around the Sun?” I don’t know if I have changed that much. Maybe that’s not a good answer, but I think I feel pretty much the same. I think what I view as possible has changed and my view of my career and kind of my goals has definitely expanded in a year with that song. It was so interesting because, well, I really think God blessed me because I wanted to record and release that song in high school. And then COVID happened and all of a sudden my band was all over the world and I had no ability to record or gear. And so it got shelved literally for years. And then finally summer of 2020 or something, I recorded it and then didn’t even release it until last December, and I ended up rerecording the entire thing, like I do that. With “Canyon,” I recorded the vocals four times. I still have things that I would change. But yeah, that’s so interesting, right? I went from just vomiting out songs to taking so much time before every release and being so meticulous about it. But because I wrote that song when I was 16, it felt like a burden to finally get off. Not in a bad way, but like, ‘Oh, I was so relieved to finally have it in the world and have it sound how I wanted.’ And it was more honoring my original vision as a sophomore in high school. And then “Canyon,” I wrote a year, basically before I recorded it. And it was, I think, “Canyons” the first song of my new wave of I guess you know what I mean? “Ring Around the Sun” was like the close of what I was. And I think “Canyon” is the first door to what I’m doing now. “Canyon was the first song that I wrote because “Ring Around the Sun” didn’t sound like anything that I had at the time, so I really liked it but I didn’t know where it fit. Now that I know, as well as a 20 year old can know, what I wanna do. “Canyon” was the first song where I wrote it and I was like, “Oh yeah, this fits into my artistry” because I think I know now, at least more than I did, what I sound like. Because when you start writing songs no one knows what their genre is. “What’s your genre?” I don’t fucking know. Like, how does anyone know? But yeah, once you kind of realize, once you’ve written enough songs to find the common thread. You can, you know, start developing your sound intentionally. So I think that’s more what “Canyon” was. [00:18:45][42.3]

[Musical Interlude: “Canyon” by Aminta Skye]

Skye: Also, “Canyon” I literally wrote that song in 15 minutes. I was submitting songs to my producer for a project we were working on that ended up being a bunch of singles as opposed to an EP. But I was trying to get them by whatever, midnight or something, and I realized that all the songs I had sent him to consider for this project were mid-tempo, slow. I mean, “Canyons” is mid-tempo, let’s be honest. But slower, I had just gone through a really terrible breakup, which is what “Canyons” about and I was just depressed and writing really slow, sad songs. And I was like, I want a song that’s fun. I want a song that has a drive and a rhythm to it. Obviously it’s still sad because that’s what was coming out of me. I think, in periods of intense emotion like periods of life events when real shit’s going down, that’s when it’s harder to not just write autobiographically, so which is not a bad thing. But in the midst of my first real heartbreak, I couldn’t take inspiration from anything. All that would come out creatively was depression. So it definitely still comes through in “Canyon” But, yeah, it was literally like, I’m trying to fight the clock and I just want a song that’s a little faster. And so I wrote “Canyon.” and sent it out. And then I think a week later I was like, ‘Oh, I kind of like this plan.’

[Musical Interlude: “Canyon” by Aminta Skye]

Skye: So I went through a breakup, obviously, before I wrote this song. It was like my first real relationship and the breakup was very out of the blue. So it felt like, well for me and my own life experiences - and I think a lot of people can relate to this- It felt like abandonment, essentially… And it was just interesting. I was just noticing basically how my body process did not just as a breakup romantically, but friendship familial, like, ‘Oh, you’ve literally abandoned me. Like I’ve never allowed anyone as close to me as you because I’ve always feared that they would betray me. In the second I let you close to me, the second I finally trusted you. Literally, like the ten minute period after us dating for how long of you begging me to trust you? And finally I was like, okay, I’m going to allow you in. I, like, cried in front of them and just said everything that I was scared of and was the most vulnerable I’ve literally ever been in my life. And that’s the moment that you betrayed me.’ Like, ‘you didn’t want to hit that a few months ago.’ Like, I put you through so many tests of loyalty. And now is the moment, you know. So, I literally thought that he was joking when the conversation when he first started, basically breaking up with me, I was like, ‘there’s no fucking way this is happening right now.’... And yeah, it was just weird because I felt after the breakup, obviously I missed him so much. And right when you are dumped, you still want to be with them. But I also felt so angry and so betrayed. And like it was, I felt like it was an injustice that I didn’t, you know, deserve someone who was supposed to, you know, promise to basically take care of me and help me through this thing I was going through.

