This week as we discuss all things music and pop culture, I sat down with one of Hampton’s one to watch artists, Heather, to talk about music, quarantine, and a little about herself. If you attend Hampton, you have probably seen her at a couple of events performing some of her original music but might not know who Heather actually is. Heather Covington-Porter is a junior strategic communication major from Union, New Jersey. After graduating in 2022, she plans to completely focus on what her passion is, music. Keep reading as I get to know Heather from how she started singing to the artist you can currently find in her playlist right now.
For people who aren’t familiar with you and your music, what do you currently have out right now?
On Soundcloud, I have a couple of songs. My Soundcloud is HeatherN. There is also an EP out on Apple Music right now called Sesh that I did with Mothoro. My most recent song out now is Save me on Soundcloud. I released that back in March during second semester, and that song was about what’s going on right now with all the young, black people dying as a result of police brutality.
How would you describe your music? Is there a genre you categorize yourself with or are you more of a free-spirit?
Unpredictable. Right now, I’m going down in R&B but at the same time, I kinda write what I feel and hop on a beat that is my vibe at the moment. I would definitely say unpredictable, only because I like different styles. I don’t really like to keep myself caged into one style because that’s not really fun to me and I like having fun. I could do R&B. I might mess around and do something very soulful. I love gospel and trap music. I love hip-hop, I might just rap. (laughing)
So really a little bit of everything (laughing). How did you get into music, and know this was something you wanted to pursue?
I come from a whole family of musically-inclined people so I grew up around a lot of music. Around the age of six or seven, my parents actually built my sister and me a studio in our basement and we got started there.
Once I hit high school, I started putting my own hand in the pot so kind of managing myself in a way. Taking it upon myself to book studio sessions and reach out to people. That helped me grow as an artist because I had to do it myself basically, with the help of my parents of course. I realized music is my calling and what I really wanted to do when I noticed I was having fun doing it.
Being an artist with a very, unique voice, who are some of the musical influences you look up to?
I have a lot. Beyonce, Jazmine Sullivan, Whitney Houston, J.Cole. I listen to JID a lot, that’s one of J.Cole’s proteges. Rapping wise, I love listening to Anderson Paak. He has a nasty band and I love live music. So when I listen to live music, I listen specifically to him because he’s tough. Smino, he has a very distinctive voice that I like. Of course, Chance the Rapper. I grew up on him. Dave East also because he’s killing it.
Now you are currently in your third year at Hampton. Talk a little bit about how it is being an artist on campus?
I love it. At first, it was a little weird only because the energy at Hampton sometimes can get a little thick but I try to continue to be myself. At the same time, it was a little iffy because I didn’t know if people were really liking me and my music or not. After finding other artists at Hampton, I became a lot more comfortable. They had a whole bunch of support for me and helped me through most of my struggles of being an artist at Hampton. Definitely, through it all, it’s been a fun experience. My name is out there. People will walk up to me like, “oh what’s up? I know you.”, or like “yo, your songs are tough,” and I appreciate all of it.
Now you’ve also performed quite a few times since being at Hampton. What would you say has been your favorite performance so far?
My homecoming performance. It was the one where we had to go through a series of three performances in order to open up for DaBaby. It was definitely the first one we did in the Student Center Atrium. I performed with Kael, (another artist at Hampton) and we performed my song, Save Me, but he added a verse onto it, so we performed that. Then we had a guy on the saxophone at the top of the stairs. Everybody came out so it was all great vibes.
So obviously you know, we had to leave campus in the middle of the spring semester due to COVID and have been continuing our learning remotely. Being in quarantine for about a couple of months now, what have you been up to?
Probably running myself crazy mentally. (laughing) I’m frantically trying to find a good studio. Trying to find a great engineer and a producer for myself. I’m basically trying to find my own team. Once I start recording, I’m not going to stop. So I’m trying to get myself time to build a team together- a very solid team, so I can get myself in the studio and stay in the studio. Because I’ll get in the studio and drop songs and then people won’t hear from me in months. I’m not trying to do that again, so I’m trying to hold off as long as I can until I can really get my foot in that door and stay there.
Being someone who lives and breathes music, who is currently sitting on your playlist right now? I’m curious to hear.
Smino, Anderson .Paak, Jhene Aiko, Don Toliver and JID.
Now are any of these artist people you would want to work with in the future if you could choose anybody?
Most definitely. Anderson.Paak because he can switch it up. A lot of the artists I listen to are very versatile but when it comes to Anderson, his music touches me and moves my soul, because he’s in tune with all his instruments. He can rap, he can sing, he brings that old school back, and then brings some r&b in there.
Lastly, are there any new projects you are currently working on?
I have a couple of things in my notes right now. I eventually want to have a double-sided tape kind of like sour the sweet and show my versatility in there. I don’t have anything recorded yet, but that’s kind of like the blueprint I have right now. They’re going to hate me for that one because I’m not a perfectionist but I do want it to sound how I want it to sound meaning I don’t care how long it takes. (laughing)
To check out some of Heather’s music, follow her on SoundCloud at HeatherN, and follow her on Instagram @_fannatic