Singer-Songwriter Abi Credits Shania Twain, Faith Hill as Inspirations

Singer-songwriter Abi grew up performing, getting involved in musical theater and writing poetry before ultimately making the switch to songwriting .

Abi hails from Texas, the birthplace of some of country music's biggest stars. Growing up, the 21-year-old was surrounded by the genre — from a stint living in Los Angeles for several years combined with a trip to Nashville, that ultimately led her to gravitate toward a country-pop sound.

"Coming from a writer's standpoint I've just always appreciated the storytelling aspect of country," Abi explained to PopCulture.com exclusively. "I kind of describe country music as like a movie in a song. In that stance I've always just really connected with it and it's always felt like home to me. I grew up around country so that really just kind of was... There wasn't really any question about it."

"I've always been very curious. I've always just wanted to listen to as much music as possible," she added. "I think the beautiful thing about me is I can classify myself under a genre, but at the same time it's so much fun to hear a random R&B song and take inspiration from it. I think that's so cool. So I definitely think my music has pop influences. I love pop music, so it's always something I want to incorporate because it's just as much me as country is. So I think it's definitely like a hybrid of everything that kind of inspires me."

That sound is perfectly captured in Abi's song "Little Landmines," which describes the feeling of not being fully over an ex and features descriptive lyrics paired with slick, twinkling production.

"When I heard it it was actually like a straight up pop song. I was like, 'It's already a good pop song. Let's make it an even better country song,'" Abi revealed. "So we just played with it and sonically made up sounds, made it super creative. It was such a creative process. It's a break up song, but it's super infectious and you kind of want to dance to it. I thought it was kind of like a nice positive twist on a break up song."

Abi shared that she takes inspiration from iconic women in country music like Shania Twain and Faith Hill, as well as other influential women in her life when it comes to the music she creates.

"I grew up listening to Shania and Faith, and I grew up not only in music, but just influences overall I grew up with a lot of strong females around," she said. "I definitely kind of aspired to be like them, these beautiful, strong, confident women. Not only that I was listening to, but that I was surrounded by, I wanted to be that. I want to serve that for somebody else."

Along with music, fashion is equally important to Abi, with the singer taking after idols like Twain when it comes to expressing herself through her wardrobe.

"I think music and fashion are both the means of self expression," she said. "And that's so important. I've just always seen it as an art form. So I think that it's just as much of my identity as music is and they definitely go hand in hand."

Check out Abi's full interview and her performance of her song "Little Landmines" in the video above.

Photo Credit: PopCulture.com