Rising Artist Bebe Stockwell Talks About Her Excellent EP, Driving Backwards, Her Song “Minor Inconveniences,” And Her Songwriting

In the past year, singer/songwriter Bebe Stockwell has emerged as a very talented young artist to watch. She combines folk, soul and pop for a distinctive style and sound. Stockwell is becoming known for her soulful, expressive singing voice, and she writes unique, heartfelt songs. Notably, she signed a label deal with Columbia Records last year.

In May (2025), Stockwell released her debut EP, called Driving Backwards. This is an impressive collection of eight songs that display her potential as a singer & songwriter. The opening track is the single “Minor Inconveniences,” which is hooky song about the little struggles in everyday life that people strive to overcome. This is followed by her quirky song “Ruined,” where she writes (with a subtle sense of humor) about the breakup of a relationship.

In the middle of the EP are two duet songs that work well: “Speak Too Soon” (that she sings win Hans Williams), and the title cut “Driving Backwards” (with Chance Emerson). However, two of the best songs are at the end of the EP: “Blue Moon” and “Live Forever.” “Blue Moon” starts softly with just acoustic guitar and lead vocal, and then builds into an orchestral-sounding arrangement with a dramatic chorus and rich harmonies. “Live Forever” is a ballad that also starts softly, and then becomes a stirring song with a romantic lyric theme.

Stockwell, who is 23, grew up in Boston, MA, and she learned to play guitar and piano at a young age. Her early guitar teacher was a bluegrass musician, and when she was 15 she attended a Berklee School of Music camp during the summer.

In 2022, Stockwell released her debut single “Love Me Back,” which became a breakthrough song that’s been streamed several million times. She subsequently released her songs “Robbie” and “Helium,” which garnered further attention. Then in 2024, she signed with Columbia Records and released her key song, “Minor Inconveniences.”

She has also collaborated with hit artist Noah Kahan, and she has been an opening act for Sam Harris (of X Ambassadors) and others. In addition, she has played shows as a headliner, and this fall she will opening for Jeremy Zucker on his U.S. tour.

We are pleased to do this new Q&A interview with Bebe Stockwell. She tells how she got started as an artist, and she discusses the songs on her new EP.

DK: I read that you’re from Boston. How did you get started with singing and writing songs?

Bebe Stockwell: My family are music lovers, and they put us in many different music lessons, and a lot of my teachers were from Berklee (College of Music). I had a drum teacher from Berklee, and I had a guitar teacher (Courtney Hartman) who was in a bluegrass band called Della Mae. Courtney taught me how to write songs when I was quite young. So music was an outlet, and I also played a lot of sports. I would come back from sports and I would play piano and start writing random stuff about what was happening in my life.

I went through different phases (musically). I originally wrote bluegrass & folk music, and then I went to this pop vibe like Ruth B, and Justin Bieber was huge at that time. So it was pop, and then I went to an R&B phase. I did a Berklee five-week camp, and that’s when I realized you could do music as a career. At the Berklee camp, I met a bunch of lovely people. I met my best friend in the whole world there, and we eventually went to college together.

DK: In 2022 you had success with your song, “Love Me Back.” Can you talk about writing that song and the impact it had on the early part of your career?

Stockwell: I wrote that song in my dorm room with my best friend that I went to Berklee with. We were writing about how I have a hard time showing affection in relationships. During that time I was like…Oh, would someone love me back if I can’t show them what they usually get shown? So we wrote that song and it came fast.

At that point I hadn’t been doing social media, so it was a nice song to put out there. It definitely allowed more people to hear the song. It was really nice to know that your song could be connected with more than the people around you. So it was a fun first song for me to put out.

DK; In the past year you signed with Columbia Records. How did you decide to sign with them?

Stockwell: I loved the people I met when I first got there. I thought that they were smart and kind. And it’s important for me to see a lot of women on the team…that was something that drew me in. They really were into me as a person and as an artist. And I think it’s hard when you’re coming at it from a development side, because the future is so long and uncertain and it’s definitely scary for everyone. And I thought that they felt more secure.

