Brittney Elizabeth

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Brittney Elizabeth Biography

I’ve got stacks of books filled with dreams, but they collect dust on my shelf. - Brittney Elizabeth, “Don’t Let Me Let Me Down”

Many a dream may be laying dormant in waiting, but for Brittney Elizabeth, being a recording artist on the brink of stardom is not one of them. The 20-year-old singer/songwriter is poised to take the music world’s breath away with her debut album, Breath In, a heartfelt collection of tunes documenting a young woman’s introspective look back on the heartbreaking journey of first love. It’s a well-worn path covered in song, though rarely with the purity of voice and confidence of an artist confessing she’s still not ready to exhale.

“All the songs are about the same person,” confides Brittney. “We met in math class, started dating for like ever, and are still best friends now. We have this on again off again relationship thing that we sort of decided upon and I have no idea why,” she says with a laugh – now.

Brittney began songwriting at 17 years, as journal entries evolved into poetry and metered prose. It was a natural evolution for the Arizona teen who had been singing other people’s words since the age of 5, belting away Patti Smith and Sarah MacLachlan songs while buckled into the rear car seat. Noticing her child’s natural gift for carrying a tune and making up her own words as she sang along, Brittney’s mother signed her up for voice lessons with a local teacher. She began professional voice classes, which expanded to include guitar lessons, acting classes and roles in community theater musicals. For a brief time she took piano lessons, though restless to remain still, Brittney settled for having a natural talent for playing by ear. While in public high school, she sang in the school’s choir but found the choral music at odds with her personal taste in music.

“For a period, I went through a really ‘uncool’ phase in music,” recounts Brittney. “My cousin said I couldn’t listen to that stuff anymore or I’d need therapy. So she made me a mixed tape that included acts like Dashboard Confessional and The Ataris who I immediately fell in love with. Suddenly I wanted to be this happy punk princess and had to learn guitar.”

The pop punk band The Ataris in many ways was a return to her earliest introduction to sound – Patti Smith. The legendary queen of punk rock was a rebellious poet and iconoclast, who crafted empowering songs with a raw and confessional tone. Unbeknownst to Brittney, Smith’s spirit had left an impression in her still-developing brain as a child. And like a dormant memory awaken, the subconscious inspiration surfaced during a summer music camp when she wrote her first song.

“I attended a singing camp in California,” remembers Brittney. “Rob Seals, who would be one of my co-writers, was teaching a class on songwriting. Within like 10 minutes, I wrote my first song. All these feels came rushing over me, it was amazing.”

Songwriting became Brittney’s escape from the constraints and growing pains of life in suburbia. By day she played nice in the school zone, continuing with the choir and attending the required classes for graduation, then at night she seized control of her world, reserving her deepest truths for poems and songs. And though her taste in music continued to change, with singer/songwriters like Damien Rice and Bright Eye's Connor Oberst (she named a song after the group) now commanding her CD player, Brittney voraciously jotted down her every thought and whim. A multi-tasker by nature, she’s a hazard on the road with her composition book lying in the front passenger seat, waiting to be brought to the steering wheel the instance a lyric pops into her head. By the time she completed high school, the teen had written over a hundred songs, most concerning her favorite topic of love.

“What I live for is love and even though it hasn’t worked out for me, for us, I’m just glad I got to experience it,” says Brittney. “Whether it’s happy or sad it is what gives me life. I completely believe in soul mates and finding that one person. I know that I’m not alone in believing this.”

With Breath In completed, Brittney Elizabeth can finally exhale and dust off a couple of the books of dreams on the shelf, for at least one has become a reality. As she prepares for the next chapter in her undying search for a soul mate, fortunately for us, she has her composition book at her side to take us all on the journey.

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