We spoke to the Iowa senior selected to open for Daya
Abby Sevcik was left disappointed when Daya cancelled at the last minute due to illness
Opener for Daya’s cancelled show gave us an exclusive interview
Local artist Abby Sevcik was set to open for Daya’s Iowa City show at the Blue Moose, before Daya cancelled due to illness.
The show is set to reschedule, so don’t worry fans, you’ll still get to see Abby perform.
Abby has worked and wrote songs with big artists like Mark Bryan from Hootie and the Blowfish, the manager of Hot Chelle Rae, and met the band Delta Rae after they noticed a cover video Abby and her friends produced.
Formerly from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, 21-year-old Abby is about to complete her senior year as a Communications major.
You’ve probably seen Abby perform national anthems at Iowa basketball games and little 2-3 hour gigs at local Iowa City places like High Ground Cafe and Trumpet Blossom.
At the age of seven, Abby began her musical journey. She started by plunking out songs on her play piano that she heard on the radio. Since then, there’s no stopping her. Once she was put into piano lessons, Abby began writing her own music at eleven years old. She’s kept with it ever since then.
Abby began her college career in Nashville, Tennessee at Belmont University. After two years at Belmont she made a huge decision to transfer to The University of Iowa.
What made you leave Nashville and return to Iowa?
It was really expensive and I think I was at a point where I was trying to figure out what kind of style I was doing with my music.
What I want to be doing doesn’t include me being the powerhouse voice or star piano player, or even the super intelligent song writer, I think that what I’m doing is all three of those at a lower level, which works best for me.
The dad and the manager of Hot Chelle Rae gave me a lot of advice when I was trying to decide whether to stay in Nashville or come to Iowa and pursue a degree. I love Nashville and I’ll go back and visit, but my education is really important to me.
How do you balance music with other obligations?
I’m in Kappa Alpha Theta, I’m a worship leader at my church in Cedar Rapids, and besides that I just have a cute little job at the campus library. It’s not terribly hard to balance school, work, and all my other activities, but I feel like when things happen, they all happen at once. Right now this Daya show coming up and recording a lot of music has taken up most of my time.
How do you feel about opening for Daya?
It’s been awhile that I’ve been able to perform in this capacity, just sitting behind a piano and playing slow songs, but I think I’m more excited for this gig than usual.
How did this gig fall into your lap?
SCOPE, the on campus organization apparently sent my music to her agent and she showed it to Daya herself and she liked it. They were trying to decide if they wanted a DJ or live music, and they ended up really liking my music and picked me to open.
Brett Stogsdill, the creator of Mielo was previously interviewed by The Tab and featured a song you two collaborated on. Do you work together often?
I’ve worked with Mielo a little bit. Both of our schedules are crazy because he’s DJ-ing and I’m trying to do little coffee cop gigs here and there. The song we did together was a really cool collaboration, but I think we’re both doing different things. We will probably do a couple more songs but I’m trying to do more Indie Pop opposed to EDM and finding a cross roads for that has been a little difficult.
Do you plan on making a CD, or have you already?
I have an EP on iTunes and Spotify that was released in 2013 and recorded in Nashville. It’s called “For Keeps,” but an album probably won’t happen until the end of this year beginning of next.
What are your plans for after school?
I have an event planning job lined up in Washington D.C. with a company I interned with last summer. They were able to plug me with in a lot of different music acts and I was able to meet Mark Bryan from Hootie and the Blowfish and we wrote songs together.
You can find Abby on Facebook at Abby Sevcik Music, or Twitter and Instagram as abbysev. Also, her songs are on Soundcloud, Spotify, and her EP is on iTunes. Abby’s new music will be coming out on iTunes, so keep an eye out for new songs and an up-and-coming website.