Q&A: Savanna Leigh Walks the Emotional Line in New Single “tightrope”
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY KIMBERLY KAPELA ☆
Photo Credit: Brooke Jennings
AT HER EMOTIONALLY EXPOSED YET — Nashville-based singer-songwriter Savanna Leigh bares her soul on her stirring new single, “tightrope”— a delicate meditation on ending a once-close friendship. But “tightrope” isn’t just about the pain, but what emerges in the aftermath. As the song crescendos, so does Leigh’s emotional clarity.
“Tightrope” captures the disorienting experience of growing apart from someone who once felt like home. “It made me question whether the bond was ever truly mutual,” Leigh says. “I experienced an aching feeling because it felt like I was being left behind by someone who seemed to have moved on effortlessly.”
Unlike previous songs where emotion was filtered through more intentional structure, “tightrope” came to Leigh with an urgency she couldn’t ignore.
“There was an element of not overthinking,” she says. “I think when you're writing a song and you're trying really hard to sit down with a plan of what you want to say, it can muddy the waters and get you in your head. I feel like in this song, I was almost too emotionally charged to basically overthink it. I feel like it came out very easily and naturally and that was something that was really nice when you feel like you tap into that despite the difficulty of it. It was an energy thing.”
Written from the wreckage of a fractured friendship, “tightrope” explores themes of abandonment, betrayal, and the lingering pain of being made to feel disposable. Leigh’s lyricism is sharp yet tender, full of introspective lines. The haunting feeling of losing someone who once knew you best—without ever getting closure—sits at the core of the song.
“This song is particularly special to me as it has taken me to a new place that I haven’t gone with my more emotionally-charged songs in the past,” Leigh says.
With “tightrope,” Leigh is unafraid to explore emotional gray areas, telling stories with honesty, vulnerability and strength. It's a powerful reminder of the bonds that shape us, and the heartbreak of watching them fall away.
Photo Credit: Brooke Jennings
LUNA: Thank you for talking to Luna. Our readers would love to get to know you and your music more. For any readers who aren’t familiar with you yet, what inspires your artistic style and sound?
SAVANNA: I think a lot of different things inspire it in general. I grew up listening to country music, and I always naturally loved pop in terms of just the way that my vocals naturally sounded, and just other artists that I was also really excited about when I was a kid. I really wanted to find a way to combine the storytelling aspect of country music and my writing, and write from a super vulnerable and honest place, and pretty much everything I write comes from personal experience, but then also find a way to incorporate pop elements into things. I think that's just where I naturally gravitated towards, in terms of just being a fan of music and just loving that side of the music world. I find a blend between the two, especially in production as well, just having organic instruments used and letting the lyrics be at the forefront of everything.
LUNA: What is the inspiration behind your newest single “tightrope” and what themes and emotions do you explore?
SAVANNA: That one's definitely one of the most personal ones I've probably written and put out. It's a song that came from the loss of a best friend in terms of the best friend breakup and not being able to reconcile on the relationship changing in such a quick way. I think friendships are very fragile in reality. Sometimes, when you've known someone for a really long time, or have developed a family-centered friendship where you would consider them a brother or sister. You put them on a pedestal in terms of how close you really feel to them and the strength of the friendship. But in reality, like I said, I think friendships are fragile, and people are imperfect and things can change very quickly. In my case, that happened with that person. It’s a song reflecting on that relationship and the nuances of it, and how long we've been friends, but then how quickly we turn into strangers and the sadness of it. It was a song about grieving it and reflecting on it.
LUNA: “Tightrope” is such a raw and emotionally charged song. How did the song evolve from its initial idea to the final version? What did that songwriting and recording session look like?
SAVANNA: The initial idea came from me writing it in my room. I write a lot of music in my bedroom. That song specifically, I thought I would finish fully on my own, just because I would start it, come up with a piece of it, do voice memos, and then have to step away. It was just a very hard song to write, and I couldn't really just do it all in one sitting. I got to a place where I had all the verses done, the bridge done, all the things, but I still hadn't figured out what the chorus was going to be. That was the part that I felt the most trapped with, and didn't know exactly what to say.
