Local Artist Releases New Single On Spotify

WESTPORT, CT — Melissa Wasserman still vividly remembers the moment her newest song, "Twenty Two," began to take shape. It was a year-and-a half ago when she was a 21-year-old Berklee College of Music senior facing the imminent end of school.

As she sat in her Boston apartment, she began to soother herself by plucking away on her guitar, a regular pastime of hers.

"I was nearing the end of my college career, and it was just a very big transitional time for me," Wasserman said. "I kept thinking a lot about where I was going to go next. What was my life going to be? Those kind of moments."

As she played around with chords on her guitar, a few lyrics came to her:

"Rubbing my back to fall asleep, playing with my hair 'cause you knew it relaxed me."

For the now 22-year-old Wasserman, this was a call back to a simpler time.

"Usually my songs won’t just come out like that," Wasserman said. "I’ll either think of one line and then go from there or I’ll come up with a hook and go off of that and try to write around it, but this one I definitely think the guitar part inspired the lyrics. It just kind of clicked something in my mind."

"Twenty Two," which was released on Spotify last month, is heavily inspired by the young artist's time growing up in Connecticut. Wasserman grew up on the border of Westport and Fairfield, and spent equal time in both towns during that time. She attended Fairfield Public Schools but also went to preschool and Hebrew School in Westport, and spent a fair share of time exploring both communities.

During her time growing up in the area, music was always at the center of her life. She took singing lessons when she was 8-years-old and has since performed at a number of places around Connecticut, Vermont and Massachusetts. Recently, she performed at Athleta in downtown Westport in December.

"Twenty Two" is Wasserman's second single to release on Spotify. It was recorded during her time at Berklee.

"They have studios there, and a lot of my friends produce, do engineering, all that stuff," Wasserman said. "My favorite part [of the recording process] was honestly being surrounded by people that I’m close to, because I think it made it that much easier for me to just get into it, feel the song and not hold back."

While that part may have been easy, the recording process still presented some challenges.

"As a person, I’m not a perfectionist," Wasserman said, "but when it comes to stuff like this I am, so we did a lot of takes. That was probably the most challenging part; being satisfied and picking what I thought really represented the song. That was hard to settle on. It just took some time."

Wasserman is currently living and working in Los Angeles, however she hopes to return to the East Coast once she finishes a music therapy internship in July. She also hopes to continue working in music therapy and with children in addition to focusing on her career as an artist.

When asked how it felt to be able to open something so many people use like Spotify and be able to hear her own music, Wasserman said it is still a novelty but admitted it was a crazier feeling when she got her first song, "No Yesterday," onto the streaming platform.

"I guess I’m a little bit used to it now," Wasserman said, "also because a lot of my friends from school have put out music that’s on Spotify and all that stuff. It’s exciting to me though that it’s so easy for me to show it to people now, and it’s exciting that it’s out there and anybody can listen to it. That part is still so cool to me."

For those who discover the song and listen, Wasserman hopes the message of embracing life as it comes and remembering those moments that become precious memories is clear.

"We all get so caught up in our everyday routine, and I feel like it’s good to feel things once in a while," Wasserman said. "I just hope the song can be a kind of emotional release for people, and an opportunity to reflect on simpler times."