USC senior Liz Becker has found a new sound. Moving from the indie-rock of “Keep it Cool,” Becker has returned to the SC Unplugged podcast to discuss her more pop-forward release “Driveway.” Alongside this genre shift, the singer-songwriter has also gotten management and is looking to build her team. As she’s about to graduate from USC, Becker is on the brink of releasing her debut album and first music video.
Annenberg Media welcomed Becker back to the podcast to discuss her release “Driveway” and her upcoming album.
Full transcript has been edited for clarity.
Note: This episode was recorded in October 2023.
[Musical Interlude: “Driveway” by Liz Becker]
Becker: Hey guys, it’s Liz. I’m back on SC Unplugged, and I am a senior now. I’m about to graduate from USC. Again, I’m from the Bay Area in California, and my major is popular music performance with an emphasis in songwriting.
[Musical Interlude: “Driveway” by Liz Becker]
Becker: So since I released “Keep it Cool,” I released another song in the winter called “Adrenaline,” and those two songs are very much in the indie-rock sphere. And since then, I’ve kind of switched to a more pop-y sound. So I definitely say it’s more indie-pop now, kind of taking influence from Holly Humberstone, Lennon Stella and Julia Michaels. So, that’s kind of the direction that I’m going in now. And yeah, since then, me and my producer have recorded so much music and we’ve released a lot and are planning to release a lot more. So, very exciting!
[Musical Interlude: “Driveway” by Liz Becker]
Becker: I’ve always wanted to kind of try a more pop sound. Because I mean, I listened to a lot of indie-pop and I also listened to a lot of indie-rock, but I just feel like this pop sound is just a lot more me than the stuff I was releasing before. So yeah, it was a conscious decision, because I knew that I always wanted to try it. So when we were writing the songs, me and Evan [Pruett], my producer, we were thinking like, ‘We’re gonna go down the pop lane.’
[Musical Interlude: “Driveway” by Liz Becker]
Becker: Well something exciting happened in January, like the beginning of 2023. I got connected with someone who works at Hallwood, which is like a management company for producers and songwriters. And I actually knew her from high school and she reached out to me and was like, ‘I really love your music. I’m working at Hallwood now.’ And so she’s my manager now, which is really exciting because that’s been helping a lot, just with connections, and it’s given me so many more opportunities.
[Musical Interlude: “Driveway” by Liz Becker]
Becker: I mean, it’s great. For right now, it’s pretty much like a handshake deal. There’s no contract or anything like that. But it’s just great because she really believes in me. I mean, the cool thing about it is that she reached out to me, which meant that she wanted to work with me, she liked my music, and she thought that it could go somewhere, which just feels good obviously. And so, the biggest thing for me is that it just motivates me to do more and work harder at my music because I have the beginning of a team. And so yeah, I did more music over the past six months and released more music than I ever have in my life and that’s around the same time that I started working with her. Yeah, she just has so many great ideas. So I can kind of start focusing more on the creative side of things and she does some of the more administrative stuff that an artist doesn’t really want to do. But yeah, it’s still very independent and we work together on a lot of stuff still, so it’s great.
[Musical Interlude: “Driveway” by Liz Becker]
Becker: Yeah, my live performances, they’ve been great. I performed at Hotel Cafe in the spring, which was really cool. That was just a cool moment because I feel like before I moved to L.A., I saw so many artists that I respected performing at Hotel Cafe and then I got to perform there, which was cool. And then I was in London for a Maymester at the beginning of the summer. So we performed a lot at a lot of venues in London. And yeah, I mean, it was kind of a whirlwind because it was right after we finished school and then we went straight to London and were there for like three weeks and it was really intense. I mean we’re still in school but obviously, it didn’t feel like school. It was just gig after gig after gig and writing and recording and we got to record some of our music at Abbey Road Studios, which was insane. I loved that.
[Musical Interlude: “Driveway” by Liz Becker]
Becker: Me and Evan decided to write an album this summer. So I went away and traveled a little bit at the beginning of the summer, after the year ended, and then came back and me and Evan immediately started working on this. We wrote eight songs in a total of like five days, which is crazy. And so those are all the songs that we’re recording and finishing up right now. “Driveway” and “Who You Are” that are already out are part of that pack of songs. And so that was a really wild experience. And that’s pretty much all I was doing over the summer plus working. Continuing into the school year, we’re kind of just still trying to finish it up and get all the music out there because I just really want to have a project out there before I graduate.
