For Hayley Reardon, there was no one moment she knew she wanted to be a singer-songwriter.

“It was a natural evolution, but I found songwriting very young, and songwriting was my entry point. That was my home from a young age,” said Reardon on Boston Public Radio.

Reardon, who grew up on the North Shore of Massachusetts, has been making waves in the music industry with her soulful folk lyrics. Her latest EP "Changes" was released on July 20.

She recalled moments from the Boston music scene that shaped her musical style, such as concerts at Club Passim with performances by Lori McKenna and learning about the art of storytelling with a guitar.

One of her first songwriting experiences was when she was just 13 years old. Touched by the tragic story of Phoebe Prince, a 15-year-old student who took her own life after experiencing bullying at South Hadley High School, she wrote an anti-bullying song titled "She's Falling." The song was not only a tribute to Prince but also a message of support for a friend experiencing bullying. For Reardon, songwriting was her way of processing her emotions and a way to synthesize her experiences.

“It's kind of been the place where I ask myself questions and make sense of things.”

When it comes to crafting her lyrics, she doesn’t feel like it’s a decision or something that’s always on her mind.

“I'm not thinking like, ‘Oh, this is going to be in a song.' I'm trying to just live. And then when I go to write, that's where certain things come forth. And I didn't realize how much they mattered until they come through that space,” she said.

Reardon just finished a six-month artist residency in Dachau, Germany. She wrote her EP as she traveled back and forth from Spain to Germany.

“[Europe] was a window into so many different worlds. I learned so much about myself and I toured in a very, very grassroots way.”

She slept on people's couches and said she experienced “intimate windows into different ways of life”.

Reardon showcased two songs she wrote during her time in Europe for a Live Music Friday segment on Boston Public Radio.

She performed "Honest," a song inspired by ice bathing and swimming in the cold waters of Cape Ann in February now that she lives in Gloucester.

She also performed “The Little Sadness."

“This song was written with another song writer named Ryan O'Reilly, and it's about my time traveling and being exposed to so many universes."

She was joined by Pau and Arnau Figueres, guitarists from Barcelona, whom she met for the first time when she flew to Spain to record music with them. “Music is amazing like that,” Reardon said. “It's amazing to have them here in New England in my home.”

Reardon's deep connection with the Boston music community remains a vital part of her identity.

"This [Boston] community welcomed me when I was like 12, 13. I had all of these folk music mentors here. And then I watched the scene in Boston evolve."

Reardon noted the rich folk music heritage in Boston and how it continues to influence her work.

She said, "There's obviously an amazing folk music lineage in Boston specifically. And that was one of the remarkable things about working with these guys across the planet is I got there to record with them in the studio in Barcelona, and they would reference Jonatha Brooke and Dar Williams and all of these Boston singer-songwriters... So music ties us together in crazy ways."