From Breakups to Breakthroughs :Bella Lam Shares Her Music Journey on Takin A Walk Nashville

00:00:01
Speaker 1: Taking a Walk Nashville.

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Speaker 2: Hi everyone, it's Sarah Harrelson, your host of Taking a Walk Nashville and joining me today is Asian American rising country artist Bella Lamb. Bella is a true Tennesseean that was born in Nashville, and she just released her new single Take It Out on My Guitar. Join us for our conversation today. Welcome to Taking a Walk Nashville with your hosts singer songwriter Sarah Harrelson.

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Speaker 3: Bella. Thank you so much for joining me today on Taking a Walk Nashville. So you are a true Tennesseean. You were born in Nashville, You've lived in the Memphis area, and now you spend a lot of time in Chattanooga. Do you have a favorite place or a favorite city in Tennessee since you've been all over?

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Speaker 1: I like different parts. I like different parts, So I would say the best part of being in Memphis is the food. I will say I love Chattanooga to death. Their barbecue cannot top West Tennessee barbecue. It's always better in West Tennessee. But I just love the how different Chattanooga is and how like city it is. But also like there's so much walking and nature and it's like city, but also there's there's Tennessee. You know.

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Speaker 4: Yeah that's so true.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I live in Nashville now, but I'm originally from Knoxville, Tennessee. So I love how each part of Tennessee has its own flavor. Like you said, if you want good barbecue, you go to Memphis. If you want good hiking, you go to East Tennessee. So I love that you're at Tennessee in and your latest single, Take It Out on My Guitar, was released on February thirteenth. You co wrote it with Lauren mclamb and she's written songs for Derek s. Bentley and Dylan Marlow and also co wrote it with Chris Ruffetto and he's written for Eddie Montgomery and Emmy Russell. This is just such a fun song and it lets people know that during a breakup, you know, sometimes revenge isn't the best course of action. Sometimes it's just a song they can't escape, and you definitely can't escape this melody. So in support of this new single, you launched a write it, Don't Text It campaign. It's interactive based breakup hotline design for fans who still have something to say, so fans can call a number that's listed on your socials to vent and share exactly what they would tell their acts. And I've been watching some of these messages on your TikTok that fans have sent you, and some of the stories are insane. Are you surprised by what you've been getting? Absolutely?

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Speaker 1: The first one, I feel like was a good way to jump in because it was like, it's a breakup story. It's just like it was a breakup story. The rest of them, however, they have progressively gotten crazier and crazier and crazier. I just posted probably the saddest one that I've gotten so far yesterday, and I just love that it's a mix of oh, I'm never going to call this guy again to I don't really care about the breakup, but let me tell you how weent now, because it's just like, genuinely, how did that happen to me? To like just like very sad and makes your heart go out? What did I just witness? And I think my favorite part of it is that, you know, country music is all about like storytelling, and I wanted to find a way to kind of involve the fans in this release and give them, give them a way to interact with me. And I think that this was a really fun way to do it because, like I said, storytelling and just being able to share their stories with me like I share my stories with them, was a really really fun way to do it. Yeah.

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Speaker 3: I think it's a great way for people to get their feelings about these crazy stories out and you know, some of the sad things they went through breakups, and you know, have people kind of share similar stories that they went through. That's very relatable. And I think it's just in general, you know, the song is so catchy and fun, but it's also like a good reminder that there can be therapeutic ways to get over breakups instead of you know, going with revenge or anger.

00:04:22
Speaker 1: You don't got a trash's car, I'm sorry, Kerrie. Sorry, you can write a song about it. Radja Jural make you feel better? Probably?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, And you're releasing a music video for the song soon, correct.

00:04:34
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm very excited.

00:04:36
Speaker 1: We're doing a watch party over my TikTok page and it's gonna be a lot of fun. I think it was a very good way to embody take it out on my guitar, especially when you when you watch.

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Speaker 4: The music video, you're gonna get it. It's very exciting, very cool. We'll look out for that.

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Speaker 3: Where did you shoot the music video?

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Speaker 4: South forty and Franklin.

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Speaker 1: It was like this big farmland and I a lot of them, all of them video. Actually I was standing on my director's car just so they could get like the shot of making it look like I was standing on a guitar. So I spent a good probably two days stating on a on a car.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it looks really cool because it really looks like you're sitting on a giant guitar.

