Musicians Featured: Haley Hoffman Smith
July 20th, 2022
Cover Photo Credit: Kevin Scanlon
Haley Hoffman Smith on Connection, Self-Expression, and the Healing Power of Music
Last week, I connected with the incredibly inspirational Haley Hoffman Smith. Haley’s talents span multiple fields and have led her to massive success as a podcast host, bestselling author, and social media extraordinaire, to name a few.
Most recently, her talents have led her to the music scene. Her new single, Worth The Flight, dives into the part of a relationship where we must decide to choose ourselves instead. It has deeply resonated with listeners, who have connected with the very personal yet super relatable lyrics.
Keep reading below to learn more about Haley’s songwriting process, her thoughts on creativity and self-expression, and the healing power of music.
- Emily Weatherhead, Founder
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EW: To get started, how did you first get started with music, and how did that lead you to where you are today?
HHS: I first got started in music when I was 14 years old. I taught myself how to play guitar one night when my parents were at dinner because my dad always had guitars around. I would just write songs all the time. I ended up performing and recording several songs during my freshman year of high school.
I did a few songs in the recording studio and put together this little album that was more like an EP. It was really special and fun, but I didn’t really see a path forward with that because I was so young. At the same time, I was trying out for these really competitive choirs and I didn’t get into them, so I really suffered a blow to my musical confidence and completely stopped pursuing anything music-related.
“Worth the Flight is about an epiphany of realizing you need to give up on the hope of something that someone else could give you, and instead give it to yourself.”
This last year, one of my best friends Ankita heard me sing and saw a video of a song I’d written, because I’d never stopped writing songs. She kept trying to bribe me with Anthropologie candles to keep singing and writing songs, and I just found the joy and the spark of it again!
I wrote my song Worth the Flight in January of this year after my dad got me a piano for Christmas. I went ahead and recorded it, and I’m actually in the studio right now! It feels really good to be back in my music space.
EW: What moments in life is your music made for?
HHS: So far, the moments that my music is made for are moments of self-reflection and realization. Worth the Flight is about an epiphany of realizing you need to leave a certain situation and give up on the hope of something that someone else could give you, and instead give it to yourself.
I imagine it’s for really private moments – the hard moments where push comes to shove, and you need to let go of things that aren’t serving you. The really deep, healing phase of your life.
“That’s the power of music. It’s the universal language.”
EW: That definitely comes through. Sometimes when we’re sharing stuff that’s so personal we think that it’s something that only we have gone through, and it’s only relatable to us. Then when everyone else relates to it too, those moments are really awesome.
HHS: It’s so awesome! That’s the power of music – it’s the universal language.
EW: Getting into the community side of things, how do you think music can build community and connect us?
HHS: With music, we share things that we usually wouldn’t talk about. Especially for me, I feel like the platform I’ve built on social media is really positive and uplifting. A lot of the things that I speak about are like, “Let’s look at this from the happiest possible angle, and all of this is happening for you, not to you.” All of which I believe, but at the human root of it and at the root of my songs, it’s about sharing the messy stuff too. The really gruesome heartbreak.
I could write a song about it and it might hit home for someone else, so much so that it heals something in them. I think it points to the archetypes and rites of passage that we all go through in life. Not just about heartbreak, but true love, and the full spectrum and range of human emotions that we go through. Knowing that other people go through that just makes the world feel a bit smaller.
“Music feels like something that really flows through me. As it does, it either heals me or brings up things that I didn’t even know were there.”
EW: Would you say that music gives you a place to express yourself in a way that you might not be able to otherwise?
HHS: Absolutely. I wonder if it’s something subconscious. I think it kind of shocked people when I started sharing the songs I was writing because they’re all sad. And all of my stuff is usually so happy!
I actually had my astrology chart read for my solar return, which is coming up on my birthday. And it said that with my music, it is my subconscious working things out. So for me, it’s a complete 180 from the things that I usually post and talk about. But in its own way, I feel like that’s impactful too because it’s connecting with other people about the similar emotions that we go through.
Music feels like something that really flows through me. As it does, it either heals me or brings up things that I didn’t even know were there. With the lyrics that come out, it’s like “Wow, I didn’t even know I still felt that way.”
EW: Yeah, music really brings everything back up to the surface.
HHS: Exactly.
