It was an unusually warm and sunny day for January, almost like a late Indian summer. Songstress Shanin Blake was standing in her front yard cradling a ukulele in her arms, standing on one leg while a hula hoop quickly spun around the other.

“I want to get really good and play the ukulele and hula hoop at the same time,” a beaming Blake said. “But the shoes make it hard.”

The act of hula hooping and playing music at the same time is one way Blake likes to combine her many hobbies. Lately, she’s taken up juggling pins, a French class and revisited piano after a lifelong disdain for the instrument.

What’s with the change of heart? Blake said growing older and gaining an appreciation for music theory has helped her rethink her position on the piano.

“Honestly, I just think being more mature about music, and taking it more seriously and realizing that piano is like, the root of all music and should be learned to be a better musician,” said Blake, of Salt Lake City. “I have a better understanding of how it all works. It’s the same as the guitar essentially, it’s just a little more confusing.”

Now that Blake has overcome her hatred for piano, she’s decided to incorporate it into her upcoming featured performance for Ogden Unplugged at the Lighthouse Lounge on Jan. 22.

Growing into music

Freshly turned 21, Blake now has a new demographic and music scene to showcase her light and sweet acoustic tunes. Although lately, she said she hasn’t taken advantage of being older and having more venues to perform at.

“It was like, oh, I’m 21 now, I can go play for drunk people, which is way fun because they’re always way into it no matter what you do,” she said, laughing.

“Everything that’s been set up has happened through people contacting me, so I should take the initiative to network. I’m not trying to be super crazy about everything right now, I’m just going to let it happen. Unfortunately, music hasn’t been my top priority, but I think it will be when the time is right. I think I need to make more songs and then I’ll feel ready.”

That being said, Blake has been busy working on new songs and assimilating new instruments and props into her live show. She said in the summer, after she gets some more practice in, people can expect to see some more hula hoops and keyboards incorporated.

“I feel like piano is definitely something to look forward to since I’ve never, ever, ever played. No one has ever seen me play the piano and sing,” she said, adding that she’s not nervous about playing a new instrument live for the first time.

“I am excited anyways because it will be fun,” Blake continued. “And then probably later in the summer there will be some fun, weird, random stuff to look forward to as far as multitasking whilst playing instruments.”

Not a native of Salt Lake, Blake is a recent transplant to the big city. She grew up in Davis County with her grandparents and said music didn’t play a major role in her life until she was about 15 and tried guitar for the first time. In the beginning, just like the piano, she wanted to give up.

“I hated it at first and I put it down and I was like, nope this is just like the piano and I’m not getting anywhere and then randomly I just decided I was going to,” she said. “I got really upset one day and I was like, I need to write a song!”

Writing, whether in the form of poetry, stories or lyrics came before music itself for Blake. She said she’s been writing since age 10.

“I was not even knowing what I was saying, but it’s just been a way that I’ve been able to get the strong feelings that I feel out,” she said. “I am always writing new songs. Seriously, I write so many new ones, it’s just finishing them. So I think I have like five right now that I’m really trying to just finish so I can perform them and feel comfortable.”

Performance of a lifetime

Opportunities for Blake to showcase her music have been popping up left and right, especially since the ringing in of the new year. After her show at the Lighthouse Lounge in Ogden, Blake is invited to play a set at the Sundance film festival. She also has an upcoming gig in Salt Lake City with Raw Artists, a concert that may put her music on the map.

Raw Artists is somewhat of a traveling talent show for visual arts and music and is based in Los Angeles. Raw Artists is making a stop in Salt Lake City on Feb. 19, and Blake said the show is a big deal.

“It’s like a four-hour talent show, and they have to pick one singer-songwriter to represent the whole show, and they picked me,” she said. “So I get to open up the whole show, it’s like a 30-minute set of my music. I am really excited about that.”

Blake is finding herself practicing more than before to get ready for her major debuts this month and next. She said in this new year her music is already taking her further than it ever has before.

“I actually honestly feel like this year has a lot in store because already the shows that have been set up, and the opportunities that I’ve had just within the new year so far, is crazy,” Blake said. “Really big things that I’m going to have a lot of exposure for my music. So I think it will go really well, especially for the one in L.A. They said if everything goes well, they will fly me to L.A. to do a 30-minute set at their talent show there. So it’s really exciting.”

With the recent move, Blake has slowly been feeling her way around the Salt Lake venues and finding her niche. She’s already performed at Vertical Diner and Even Stevens, a sandwich shop. This means Blake only comes up north to the Ogden area if she’s booked for a gig, or for her day job as a massage therapist.

When she was younger, Blake used to find herself in Ogden nearly every Thursday night, singing and strumming her guitar or ukulele on the small stage at Mojos Music Venue. She said performing the open mic nights at Mojos when she was a teenager was fundamental to learning stage presence and confidence in her voice.

“If it wasn’t for Mojos, I probably would have never found myself musically because that was somewhere where you could go and no matter what, everyone would support you, and not only that, it was like people would know my songs,” she said.

“I would go there and people would religiously come on open mic nights, and they would know my songs. It was my spot to learn and mess up as much as I wanted to but not get judged for it. I got so lucky that I discovered that place, and so lucky that Ron (Atencio) decided to do that.”

Blake formed friendships and gained an Ogden following through her all-ages shows at Mojos, and through OFOAM. She opened up the Ogden Music Festival last year and said she would love the chance to play again. Until the summer time when festival season is nigh, Blake will have to settle on playing for the crowds indoors.

“I think a lot of people are going to go anyway, because it’s the Ogden homies, hopefully,” she said. “I hope I get to see lots of familiar faces.”

Contact reporter Raychel Johnson at 801-625-4279 or rajohnson@standard.net. Follow her on Twitter @raychelNEWS.

PREVIEW

• WHAT: Shanin Blake
• WHEN: 8 p.m. Jan. 22
• WHERE: Lighthouse Lounge, 130 Historic 25th St., Ogden
• ADMISSION: Free; open to everyone 21 and older