Music
Bettina BCB didn't plan to write a love song, but then again, music has always come naturally for her.
"It happened quite accidentally," she says of the song, “Yours.” "I was just in my feelings, feeling cute about my relationship, and the chorus just came so organically."
That ease didn't come from nowhere. It came from writing 140 other songs.
Bettina — short for "British crybaby" — left the United Kingdom for the Los Angeles Academy for Artists and Music Production, known as LAAMP. The intensive program was founded by production duo Tor Erik Hermansen and Mikkel Eriksen, better known as Stargate. The two have credits on songs like Rihanna's "Don't Stop The Music" and Katy Perry's "Firework."
LAAMP students were expected to write roughly one song per week, Bettina says.
"Technically most people don't leave with 140 songs. I kind of took the ball and ran with it," she says. "Especially coming from out of the country to go to the program, I really wanted to make the most of it. I was just in the studio every day until closing, making extra songs with other people and working on developing my artist project."
Students shared their work on stage in front of mentors, including Hermansen.
"He’ll give you feedback and, honestly, mostly rip your song to shreds and tell you what tiny piece to keep," Bettina says. "Then you do it again the next week and get better and better."
That process sharpened how she uses her studio time today. Bettina starts every session by assessing the energy of the day. Who’s in the studio and what the general vibe is influences what music can be made well.
“You don't know what other people are going to be dealing with or feeling,” Bettina say.
Once the emotional foundation has been laid, production, melodies, and lyrics follow — typically in that order. But just because lyrics are last doesn’t make them the least important.
"They're actually probably most important," Bettina says. "It's just that I like to have all the pieces in place so that I can give my full attention to each section as it comes up in the journey."
"Yours" may be the first love song in Bettina’s discography, but she says it took her no longer than an hour to write and demo it.
“When things come quickly to me, it means that they're coming quite naturally. I will edit and redraft stuff sometimes, but I feel like usually if I have to write it six times, it's probably just not that good to begin with,” Bettina says.
She'd always found love songs a little corny to write herself, even if she appreciated them from other artists. "Yours" was the first time one felt true to where she actually was.
For Bettina, the definition of success is simpler than most might expect.
“In some ways, I'm already successful because I already got to move across the world and do music full time and make it with my friends every single day, which is really why I do this,” Bettina says.
But, she says, a Grammy wouldn’t hurt either.
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