[Musical Interlude: “Canyon” by Aminta Skye]

Skye: And “Canyon” was the first song I wrote after that breakup. And then I actually liked it. So it was, you know, a huge turning point in terms of my healing process and similar to “Ring Around the Sun” It felt like - there’s a few songs I’ve written where they kind of just stream of consciousness first verse to last, whatever wrote themselves. And “Ring Around the Sun” and “Canyon” were both that way. It felt just like a confession. You know what I mean? Just getting something off my chest. And I felt so relieved after. Like I finally found a name for the thing that I was feeling and how to get it off of my chest. So, yeah, it was a powerful writing process, honestly. But yeah, so the song is basically about heartbreak, but it’s really about abandonment and kind of the metaphor of being left in the middle of a canyon, like desolate, no food, no you know, like, you’re dead or you’re done for. And the person who’s supposed to save you is the one who put you there…It’s very raw and I think emotionally chaotic. I hope the song communicates that feeling. But yeah, I think it sounds how it feels.

[Musical Interlude: “Canyon” by Aminta Skye]

Skye: I really let my producer, Yu, just kind of do his thing because he really knows what he’s doing. But between “Ring Around the Sun” and “Canyon” he also had just gone through a breakup. So when I described this song and sent him this song I think he understood what I was trying to do. So, yeah, maybe I’ll just give him credit for some of that. But just musically and lyrically, kind of the song itself, I mean, hopefully this was communicated, but it’s basically like when you desperately want that person to save you and to come back for you and to, like, make everything fine. But also, you’re dealing with this abandonment by them and knowing that they are the problem. You know, like not them. Obviously, break ups happen for a reason and people aren’t right for each other, but like they are the reason that you’re like this. But in a twisted way, you also want them to be the thing that saves you. So, I mean, it’s kind of a play on words because it’s like, ‘Save me a piece of your heart.’ You know, like, no matter where you go from here, I want you to always have part of you that regrets me. I want you to have part of you that’s always saved for me, You know, that selfish thing that is real. And then also the play on words is at the end. Like, ‘save me,’ you know, like, come back. You know so, yeah, it is definitely a juxtaposition of feeling angered and upset, you know, and at times hate like we talk about in one of the verses, ‘I hate you as much as I can, so it’s not much then.’

[Musical Interlude: “Canyon” by Aminta Skye]

Skye: You know, when you desperately want to hate someone who’s hurt you. But actually you just love them. That’s so sad.

[Musical Interlude: “Canyon” by Aminta Skye]

Skye: Yeah, just that whole period of feeling terrible all the time. And I was listening to all these breakup songs because I’m the type of person who likes to feed whatever emotion I have. If I’m happy, I want to listen to happy songs and if I’m sad I’m going to be listening to sad songs. I’m not going to try to cheer myself up at all. Which is also why I love songwriting, because when someone’s alone and they’re sad and they’re listening to songs, they’ve done psychological studies on it and their brain is registering it like a friend’s comforting them, which is so cool because it really does connect people even if they’re not together. And I know that in my experience I have felt so much better listening to a song when I’m like, ‘Oh, someone gets it, someone understands, I’m not crazy,’ you know? And so I hope that my biggest joy would be to be able to do that as a musician and as a songwriter.

[Musical Interlude: “Canyon” by Aminta Skye]

Skye: So I literally started writing [sings instrumental] like the guitar part. And the first line just popped in my head. You know, ‘I’m lost in a great big canyon. Who will look for me?’

[Musical Interlude: “Canyon” by Aminta Skye]

Skye: And just the idea of feeling so little and lonely and unsafe, you know. And that’s the other thing, like being lost, I think, in terms of break ups. Like when you - not have put your identity on a relationship on a person - But I really liked who I was in that relationship. And I was also 18. So I grew so much and I was in the time of transition. I’m about to go to college or whatever, and my partner was obviously a bit older than me as the story, you know tends to go. And so all of a sudden I was like, I don’t even know what I’m doing right now. And I’m always the kind of person, like I said, with my life plan for my career or whatever. I’ve always known what I’m doing and what my goals are, so it was very disorientating. But yeah, I just started playing and writing the song in order and it was like 11:59, sent him a voice memo and then within the next few weeks when we decided what songs we wanted to actually develop and invest in, we both were like, ‘Oh yeah, we definitely have to do this song.’ And “Ring Around the Sun” hadn’t been finished, I don’t think when we decided that this would go after it. But it’s interesting to me that they were written so many years apart, but they definitely feel to me now like they’re about the same thing. And even when I play shows and I play “Ring Around the Sun,” the person that that’s about, we’re friends now, you know, that’s so weird. And the person who I trusted most at that time is now like, we’re not on speaking terms. So when I sing “Ring Around the Sun” now and “Canyon” and they feel still very connected, even though they’re about such things like.

