The Sunday Music Drop is a weekly radio series hosted by the KQED weekend news team. In each segment, we feature a song from a local musician or band with an upcoming show and hear about what inspires their music.
Hercules singer-songwriter and musician August Lee Stevens says music is a place that allows her to be vulnerable and open. She hopes her music can inspire others to feel the power of their own vulnerability.
“When I write music, a lot of times it’s me almost writing things that I don’t have the courage to say out loud,” said Stevens. “So if you could listen to a diary with a melody, that’s kind of what my songs are.”
Stevens says “Senses” was the first song she wrote where she was finally acknowledging her own emotions, as well as falling back in love with music and writing music again.
When she was growing up in the Bay Area, Stevens taught herself how to play the guitar and was exposed to different styles of music and cultures.
“[‘Senses’] is about a relationship, or I say like unrequited love, where I was in a friendship with a person but I caught feelings, as they say,” said Stevens. “The tag in it is closing off my senses because I was in this place where I kind of had to shut down my feelings.”
August Lee Stevens will be performing at the Art Boutiki lounge at 8 p.m. in San José on Feb. 18, 2023.