On the Rise
Georgia Webster

The Massachusetts-born artist wants to pick apart her own mind layer by layer to better understand why she reacts or feels a certain thing. In the breakdown of a relationship, women can be labelled several things — crazy, embarrassing, dramatic, jealous and everything in between. It’s the words we call ourselves, though, that intrigue Webster.

Earlier this year she released “Attention,” a song that sees Webster go to extreme lengths to get someone to look her way. It helped validate her feelings in the “craziest, most beautifully maniacal way.” It was the first time she ever sang on a song she didn’t write which, at the time, seemed unfathomable. “Attention” allowed Webster to explore the messier emotions she wanted to write about. “When I first heard ‘Attention,’ I really realised just how many girls have these crazy intrusive thoughts about guys. I just want to normalise it. It’s okay to have these crazy thoughts. You have to own it and realise that [these thoughts] happen after a breakup or a traumatic thing.”

Webster grew up in Hampden, MA, a place that she affectionately describes as “tiny,” living in the middle of the woods with no neighbours and not many friends. “I had one friend all throughout elementary school and she lived down the street from me,” explains Webster. “We grew up playing in the woods, pretending to be fairies and wizards. I didn’t have many frends in middle school so I would just read all the time — Harry Potter, The Spiderwick Chronicles, or The Series of Unfortunate Events.”

As a kid, Webster was the “prime example” of an ADHD girl — always in her own world, very bad at listening, and outgoing when talking about the stories in her books. She found it hard to make friends, opting to spend time with her friend Olivia and playing ‘Wizarding World’ at recess. “We would always just be on our own in our own world,” she reflects. “My mom always did tell me that my head was always in the clouds.”

Like Kelsea Ballerini, Taylor Swift, and other country and pop songwriters who toe the line between genres, Webster leaned into her knack for storytelling early on. She started writing songs in fourth grade for school projects just because she “would get As.” No one else did music in her school which would be both a blessing and a curse — she was on her own and had to figure it out for herself. She spent summers gigging in the quaint summertime destination of Cape Cod, playing two-hour sets in a clam shack where she’d make $300 and tips. Throughout the school year, she’d play at coffee houses and random places around town.

In her freshman year of high school, she attended Berklee College of Music’s songwriter camp and it changed everything. “That was what sealed the deal for me,” she says of the five-day event. “That was when I said, ‘This is what I want to do for the rest of my life.’ It was the first time I met people that made music because I didn’t have any friends at home that did it. I met my people at that camp who are some of my best friends today.”

Meeting other musicians and songwriters late into her teenage years meant that she, naturally, played the comparison game. “I was so bright-eyed with other songwriters because I had never met anyone. Everyone would play one original song [at the camp] and I played a song called ‘Obsessed.’ So many people came up to me and asked if they could find it on streaming. I said I wasn’t putting any music out, it was just in my voice notes. It just helped me gain a lot of confidence, I was an insecure girl. It helped me realize that I am good enough for this career that I want.”

It’s been four years since she released “Tell Your Mom,” a song she wrote in her bedroom at the end of her junior year. TikTok loved it to the point where Webster had offers from record labels in New York and Los Angeles begging her to sign with them. Instead, she made Nashville her home, moving right after graduation. Immersing herself with her fellow singer/songwriters in a tight-knit community was more important to her than rubbing shoulders with the Hollywood elite.

Still, moving to Nashville and embedding herself in the songwriting community was tricky at first. Webster found songwriting sessions uncomfortable to the point where she hated it at first. “I thought, ‘I don’t think I should be a songwriter,’” she laughs. “It was so weird because it was just this thing I did in my bedroom. It felt weird to go into a room and tell someone everything about my life. Slowly I found the people that I trust, but at first, it was strangers I was telling all this stuff to. But because of that, I've grown so much as a writer by learning and watching other people and how they write.”

Webster has been working on her forthcoming third EP for half a year. During its creation, Webster was reeling from the aftermath of a situationship and attempting to soothe her wounds in the way many lovestruck girls do: by watching tarot readers on TikTok. “I was convinced they were talking about me,” she laughs. “They’d say things like, ‘he’s not ready yet, wait for him’ and stuff like that. It’s completely delusional but there are tons of other people in the comments wishing and wanting for the same thing.”

She remembers reading the word ‘delusional’ online and immediately writing it in her notes app. Bringing up the word in a songwriting session led to the hook, “Were we crazy about each other/or was I just delusional?” early on, eventually leading to Webster’s next single, “Delusional.” It’s a word that women are embracing — so much so that TikTok made it one of their trends for 2024. For Webster, it’s more about reclaiming a word that has had negative connotations for so long and reminding girls they aren’t alone. “So many people have reached out and said, ‘I needed this song.’ My dream is to continue making music that has that reaction.”

Coming from a small town with no one showing her the ropes, it was easy for her to let more experienced producers take the reins. She worked with King Henry (Beyoncé, Miley Cyrus) after sliding into his DMs about producing a collection of songs that would eventually become the EP. They hit it off right away. It was a serendipitous series of events — especially because Webster has always been a big fan of Henry’s partner, singer/songwriter Sasha Sloan. She describes this EP as the “third time’s a charm” because she feels she found a sound that is entirely her own. “I had to go through that trial and error process to figure out what I wanted,” she says. “I realise there were certain times when I should’ve said, ‘I don’t want this banjo here’ and I didn’t. Being part of the process and making myself heard is my favourite part of the whole thing. I’m so much more confident now to say if I don’t like something.”

Despite it being a few months away from the EPs release, Webster is vibrating with excitement. She started the year playing a handful of headline shows at venues like The Basement in Nashville, terrified that no one would show up. Instead, she had fans travel and fly out for the gig for the first time — something typically reserved for artists like Ballerini and Swift. Although she’s still on the rise, she still is trying to give back to the place that let her imagination run wild as a child. When “Tell Your Mom” blew up, she announced that she’d play at the one cafe everyone congregates at in her town. A fan update page drove six hours from upstate New York to be there alongside the whole town. Girls from Webster’s old middle school were looking up to her with the same bright eyes she had when meeting fellow songwriters for the first time. It’s moments like those that remind Webster just how lucky she is to not only be pursuing her career but being one of the first in her tiny town to do it.

To end, I ask Webster to dream of the most delusional thing she could manifest for herself. Immediately, she says a list of things: headline shows, more music, and seeing people sing her words back to her. Then, in true Webster fashion, she slips into fangirl mode. “There’s been a few people who have followed me in recent months and I’m dying cause of it,” she laughs. “I’m fangirling over so many people — Taylor Swift fangirls over people and she’s Taylor Swift, so I feel safe to do the same.”