BEING YOUR OWN BEST FRIEND WITH THEA HALLOW

We LOVE to see people with big dreams go out and make them a reality, and someone out here making things happen is Thea Hallow. Thea is a young creative talent from South-East London who’s making music and following her dreams.

Thea, how did you discover the music that you love?

“Scrolling through music channels, when they had throwback shows like MJ marathons - I could watch them all day! Everyone around me listened to the same kind of things, like Destiny’s Child and Brandy, and the older I got the more time I spent time studying the greats like Aretha Franklin and even Marvin Gaye - I remember hearing his album on my old desktop and thinking ‘who is this old guy’ and now I went back to discover more and realise he is amazing! Nothing that we hear is new - everyones learning from somewhere so I thought let me find out where everyone’s learning from!”

When it came to you finding your voice and figuring out what music you wanna make, how did that work?

“I was just born able to sing! I remember when I was like 5 years old I realised I could sing and said ‘mum, I wanna be a singer’! When my cousins would come round we’d do little showcases and in primary school I was in all the choirs, and I just sang all the time. I’d take the CD’s from choir and sing them at home too!”

Do you have any tips for people with nerves or anxiety about performing?

“My best friend recently told me that all the anxious thoughts that you tell yourself, is basically you being the devil’s b*tch! I don’t wanna be that - every bad thought is negative energy soundtracking your day, and I decided I don’t want to be like that, and won’t be like that! You have to be your own best friend, and be the person that’s gonna go out and do it, not the person that sits back and watches.”

Check out Thea’s new single ‘Love Buddy’ and keep an eye out for the music video, coming very soon!

Keep up to date with Thea on Instagram @thea.hallow.

Listen to the full episode on the Bringing it Black podcast: