As a Loyola student, Heaven Haney was able to hone her love for music into an art form that she hopes can be healing to those around her.
Haney, known as HEAVSWRLD, is a senior popular and commercial music major born and raised in New Orleans. She wants it to be known that the city of New Orleans is a great place for young artists like her to thrive.
While being a city mainly known for jazz, Haney wants others to know that you can find a successful career in New Orleans for any type of music. This includes her genre, R&B,and others that she dabbles in like pop and hip-hop.
“We have a bunch of hip hop artists here, we have a bunch of R&B artists, a bunch of pop artists, even rock artists,” Haney said. “There’s several different aspects of being a musician here.”
Growing up, music was always a part of Haney’s life. Throughout elementary and middle school she built roots in theater. After a two year break from music in high school, doing theater along with school and church choir cemented the idea in her head that she would pursue music as a career.
Haney’s exposure to music wasn’t limited to theater and choir. Ever since she was a young girl she was inspired by the remarkable talents of legends like Micheal Jackson, Janet Jackson, Amy Winehouse, and Whitney Houston. Later on in life she looked to newer artists like Raye, Sasha Keable, and Omar Apollo for inspiration as well.
“I think those are definitely my musical inspirations for my music that I’m planning on releasing, but also just in general I just love their sound,” Haney said.
By channeling the things she’s learned and taking inspiration from her favorite artists, Haney was able to make her own sound.
“She is a remarkable vocalist who can deliver a song with strength and conviction,” said Ed “Pop” Wise, who is a professor of popular and commercial music here at Loyola.
This sense of storytelling is the tool that Haney said she wants to use to portray the messages she shares with her audience.
Haney has experience performing live as well. She does occasional gigs at venues around New Orleans and she also does lead or backup vocals for her friends if they need her help.
One constant theme in Haney’s music is mental health.
“I have anxiety and depression, and that took a big toll on my life, especially in high school.”
Relationships come up in Haney’s music as well.
“I’ve dealt with breakups in my life,” Haney said. “I tend to write music about friendship and love and things like that.”
With her music, Haney wants to cover all ends of the emotional spectrum in a way that is relatable to her audience.
One of Haney’s goals for her career is that her music helps and heals those who listen to it, especially those going through hard times.
“My mantra is help realizing and hoping that my music helps people and heals people,” Haney said. “ I think music is definitely the best medicine.”
Haney has some new projects that are coming out very soon. For her capstone project, or final thesis, she is going to be performing next semester. According to Haney, this could be a multitude of things.
“We perform our own show, we release music, and we do a ‘Project X’ which is a big idea like creating a website, doing a music video, etc.,”Haney said.
Haney is also coming out with two singles later this year. One is called “Bulletproof,” and another titled “Foolish”. Both songs talk about different forms of grief, more specifically in a romantic sense.
“Each of my songs give an intimate detail about what processing emotions feels like for me. My past relationships and even my personal life has given me such good experience on grieving,” Haney said. “ I feel like that emotion is such an awesome superpower someone can have.”
Her first EP will also be coming out next year called “The Sooner, The Better”. It talks about the process of sharing her story as an artist.
“I titled it that because the sooner I put out music and share my story to the world, the better artist, human, and soul I become and evolve into,” Haney said.
