Hayley Orrantia may be best known for her role on The Goldbergs, but she actually got her start in music. You may have even seen her on the first season of The X Factor. It’s pretty rare to find someone who can seamlessly navigate back and forth between acting and music, but she does it very well.
Hayley started in music the way other kids begin playing sports. When she was young, a family friend heard her sing in the car and encouraged her to sing for her parents. They immediately recognized a natural talent and suggested she enroll in singing lessons.
Her parents supported her passion and her dad even built a stage in her bedroom when she was young. The family had just moved into a different home and when Hayley wanted to redecorate, her parents offered to build the stage, which they adorned with lights, a star painted in the middle, a microphone, and a karaoke machine. She remembers singing to Jojo’s “Get Out” and belting out Celine Dion’s music.
Hayley began writing songs when she was a teenager and talked about how she’s grown since then. I asked whether there were any cringeworthy songs she wrote when she was just starting out. While there are some that she probably wouldn’t release today, she is happy to have evolved since then and explained,“You gotta start somewhere, you can’t just come out of the gate with a number one song.”
“The Way Out” EP
Her EP “The Way Out” is incredibly well-written and guides the listener through the five stages of grief that she experienced when she was betrayed by her ex boyfriend, who deceived her by stealing a large sum of money. “I had written a couple of songs about this subject without knowing what I wanted to do,” Hayley explained.
Hayley said that she experienced a moment when it all came together. “It sounds a little silly, but I had a vision one night that I would write an EP about the five stages of grief.” After spending time in therapy, she realized that she had been through all the stages and was ready to write about them.
I had the pleasure of seeing Hayley’s performance at CMA Fest in Nashville and her voice is as good live as it is on the EP. I wondered whether it was difficult to perform some of the songs that were so painful to write. “It depends on the day,” she answered. “It depends on my mindset going into it. There have been times when I’ve been performing the songs and I’ll get in my head, like where I was when I wrote it, what I was feeling.”
She said she reminds herself that this is a chapter in her life that is complete and the EP gave her a chance to package that up and move on. Hayley plans to release more songs that are happier, like “Nights and Weekends,” which she also performed during her show.
What’s Next for Hayley
This summer, Hayley will be playing shows across the US, including several shows with Gone West. Hayley is especially excited and said, “They are such an inspiration for me songwriting-wise… and even as people, they are good, authentic, down-to-earth people.”
Hayley is also filming a new season of The Goldbergs this summer, which will air in September.
For information on Hayley’s tour dates, or to purchase her EP, visit https://www.hayleyorrantia.com/