DK: I like your song, “Minor Inconveniences,” which is hooky and has an unique title. What inspired you to write that song?

Stockwell: I went into a session that day and we finished another song called “Driving Backwards.” We were all a little hungover, and we were just messing around and I’d been listening to Bob Dylan a lot. I go through phases of being obsessed with him, and I said a line that I thought he would say something like. Then we went with that, and we listed all these minor conveniences that we were having. The song in its original state is a little different than it is now. But it’s a song about us talking about different minor inconveniences that we had during that time, and we put it into a song. I think it’s a song that feels universal for a lot of people because it touches on so many different things.

DK: In May, you released your debut EP, Driving Backwards. Can you talk about the making of this EP?

Stockwell: This EP was so fun to make. It was the first one I put out with the label, so it was this bed that I wanted to make. Also, most songs were from different producers because I was in college at the time. Then I went to Nashville and L.A. and it was awesome. It was important for me to be able to put more music out there that people could listen to. I love the songs and they’re all quite different, and they’re all about the time period I was going through. I went through a breakup, and so some of those songs are about that. But I wanted to make them universal so that people could relate to them.

DK: I like the second song in your EP, “Ruined,” which has a clever lyric idea. What’s the story behind writing that song?

Stockwell: It was a funny song I made, because I went into a session the day I moved to L.A.  I was fresh in L.A. and I had this horrible boyfriend from London that I broke up with. I was in this session with (hit songwriter) Amy Wadge who’s from London. And it was like…I want to move [to London] and I can’t anymore, ‘cause he sucks and he’s ruined everything. And so we’re like…let’s list how he’s ruined everything, and then I listed a bunch of things he ruined. It was a kind of a joke song because we we’re joking about everything he ruined.

DK: Two of my favorite songs on your EP are “Blue Moon” and “Live Forever,” which close the EP. These songs have beautiful melodies, with a lot of emotion. Can you talk about writing “Blue Moon” and “Live Forever”?

Stockwell: I wrote “Blue Moon” in a session with Casey Smith and Tommy King, and they’re such lovely people. Casey has this list of song titles on her phone and we saw “Blue Moon.” I thought it was a cool concept, meaning “once in a blue moon.” And something reminded me of a person I haven’t thought of in so long. We wrote it that day and I felt like it was something different than I’ve done before, and we got an amazing guitarist on it. It felt like this angelic song because we have so many harmonies, and the way it flows is so fun to sing live.

With “Live Forever,” I write love songs about movies and TV…that’s how I grew up writing. And I watched this movie called About Time, which is about time travel. I was on an airplane after breaking up with this person and I was like…Oh, I wish I could live forever and see him do everything. Even if we break up, I want to be there. I wrote it on the airplane and then I went to my session and we finished it. So this song is about details I loved about him at that time, and the concept of wanting to know someone forever.

DK: Now that your EP has been out, will you be releasing some new singles soon or another EP?

Stockwell: I’m working on my next project, so there’s a bunch of singles coming out. I love these songs so much and I’m excited to put them out. In a couple weeks I will be going to go upstate New York to record them. These are some of my favorite songs I’ve written, and I’m excited to get them down.

DK: I want to ask you about your live show. Do you mostly perform with a band or solo? I read that you’ll be going on tour with Jeremy Zucker.

Stockwell: When I was growing up I didn’t go onstage much, but I started to play live at the end of college. And last year I did a bunch of shows and I got comfortable with performing. I love it so much now—I think it’s so fun to see people’s faces. To see people react to the music in a live show is obviously so different from seeing them on social media.

I first started playing shows by myself, and now I usually play with my guitarist, Natalie (Moosher). She’s amazing and we’ve been playing shows for a long time. I think a lot of my music is just my vocals and the lyrics, so I think when I open for Jeremy it will just be me and Natalie. But for my headline shows and for festivals, I have a band. It’s great having a band, because it brings the energy up. I love playing shows both ways.