GOLD HILL — Even though both Sadie Gustafson-Zook and Alexa Wildish have been musical since their childhoods, their craft is always evolving. There are new influences, new perspectives and, of course, new skills and songs.
“I feel like I’m constantly growing and shifting and navigating,” says Wildish, “and learning things about myself and the industry as it always changes. There’s lots of different ways in which to express this creative part of our lives.”
Wildish and Gustafson-Zook, both pop-indie-folk singer-songwriters, also teach music and voice lessons. In teaching music to others, they get to see the process from a different perspective.
“It’s fun to be able to have a more external experience with music in helping other people,” reflects Gustafson-Zook. “The songwriting process is so great, and diving into my own psyche is so fun, but I really am into the part of it where it’s interacting with other people and bringing other people in.”
“I work with peers sometimes, and then I’m sometimes working with people who have never sang before and people who are super nervous,” affirms Wildish, a Lyons resident who appeared on Season 24 of NBC's The Voice. “It’s so fulfilling, and continually, I’m shocked and surprised at how fun all of that can be, too, within the process of songwriting.”
As time passes and the artists gain more experience, meanings in their own music shift in ways they never expected. Everyone in an audience will, unsurprisingly, take something slightly different from each song —but the artists sometimes do, too.
“Sometimes, I think about songwriting as a kind of mantra that I’m gonna spend some time in,” says Gustafson-Zook, “and it ends up not only predicting the future, but making the future happen.
“Sometimes, I’ll just write a song and not know what it’s about,” adds Wildish, “and then several years down the line, I have this realization of, ‘Oh, this is about now.’ It just totally can blow me away with how it just predicts the future in some way.”
Sadie Gustafson-Zook and Alexa Wildish will be co-billing at the Gold Hill General Store, located at 531 Main Street in Gold Hill, on Thursday, April 16 at 6:30 p.m.
