I have been doing this for a very long time.
“I honestly had the freedom to figure out what felt right for me,” she says.
It was not a conscious thing.
“I can sound like me, and that’s good enough — that’s punk, that’s rock, that’s fire,” says Willow Smith.Credit: Dana Trippe
What do I want?'
I had to figure it out all over again."
But, she clarifies, “I definitely feel like the voice itself is an instrument.
I just, during that time, felt like it wasn’t enough and sometimes I still do.”
Free spirit
Smith notes that singing is one of the most freeing things she does.
But it comes with challenges.
“It can be very frightening because my voice reflects all of my emotions,” she explains.
“If I’m having anxiety, or any negative emotion, my voice will reflect it.
And I can’t help it.
I can’t not do that.
So that’s definitely a blessing and a curse.
Smith notes that developing her voice has also allowed her a window into her own life.
“It’s very hard to explain, but it’s very real.”
My aim is always spiritual with my music.”
“The kind of growling she was doing, it just seemed impossible.”
They know who they are, they know what they do well, and they kill it every time.
So [there’s] definitely huge, huge lessons there."
“And that was crazy to me.
I just didn’t understand that.
I thought that was ridiculous.”
Staying firm in her identity, despite the naysayers, brought new purpose to her work.
Those were the only two women that I could look up to in that way.
