Paloma López Takes The Stage at The New School’s Sunday Sessions

New York City-based singer-songwriter Paloma López blends genres in Brooklyn dive bars. Her first foray into sharing original music took place earlier this year at Heaven Can Wait, an intimate lounge on Avenue A, where she filled the place with country charm and acoustic melodies. An alum of The New School’s School of Jazz, her tone is smooth and rich — but an unshakable love for artists like Dolly Parton and Bob Dylan infuses her songs with Nashville sound and folksy storytelling. She’s fresh off a series of shows at live music bars Gold Sounds, Berlin NYC, and pinkFrog. On April 6, she played a set at The New School’s Sunday Sessions, an NPR Tiny Desk-style concert series organized by students. The sessions were launched in 2023 as a means to highlight emerging artists at the university while giving student team members professional recording and production experience. According to producer Spencer Sher, over 35 students at The New School now work on the series. 

“People are drawn to this community because it’s kind of the best experience that you can get in the music industry during college,” said producer Ori Brutman, pointing to the range of responsibilities students who work on the series can take on, including artist booking, audio mixing, and even social media marketing. 

“It’s so gratifying and rewarding to be able to work with musicians and help them build their career while they’re helping us build our careers,” said Shannon Hughes, associate producer at Sunday Sessions. 

From childhood, it was clear López was a performer. Singing around the house quickly became more than a hobby, and after a brief stint studying journalism, she found a home in music. Now, she’s an auto-fiction and poetry writer by day and country performer by night. Her literary background shines through on original tracks like “American Beauty,” which tells a story of family, dreams, and heartache amid soft guitar strums.

López caught up with FRONTRUNNER over the phone to discuss her writing process, love for live performance, and plans for an upcoming EP. The following interview took place prior to her April 6 performance.

ORIGINAL SONG “THE BANDIT” – LIVE AT HEAVEN CAN WAIT

Tell me a bit about yourself and how you got into music.

When I was little, my sister used to do beauty pageants a lot. We were at a Johnny Rockets, we’re from Los Angeles and it’s a famous diner there, and this lady came up to me because I was singing and being funny at a booth. I was maybe 6 or 7, and she asked me if I wanted to do acting. And then that kind of snowballed into performing. And then I just started doing acting classes, and singing came along too. And then my grandfather, he’s passed away now, but he gifted me a Martin guitar when I was really little. And my mom was like, ‘You should start playing the guitar.’ So I kind of taught myself, and then I figured out I could sing.

How would you describe your genre at the moment?

I would say my genre right now is definitely country, folk, soft rock. I’m really inspired by Elvis. [He] plays a huge role in music for me. And I love Bob Dylan as well. Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, Linda Ronstadt. Oh, Johnny Cash. Love Johnny Cash. So, I would say I really find a lot of music in country more than anything else. That’s what I’m most inspired by. But I do take inspiration from some rock bands too, like Rolling Stones or Guns N’ Roses. I mean, those are crazy big bands, but I love them. I also love Chad Atkins and Dolly Parton, which is more country.

And then I also do love jazz as well. Obviously, like, I went to school for it. But Etta James is probably one of my all time favorite singers. I don’t think I sound or do anything similar to Etta James, but I would hope that she influenced me somewhat in something somewhere.

ORIGINAL SONG “AMERICAN BEAUTY” – LIVE AT THE NEW SCHOOL

“AMERICAN BEAUTY” – SOLO VIDEO

You’ve been playing a lot of shows around New York. What’s the best thing about performing live?

I would say the feeling after. Actually, no, I take that back. While I’m performing, I feel like I’m in a different state of mind. Like, I’m nowhere in a sense. That sounds so cheesy, but I just feel like I’m not even singing, even though I am. I kind of lose myself and what’s happening in the music. And that’s probably the best thing, because my mind never shuts up. And when I’m on stage, it’s kind of quiet and peaceful.

That makes total sense. Do you have a favorite memory from a show you can share specifically?

