Happs musician Q&A: SERINA E
A conversation with Swedish singer/songwriter/producer Serina E about livestreaming on Happs.
Tell us about your journey as a musician.
Music has always been in my life. I’ve been singing since I was six years old and started writing songs when I was nine years old. In my teens, I went to a studio to record, but then I came to realize I wanted to produce myself. When you go to a studio and someone produces you, your music is not really your music anymore. Now I’m enrolled in music school and I’m producing everything myself; I mix, master a little bit, and record everything here (in my home studio).
When did you start livestreaming?
I started out going live on Periscope for two years. I sang to my audience and it was a lot of fun. Then I switched to Happs and I’m so happy I found it. I just love it. The energy there is so much better and more fun than Periscope, where, unfortunately, there were a lot of, um, naughty men behaving badly. I am so happy they’re not here on Happs and that’s why I really love hanging out on Happs.
Why else do you enjoy Happs compared to Periscope?
I like how you can invite people over to your broadcast and we can all have our cameras on. On Periscope, there was just sound — guests could only join with audio. And it’s just a good vibe. There are a lot of nice, cool, people on Happs. Everyone welcomed me. Also, the team at Happs is very helpful if there are any problems. If I reach out to them, they always want to help me. And I love the Broadcast Studio. It’s easy to learn, even for me and I’m not even great at those things. You don’t need to add anything extra to make your broadcasts look cooler. You can do it all within the app. I love it.
Do you feel like there’s a community amongst the broadcasters on Happs?
Definitely, I have friends who broadcast on Happs as well. That’s great when I go live and I want to invite people to come in and join my broadcast. Everyone is very supportive too; they often send me awards even though they’re also on the broadcast. And I get a lot of sponsorships too. I feel like people appreciate me on the app. And I appreciate them and feel I’ve got real friends there.
What impact have you seen from awards and sponsorships?
Broadcasting for a couple of years on other platforms, I made $170 (USD) total. On Happs, I got a payout of $200 in my first three weeks. It really means a lot. I can actually make some money off my broadcasts, which is great since I cannot go out and sing in front of people live. This is a good way to still make some money from my art. And it gives me motivation. I want to go live because when I’m here singing a song and I see an award pop up, I get super happy. I get even happier when I see sponsorships. It’s nice to know people appreciate me.
It’s a good way to make some money from my art. And it gives me motivation. I want to go live because when I’m here singing a song and I see an award pop up, I get super happy.
Do you have a set schedule for when you go live?
I try to go live every Sunday night and then at least one or two other times a week. Last week, I was able to stay up late which was nice because most of my viewers are from the U.S. and that helps with the time difference. If I sing live here in Sweden for an audience, I wouldn’t go much further than my immediate area. But on Happs, I make fans from around the world.
And what’s your approach to performing on a livestream?
I enjoy talking to my friends, followers, other broadcasters on here. I just talk and then once in a while I’ll say, “Hey, you guys want to hear a song? What song do you want to hear?” And then I play that song. Recently, a few of us were on Michael Bathurst’s broadcast and we were singing all together. I sang “Country Roads” and then everyone joined in and started singing. Everyone put up their lighters and waved them in the air. It was five people going live together, but it felt like a real show.
Any tips for other musicians who go live?
I’m not insecure, but I never go back and listen to my old broadcasts. I know I might regret it because I’m always so picky about my performance and missed notes. But in the moment, the people who are watching you live don’t care.
At first, I was only turning my camera on, taking my guitar out, and singing. It was okay, but now when I go live, I use a quality microphone. I always have my headphones on and then I have a program that I use to process everything — it can be Ableton, Logic, or wathever. I use Logic because I have a Mac and I add echo to my voice. Then I have software called BlackHole. (Ed. note: BlackHole is an open source virtual audio driver that allows applications to pass audio to other applications with zero additional latency.) Together, that sound is my input when I go live on Happs. That way, I can turn the echo on and off on my microphone. I can speak without reverb but then sing with it. That makes me feel more comfortable because when I record, I always put a lot of echo or reverb on my voice.
Also: Invite people to join you and multicast to everyone’s social channels. That way, you can reach way more people.
I sang “Country Roads” and then everyone joined in and started singing. Everyone put up their lighters and waved them in the air. It was five people going live together, but it felt like a real show.
Do you multicast to lots of other social channels?
Yes, multicasting to Twitter, Periscope, Facebook and Twitch is very useful. I used to never go live on Facebook or Twitch. So it’s great to go live to places where I hadn’t before. Some of my friends from Facebook come in and say hi and I’m like, “Oh wow, Hi!” Because I know them in real life. And if I invite a friend to join my broadcast, maybe they’re going to YouTube and they’ll bring even more people. That’s the great thing about multicasting: Guests bring their followers too.
Overall, Happs is an amazing app. It’s a great way to multicast and you meet a lot of great people that also love going live.
