Meet Linney

 

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Linney a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Linney, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.

I was always that weird kid that knew what I wanted to do with my life when I was 5 or 6 years old. I never totally understood where that purpose stemmed from and it’s always felt like some beckoning in the wind that’s grown stronger with time. I was born into a family of scientists & my dad ran “The Linney Lab” at Duke University. But I wanted to write songs & perform. For as long as I can remember, turning my life experiences into music & lyrics has been how I translate the world. If I went on a class trip to the zoo in second grade, I came home and wrote a song about the monkeys. I was a super shy kid and I remember in junior high I had this crush and I was too afraid to tell them — but music gave me a voice, and for some reason I wasn’t as afraid to sing the song I wrote about them in front of the entire school. Looking back now, that seems very brave and perhaps foolish, but my life experiences have always been the gasoline and the song, the vehicle, that allow me to share who I am with the world.

I promised myself that if I ever experience something too overwhelming, too much for me to handle, that I will create something new with all that raw emotion. Something outside of myself. If I’m filled to the brim with tears that are literally spilling from my eyes, I need to place it somewhere else. Something that feels ugly now, can be beautiful if I paint it into a song. Something that might help someone else. Help them tell their story when they feel they lack the words & need help finding their voice.

I have a song I wrote about my dad’s heart condition called “One More Day.” I often tell the story behind the song before I perform it in live sets and people always come up to me afterwards and feel moved to share their stories and why it resonated with them so much. I think by being vulnerable and open in my art, it creates a safe space and invites others to do the same.

For me — songwriting is a super power because it allows me to transform tragedy into something beautiful.
This concept of creating something new can be applied with any art form and I always encourage others to turn whatever they’re dealing with into art.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I make emotional dance music. Songs that intend to move you in more ways than one.

Most of my days are spent writing songs, recording vocals, comping/editing, producing tracks, collaborating with other artists, pitching songs to other artists, rehearsing for live shows — and when I’m not, I’m most likely hanging out with my adorable bull terrier, Louie, doing physical therapy for ACL recovery and reading Sarah J. Maas.

I’ve built my career in this genre by being the featured vocalist on dance tracks and crafting the melody & lyrics on the songs you hear at music festivals. The more songs I released, the more times they were played live, the more people I had the opportunity to connect with. That grew into live performances such as performing live with MaRLo at EDC and ASOT 1000 to going on an international tour with him last year in Australia, Indonesia and Malaysia. And this last year I joined Nicky Romero main stage at Ultra Miami as my first performance back post ACL surgery to perform our song “Desire” while it was #1 on Sirius XM BPM for 4 weeks in a row. I also joined Steve Aoki main stage EDC Las Vegas in May to premiere our cover of Cascada’s “Everytime We Touch” which resulted in a viral TikTok on EDC’s official page.

Platforms like these have allowed me to transition into releasing music for my artist project and I’m so proud and excited to share I now have two solo EP’s out in the world: Desert Dream (Listen here: https://helixrecords.ffm.to/desertdream) which was #1 on the iTunes Dance Album Charts in the US & AU and features songs such as “Run to the Forest” (as heard on Sirius XM BPM), “One More Day” (about my dad’s heart condition) and “Super Human.” And my second EP, “We Dance,” came out on September 6th, 2024 (Listen here: https://helixrecords.ffm.to/wedance) and features “Sequoia” (currently in rotation on Sirius XM BPM & chill), the title track “We Dance” and the original piano demo version of that song. “We Dance” is about moving through the heartbreak and continuing to find your way. To me, this record is about music having the ability to transform tragedy and turn it into something beautiful. Dance music has a pulse that imitates the heart & reminds me to keep moving through whatever I’m dealing with….”we dance for a reason, we move to make sense of the pain.”

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Resilience, optimism and tenacity. You have to believe in yourself when no one else does. You have to have the confidence to believe the naysayers are WRONG and persevere anyway. And you have to LOVE and ADORE what you’re doing because it will become a 24/7 job.

My advice to others who are early on in their music journeys is split your time between working, writing, recording on your own AND working with others. Don’t work with the same people every song. Take new sessions. You’re going to learn new tricks (whether they’re creative or production tricks) — and it will help you refine what is ultimately YOU. What is the common thread between the music you write alone in your bedroom and the songs you write in the 2 million dollar recording studio with the people you just met 10 minutes ago. Get to know yourself. Learn what feels like you and what doesn’t.

And for SINGERS in this space, LEARN HOW TO RECORD YOUR OWN VOCALS!!! Control and master your own sound and identity. And if that’s not possible or you’re not interested, find a small team of people who can help you craft that and build your sound together!

Also — transparency goes a long way in this industry. That’s all I’ll say.

How would you spend the next decade if you somehow knew that it was your last?

Creating music is such an emotional process. It requires you to invest your heart, your soul and your energy to create something impactful. So feelings are intrinsically involved. But at the end of the day, the music industry is also a business and I have to constantly remind myself there are people who I can create amazing music with — but, in time, their actions reveal they’re not my friend.

I’m not sure I have the answer as to how to resolve this issue, because obstacles will always arise — but time reveals a lot. Heartbreak happens. You can move on and you can choose to work with good people who share your values and honor transparency. You cannot change how other people behave but you can learn from your mistakes & make different choices moving forward. Surround yourself with people you trust. Treat others how you would like to be treated & be a good person.

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