Priscilla Renea interview

When you move around as much as you have, being a military brat, the stereotype is that you can’t make any friends and you’re always starting over. Is that the kind of childhood you had?

It’s definitely true that when you’re a military brat you can’t keep friends. Probably the only friends that I still have currently are from high school because that’s the most recent place that I’ve been, was in Vero Beach. It’s definitely helped me learn how to adapt to any situation, which is something that you really need in this industry because you’re always being thrown into new environments.

You taught yourself piano and guitar. Which one came first?

I started playing the piano, my mom had this old 1901 upright piano that we always had in our living room for the longest, and I used to mess around on that. Then she got me lessons. So I did lessons off and on for two years because, like I said, as a military brat, it was really hard to stay consistent with one thing.
The year before last, for Christmas, my dad bought me a guitar and I started teaching myself, because you can find anything on the internet.

At what point did you decide to start putting your music out there for the world to hear?

It was toward the end of junior year. Throughout my senior year I was already putting music on MySpace and recording myself in my living room. And then YouTube came along.

So you were about seventeen and putting videos out there of yourself singing. Was that nerve racking?


No, because when you’re singing to the camera, you don’t have to see any of the people that you’re singing to. And plus I come from musical theater, so I’m definitely used to being out there and seeing faces in the crowd. But when you’re singing to the camera it’s much less personal. You don’t have to answer any questions afterwards. You just log on, sing a song, upload it, and go do something else with your life.

Not even a lot of people knew that I was doing that in high school. It was kind of like my little secret that I had. And then in college people started recognizing me, like “Oh, you do stuff on YouTube” and it kind of just snowballed into what it is now. So it’s a lot easier to sing to a camera than it is to sing into a crowd of people.

The song “Dollhouse” immediately jumps out on your album. There’s no hidden metaphor here, it’s just about a controlling boyfriend, right?

Yeah. It didn’t happen to me, actually. Everyone always asks me that. But it’s not some personal story, it’s just something that I kind of thought up. There’s no hidden metaphors in there, it’s just very direct, “I’m not a doll.”

It looks like you had some fun making the video for Dollhouse.

It was an all day shoot, very tiring but I was so excited. It was my first video and it came out amazingly. So all the hard work paid off.

This is such a cheeseball question, but I have to ask: when you were growing up, were you the type that had a dollhouse and all that?

No, actually I had a sewing machine. I sewed clothes and cooked in the kitchen, stuff like that. I never had many dolls or a dollhouse or anything like that.

It sounds like you’re having a lot of fun on this album, even when the topics are serious. Is that indicative of your personality?

I’m such a character. In my everyday life I’m a character and I can’t help it. That’s who I am, I’m goofy even when I’m trying to be serious. I like to break the ice. I hate confrontation, so I like to avoid it as much as possible. And if I can make it funny while still getting to the point and getting my point across and getting things done, then that’s what I’ll do.

A year ago you had like three hundred views on YouTube total, and now one of your videos alone has over a million. Does it feel like things are happening fast for you at this point?

It does, but at the same time, it doesn’t because I was on YouTube for two years before things happened, and now, like three years. It feels like some people do this their whole life and they don’t really get anywhere. But it seems like forever to me because I’ve wanted to do it forever, but I haven’t been in it forever. I guess I was just blessed to be around the right people at the right time, and people who had good intentions for me and my music.