“For people to take those meanings the way that they need them is really gratifying…it’s doing things for other people in ways I couldn’t have strategized.”
EW: Your song Worth the Flight has resonated with so many people. How does it feel to have people connect so deeply with your words?
HHS: It’s the most amazing feeling in the entire world. Even as you said that I felt chills down my spine. When the song was coming out, I honestly felt like, “Who the heck is gonna relate to this?” I felt like there were certain lines that felt relatable, but the fact that so many of us have been through something like that – waiting on another person and then deciding to reclaim our narrative. That part’s really cool. What’s also really cool is seeing how people have taken it and applied it to their own lives, and hearing the lyrics that have stood out the most to them.
The part of the song that says, “Tell her she was worth the flight, crying myself to sleep that night, cause I am worth the flight,” is very much about the situation that I went through. But the way that other people have taken it has been around following your dreams. That’s not really what I wrote it about, but it has multiple meanings. For people to take those meanings the way that they need them is really gratifying. It’s something I was expressing and healing by myself with the piano, but it’s doing things for other people in ways I couldn’t have strategized.
EW: It’s really cool, taking this concrete life experience, and seeing how it becomes a metaphor for what other people are going through as well.
HHS: Yeah, it’s so cool!
“You never know who needs to hear exactly what you’ve been going through. You also don’t have to have it all figured out.”
EW: One of the lyrics that I really love from Worth the Flight is, “I’ve gotta leave the energy of
you not choosing me.” What’s the songwriting process like for you?
HHS: I sit down, and it just comes to me. That’s honestly the truth. I’ll usually film myself when I’m playing the piano and singing, because sometimes I’ll sing things and then completely forget what I sang, or I’ll really like how I sang something. And then I’ll keep my laptop by me and just jot down the lyrics as they come to me.
I tend to write the first verse, the chorus, and the beginning of the second verse all in one sitting, and it tends to come to me pretty quickly. And then honestly the rest of the song is the harder part. Then I have to come back to the piano or guitar multiple times and see what comes.
With the chorus of Worth the Flight, I sat down and wrote the first verse, and then I had to get ready for something. So I was in my bathroom doing my makeup, and that’s when I heard the “How could you not see the plot I’d so carefully laid out in my head” part. And so, I had to grab my phone and my Voice Memos app. I was thinking, “Oh my gosh, I gotta capture this!”
“The cool thing with music is that it’s just who you are, where you are in this present moment. And that in itself can be healing and can be enough.”
EW: You have such an inspirational presence. Do you have any advice for anyone who might be nervous about sharing their music?
HHS: I would say that you never know who needs to hear exactly what you’ve been going through. You also don’t have to have it all figured out. When I’m making a TikTok or a post on social media, I almost feel like I can’t post about what I’m going through unless I find a really clear message, or something comforting. I have to have the resolution.
The cool thing with music is that it’s just who you are, where you are, in this present moment. And that in itself can be healing and can be enough. So if you’re feeling called to it, especially if the music’s coming to you and you’re getting lost in it, that means something energetically. If it’s doing that for you, it can definitely do that for other people.
EW: It’s really amazing when just sharing your music can become this kind of selfless act.
HHS: It’s so cool, because it also can feel very selfish to me too. Like, “Let me share about my problems and my perspective.” But that’s why I’m so grateful that my music has had an impact on others. I hope it continues to.
“Expressing music and listening to music is a form of therapy.”
EW: To close things out, do you have any final thoughts on the importance of making music accessible to communities?
HHS: I’d say it’s definitely a form of therapy. I don’t know the specifics of that, but I have heard that expressing music and listening to music is a form of therapy. I’ve felt that too, when you get into that flow state. Also, access to education and resources is important. I acknowledge my privilege – I was able to get a guitar and a piano. I’m able to go into a studio and hire a producer. That has really given my dreams wings, to go back to a Worth the Flight reference! I imagine that might make all the difference to someone who doesn’t have that – to how they’re processing their emotions, the things that they’re going through, and the art that they’re supposed to put out into the world.
EW: Is there anything else you’d like to share about what’s coming up next for you?
HHS: Yes! Worth the Flight Acoustic comes out next month. My next single is called Anymore, and that will come out probably in September. I’m really excited about all of it. I’m in the studio for 12 hours this week, which I’m proud of! More and more is coming.
