J-14 is scouting out the hottest music around... and this week's pick is Liana Conway!
Here are five things you need to know about Liana Conway whose debut album Sunrise is out this June!
1. 22-year-old Liana Conway never planned on being a singer -- and says it was an accident! At age 16, she picked up a guitar, taught herself how to play, and used her poetry to make songs. When she met a producer randomly and he heard her music, she didn't know how to react. "I was mortified," Liana tells J-14. "I had only ever shown them to my parents a couple of times and my best friend, so I was pretty mortified." In the summer of 2010, she put out her first demo and started working on her debut album which is out this June.
2. Liana best describes her debut album Sunrise as "all over the place," which is also how she chooses to describe herself. "This is the whole nine yards. It's about breakups, it's about falling in love, it's about having a crush on somebody that every weird quirky thing that they do you just think is so adorable," She tells J-14. "And then there's really heartbreaking songs, and 'I Could Have Loved You' is about wishing that a friend could have been more but it just never worked out."
3. The pop singer-songwriter's father came up with the album's name during a time when Liana was leaving school and starting a new chapter in her life. "It wasn't really the normal path of a girl my age and I just really thought I could think of it as the end of an era or the beginning of a new one," Liana says. "And so when he said 'Sunrise' I said that's it."
4. One of Liana's favorite songs off the album is called "I Like You". "It's actually about this boy that worked at a coffee shop, or I think he still works there by my house at home in Boston, and I just always had the biggest crush on him," She tells J-14. "He was really goofy but he just always made me laugh and so I use to stop there because it was on my way to school and more and more I started stopping there for him and not the coffee. He had no idea I had a crush on him and it was kind of like my little secret and I never got the chance to tell him, but now he'll know."
5. Liana, who is getting ready to gear up for her first official tour where she'll be performing at high schools throughout the nation, credits artists such as country queen Taylor Swift, Ryan Adams, and even some classic artists such as The Beatles and The Temptations as her musical inspirations.
Check out the music video for Liana's single "Beautiful Day" off her debut album below and let us know what you think!
Photo: Courtesy of Nicole Mazza/J14
