CARLSBAD — Candy Carrigan heard something she liked in the singing voice of Lyn Hance.
Both have lived at the La Costa Glen retirement community for about five years but had never met until a resident showcase three years ago.
Carrigan, a multi-instrumentalist with a passion for music production, approached Hance after hearing the former professional singer perform in the show.
“She said, ‘I enjoyed your singing, do you ever write lyrics?’” Hance recalled. “I said, ‘Yeah,’ and she said, ‘Would you ever consider listening to my music? Maybe doing something with it?’”
The duo hit it off instantly and have been making music ever since. They recently released three original songs about love, change and reflection.
“Some of the best advice I had gotten before retirement was, so much of your life is work while you’re still working, so now you need something to motivate you and keep you going,” Carrigan said. “And that, for me, was music. So that’s my motivation.”
She said her interest in music began with the Broadway show tunes her mother introduced her to.
Growing up in New Jersey, Carrigan wanted to play drums in grammar school, but she said: “They wouldn’t let me because girls don’t play drums.”
She later took up the saxophone and learned to play the ukulele from a music instructor who also taught her music theory and introduced her to Apple’s GarageBand, allowing her to continue making music while socially distancing during the COVID-19 lockdowns.
“I really haven’t looked back,” Carrigan said. “I just keep going, keep learning, mostly teaching myself.”
She now creates music from a workstation in her La Costa Glen home.
Hance left her professional singing career behind in her early 50s. She performed with artists including Bob Seger and ? and the Mysterians while living in Michigan.
In addition to writing and recording music, the duo also collaborate on short stories.
“We have a lot of laughs when we get together,” Carrigan said. “We’re supposed to be working, but we laugh a lot.”
Carrigan releases music under the name Pauciloquent, a word she learned through a game at La Costa Glen that means someone who uses few words. As a natural introvert, she said, expressing herself through music comes more easily than through conversation.
Hance said Carrigan will often bring her several pieces of music she has been working on.
“Out of those tunes, I hear something that I can do something with,” Hance said. “In other words, shape a melody and words within her music that I can sing to.”
Both women said one benefit of their artistic partnership comes from the self-knowledge they have gained over the years.
Hance said they are “beyond being influenced” by other artists and “just do our own self now.”
“Rather than trying to please everybody else, you work to make yourself happy,” Carrigan said.
“It’s nice to have a place to just come and let it go,” Hance said.