[Musical Interlude: “Driveway” by Liz Becker]
Becker: Something that’s really exciting about this is that it very much has a cool through storyline, which I always love in albums that I listen to, and so I think it’ll be fun for people who listen to it to kind of follow that storyline and see that unroll. So yeah, I’m really excited.
[Musical Interlude: “Driveway” by Liz Becker]
Becker: When you’re making an album, I think the most challenging part for me was not being too hard on myself in the moment while I was writing the lyrics and the melodies and everything because I’m such a – and all musicians are, I mean, so many people are just a perfectionist when it comes to writing music. And we set a goal and we’re like, ‘We’re gonna write these songs in this amount of time.’ So I had to keep telling myself that I can go back and edit later, but right now let’s just get the song done. Get it out. And so I think having that time limit kind of helped me do that because I was like, ‘I can’t be so nitpicky about everything.’ But it was also hard because I’d be like, ‘Shoot, that lyric is not perfect. I want to fix it’ or like, ‘That melody is not as good as it could be.’ So that was really hard. But then I realized that you can always go back and edit and make changes later. And sometimes in the moment whatever you write, you think that it’s not good, and then you go back later and you’re like, ‘Oh, wait, that was actually kind of sick.’ So that was a challenging part. And then it’s just cool to make a body of work. I’ve never done that. I’ve never written that many songs, and had a full complete project done. So I just think it was really cool and unlike anything I’ve done before, and just made me fall in love with songwriting even more so, it was great.
[Musical Interlude: “Driveway” by Liz Becker]
Becker: So “Driveway” was written by me and Evan Pruett, who’s a producer and a songwriter – so talented. And this was the first song of the album that we wrote and it’s about kind of trying to get away from a lost love or heartbreak by going home to your hometown and trying to center yourself again, but just not being able to stop thinking about this one person.
[Musical Interlude: “Driveway” by Liz Becker]
Becker: ‘Cause I had just been in London so I had kind of been thinking about this phenomenon of being so far away from someone but still they’re taking up so much of your mind. And so I was like, ‘What if we write a song about this?’ And so we started writing the lyrics and this one honestly came out pretty fast. I think I had just gotten back from London and hadn’t written a song for a while. Same with Evan. He had gone home for a little bit. So this one flowed out pretty fast. At the end, it was weird, like after writing this song, I was like, ‘Yeah, it’s okay.’ And then when we finished all the songs, I was like, ‘Wait, no, this is my favorite one. We have to release this first,’ which is cool because it was the first song that we wrote and we’ve also released it first.
[Musical Interlude: “Driveway” by Liz Becker]
Becker: So the piano was Evan. Evan is a great keys player. So he kind of came up with that riff at the beginning. And then that synth, kind of like a detuned sound, that was also at the beginning was his idea. I mean, he has so many great sounds that he comes up in his DAW where he does all his production. I think that whole riff, like the whole intro, came later after we wrote the songs. We kind of just started out with chords and melody.
[Musical Interlude: “Driveway” by Liz Becker]
Becker: ‘I wanna lose track of time / How long does it take?’ It’s kind of ironic how you’re like, ‘I want to lose track of time.’ But then you’re like, ‘Can it go faster? Can I lose track of time faster?’ So yeah, it was kind of a play on words a little bit. Because I feel like everyone has that feeling where they’re just trying to relax, but these thoughts are running through your head and you can’t calm down.
[Musical Interlude: “Driveway” by Liz Becker]
Becker: ‘Now I’m drinking wine like lemonade.’ I think that’s just a good anthem lyric. And I feel like a lot of people can just scream that and it feels good to sing. But I think how that came to be is because a lot of it was comparing this hometown that you’re going to, and how that felt like when you were younger, versus how it felt like now when you’re going through all these adult things and you’re getting your heart broken and now you can drink alcohol. So I wanted to come up with a line that compared how when you were younger you came up here and you drink lemonade, but now it’s like you’re drinking wine. So that was kind of the thought process behind that one.
[Musical Interlude: “Driveway” by Liz Becker]
Becker: So this one is definitely based on real-life experiences, but it’s embellished a little bit, like it’s not completely true. But I think it’s just a thing that so many people can relate to and I know I’ve felt that way going home from college and going away to London, just feeling that sense of missing a person and not being able to distract yourself from them. This one isn’t as specific as, “Keep it Cool.” Like “Keep it Cool” I’m definitely calling out a specific person, but in this one it’s kind of just more about the feeling.
