Becky Crosby poetically follows her heart.

The Purchase, N.Y., pop-rock singer-songwriter intuitively chronicles her emotional journey through young adulthood on two poignant, propulsive singles – “I Know” and “Ghost” – which dropped last year.

With vivid, frenzied guitar strums, radiating bass and intermittent drums, “I Know” beautifully captures a young woman’s unrequited love for someone who’s already taken. Crosby’s fiery vocals highlight that escalating intensity, “I’ll be here when you see that girl is nothing but trouble/Trouble for you and me/I’ll keep my mouth shut/Keep my eyes closed/Pretend this doesn’t hurt, baby.”

While “I Know” resembles a sudden emotional outburst, the melodic track actually simmered beneath the surface before erupting and lingering in listeners’ minds last fall. Crosby teamed up with New York guitarist Ethan Johnson to co-produce “I Know” in 2019.

“What I tend to do is write a song, and then I’ll leave it on my computer for a bit until I have an idea of how I want to pursue it,” said Crosby, 19, who attends the State University of New York (SUNY) at Purchase. “Now that I’m in college, I have a lot of friends who do production, and Ethan helped me with the writing music-wise on ‘I Know.’”

“I Know” also appears on F**K THE CORONAVIRUS, a 15-track various artist project compiled by Joey Affatato, vocalist-guitarist for The Carousers, a New Jersey punk rock trio that also features Crosby’s older sister Cassidy.

Available on Bandcamp, all proceeds from the album will go directly to GlobalGiving, a large global crowdfunding community that connects nonprofits, donors and companies.

Before writing “I Know” and adding it to compilation album, Crosby penned the heartfelt, angst-filled “Ghost” as a young teen. The soaring track blends sorrowful acoustic strums with pounding percussion, vibrant electric guitars and rhythmic bass.

Again, Crosby beautifully sings about looking at life from the outside, “Part of me wishes we can turn back time/Back to when everything seemed just fine/And the leaves were falling down on the cold, soft grass/Everything was good then, but that’s why it’s the past.”

“I wrote that song when I was 14 or 15. I was going through changes that were happening in my life while starting high school,” said Crosby, who started writing songs at age 10. “When you’re that young, you’re going through changes friend-wise, and I think a lot of it was based on that.”

Crosby started her musical journey while growing up in Montclair, N.J. At age six, she took piano lessons, and by age nine, she started singing with her music school throughout the east coast. Crosby later took up guitar, bass and drums and attended a performing arts high school to study classical voice. After high school, she enrolled at SUNY Purchase to study jazz voice.

“In high school, I did study classical and opera, and it’s really great because I got a lot of training that I think helped me a lot, and I’ve performed in really cool places like Carnegie Hall,” she said. “I realized this is not exactly what I want to be doing vocally, even though it’s really helped me.”

As a classically-trained vocalist, Crosby harbored a growing appreciation for female pop-rock singer-songwriters, including Paramore’s Hayley Williams, Joan Jett and Pat Benatar.

“For my lower range, I really tried to emulate Pat Benatar, and that’s how I started doing rock music. The first one I really fell in love with was ‘Hit Me with Your Best Shot’ due to Guitar Hero, and then I started singing her other tunes like ‘Promises in the Dark’ and ‘Heartbreaker,’” said Crosby, who’s also influenced by All Time Low, Panic! At The Disco, Lauv and the Vans Warped Tours.

During her sophomore year at SUNY Purchase, Crosby has been writing pop music on the side and working on her debut EP with several co-producers, including Todd Siesel, Ash McMillian and Johnson. The upcoming project won’t include her latest singles, but will feature all new tracks for her growing fan base.

“I’ve written all the songs for my EP, and I’m getting my band together. We’re learning all the pieces right now, and I have a team of producers who are going to be working on it with me,” she said. “When I work on tracks, I like it to be a give-and-take between the producer and the artist, and I’m hoping to get it done this semester and released this summer.”