New Artist Showcase: Abigail Fierce

You may have seen her on your living room screen in shows like Hulu’s Love, Victor and NBC’s This Is Us, but Abigail Killmeier goes by another name, too. Meet Abigail Fierce, an indie pop singer-songwriter pouring her heart out into anthems of LGBTQ+ love and identity.

“Writing is the light in my life,” says Fierce. “I always loved music. I think the first time I remember being introduced to music was when I was four years old. I was in bed with the flu and the series premier of Hannah Montana came on Disney Channel and I was like, ‘hey, that chick’s cool.’ It sounds silly but it just grew from there, any kind of music I could get my hands on, I tried it out.” 

Her music ranges from the heartfelt “I Just Wanna Feel Okay Again,” to the tongue in cheek pop-punk-inspired new single “Daphne,” a song about falling in love with that cute barista with the black beanie (the one you also made up a name for). She calls it “the charming love song that LGBTQ+ women and girls have been looking for their whole lives.”

Fierce describes her music as somewhere between pop-rock, pop-punk, and indie pop; the artist strives to bring her love of ‘90s alt-rock and grunge into the modern pop space. Some of her favorite artists include Alanis Morissette, Courtney Love, Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, 5 Seconds of Summer, King Princess, Girl in Red, and Phoebe Bridgers.

This multi-instrumentalist plays all of her tracks minus the drums herself, working with both her sound engineer and session musicians like Victor Indrizzo (who has worked with musicians like Alanis Morissette) to fill in those grooves. Fun fact, Fierce actually started as a ukulele player before she learned the guitar, but you won’t hear much of the uke on her tracks these days.

“The guitar started coming in when I was like 12 or 13, and I really loved the guitar,” she says, “so much more than ukulele. But, it was a good stepping stone.”

Her truest love, I found out, is songwriting.

“My songs are my whole world, my work is very personal. I started writing songs in middle school because I was kinda shy. It was really a way for me to control my narrative when I felt like I didn’t have much control over the things that were happening around me,” Fierce says. She explains how, while it was difficult to come out, it was so much easier for her to write about than talk about. “And that has proven to be true in all aspects of my life,” she says, “writing about it is how I work through it.” 

Fierce grew up in Kentucky, and says it wasn’t the easiest for her growing up there, surrounded by people who both didn’t understand her as an LGBTQ+ woman and who also often viewed her as competition when it came to the performing arts. She has since moved to Los Angeles to pursue acting and music, a learning curve for her albeit a positive one.

“When I first moved to L.A., I lived in an apartment with no washing machine, no microwave, and lots of cockroaches,” she laughs. “It’s a tough business, you know, and there are gonna be times when you have to grow a thick skin and realize that other people’s opinions of you do not define you.” She says she is grateful that although she may have felt alone a lot during her youth, that time spent alone is what made her strong enough to know who she is and get through some of the tougher times as an artist living in L.A.

What gets her through the most? Her fans, of course.

“My favorite interactions are either when they send me fan art or when they tell me how the music has affected their lives in a positive way,” Fierce explains.

“People have told me that my song ‘Scream It to the Whole World’ has helped them come out, or it helps cheer them up when they have a bad day. I received a message the other day from a woman whose fiancé recently passed away, and she told me that she clicked on my song ‘I Just Wanna Feel Okay Again’ by accident. She thinks it was sent to her by the universe because that’s what she needed in the moment, and I thought that was a really touching message.”

Fierce had her first live show back in March at Madame Siam, a cocktail lounge and performance venue in Los Angeles. Being that most of her music career has taken place during a certain pandemic, she hasn’t had a ton of opportunities to play live, but hopes to do more and more in the near future.

“I’m really excited to do more of it. Because most of my songs tell a story, it’s really fun to see people’s faces as they react to hearing the lyrics, especially people that haven’t heard the songs before. I can go on the journey with them of hearing it for the first time and that’s really cool.”

With no plans for an album quite yet, Fierce says she plans to continue writing songs, releasing singles, and connecting with people.

“The fact that something I wrote on my bedroom floor when I was sad could reach someone and help them feel less alone, that’s the goal,” she says. “That’s what music did for me.”

Check out her new won’t-get-out-of-your-head single, “Daphne,” available now on all streaming platforms!

Search “Abigail Fierce” on YouTube, Spotify, Amazon, and Apple Music.

Instagram: @akfierce
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