I felt overwhelmed by the emotions and the process of making it. I reached out to a good friend of mine. Her name's Fran and she's a writer based in Nashville. She's someone I've always been able to open up to and have a safe space to write really hard things. I went over there and we finished it. We did a quick demo of a guitar and vocal piano demo. Once I decided it was going to be on this upcoming project, I went to my producer, Matt, and gave him my inspiration behind it and told him what artists and what songs I wanted to try to use elements of to build the song up and make it a little bit different than maybe what you would traditionally think of have.
LUNA: You mentioned “tightrope” took you to a new emotional depth in your writing. What felt different in the songwriting process this time around?
SAVANNA: There was an element of not overthinking. I was feeling a lot of emotions. I think when you're writing a song and you're trying really hard to sit down with a plan of what you want to say, it can muddy the waters and get you in your head. I feel like in this song, I was almost too emotionally charged to basically overthink it. I feel like it came out very easily and naturally and that was something that was really nice when you feel like you tap into that despite the difficulty of it. It was an energy thing. I felt very connected to myself in that moment emotionally, which is something that doesn't really happen to me very often as someone who struggles to be in touch with my feelings by nature.
LUNA: What’s the most cathartic part of songwriting for you—getting the emotions out, or shaping them into something listeners can connect to?
SAVANNA: I think it's just the best way for me to know and process myself and my internal world. I'm someone who's very big on being self aware and learning about myself and my personality and the patterns of behavior that I have. I'm someone that's really interested in psychology and human behavior, but I think I'm really good at intellectualizing everything versus fully emoting and getting in touch with that side of myself. Music is the one way that I'm able to do that. It's very motivating to kind of come out on the other side of a hard situation or a hard feeling with something that you can be proud of just knowing that you're making music that can impact people in whatever way that they are impacted. I think the idea of making songs that are honest and made me think deeper is, hopefully, the goal is to make people feel like they have to think a little bit deeper, like they have to get in touch with something that maybe they had been pushing away or are not super aware of. Music's really powerful. I want my artist project to be able to bring people into that as well, as much as music has done that for me.
LUNA: What’s your favorite way to unwind after a heavy songwriting session?
SAVANNA: Hanging out with a good friend, or watching TV and watching one of my favorite shows. I guess not really sulking in it is important. Surrounding myself with people that I love hanging out with, whether it's a friend or my sister or just someone that can bring me back out of that space. Once you're in that space, it's difficult to come out of it. I love going on walks and moving as well.
LUNA: What’s fueling your fire right now—musically or personally—that’s pushing you into this next chapter?
SAVANNA: I think the people that I've gotten to play for. Being on tour this year, last year is like something that, yeah, excites me and kind of reminds me why I'm doing this. Anytime I get to play a show or meet someone, or just see the music come to life in a real way, it definitely motivates me to write more and get deeper in touch with the story I want to tell in the community that I'm really trying to build and make sure I'm making music that feels authentic to me, but also something that people can gravitate toward and feel like they're a part of a community. I think that's the biggest part that excites me about music is just the community aspect of it, and what you're able to do with your music.
LUNA: How do you want your music to live in someone’s life—soundtracking a healing moment, a late-night drive, or something else?
SAVANNA: I would love for it to be a soundtrack to their general experience. I like a lot of music that’s a variety of topics and different things. It's not all themed in one way. In the past, I had a lot of relationship songs, but I think over the last few years, it's been songs about self reflection, family and friendship. I do try to always have a coastal energy to my music, because I'm from Florida, and I grew up going to the beach, and that was just a big part of my life and still is. I always try to have some coastal feel to the music. I want my listeners to feel like they can go to my catalog and and pull any song at whatever time they're needing it.
LUNA: How are you feeling in this current era of your career and what does the rest of the year look like that you would like to share with Luna?
SAVANNA: I think this current era feels a little bit messy and not necessarily in a bad way, but I think it's just a very pivotal year, and there's been a lot of growth, and then there's been a lot of ups, and obviously a lot of downs as well. That's just a part of the job. I really made a lot of this music last year that I'm now currently releasing to touch on the messiness of of this job, and also your twenties, and just feeling like you don't really know where you're going, but you're also excited about that, and being okay with letting go of control a little bit. I'm in that space right now my career, just trusting in the process and in myself and in the team of people that are behind me. I’m working as hard as I can to be as successful as possible, and have this be something I can do for a really long time. I think what's next is just more music, of course, and hopefully a tour in the fall would be the dream.
