When English senior Stefanie Haapala takes the stage to perform her music, she doesn’t count the number of heads in the audience or think about how big the stage is.
She thinks about the story she is telling her audience as she performs.
“It’s a really emotional experience for me, being on stage, just because these are my songs and they are my stories,” Haapala said. “When you’re performing them on stage, you kind of get transported back in a sense.”
When Haapala started singing, playing guitar, writing songs and performing, she said she never thought she was going to be performing on a regular basis.
“I was already singing and then I started playing guitar, so songwriting was kind of inevitable,” she said. “Once I figured that I could do both and do that regularly, I guess it was inevitable that I started performing, but I didn’t really know that it was going to go where it has today.”
While Haapala said her main priority is being a full-time college student, she averages about three big shows a month and plays a variety of smaller shows throughout the month depending on what is going on around the city.
Her fan base has grown drastically through the last few years and has even spread to the United Kingdom. She said while performing on a big stage is fun, she appreciates playing in smaller venues the most.
“Some of the coolest shows I’ve ever played have been in people’s living rooms, in really intimate settings where I’ve been able to talk to people afterwards and really get to know them, and kind of figure out why they’re coming out and what these songs mean to them,” Haapala said.
Playing in an intimate setting means having a close interaction with her fans, including her best friends and bandmates.
“Her lyrics are full of emotions she has had during past experiences,” professional writing senior Alison Hamilton said. “Since Stef is an English major, writing comes naturally to her.”
Dakota Peterson, jazz studies junior and Haapala’s drummer, also spoke highly of Haapala’s talent.
“Stefanie has a talent for writing really good lyrics,” Peterson said. “Her songwriting always compliments the lyrics (and) it’s raw and it shows on stage.”
Rather than focus on the surroundings of the venues she performs at, Haapala tries to focus on putting meaning in to her songs and the community aspect of being a musician.
“I’m really involved in the local music scene, and I think it’s a ridiculously cool environment,” she said. “You just get so immersed in this local scene and being able to stand on a stage and kind of be able to share a story with the people in the audience is the greatest part about it.”
Haapala said there is a responsibility as an artist to be true to herself with her songwriting.
“My music kind of hits you in the face — it is emotional and I want it to be,” Haapala said. “These are things that have happened, or are happening, and I’m going to put them into a song because I accept that they’re happening and I think that’s a really unique opportunity to have and to be able to share that with people.”
