By Victoria Remley
“Still In Love,” a music video collaboration between two Youngstown State University students, was created in half a day and all started on the YSU mobile app.
Tawana Hymes, a junior social media communications major and solo artist, posted on the YSU mobile app asking if any musical artists on campus wanted to collaborate. Fortunately for Hymes, Briana Dent, a freshman psychology major and lyricist, responded.
Hymes created a musical beat 15 minutes after Dent responded and within four hours of Hymes’ original post, the pair met up. From there, Hymes gave Dent the musical beat and Hymes went to class.
By the time Hymes got out of class, Dent created lyrics to the song. Hymes and Dent recorded “Still In Love” later that night.
The song’s inspiration came from previous experiences both Hymes and Dent had with past high school relationships.
Hymes said he has created music for 15 years and grabs inspiration through events in his life and other local artists.
“Every time I see one of my friends have a song coming out or a video that’s coming out, or taking a step closer to their dream, whether it be photography or videography or whatever, it just makes me think, ‘OK, well if they’re doing that, what’s stopping me?’” Hymes said.
Hymes is a mostly a self-taught musician, pulling information from YouTube, and he googled how to navigate the music world. He learned how to use the music creation app GarageBand and used it to launch his music career with it. He slowly acquired better studio equipment and took vocal lessons.
Dent said she wants to affect people with her lyrics.
“I rap in it a little bit, but that’s not my main focus when it comes to songs. My main focus it to get a message across,” she said.
Dent included her girlfriend in the music video to emphasize the importance of communication.
“I just wanted to have that visual of saying to someone face to face, ‘It’s OK to stand up to whoever you’re having feelings towards, or even previous feelings towards, and just talk about feelings and communicate,’” Dent said.
Growing up, Dent tried to listen to a plethora of different music genres, so she could be diverse with her writing. She started focusing on her writing in high school, and began going to a recording studio while in college.
Dent pulls inspiration from her father who writes and records his own music, and travels to recording studios for his job.
“My dad is definitely one of my major influences when it comes to getting started with music,” Dent said.
When writing “Still In Love,” Dent thought about situations a person could go through from a man’s perspective. She decided to do a slow song for a man expressing his feelings.
“Usually, all I do is work with girls when it comes to music and singing, so it was nice to work with a guy,” Dent said.
Dent took a chance on Hymes because no one responded to his post on the YSU mobile app.
“I like to build a bond. I don’t want to just be your songwriter, so it was just nice to meet him, and he was really humble,” Dent said.
Hymes’ first professional album called “Hidden in Plain Sight” comes out in May and can be found on Apple Music, iTunes and YouTube. It will include a YouTube series. The “Still In Love” music video can be found on YouTube under the creator name of Tee Hymes.
