-: My name is Bri Steves.
I am recording artist,
so I'm currently signed to Atlantic Records.
Last year, I came out
during Kendrick Lamar's Made In America set.
That was actually really great.
This year, I performed at the Staples Center
for the first time for BET,
so I was on the stage with Mary J Blige, H.E.R.,
Summer Walker, Queen Naija.
I've traveled to a bunch of cities for tours,
Houston, Nashville, sold out rooms, you name it.
I've performed at the TLA.
I've opened up for Freeway, Dave East.
I like to clear the room
and I like to just sing
and warm up my vocal chords.
Maybe drink some tea, drink a whole bunch of water before.
But besides that, I'm comfortable at this point
being just around people.
I don't let the nerves get to me too crazy anymore.
So, you're gonna have a sound check,
so that's gonna be maybe three hours or so
before the actual show goes on.
Then later, you have to get changed,
so you have your own dressing room.
Maybe have an hour or two.
There's always food maybe in a common area,
so everybody's there mingling before.
You go back to your dressing room.
You get ready.
Usually people are coming back and forth
to tell you how much time you have left.
"Okay, count down, you have 30 minutes left"
or "you have 15 minutes left."
There's probably gonna be some interviews done.
I know BET came in, interviewing me before,
right before I hit the stage.
And when they're like, "okay, five minutes,"
so it's kind of this whole rush thing
and everybody's walking you to the stage
and it's this big entourage-looking thing
and then you go on!
There's some producers and writers
that love to work in the nighttime.
They like to book their sessions from 10 o'clock
and they like to work all the way
until six o'clock in the morning.
I'm not one of those people.
I am one of the people that like to start work
at maybe one p.m.
I get to order some lunch and be out of the studio before 10
so I can go to sleep.
But sometimes it clashes,
but sometimes it's not about me
and if I'm gonna be in with somebody I really admire,
I'm gonna start at 10 o'clock. (chuckles)
So I mean, really, it actually depends on
which producer or which writers you're working with.
Sometimes I've been in with Hitmaka, Berg,
he's a really great producer
but he likes to have a really great party
and the atmosphere going on.
So you'll go in with him and Ty Dolla $ign will be there
and Wiz Khalifa and Nelly is here
and oh there goes 2 Chainz over there, you know what I mean?
It's kind of like a really great environment,
a party kind of scene.
And then people like Pharrell,
he likes to have a bunch of writers,
a bunch of creative people are working in this room
and it's like a whole machine-thing going on.
So every session is kind of different.
There are some where you just work
with a producer or an engineer just one-on-one
and it's just nobody but me and the engineer
and the producer in the room
and we're just vibing back and forth.
It's really, honestly, different every time.