[Musical Interlude: “Canyon” by Aminta Skye]

Skye: I would say for me, the future, the near future is I am releasing a few music videos and like I said, I have another song, “All These Dreams” coming out, and that’s going to close the trilogy of the singles we have now before a bigger project, you know, probably an EP is in the near future. I would say in general, I just want to keep writing and releasing music myself. And with my band we’ve been playing, Aminta Skye Band, has been playing a lot of shows recently, which has been so fun. And then of course, with Nobody Else, we are moving more into recording as opposed to just live shows now. And then of course, I mentioned this film that I’m very excited to be working on and just topline writing in general for other artists, songwriting. I really want to, when I graduate, if I can get some sort of publishing deal as a songwriter and really invest in that, primarily. Not saying to sacrifice my own music, but just I’m not going to be trying to get a record deal when I graduate. Maybe, who knows?

[Musical Interlude: “Canyon” by Aminta Skye]

Skye: I think the pinnacle of most people, most songwriters, is the Grammys because pursuing music professionally is one of those things where it’s really hard to measure your success. It’s not like you can just graduate and fill out an application. It’s like, I want to be an artist. You know what I mean? The way that, not to diminish any other careers, but the way that with other careers you can literally apply to jobs. You can be, you know, there’s a bit more structure. And so when I’m explaining to my aunties, like, ‘Oh yeah, I just study music and like I don’t know what I’m going to do when they graduate.’ The Grammys feel like a tangible token of validity, like you are officially good and everyone knows that and you can be proud of something. But I mean, it’s such a pointless answer, you know, like it’ll come if it comes. And awards obviously aren’t the purpose of making music. Right now, it’d be super cool to have a Tiny Desk because I just love NPR and that would be so cool. But yeah, I’m basically just along for the ride. I feel at this time in my life, genuinely excited professionally. And I’m just, you know, writing the best songs I can. And I’m interested and curious to see what’ll happen in the future.

[Musical Interlude: “Canyon” by Aminta Skye]

Skye: My favorite part of making music is first, it helps the artist figure themselves out in a way. Like I have been thinking and feeling about something and I don’t know my perspective yet. And now that I’ve written a song like with “Canyon” for example, I couldn’t describe how I was feeling. And it’s so frustrating, you know, like if you’re in an argument with someone and you can’t explain what you’re trying to say or they’re misunderstanding you, and it’s like you’re crying because you’re angry and not even because you’re sad. So finally, being able to describe what you’re feeling and get it out into the world, out of your body, you know, like this is a song that I can play or give someone and it’s not just a thought in my head is so satisfying and orienting personally. But then also, it’s very cool that songwriting and music creates such a personal connection with the listeners. And it’s not even something you have to try to do. Like music just does that. And I fell in love with songwriting as a listener. Feeling like someone had looked into my head and read my diary. And you know what I mean? Like feeling represented in someone smarter than me, explaining exactly what I was feeling and didn’t know how to say, in a better way than I could have. And so the idea of being able to do that as a musician is so cool. And like literally the coolest thing that I can think of to do with my life. And sharing of information, not just with music, but with writing and with, I don’t know, words. In general, music is so cool because it’s writing, it’s words, but it’s also just sounds and vibrations, which, you know, cause all these emotions, whatever outside of lyrics. And, it’s just very cool like, have you ever been with someone romantically or in an argument or whatever? And you’re like, ‘I wish I could just touch my forehead to yours and put all my thoughts in your head. That’s what songs are for me. You know, you can literally just put someone exactly where you want them to be. And it’s also a safe place to express yourself because it’s a controlled, predictable environment. Like I wrote this song and I know exactly what’s going to happen on the stage when I say it. So it’s like a premeditated planned way to express your emotion, which I find a lot easier than in the moment how you feel saying it.

[Musical Interlude: “Canyon” by Aminta Skye]

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