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Speaker 1: Oh. Absolutely, It's so much fun. And towards the end of the music video it gets a little hot in there.

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Speaker 4: So headed very excited.

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Speaker 3: Well, we will definitely check out the music video for Take It Out on my Guitar.

00:05:31
Speaker 4: So Vella.

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Speaker 3: I read that when you were growing up you had to overcome a speech impediment to become a singer. What was that journey like for you, because we see a lot of cases where you know, someone with a speech impediment when they sing sometimes it goes away. Was that kind of a similar case for you or was it more of a difficult learning challenge.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, so all throughout elementary school, middle school, and like halfway through high school, I had a really heavy lisp. You can still kind of hear, but I've worked on it so much that it kind of just like people don't notice it until I pointed out anymore.

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Speaker 4: But yeah, it was when I was singing. You could hear it too.

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Speaker 1: There's clips of me in high school and middle school in musical theater and you could hear it like so heavy.

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Speaker 4: It took a lot.

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Speaker 1: It took a lot of speech therapy. I also had very bad and motor skills, so even playing the guitar was difficult because for the longest time I had like really bad tremors and I still can't hold a pen correctly.

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Speaker 4: I hold it real funny.

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Speaker 1: But it was a lot of speech therapy, a lot of occupational therapy, and now I can play the guitar without shaking, and I can sing without people having to go, what in the world does she saying? So I like to say that if you're dreaming of something that kind of feels impossible, if you work hard enough.

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Speaker 4: And if you love it enough, you can you can do it.

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Speaker 3: Absolutely. I think that's beautiful and definitely anything you set your mind to, I think you can overcome it. I agree. Story, So, you have a ton of shows coming up in East Tennessee, Chattanooga, and Georgia. People can find your shows on your website, bellaalam music dot com. What are you most looking forward to this year?

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Speaker 1: Oh?

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Speaker 4: Well, I will say the release show was a lot of fun.

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Speaker 1: We did that at Songbirds here in Chattanooga, and that's such an iconic venue.

00:07:22
Speaker 4: Already, I was already so excited about it.

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Speaker 1: This weekend we're doing doc Hollidays and Chattanooga and then Peachee's Pub in Rome, which Luke Colms played at Peachee's Pub before he got fixed. So I'm like losing my mind over that one. And just so many I played the hard rock I play, I'm gonna play at the Ringold Opry, and there's.

00:07:43
Speaker 4: Just so many fun things that are coming up.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, you have a lot of shows on the lineup this year, so people can definitely come and see you. So, speaking of shows, musicians often talk about their most memorable gigs, and your most memorable.

00:07:56
Speaker 4: Show was not really memorable in a good way.

00:07:59
Speaker 3: So you said that you performed at a dev Hunt had to play in a pig pen and all of your band members got shot by the dove Hunters during the performance.

00:08:10
Speaker 1: Wow.

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Speaker 3: That sounds awful and sounds like it's still in a lawsuit somehow.

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Speaker 4: I was the only one that did not get hit. Wow.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, So we were in this pig pen and it was towards the house. I don't think they were supposed to be shooting towards us, but you know, you g have young boys guns and they see a dove fly over somewhere, They're just going to shoot wherever they see a dove. And my mom, she likes she comes to all of my shows. She sits to the side because my dad plays lead guitar for me. And she was just sitting off to the side next to our sound guy, talking to him and making sure the sound sounded right. And she got hit with buckshot and her leg so bad that it was like embedded in her leg. And yeah, definitely a crazy show. We had to put like pieces of wood in the pig pen because the ground was so uneven and if we wanted to like make the drum kits sit even and make sure I didn't fall on my face while I was dancing around. We had to like make sure it was a little more even, but it was genuinely the most memorable and I still talk about it with since then. We've had a lot of changes in our band, so we have people in our band who did not experience that, and every time I bring it up, I'm like, they're like.

00:09:21
Speaker 4: How did you how did you do that?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, that's what And if someone is if people are hunting, it seems like they weren't be able to hear the live music anyway.

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Speaker 1: Well, I think what it was was they the men and the boys were going out into the fields and hunting, and they had food, and like we were near the food and they had like cornhole and stuff like that set up too, So it was it was it looked like it was fun for them, but.

