Los Angeles-based songwriter and debut children’s book author, Hillary Reynolds, spoke with us about navigating life as an artist and mother, her influences growing up and some of her favorite things to do in L.A.
Congratulations on your debut album and first children’s book! Can you tell us about them?
The book is called “Send My Love” – my dear friend, Katherine Biskupic co-authored this children’s book with me. We are both originally from Wisconsin. We live out in L.A. now and are both expecting babies a month apart next spring! “Send My Love” explores the many faces and forms of love – how we see it, smell it, absorb it, dream and manifest it. This book has been a labor of love over the last 4 years. Our illustrator, Hannah Ribbens and publisher, Orange Hat, are also from Wisconsin. This fall, we toured many elementary schools to celebrate its release and deliver kid-centered workshops led by Katherine who is a certified Social Emotional Arts facilitator as well as featuring live children’s music, by me. They have all been incredible and we hope to do more in the L.A. area! We’re also touched to discover that regardless of age, grandparents are buying and sending this book to their grandchildren if they live far away, and parents are sending their kids to college with a copy.
My album, “Changing Seasons,” was in the works for 8 years. Making this album has become quite the time capsule from recording to releasing this last summer. I wrote and recorded most of it up in Sacramento with my producer, Benjamin Kopf. What started as 28 songs, became whittled down to 8. We settled into creating a morning album and a companion for soft, quiet moments – an 8-track offering to lower your blood pressure. If Beatrix Potter or Jane Austen ever made an album, I’d like to think it would sound similar to “Changing Seasons.”
I was in the middle of my first trimester with my second child when this album was released – the nausea and fatigue were peak when I was doing festivals and shows this last summer. In hindsight, it’s kinda funny how that turned out, but at the time, summoning the stamina was my Everest.
Did you have a mentor growing up? And what role did that person play in your life and in your career as a folk artist?
This may seem long winded, but I really couldn’t pick one. I am lucky to have had a few mentors growing up in Wisconsin, one was my aunt Marci. She writes songs, initially inspiring me to write my own, runs a band and now also runs an arts board and nonprofit organization centered around engaging kids in the rural community of Waupaca in the arts! She always pushes me to keep learning and be of service to the music. My high school orchestra teacher, Gary Wolfman also mentored me, pushing me musically. I played viola and he advocated for me to be part of the regional Youth Symphony and featured me as a vocalist for various pieces and arrangements at concerts accompanied by the school orchestra and band over the years. Most importantly, he invited me to arrange one of my own songs for one of our orchestra concerts, blending the singer/songwriter genre in a pops format. At the time, I had never heard of such a thing. It was a huge challenge, but it opened my mind and became a milestone in fusing the classical/pop sides of me together. And finally, Karen Bruno, former Lawrence Academy Girl Choir Director, and conductor of Bel Canto choir. She helped me and hundreds of other women find our voices. She taught me how to have confidence in my voice and opinions.
You have one child and another the way—congratulations! How has parenthood changed you? How do you think having two little ones will change you and your art?
Having a child has created a ton of clarity in my life and has also made me quite realistic about time management. I’m very selective about the sessions I do for other artists, and calculated about the shows/tours I partake in. Becoming a parent has been meeting challenge after challenge and learning how to advocate for the needs of my son, my family and myself. Now that my son is 3 years old, I finally feel like we’ve found a rhythm and a balance to personal and professional life, which is going to be completely rewritten and rebuilt once we bring our little girl into the world this coming spring. That said, I am enjoying the peace now, embracing the nesting and the holidays, knowing full-well that there’s going to be chaos to embrace next year. I think my voice has changed since becoming a parent. I daresay there’s a hint of wisdom in it from being humbled by public toddler tantrums, getting peed on, pooped on, etc… The messiness of life has only made me more human and my art more honest.
What is the best life advice you received growing up? Best advice on parenting you’ve received?
1. Parenthood is never a fixed point – it’s ever changing.
2. It may sound silly, but I think the best advice I’ve ever received is probably from watching an episode of “Bluey” called Baby Race. The takeaway: It can be so easy to compare your child’s development with other children – reaching milestones can become an internal competition. When are they smiling? How long did you breast feed for? When are they crawling, walking, talking? I think every parent is susceptible to that way of thinking and the truth is, that anxiety and anticipation totally takes, you out of the gift of actually watching your child grow up. Whenever I notice myself doing that I say, “baby race.”
3. Language matters: for the first 5 months, I’m embarrassed to say that I had a habit of saying my husband was going to “babysit” our kid so I could get some errands done…my doula would gently remind me repeatedly that he was watching his child and that he’s not a babysitter.
When not working, where will we find you?
These days, I’m in my garden, walking, re-watching “The Lord of The Rings” or “True Crime” docs/cult docs (I don’t know why, but I’ve had a strange fascination with them for both pregnancies.) Facetiming with family back in Wisconsin, picking up toys in random places around the house, having friends over, or waddling after my 3-year-old at the park.
What are some of your favorite spots and activities in and around L.A.?
As a family, we love getting breakfast together – anywhere with good pancakes! We love hiking Fryman Canyon, walking around the Silver Lake reservoir, and the Kidspace Children’s Museum in Pasadena. I love The Hotel Café Monday, Monday songwriter series and solo trips to The Getty. At least once a year, I’ll get dressed up and take myself on a date to The Getty for lunch and then hightail it to the Impressionist Gallery, while listening to the “Pride and Prejudice” (2005) soundtrack. We also host house shows in our backyard! We invite a variety of artists to come out for an evening of poetry, music, storytellers, burlesque, stand-up all hosted by comedy duo, Pure and Weary – building community and bringing people together has always brought me a deep sense of purpose.
