An Exploration of Music Production Through the Lens of Dancer, Choreographer, and House DJ, PENNYWILD
Photo Credit - QuasarMedia
Many people recall a catalyst big or small that informed what they want to do professionally. Oftentimes, it’s a series of small catalysts, potentially coupled by a larger, more life changing one. For electronic music producer PENNYWILD, perhaps her initial series of catalysts came in the form of her time spent as a dancer and choreographer, having choreographed for mainstream music stars such as Zedd, Enrique Iglesias, and Marian Hill. What was her big catalyst moment pushing her into the music industry? A concert on a day off from work.
“[Music] was something that I didn't really know that I always wanted to do. It was more of something that struck overnight,” PENNYWILD describes. “In 2015, I was spending some time in Los Angeles doing a musical, which is something that I had a lot of experience doing. On a day off, I went to a music festival and I was super inspired by Grimes. I had never seen a female music producer or DJ before ever in my life... So when I saw this female presence twisting knobs, carrying a bunch of gear on and off the stage, looping with a loop pedal and singing into a microphone with a lot of different pieces of gear… I was definitely intrigued and I thought [that] this is something that I wanna learn more about and I could see myself doing that... [It] made me want to move from dance into music, but bring dance along with me.”
After this concert, PENNYWILD wasn’t quite sure what to do with this newfound inspiration. It’s one thing to attend a show and be inspired, but it’s a separate challenge to take that inspiration and use it to actively find one’s footing within music, especially without having had a strong previous desire to make music. The process of turning this inspiration to action seemed “elusive” for the, then, budding producer. “I was a bit confused at the jump,” she describes. “I was so overwhelmed by what I was seeing that I didn't quite even know what it was.” Knowing that she wanted to explore music production, but not yet understanding how, PENNYWILD did what most millennials do when searching for guidance - she asked the internet.
“I did a big crowd source and saw who of my friends knew how to DJ. I think I posted a Facebook status like, ‘Hey, I'm learning, I'm looking to get into this. If anybody has any gear that they're selling that I could use to start practicing, [let me know.]’ It was with this inquiry as well as a 3 month DJ course that PENNYWILD was thrust into the world of production, a world she admittedly still finds to be similarly as elusive as when she first started. “To be honest, I would say that I feel about 20% fluent in music production and it's something I do full time. It’s definitely something that's ever changing and it’s just so expansive... It’s something that I don't think I'll ever have a full grasp on, but that's what's so cool about it. You have the world at your fingertips.” She takes on the challenges of production with the eagerness of a forever student of the craft, constantly finding ways to learn.
Describing PENNYWILD’s exploration of music production is less of a conversation about a dancer becoming a producer, and more of a conversation about an artist augmenting her ability to creatively express herself through different mediums. At her core, PENNYWILD is a storyteller. Having been accustomed to storytelling through the world of dance, she uses her knowledge and creativity within that medium to teach herself how to tell stories through production. When asked about how she overcomes creative blocks, PENNYWILD describes a sort of call and response between herself as a person, a dancer, and a producer. A feeling or story informs a piece of musical production which informs movement, and the cycle continues until the song is complete. Describing this process in her own words, PENNYWILD states, “Since I’m very much learning as I go, I try to make it as accessible for myself as possible by jumping in at the access point that's easiest for me. So sometimes if I'm in a writing rut and I don't know what vocals to lay down, I'll put on what I've got so far, and I'll dance around to it and choreograph to it. [I’ll] see what my body responds to and fill the void in that way…I don't really know how to write a song,” she admits. “So I'm gonna teach myself how to write the song in the other way that I know how to make art, which is with my body. I'm gonna use my body as a guide and as a compass to fill in the blanks.”
Like many during the start of the pandemic, PENNYWILD began to feel a loss of creativity, experiencing the low lows of self doubt and lack of self assurance, despite using any and all tools at her disposal to push past creative blocks. That was, until she stumbled upon famed creativity workbook, “The Artist’s Way” by Julia Cameron, which helped her uncover hard truths about how she felt as an artist.
“I had released an EP, but…I felt like I didn't have permission to continue making music and that it wasn't something that I was good enough at… So I kind of like hung up the towel and I would've stopped making music after one project, but I found that it was still deeply embedded in me that I wanted to get better at music…Through the series of exercises that the book makes you do, I was able to find creativity again. And it started really slow. It started with journaling, getting out ideas. And then that turned into booking studio time, which turned into interviewing a bunch of friends to assign characters to, and that turned into to just hours and hours and hours of producing and sessions. And now [I’m] on the other side of it…I'm on this ride as an artist that I'm not gonna get off. I'm just gonna keep going for better or for worse.”
It is with this newfound sense of purpose that PENNYWILD continues to creative narrative driven house music. “There's a story. And there aren't necessarily characters that you can name and there aren't specific quotes that you can assign, but there's definitely vignettes that go on as you're listening to the audio. That was something that I really wanted to convey.” Listeners can feel the vibrance of her of these stories on her newest EP, Night People released in 2021. Tracks like “GET READY” and “SIDE STREETS” are sure to get people on the dancefloor.
PENNYWILD is also finding ways to fuel her creativity and champion listeners of all identities. As for her 2022 plans, PENNYWILD intends on releasing an intentional series of singles. “Instead of a larger project, I'm gonna be releasing a lot of one off content for multitude of reasons, but mostly because I haven't done that yet,” she states, always searching for ways to challenge herself. She then expresses excitement about returning to live music. “[I want to create] a safe space [for fans] to come and express themselves and a place to celebrate the qualities of themselves that aren't necessarily celebrated in real life. I really strive to promote individuality and authenticity and I just like everybody to have a good time and leave it all out on the dance floor…They can also expect some visual entertainment. So while they'll be able to dance around they'll also see some dancing and some more like refined choreographed movement that maybe would inspire them to explore their own bodies.” And who knows? Maybe a young dancer and choreographer will have their big catalyst moment at a PENNYWILD show and be inspired to blend the worlds of dance and music production, just like her.
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