“What do you really want to be?” is a question that Ness Heads felt discouraged by when she expressed her passion for becoming a musician. She grew up singing in church, playing instruments, and surrounding her life in music, making it the easy choice for her future. However, it took her until three years ago to go all-in on her craft.

“Finally, I kind of got fed up with my life,” she shared. “I was going through an awful breakup, I was in a job I was just miserable in, [and] I was like itching to go work on music.” She decided to pursue what she loves, do what she enjoys, and take that leap. Because of this, she changed her life around to make it all focused on music and figuratively took herself to “music school,” which she created on her own to teach herself how to be a great artist.

“I started doing writing lessons with myself, voice lessons, and like everything you can think of when it comes to [being] an artist,” Ness Heads explained. She would choose different musicians and direct attention to the writing, vocals, song structure, etc. to help herself grow her music and grow as an artist. The pandemic has helped her craft as well by allowing her to focus on understanding herself musically and personally as well as giving herself an opportunity to study musicians we consider the greats.

“When I grew up my parents are both from Mexico so I didn’t really get the whole listening to oldies in America we listened to old music from Mexico,” Ness Heads said, “So when it came to understanding the greats I didn’t really have too much knowledge in that.” Her producer Drew Damen’s jaw dropped when he realized she had never listened to musicians like The Beatles. This made her decide to study albums and expand her musical knowledge.

“I usually have four in my rotation,” she shared. The albums she works on include one from a great, one from a musician who is killing it right now, one that is from her preferred-genre, alternative music, and one from an artist she doesn’t really listen to but knows is a great writer. This has allowed her to understand the legacy of Fleetwood Mac, appreciate the writing of Taylor Swift, and becoming obsessed with Joan Jett. Ness Heads finds Jett “fearless” and has really taken inspiration from her for the new single, “Brown Xanny.”

“I was just trying to teach myself with Joan Jett how she uses space so much and how she lets things breathe so at the beginning of “Brown Xanny” I was really trying to like hone in on that,” she shared. The song continued to come together as her producer Drew Damen played chords on his guitar, which allowed the melody to come about and her humming to begin. This started to spark ideas. The song process came after her ex got into a new relationship. It affected her and she used this to express her emotions at that time.

“It’s kind of like my form of therapy,” she said as she described what pursuing music does for her. She wants people to see in this next single and the songs to follow the emotion she is starting to put in the music and the growth she has experienced as a musician and in herself.

“I didn’t really like talk about my feelings or really it was just a lot of suppressing it wasn’t what our family did so going into that project was the first time letting myself feel things and like being real with myself and where I was at with my emotions,” she continues, “I want people to see the evolution of what happens when you apply yourself every day to get better.” This song puts this into fruition by sharing how she coped with an ex moving on.

The song became “Brown Xanny” simply from using a brown bass guitar while writing it and being in the state of wanting a few xannys to knock out and not deal with what’s going on. This song is one of 50 she has created during the pandemic and will be one of six that will be featured on her upcoming project, “Ghosts On Lubao” coming out in March.

After checking out this latest single, you can also listen to her first EP, “Numb” and follow her on Instagram for updates.