[Musical Interlude: “Driveway” by Liz Becker]
Becker: The background vocals for the song were really fun to record. All the harmonies were really fun. That’s one of my favorite parts of making music is doing background vocals and just coming up with harmonies. And so we made them really big. So I think that helped a lot with making the song grow. In the first chorus, I think there’s like one background vocal, but then as the choruses gets bigger and bigger, the stacks just get bigger. And so I just remember we were in the studio and it was just so fun to come up with all those harmonies.
[Musical Interlude: “Driveway” by Liz Becker]
Becker: I mean, I want to shout out Evan because he’s the best collaborator ever. And I loved making the song with him and the whole album, but he knows that already. Because “Keep it Cool” and “Adrenaline” I wrote all by myself and then had Evan and Truman [Sinclair] produce it. But it was just really cool to write all these songs with Evan and record them. Yeah, I don’t know, he’s like the first person that I feel like fully comfortable writing songs with, so it’s great.
[Musical Interlude: “Driveway” by Liz Becker]
Becker: TikTok has been really important, and I used to hate posting on TikTok, but my manager has motivated me a lot and given me a lot of ideas. So I’ve gotten more comfortable with that. And I just flooded TikTok with the sound of “Driveway.” And so, I think my idea was I was hoping that one of them was gonna blow up and then the song was gonna be big, but that didn’t happen. But that’s okay because any person that sees it is a worthwhile addition to my listeners. Anyone who sees a TikTok and is like, ‘Oh, I like that sound’ and then pre-saves the song that’s so useful. And so, I’ve kind of accepted that you know, it’d be great if something for TikTok blew up, but it’s also great to kind of slowly build your fan base. And I think that’s what I’m doing with these songs, which is cool. So yeah, TikTok was a big part of it and just getting comfortable with that. That was the main thing.
[Musical Interlude: “Driveway” by Liz Becker]
Becker: My view of what I want to do after I graduate changes every day. But I think now I’m pretty set with what I want to do because now that I’ve started really diving into the artist thing I’m like, ‘I love this. It’s just so fun.’ So I definitely want to keep doing the artists thing, keep recording and releasing my own original music under my name. And then I also want to write for other people. Because also, since I’ve been working with my manager, she’s set me up in a lot of sessions with people that she knows. And so I’ve written for some other artists. And I also would love to get into sync and write music for TV and movies. So, I want to do all of that. And I definitely am going to have to have a ‘job job’ for the first couple of years after I graduate just to survive, but then any free time outside of that I’ll be doing music and working on my own music and doing sessions with other people. So that’s my plan and I’ll be in LA for at least at least five or six years after I graduate.
I don’t want to take USC for granted because I know that once I get out of here I’m gonna be like, ‘F—, I want to go back’ but now I’m just so ready to just get out there. I’m so sick of the – like sometimes the school busy work just feels so like, ‘Ahh, I just want to do it.’ But I’m trying to take advantage of the time that I have here.
[Musical Interlude: “Driveway” by Liz Becker]
Becker: There are things when you’re writing for yourself as an artist that you can write a lyric and not have to explain why you wrote that lyric. I write lyrics all the time that only make sense to me and I think that’s okay when you’re writing for yourself as an artist. But when you’re writing for someone else it has to make sense to not only you, but also them. You have to kind of step into their shoes. So, I have to try and avoid bringing my own life experiences into whatever they are writing about. Because that might not make sense in their context, so I think that’s the hardest thing about it and that’s the main difference.
[Musical Interlude: “Driveway” by Liz Becker]
Becker: My next goals. I mean signing officially somewhere with either Hallwood, the company that my manager works for. I think signing somewhere and just kind of growing my team because the numbers on my music that I’ve released recently aren’t huge, but they’re definitely respectable for a beginning artist. So I think that after I release this project and the numbers are visible, I feel like I can start building a team and start venturing out and playing more shows and building that fan base.
[Musical Interlude: “Driveway” by Liz Becker]
Becker: I think the most fulfilling part. I mean, honestly, I’ve come to appreciate collaboration a lot more recently and I think making things with other people is such a special thing. I used to be afraid of that. Before I came to school songwriting was such a private thing that I would only do in my bedroom by myself, and I wouldn’t even like to show my songs to other people that much. But now I’m so grateful for the fact that I feel confident enough to share that creative process with other people and be comfortable with that. And yeah, I think it’s really cool to like to see other people go through their creative process and how their perspectives can change the results of whatever you’re making on that day.
[Musical Interlude: “Driveway” by Liz Becker]
Host: You’ve been listening to SC Unplugged, a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the inspirations, creative processes and musical goals of your favorite Trojan artists.