00:09:49
Speaker 4: Wow as an experience for us.

00:09:51
Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely stay away from any sort of hunting.

00:09:54
Speaker 1: They were. They were like like trying to give away the food to their guest. And I went in there to throw some of our trash away so we wouldn't leave like trash everywhere.

00:10:03
Speaker 4: And one of the ladies that.

00:10:05
Speaker 1: Was just in there was like, do you want some mac and cheese? And I was like, sure, and she just hands me a zip lock bag full of cheese.

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Speaker 3: So wow, well at least you got some food out of it.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, my bandmates were throwing bags in back of cheese at each other after that.

00:10:20
Speaker 3: I was like, great, oh my goodness. Yeah, that's quite the memorable gig. You said your dad was playing guitar with you. Does he still play with you?

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Speaker 4: Yes, he does. He plays all of our gigs currently.

00:10:32
Speaker 3: Oh that's that's so exciting. It must be so fun to be able to perform on stage with your dad.

00:10:37
Speaker 1: Oh.

00:10:37
Speaker 4: Absolutely.

00:10:38
Speaker 1: He taught me how to play the guitar too, and he's one of He's the big, a big reason why I wanted to do music in the first place.

00:10:45
Speaker 4: I grew up.

00:10:46
Speaker 1: You know, my dad, he's probably the smartest person I know. He went to medical school when he was in pre med. He also got his music degree, and I'm like, well, genuinely the smartest person I know. I I am probably seventy five percent of the way done with my degree, and I'm like, I don't know how you do doctor and music at the same time.

00:11:08
Speaker 4: I can barely do music and music at the same time.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, that is wild. Yeah, well, people can definitely look forward to your upcoming shows and music. Do you have any more upcoming music releases for this year for fans.

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Speaker 1: We're working on an EP, maybe an album, but I'm gonna keep that a little close to my heart right now.

00:11:29
Speaker 3: Awesome, Well, we are looking forward to it, and I hope everyone will listen to your new single take it out on my guitar, so Bella. This is a question I always love to ask my guest on taking a walk in Nashville.

00:11:42
Speaker 4: You spend some time in Nashville.

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Speaker 3: Do you have a favorite place you like to take a walk in Nashville?

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Speaker 1: Ooh, I gotta think about this one. I'm usually liking the more like touristy spots of Nashville while I'm up there, just because every time i'm up there, I'm up there with my family and friends.

00:12:01
Speaker 4: But I really love Music Row.

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Speaker 1: I like walking like down Demumbrium because there's just so many fun things that you can see.

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Speaker 4: And yeah, i'd probably say there.

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Speaker 1: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: I've had a few people answer that, and sometimes they say, you know, they just are, you know, bewildered by the change that has happened on Music Row. How a lot of the studios have been turned into high rises and condos, so it's definitely changed, but there's still a lot of historic buildings and studios that you can walk down. So I think that's a great place. And Chad and Nuga too. Chattanouga is such great hiking. I always love going there. We're hiking.

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Speaker 1: I always like biking when I need to go somewhere and walking when I need to go somewhere instead of like driving there. Just because it's so, it's called the scenic city for a reason.

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Speaker 3: Absolutely, Yeah, rock City, Bella, thank you so much for being on taking a Walk in Nashville today. If people want to follow you, where can they find you on social media?

00:13:01
Speaker 4: All of my.

00:13:02
Speaker 1: Social rules are at It's Bella lamb IDAs b E LA l A M. And then my website would be belllam Music dot com.

00:13:09
Speaker 3: Perfect. Yeah, and I'm sure we can look forward to more messages video messages for you on TikTok for the ride at Don't Text It campaign. I've definitely been enjoying those. Thank you again for being on taking a walk a Nashville today.

00:13:22
Speaker 1: Thank you for having me, Thanks for listening to Taking a Walk Nashville with Sarah Harrelson.

00:13:28
Speaker 3: Please check out our other shows produced by Buzznight Media Productions, Comedy Save Me and Music Save Me hosted by Lynn Hoffman, and Taking a Walk hosted by Yours Truly Buzznight.

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Speaker 4: All shows are available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and are part of the iHeart podcast network