Two-time women’s ski halfpipe Olympian Brita Sigourney is headed towards another qualifying season this winter as the 2022 Beijing Winter Games quickly approach. We caught up with Brita while still Stateside in Utah before getting her laps in at training camps in Europe. Get to know a handful of Brita’s favorite music artists that keep her in a happy mood in her latest On Rotation interview below.
Let’s start off with what your favorite type of music is?
It kind of depends on what I’m doing, but I feel like most of my playlists are indie, folkie, electronic—kind of like road trip music. I like chill music, old songs, new songs. I have a lot of Tash Sultana, Sylvan Esso, Leon Bridges, Kacey Musgraves, and that kind of stuff on my playlist. Then I have stuff that I still listen to from growing up all through high school, like The Shins, Beck, Modest Mouse, Velvet Underground, Tom Petty. I love Fleetwood Mac. If I’m making breakfast on a Sunday, I always play Fleetwood Mac radio. I also like a lot of 90s hip hop stuff like Jurassic 5, Zion I, Tribe Called Quest, Lauryn Hill, Nas. Currently, Anderson .Paak is one of my favorites nowadays.
Do you usually ski with music on?
Yeah, I like to listen to music every day that I’m skiing. I just feel like it is fun to cruise down the mountain with a good beat. I usually have a skiing playlist, but I’ll edit it throughout the winter so if I’m super sick of it I’ll update it. It’s usually like a hodgepodge of different artists with more electronic and hip hop stuff in the skiing section. I try not to have a specific song that I have to have on while dropping into the halfpipe because I get nervous that I won’t be able to find it. I just have a 40 song playlist that I’m rotating through all day.
What type of music are you listening to while skiing?
When I’m skiing, I end up listening to Drake and 21 Savage because it has more of a hyped-up feel, but I’m still listening to a lot of Nas, Anderson .Paak and all those guys. I also end up listening to Kygo and electronic-type stuff while I’m skiing because their beats are pretty good. I like anything that makes me happy.
How do you find the right song to listen to for dropping into your contest run?
It depends from contest to contest. If I find a new song the week before a contest that I’m vibing to, I’ll put that in the playlist. On comp days, I will narrow it down to a seven-song playlist or something just so I’m not getting some like not upbeat song while I’m dropping in. Let’s see, my last year’s playlist I had Mr. Right Now featuring Drake by 21 Savage, Step To My Girl by Souls of Mischief, Dua Lipa, King Chip, This Is The Carter by Lil’ Wayne. I like Li’l Wayne and those artists, but I definitely don’t listen to their whole album.
Do you have an idea of who some of your favorite songs will be for this winter season?
I don’t expect anything like super new. (laughs) Right now, I’m really into Anderson .Paak, I usually put on his radio, and I still listen to the 90s hip hop stuff like Nas and The Game.
What about when you’re not competing and lapping the mountain for fun?
When I’m just freeskiing, I’ll go way more random with it. I’ll put on a playlist or an artist radio that I’ve never really listened to, and I use that as time to find more songs that I maybe want to add to my collection. But I definitely listen to more of my road trip type music like Tame Impala, Jake Bugg, Rainbow Kitten Surprise and that kind of stuff for when I’m free skiing.
You mentioned earlier having songs that are good for road trips. Who gets to play DJ while on a trip up to the mountain?
If I’m driving, it’s usually my phone that’s plugged in. My boyfriend, Tim, likes listening to music, but he’ll also go on a four-hour road trip and forget to even plug in his phone, which I think is super weird. Like he’ll just sit in silence. (laughs)
Do you have curated playlists for driving as well?
I’m really into this feature on Spotify called Daily Drive, where it’s a mix of news and the top songs in your library or whatever you’ve been playing. So it’ll give you like a 10 minute NPR daily news catch up, and then it plays like six songs and goes to another news podcast. I don’t know why I listen to a lot of news, but I’m also into podcasts. So on long road trips, I’ll rotate between podcasts and music.
What types of podcasts are you diving into?
Like Joe Rogan, anything from NPR or The Times. I listen to The Daily almost every day. Also, This American Life I like that one too, just like random stories. Then I’m also always listening to Crime Junkie. (laughs) As much as I hate to admit it.
Crime and murder-type podcasts are pretty popular these days your not the only one I’ve talked to who has admitted that.
I don’t know why I’m so addicted. (laughs) I know it’s weird, but I’m just fascinated by murder. I don’t like watching horror movies, but I’m okay if I’m just listening to it.
Are you plugged into headphones while hitting a gym or training session off the skis?
When I’m in the gym, I don’t really work out with headphones on anymore just because there’s always music playing in the gym. We can change it if we want to, but sometimes some people like hardcore rock, which I’m not into.
I’ve heard of this dilemma before from Devin Logan. Do your two go to the same gym?
Yeah, it’s the Center of Excellence. There’s usually a hip-hop channel playing on in there. The boardercross team are always like wearing leather jackets and listening to Metallica. Then there’s like the teenage girls who are playing Taylor Swift radio and that kind of stuff, but for the most part, we’ll have Nas radio or something more normal.
Are there any ski movies that you watched growing up that impacted you because of the riding and music choices?
That’s funny. My boyfriend and I were actually talking about that because we just went to the Level 1 premiere in Salt Lake [City], and he especially was bummed on the music selections on most of the movies. I feel like nowadays, it’s a lot easier to get busted for using mainstream songs. So the next day, we were, and he just started playing like Swollen Members from all the songs in the ski movies from growing up, like Happy Dayz [Poor Boyz Productions, 2002]. I feel like I didn’t really realize it while we were watching the Level 1 movie. I think people use a lot more underground songs nowadays. I don’t have a specific movie or segment that I really loved or would watch all the time, but I feel Happy Dayz and Every Day Is a Saturday [Poor Boyz Production, 2009]. All those movies growing up always had good hip-hop songs in them.
Any favorites that you had from the Level 1 premier?
I really liked Jake Mageau and Brady Perron’s movie. I liked their song choice, and I really liked Brady’s editing style, so I thought the song choice went well with it. I think they actually used a lot of original music for that from musically talented friends.
What would you pick if you had your dream video filmed and could pick any song to go with it all rights free?
I guess based off of thinking about this in the past, I really love Easy Giant. I love all the songs they put out, and I think for skiing, they just have a really cool like I don’t even know what you would classify it as like I guess they’re like alternative indie but kind of rock. Have you heard of them?
I haven’t, but I’m looking them up right now. I see the first headline reads “Easy Giant is Snowboarding’s Answer to Surf Rock.”
Yeah (laughs), so I bet they wouldn’t want me to use their songs, but I love their songs.
Is there a specific song from Easy Giant that you have in mind that you would use?
Let me look at my Spotify. I also feel like with Spotify these days, I’m always hitting the radio and letting that play. I’m never looking up exactly what I want. I think So Real is one of my favorites and Future Stairs is really good. Those are probably my top two.
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