Daphne Willis

Daphne Willis, a singer and songwriter rooted in Chicago, crafts material that blends contemporary folk with classic R&B while delivering vocals steeped in soul. Born and raised in Palatine, Illinois, she was immersed in music from childhood; her parents, Colin Willis and Hazel Thornton, had both participated in Austin, Texas’s vibrant scene throughout the 1980s, attending the University of Texas and performing frequent acoustic sets. Following high school she entered DePaul University in Chicago, and at age nineteen she began composing songs herself, soon testing them at open-mike nights and delivering intimate performances in coffee shops.

In 2007 she self-released the five-song acoustic EP Matter of Time on her own Bare Feet Music imprint, distributing copies directly at shows and online. By then her father had joined Sony Music, overseeing selections for in-flight programs on major carriers. He placed several tracks from Matter of Time on an American Airlines playlist, where Kevin Welk of the Welk Music Group encountered them while traveling for business. Impressed by both the voice and the writing, Welk arranged for an A&R representative from the Welk-affiliated Vanguard Records label to attend one of her concerts, leading quickly to a contract. Willis had already started work on a follow-up EP; Vanguard issued Exhibit A, credited to Daphne Willis and Co., in fall 2008. The release contained four original compositions alongside a rendition of Aretha Franklin’s “Think.”

Gary Pascoza and Tim Lauer joined the production team for her debut full-length album, What to Say, issued in 2010, where they introduced a more refined and varied instrumental palette. Lauer returned to the console the following year for her second album, Because I Can. In 2014 Willis revived Bare Feet Music and independently issued her third album, Live to Try, which included guest contributions from John Oates on several co-written songs. June 2015 brought a publishing agreement with Sony ATV Music, and five months afterward she released the six-song EP Get It, featuring the track “Done with Being Done,” which she co-wrote with Meghan Trainor.