All Shows Canceled, But “We Can Still Sing”
Allison Leah is a singer-songwriter originally from New York City who has recently moved to Nashville to build on her career in music. I got to know her and her music through Indie NYC’s Indie Summer Song Competition, where I had the privilege of joining fellow judges – Scott Krokoff and Tony Nguyen – in selecting one summer song that we just can’t live without in 2020. Guess which song was crowned Indie Summer Song of 2020?
“We Can Still Sing” by Allison Leah.
In full quarantine fashion, Allison and I hop on a virtual meet via Zoom, where she shares the story of her latest single, taking us back more than four months, to the start of a new chapter for the world.
Before the pandemic, Allison was consistently playing three to four shows a week, touring twice a year on the road for a month or two at a time. She describes her style as living a nomadic life and attributes her hustle mentality to her upbringing in New York City, where competition is fierce and the hustle-and-bustle is part of life in the Big Apple.
On March 12, one day before the start of her spring tour, she had driven to Louisville, Kentucky, ready to perform the next day. “It was a 14-show-9-city tour, fully booked,” she says. “It was supposed to start on March 13, and on March 12 at around 9pm, the entire tour was gone.”
“I was already in Louisville to get ready for the show, so I wasn't driving from New York to Louisville the day before. And I got an email from SoFar Sounds,” she pauses here to explain what SoFar Sounds is – a music events company that brings live music showcases to secret locations around the world – before continuing to say that SoFar had decided to cancel all of their shows, including the eight she was scheduled to perform in.
“At first I was like, okay, well, the Louisville show's gone, but maybe the one in Indianapolis for Monday will be okay…maybe the one that's happening in Pittsburgh will be okay…” It didn’t take long for her to find out that all the shows were canceled.
It had taken her months to prepare for these shows, and not only was it disappointing to lose the opportunity to perform and connect with people, the need to cope with so many sudden changes was also overwhelming. “It was hard, especially because of all of the traveling involved,” she says. ”Where do I stay tonight? Do I go back to New York? Do I stay in Nashville? Where do I go? I was really in a frenzy and in a state of disbelief, but also had to cancel my hotels and was also driving 13 hours that day.”
Luckily, she had an outpouring of help and love from her family and friends to help take care of travel arrangements for her subsequent shows while she returned to home in New York.
For the first time in many years, she feels she has been given the time and space to write music. “We Can Still Sing” is one of those songs created during this strange time when tens of millions of lives have been turned upside down, although at first, she had no intention of making it into a song.
“I started kind of venting, like to my guitar on those chords and that opened the song,” she says. “And honestly the song lyrics were pretty conversational because I wasn't really intending for it to be a song. I was just like explaining how I was feeling, I think for my own benefit. And then I stopped writing and I picked up my phone. I started scrolling through Instagram and that's actually when I saw one of those viral videos that came out of Europe where people were singing from their balconies. I was so moved by it, the rest of the song just fell out.”
It took her fewer than six weeks to release the song after writing it in mid-March. As recording studios were closed during the time, the recording took place in her living room at home. Allison tracked the main instruments, her siblings sang background vocals, her mom joined in with percussion sounds, and her dad helped produce and engineer the song. For the inspirational singing from Europe, Allison included samples of her friend, Noah Chichester, singing classical pieces from his balcony in Spain.
As if writing during one of the worst pandemics in US history isn’t memorable enough, I envy her for having created an instant hit that has undoubtedly become a family treasure. “Whatever happens with this song, this will always be a time capsule in my family. Every one of us are involved, we made this together and no matter what happens in 50 years, when people say what happened, what did you do during quarantine? It's like, we made this.”
After months of quarantine in New York with her family, Allison is now back in Nashville, in her new living space where she had intended to be months ago. I ask her if she’s able to perform again in front of people or through live streams.
“Nashville is a bit more open than New York, but I'm still not trying to put people at risk by playing shows right now,” she responds. Instead, she is writing music, live streaming, and connecting with her fans and her supporters in her Patreon community.
“I never really get, you know, the opportunity to sit down for weeks at a time and just write music. So hopefully once I'm able to tour again, I’ll have a ton of new material to play.”
Interview conducted and written by Louise Lau. Connect with her on social media @offstagetunes
Watch video highlights of this interview
Listen to We Can Still Sing on Spotify