Local singer-songwriter Karla Hutton recalls the second song she ever wrote, “Spaces In Between.”
She wrote it while a friend was going through cancer treatment. As she processed the experience, she thought a lot about the ordinary moments this friend was missing out on.
“It was just something I chose to express about a person’s relationship to time, and what means the most,” Hutton says. “Those little moments in between are really the life that we take for granted: working in the garden, driving to work, walking on the beach. The little stuff that adds up.”
The song is an emotive folk song that she wrote five years ago when she attended a songwriting camp at Yosemite after flirting with songwriting for years. Even though she was used to writing—she’s owned a marketing company for 25 years—she didn’t think of herself as a songwriter.
“I kind of got hooked,” Hutton says. “I decided to go for it.”
She continued to write songs from her experiences, as well as moments she’s witnessed from the people around her. “Why We Stay” is another songs she’s really proud of. It tells the stories of three people that chose to stay in situations instead of running away, including a married couple that stay together for the kids and a Paradise fire survivor.
“I don’t write love songs. I don’t write happy-go-lucky songs. I write about things that move me and move my heart emotionally,” Hutton says. “That’s the energy I need to express. I want to be able to evoke an emotion that resonates with me and hopefully it resonates with an audience.”
