Born to perform

Student Haley Greene set to release her first EP album

The Lynchburg community has heard her voice at coffee shops and local shows, but come April 16 Liberty student Haley Greene will release her first EP called “Revisiting Doors.”

As a professional musician, Greene considers herself an indie singer/songwriter, and credits her past for shaping her into the artist she is today.

Greene’s parents divorced when she was 10 years old, which led to a unique upbringing with her father.

“I grew up moving around to all different countries,” Greene said. “My dad works for the U.S. embassy, so he gets repositioned (every) two years. I was born in Hong Kong, but lived in Saudi Arabia, Mozambique, Gaum, and Ecuador.”

Having lived in many countries, Greene continues to implement a lifestyle of travel.

“I like to expand my experiences,” Greene said. “I don’t like staying in the same place. I’ve been Mexico, Australia, Germany, Switzerland, England, and the list goes on.”

Throughout her travels, Greene was drawn to music, and she wanted to be a musician in a punk rock band called the Losers. Although her sound did not fit the tempo of the punk rock band, Greene continued
with music on her own.

“In Ecuador I was a big fish in a small pond,” Greene said. “But then I came to Liberty. I noticed that there are some amazing artists here. I was never like, ‘I’m going to be a musician.’ It was just meeting new people and figuring out that people here will support you in this kind of endeavor. People really believed in you here, and that was what motivated me into taking the next step toward actually (doing) it seriously.”

Once she arrived at Liberty, Greene eased into the music world playing shows around Lynchburg and becoming a recognizable artist in the community. She began to work on her EP shortly after coming to Liberty, which was supposed to be released last year, until the suicide of her younger sister, Kristin, in October of 2014.

“It was the biggest speed bump of them all,” Greene said. “I thought (I’d) been through a lot before, but that was like nothing I’d experienced.”

After the tragic event, Greene took time off from school and spent four months soul searching in the Philippines.

“That’s when I realized I was ready to take the next step,” Greene said.

When she returned to Liberty, Greene dove straight into her music. She finished her EP and is currently working on her next release, most of which she wrote when she was in the Philippines.
Greene also became the lead vocalist for a band called Vertica, which she does as a hobby.

“I don’t have (to) do as much creative input,” Greene said. “They have the songs written, I just have to sing, which is good because I keep all my lyrics with my solo work. I know deep down I’m a solo musician.”

Greene keeps a busy schedule with her studies as a strategic communications major and work at the Ploughcroft Tea Room. She will be recording with Vertica in Nashville in two weeks, performing her solo work at Lynchstock on April 23, and will be going on tour July 7-18 to D.C., Baltimore, Boston, Nashville, Knoxville, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. More recently, Greene has been produced by Josh Etheridge, and released a single on Spotify and iTunes called “Unrequited.”

The majority of Greene’s audience consists of the community of Lynchburg, however, she plans to begin playing at Liberty to share her music with the students she has not reached yet.

RICE is a feature reporter.