Sky’s the limit with songwriting
Musicians and artists often start their careers very young to gain as much experience in the field as they can. Such is the case for Diamond Bar High School junior Jolleen Mejia, who recently made her debut as a singer and songwriter with “Cotton Candy Sky.”
With the quarantine giving students additional free time, Mejia made use of it to begin writing her song. The entire process of writing the lyrics and finding chord progressions to make the melody took her a month.
“ ‘Cotton Candy Sky’ is a general song, about a specific feeling,” Mejia said via Instagram.
Mejia said that the song is a way to let all of her conflicting emotions regarding COVID-19 and quarantine out. She uses “cotton candy skies” as a metaphor for how quickly the beauty of life was taken from everyone when COVID hit.
“Just like beautiful sunsets, beautiful moments in time can pass away as quickly as they appeared,” Mejia said.
In writing the song, Mejia said that she intended for the message of the song to be open to interpretation, knowing that every listener would find personal ways to relate it to their own experiences.
“The whole point of writing the song is to be able to help people feel less alone,” Mejia said. “At least this song . . . may be somewhat familiar to people because they can find a way to relate it to what they’re going through.”
Mejia said that she has always been in love with music. Whether singing for others, playing instruments or covering other’s songs, Mejia has been around music for most of her life. She uses Youtube and Instagram to promote most of her work. Her song “Cotton Candy Sky” is also available on all major music streaming platforms and social media platforms, such as Spotify and TikTok.
Mejia also directed, produced and edited a music video to go along with the song.
“I wanted to film a music video so that I would have an excuse to go out and frolic under pretty sunsets and also give people a visual of what I am singing about,” Mejia said.
She said that she recorded the music video with the help of her mother at two different locations to depict what she was singing: how you could have a beautiful sunset in one moment, and have it disappear in the next.
“While editing my music video I made sure to have the visuals match the tempo of the song… during a more upbeat part of the song, I would have the video clips switch from one to the other quickly, but during the slower part of the song, I would have one video clip for a longer duration,” Mejia said.
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