This is an interview done with Lindsay Liebro, read her story below! If you, or anyone you know, would like to be highlighted in The Zillennial Zine, shoot us an email at thezillennialzine@gmail.com or DM us on Instagram!

Tell us your story! Where did you begin and how did you reach the caliber you’re currently at?

I grew up in a small suburb near Pittsburgh, PA, and the first song I ever fell in love with was “Since U Been Gone” by Kelly Clarkson. I’m pretty sure I discovered it on one of those Kidz Bop CDs they gave out as McDonald’s Happy Meal toys in like 2009 which is a crazy sentence. I loved that song so much. I would sit at the computer and spin around in my chair listening to it on repeat. I even taped up the lyrics on my wall and sang it at my aunt’s wedding when I was four. Clearly, I have not changed because I am still as obsessive about music as I was when I was a toddler. Pretty soon after, I discovered Taylor Swift (probably also on a McDonald’s Kidz Bop CD and/or MTV).

Immediately, she became my biggest inspiration, and I would not be the artist or songwriter I am today without her influence. When I was 7 years old, I started writing songs, but I got more serious about it the summer before my freshman year of high school. That same summer is when I started teaching myself guitar, and I finally felt like I was getting somewhere. Halfway through my sophomore year, COVID hit, and while in quarantine, I wrote incessantly. I was also going through one of the worst times of my life, having to deal with friendship breakups and a terrible unrequited crush, so I had a lot to write about. At the end of that summer, I accidentally clicked on a website I had bookmarked a while ago. It was for a local radio station in Pittsburgh, and they were having a singer-songwriter contest. I applied, just wanting to get some experience sharing my original songs for the first time. They asked me to send in a video of my song, and they broadcasted them via livestream. I didn’t even bother watching the stream because I didn’t think I was going to make it through to the next round. But then I got an email telling me I made it to the finals!

At this point, I was shocked by my luck after not expecting anything out of this. I had to submit a new song for the final livestream, and I had a hard time deciding because it felt like a lot of pressure. But one day when I was sitting in math class, one of my own songs was stuck in my head, and I took that as a sign, so I went with my gut, and sent that one in. I didn’t watch this last livestream because I was sure I wasn’t going to win, and also because I was at school for play rehearsal. I kept refreshing my phone, holding onto just a little bit of hope, but I got nothing. (The school also had notoriously bad wifi.) At the end of rehearsal, we were packing up out bags, and right as I was about to leave, my friend shows me his phone, and says, “When were you going to tell me about this?!” It was a picture of me that said “Lindsay Liebro: 1st Place Winner.” It was one of the most special moments of my life, and I am still so proud of myself for being the youngest contestant at just sixteen and writing about what felt true to me. One of my prizes for winning was that I got to get one of my songs professionally produced! I spent the next 9 months working on my song with a producer, and posted a snippet of my song on TikTok that got a lot of people excited.

A week before the song was supposed to come out, I was sitting in my 1st period AP Literature class, and I started getting a bunch of messages that said, “Release Daydream Lovers!!” Now, I had never written a song called “Daydream Lovers,” and my gut instinct was to check Twitter. Wouldn’t you have it, the first thing I see is a video with fake 1989 (Taylor’s Version) cover art, and when I turned up the volume to listen, I could hear my song playing with the audio pitched up. They claimed that my song was actually a leaked 1989 Vault track called “Daydream Lovers.” I had to break the news that it was actually MY song called “Wasted Potential.” And to my surprise, people still loved the song regardless, and it has since earned over 2.8 million streams. It was such a bizarre experience but a cool story nonetheless, and I’m just so grateful that people were able to hear my song and resonate with it.

For me, the best part about creating music is seeing people connect with it because then I know it was worth the vulnerability of sharing it, even if it just helps one person. After that song had its moment, a small indie label in Seattle reached out to me. At first, I thought it was a scam, but after many conversations, I ended up signing a deal with them at the age of 17. We made a music video, released another single, and then I worked on my debut EP. I spent a whole semester working on my EP with my amazing producer Steve Stout (Lifehouse/Øzwald), and it was so fulfilling to see the songs I wrote so many years ago finally come to life.

Currently, I am independent and very excited about the new creative freedom I will have with my upcoming releases. I spent this past summer going live on TikTok just for fun, and I ended up building the beginnings of a loyal fanbase. I just can’t believe people want to watch me sing my songs in my bedroom, and one of them even drove all the way from Ohio to see one of my small gigs in Pittsburgh. I moved to Nashville, TN for school, and I am now in my junior year at Belmont University as a Commerical Voice Major with a Songwriting Emphasis.