Her style is gritty, her soul is exuberant and she’s hard to pin down. She doesn’t fit into a box or let herself be defined by one word and if you know her well, you know that this 23-year old self-taught guitarist, singer/songwriter and producer can’t be told she cannot do something. Shayna is wholeheartedly and unapologetically herself, and everything about her ripped jeans and funky jackets might point you in one direction, but the complete opposite is where she actually came from. 

Growing up just outside of Philadelphia, Shayna fits perfectly in the middle of three sisters and one brother, all of whom were country music lovers because of their parents. Yep. Everyone in her family loved country- including Shayna. She even adored country music icon, Shania Twain, so much that she introduced herself to her classmates in Pre-K as Shania instead of her real name. Luckily, she out grew that phase and started reclaiming her own name again but country music left an impact that would last forever and serve as one of the greatest influences in the evolution of her songwriting.

Once Shayna stumbled into her teens she fell for different genres of music such as pop, R&B and soul, but her desire to turn to her guitar anytime she wanted to write a song never faded. After all these years, ever her most pop-driven pieces begin the same way they have since the start; with a melody and her favorite 6-string. She was writing and rhyming before she could even spell correctly, but if it weren’t for her cousin sending her that really big package in the mail one day, her songwriting career may have bloomed much later in life.

Shayna was about 15-years old when she received a hand-me-down acoustic guitar which quickly became her accomplice for life. Right away she began teaching herself how to play by watching tutorials on YouTube and dove deep into the world of songwriting. Now, she’s doing it all. As the singer, songwriter and producer of all her work, Shayna believes that writing and producing her own music makes her unique.

“When I started producing my own music I began to really evolve as an artist. I was able to find my niche and the thing that makes me, me. I was able to take what was in my head and actually create it”, she says. “Bringing untouched, original ideas from your head to life in music without having a producer or someone try to interpret it is so raw to me, and I think the whole point for me is to get to the core and bring out the most authentic ideas I can.”