{"id":4001,"date":"2011-11-01T06:39:40","date_gmt":"2011-11-01T13:39:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=4001"},"modified":"2011-11-01T06:48:31","modified_gmt":"2011-11-01T13:48:31","slug":"hope-waits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2011\/11\/hope-waits\/","title":{"rendered":"HOPE WAITS"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>HOPE WAITS<\/h2>\n

HOMETOWN:<\/strong> Monroe, La.
\nINFLUENCES:<\/strong> Tori Amos, Ani DiFranco, Billie Holiday
\nALBUM:<\/strong> Introducing Hope Waits, <\/em>out now
\nWEBSITE:<\/strong> hopewaits.com<\/p>\n

If the depth in Hope Waits\u2019 soul-drenched voice suggests experience beyond her tender years, it\u2019s no accident. Waits was born one of 12 children in a family plagued by poverty, neglect, her father\u2019s alcoholism and her mother\u2019s manic depression. \u201cBasic needs were rarely met, and the abuse was astounding,\u201d she says. \u201cBut I love my family, and I would never want anyone to feel sorry for me.\u201d Waits found sanctuary in music, teaching herself how to write songs while hiding beneath her bed. She made her escape at age 15, hopping on a Greyhound bus and traveling 700 miles to South Carolina where an older sister waited to take her in.<\/p>\n

When Waits was 19 her mother was murdered by a\u00a0still-unknown assailant, a tragedy that left her all the more determined to chase her long-held dream of a life in music. \u201cI knew I would never find anything else to do in life that would bring me that kind of fulfillment,\u201d she says. Waits performed around the South before making the move to Los Angeles. There she caught the attention of producer Peter Malick, who wound up manning the boards for her debut album. But her troubles weren\u2019t over yet\u2014Waits was diagnosed with a genetic hearing disorder that threatened to deafen her, a fact she kept to herself during the recording. \u201cI felt that if people knew I was going deaf, I wouldn\u2019t be taken seriously\u00a0as a musician,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Two successful surgeries later, Waits\u2019 hearing is almost fully restored and she\u2019s ready to take on the world with her home-cooked stew of jazz, blues, soul and pop. \u201cI know my mother would not be disappointed in me,\u201d she says. \u201cMaybe she didn\u2019t make the best choices as a parent, but I am who I am because of her.\u00a0She gave me my voice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cI felt that if people knew I was going deaf, I wouldn\u2019t be taken seriously\u00a0as a musician.\u201d<\/h2>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HOPE WAITS HOMETOWN: Monroe, La. INFLUENCES: Tori Amos, Ani DiFranco, Billie Holiday ALBUM: Introducing Hope Waits, out now WEBSITE: hopewaits.com If the depth in Hope Waits\u2019 soul-drenched voice suggests experience beyond her tender years, it\u2019s no accident. Waits was born one of 12 children in a family plagued by poverty, neglect, her father\u2019s alcoholism and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[83],"tags":[2681,2684,2683,2682,2685,10160],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4001"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4001"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4001\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4014,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4001\/revisions\/4014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}