Honestly, my favorite show was my first show, because I just started playing shows pretty recently on my own. But I would say from my first show, January 4th [at] Heaven Can Wait, my favorite memory was when I was just kind of being myself and joking around with the audience, because I think that’s when I finally let my guard down. And it’s kind of a scary thing to do because you’re showing yourself to a lot of people who don’t really know you. I had friends and family there, but [also] some people I didn’t know who came who were friends of friends. And it’s kind of scary to see yourself like that. I mean, you are putting on a show, but you’re also being your most vulnerable self on stage. So I would say probably talking to the audience, I love doing that. 

The Heaven Can Wait show was your first time sharing original songs with a live audience, right? How was that?

Yes. It was honestly really fun. I loved performing my original songs. And I think for a long time, I mean as artists, we always question ourselves if it’s good enough. And I don’t know, these are songs I wrote about my grandma or my mother or my ex-boyfriend or you know, things like that where they’re very personal. And they’re up to interpretation obviously. But especially singing about love or heartbreak, when it’s someone else, I always love to hear about it. But when it’s myself, I’m like, ‘Oh my God, I’m sharing this again.’ Like this needs to stop. You know what I mean? Like, I need to stop talking about this man who broke up with me like a year ago. But it does make for a good song, honestly.

It does.

So yeah, it was really fun. Just sharing my experiences that I’ve had in life through my words and my lyrics and my instrumentation and everything. And explaining the background of it too was funny, because a lot of people knew who I was thinking about.

When did you start writing original music?

I study auto-fiction and poetry at Sarah Lawrence. So I do write, but I was never really a songwriter. The first real song I wrote was in an ensemble my senior year of college, and it was called “Sunday Morning.” And now I look back at that song and I don’t like it very much. You know, it was a nugget of something, but it never became anything. It was like a rough draft of a song. So I guess that was in 2023, my first song I ever wrote. And then I kind of put that away and then the next song I wrote was in fall of 2023, and that song now is called “Parted Past Lovers.” I still play that now. But I would really say this is pretty new for me. 

ORIGINAL SONG “ANGEL FACE” – LIVE AT HEAVEN CAN WAIT

I’m sure your literary writing background informs your songwriting in a way. But what does that writing process look like for you for music?

I just started songwriting like a year ago, but I did try multiple times and failed every time because it was hard for me to not be so specific in storytelling. It’s easy for me to write a story, like a flash fiction piece or something like that, because I’m explaining exactly what’s happening. But in songwriting, it’s like poetry, which I now write, but it’s more difficult because you have to leave things up to the imagination. 

Now songwriting kind of, I think this is going to sound weird, but I think of a title and then I fall in love with the title. And then I just write the song around the title using my life experiences. I also really love movies and I’m a very visual person, so I just love the title of things a lot of the time. I know there’s a film called American Beauty. I haven’t watched it, but I like that title for a song and for an EP, which is what I’m working on. But I just liked “American Beauty” and I was like, ‘Okay, I’m gonna make a song now about this and this is what it’s gonna be about.’ My other two songs, one’s called “Angel Face” and another one’s called “The Bandit.” I don’t know, I just fall in love with these old-timey, country-ish titles. 

ORIGINAL SONG “PARTED PAST LOVERS” – VIDEO

Could you tell me a little bit about the EP?

I haven’t recorded anything yet. I have a studio in mind and [there are] talks that I’m going to record there. My mentor Charlotte Small, she’s a professor at The New School, was going to try to help me find a recording studio producer. But I still haven’t recorded anything right now. Right now I’m just trying to get the right band members involved. I have a very steady bassist and lead guitarist, so that’s kind of what I’m working with. And then sometimes we have drummers fill in or it’s just us, it’s really just been me and a guitarist for most of my shows. But yeah, I just am trying to accumulate some songs to like finally start recording this. Because I definitely want to release music as soon as possible. But obviously with that it needs to be the right people playing the music.

You’ll be performing at The New School Sunday Sessions on April 6th. Are you excited to be back on campus?

I am. They literally can’t get rid of me. I have been on campus so much recently, I lowkey still use their practice rooms. I ask current students to sign me in all the time. So I was just there last week, but I’m super excited to be back.

Who are you currently listening to?

I am currently listening to Bob Dylan, like as we speak. But honestly I’m listening to him because I just bought a harmonica recently and I am determined to be a great harmonica player. So I’m just kind of listening to him and how he does it with the singing and the guitar.