Suburban Soccer Mom Turned Songstress Considered For Award

Written by Emily Hamann

For decades Solveig Whittle was a Woodinville suburban soccer mom, working at Microsoft and other tech startups. Now she is pursuing her true passion: music.

“I just kinda had this light bulb moment that I’m really an artist,” Whittle said.

Now Whittle’s band Solveig & Stevie is nominated for a Hollywood Music in Media Award and is up for consideration for a Grammy. In December, they will find out if they made it through the next round of the voting process to be one of the handful of Grammy nominations in their category.

“It’s pretty exciting. It’s pretty crazy,” Whittle said.

Whittle had spent her career in the tech industry when she realized it was time for a change. So she went back to school and got her teaching credential.

“I love kids and I love teaching math in particular,” she said. She had been a teaching assistant at her kids’ school, and it seemed a natural fit. But that was not the change she needed.

“I had this epiphany in a class that I needed to be a musician,” she said.

Now she teaches social media at University of Washington, is a part-time marketing consultant for music groups and tech companies and works on music part time.

“I’m kind of this dual person,” she said. “I have multiple irons in the fire.” [More…]

Wishing Well Song Featured On My Daddy O Internet Radio Show Indie Mania

This weeks edition of Indie Mania with DJ Suzy on MDORadio promises to be another sizzler. An international internet radio station out of Australia, My Daddy O Radio plays a variety of indie artists on the two hour Indie Mania show with DJ Suzy every Friday evening. The radio show starts Friday November 7, 2014 at 4 PM PST, 7 PM EST. Our song Wishing Well, from the latest album, Fire and Other Playthings,  will be played in the second hour of the show, which starts at 5 PM PST, 8 PM EST. This is a great radio show, full of lots of indie music. You can access My Daddy O Radio here: http://www.mydaddyoradio.com/

Suzy will introduce for the first time on Indie Mania the sublime talents from Trio Ellas, 3 Dayz Whizkey, Viper Creek Band ,Erich McMann, Gable Bradley Band, Solveig & Stevie, Lisa Smith’s Powerhaus and Silo Road.
Making up the rest of the mix are solid sounds from the IMP Favorites Vault. Make sure to listen to our friend, Trevor Sewell’s blues version of Tunnel of Love in the first hour as well. Lineup:

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Suburban Mom Indie Musicians Plot To Walk the Red Carpet At GRAMMY® and HMMA Music Awards

Do you have to be 19 and able to twerk in a bikini to receive recognition as a female musician these days?

Solveig Whittle and Elizabeth Butler are proof that you don’t. These two indie female songwriter-musicians from Seattle, Washington and Houston, Texas, were notified recently that they both have songs and albums up For Consideration in the 57^th Grammys and nominated for the 2014 Hollywood Music in Media Awards (HMMAs). The Grammys will be awarded in February of next year, but the HMMAs will be awarded sooner, on November 4^th, 2014 at the Fonda Theater in Los Angeles.

The two women have been strategizing for months and working together to promote their music in an industry in which it is notoriously hard to stand out – and one that also tends to favor younger artists. They remain undaunted, however, and now their musical and co-promotional partnership has created some very visible results, such as their Grammy and HMMA nominations.

Like many indie musicians, Whittle and Butler have been hobbyist musicians their whole lives. Only within the last few years, however, have they gotten serious about putting resources and time into pushing their individual music careers forward. By sharing information with each other and honing both their musical and promotional skills, they have proved that collaboration is the new route to success in the music business.

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