Small towns tend to tell big stories. Those seemingly typical suburban experiences, young love, and childhood memories shape us and, ultimately, connect us. Growing up about 95 miles from Boston in Longmeadow, MA, Brynn Cartelli draws on formative experiences to pen candid, cozy, and catchy pop music. For the singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, late-night chats with friends, youthful infatuation, first relationships, and family lore materialize as intimate anthems projected in widescreen like your favorite coming-of-age flick or novel. She approaches the subject matter with a combination of unassuming wisdom and wide-eyed wonder, emerging as an old soul with a new perspective at 18-years-old.

Now, Brynn turns the first page with her 2021 debut EP, Based On A True Story.

“My goal is to take tiny moments and make them feel anthemic,” she affirms. “I want to tell a big story with small details. That’s the core of everything for me.”

“It was so important for me to write on all of these songs. It was about looking inside myself and my world for inspiration. The EP is true to the time, feeling connected to everybody, being in love, and falling out of love. It’s dramatic. It’s innocent. It’s a documentary of the period of my life between The Voice and now.”

“On the EP, there are stories about relationships, my friends, and spirituality,” she elaborates. “I was able to romanticize parts, but all of it focuses on high school.”

In the end, this sort of honesty makes Brynn’s songs forever relatable and real.

“When you listen to this, especially if you’re someone from a small town, I want you to be able to relate,” she leaves off.

“Being from a small town, music was my window and connection to people beyond where I’m from. If I can connect in the same way, that’s all I could ask for.”