Hey, super nice to have the chance to chat with you. What have you been up to over the past year in this big old mess?
This last four years have been the most transformative of my life, but the last year brought incredibly rapid change, and it helped me fully understand what people say about the journey being so much more important than the destination. It was like the culmination of lessons from several mentors came together. I got my current keyboard at a secondhand music store 1 year ago, got it set up in my DAW, started seriously applying some of the production lessons I learned through some groups I joined, and built up the confidence to start looking for serious collaboration, the first of which was In My Nature.
I’m very interested in how you started your adventure with music, and did you know from the beginning that this is what you wanted to do?
I was constantly singing as a child and started imagining complex choral and orchestral pieces in my head at a very young age. My performance path started with solos in church and school musicals very early in life, piano lessons for a couple of years in adolescence, a short time with viola and flute, and choir every moment I could be involved. In high school, my brother wrote a song that we recorded and performed together in rural Wisconsin and Minneapolis venues. A couple of years later, when I was 17, he and his band helped bring one of my own songs to the stage as well.
I went through some heavy things in teenage years and early adulthood and became a parent at an early age. I sang on praise teams and gospel choirs until my second child was born, but I eventually left the church and didn’t perform in any capacity for over 20 years. I continued to write a little in that time, and singing/music has always been infused into my parenting. My kids are all musically inclined as well.
It wasn’t until 2019 when I stared death in the face and got really sick in 2019 that I realized my living situation and lack of self-love had almost killed the music inside me. I realized that everything I’d written, all of my musical hopes and dreams were almost dead within me…like the last ember of my souls fire down to its last glow. I vowed that if I made it through, I would never give music up again. As I went through rehabilitation, I picked the piano back up, started writing again. I didn’t know whether I would ever be able to travel because of my condition, so I went on a musical and artistic journey around the world through the internet. On that journey, I met my piano mentor, Lucien Lu, and a new piano community; some songwriting communities, the most impactful led by Sadie Aliza; a couple of music production groups over Discord, both of which were led by Jonathan Zhu at the time; and eventually my most recent mentor, Masaki Araya, also on Discord.
Congrats on your new release, ‘In My Nature’. Can you give us some insight into it?
Thank you! Making In My Nature with Masaki Araya was like nothing else I’ve experienced and leveled up the magic in my life exponentially. Not only was the creative collaboration amazing, but I’ve also learned so much from him about the business side of production and the producer/artist relationship.
A couple of days after posting my bio in a new Discord music production group, Masaki contacted me. We exchanged some samples of our work and decided to collaborate. Within days, I came up with an underlying theme and sent him the first verse and chorus with initial piano accompaniment.
The lyrics were loosely based on the fable The Scorpion and the Frog. I originally wrote it from the perspective of the frog, and when Masaki sent back a version of the second verse in response, he flipped it around to be from the perspective of the scorpion, blowing my mind and inspiring me even further. As I played around with the lyrics a bit, he sent the first version of the arrangement, and introduced the bridge. We modified the bridge lyrics together, and once I came up with “keep coming back for more,” the rest just fell into place.
In all, it took us about a week to write the song and three more weeks to get the recording and mixing done. One thing that continues to amaze me about this project is the fact that we have only communicated through DMs in Discord; I can’t believe how smoothly it went.
What are you doing to ensure you continue to grow and develop as an artist?
I will continue to learn and grow until I die, and I will strive to nurture the bonds made through the piano, production, and songwriting groups I joined along the way. My piano has a long way to go, but I have specific goals and know how to attain them. I want to learn slide guitar as well and would love to pick the flute and viola back up.
The newest focus is learning to find a balance between promotion, creativity, instrument and production practice, parenting…as well as all of the obligatory adulting things we can’t avoid. I do have some unique challenges including a chronic illness, a challenging fulltime job and volunteer work, and single-motherhood, but I have no doubt that all of these will get easier to navigate with discipline and readjusting priorities.
The promotion part is hardest for me. I struggle with spotlights that aren’t on a stage. I’m learning how important it is though because one of my main goals is to get my music into as many ears and hearts as possible, and to do that, people need to know it exists.
What should we expect from your next releases in terms of style and sound? How different are they going to be compared to your previous works?
I have so much music written at various stages of completion and spanning/combining different genres. Some are instrumental, and several have vocals/lyrics and chord progressions written, some with and some without piano accompaniment. Most songs with vocals have some kind of jazz/blues/soul component but not all of them.
One of my next songs will be a neo-classical piano piece which definitely does not sound like In My Nature but still holds some cinematic qualities to it. I also hope to collaborate more with Masaki, likely as vocalist on a light jazz song he wrote first, and hopefully bringing some of my other songs to life as well.
Other collaborations in progress include: An instrumental piece with my older brother; projects with peers from one of the production groups I’m in including an older neo-classical piano piece of mine that we’ll add nature/ambient elements to and a (currently) a capella jazz song with some cool vocal effects; and one project with a musician friend adding vocals over one of his already-released lofi tracks.
Where are you based? Can you tell us how the music scene there has inspired your sound at all?
I live 15 minutes from the hearts of both Minneapolis and St. Paul. The Twin Cities has such a cool music scene, and it is finally coming alive again after the lockdowns. The venues I spent the most time in were First Avenue, Fine Line, The Red Sea, Turf Club, and The Dakota Jazz Club.
There are so many more places that host live music, and many influential artists have started or expanded their musical career here. I spent the most time in First Avenue though, starting with Sunday Night Dance Party and all-ages concerts when I was 15; we would pack in a friend’s Voltswagen Vanagon and drive from our small town in Wisconsin to Minneapolis where we all felt more at home. So many good memories there.
If you could perform at any venue in the world, where would it be and why?
This is a good question. It makes me think about all of these amazing stages around the world that host epic concerts, but to be honest, performing on First Avenue Main Stage would move my heart the most. To perform in that intimate space on a historic stage that was adored by Prince and served as a launching pad for so many big-name artists would be like a dream. What I care about the most is that energy exchange between the musicians and the audience, and there is something special about the way that energy flows in First Ave.
Can we expect a new EP or an album from you in the near future?
Yes! That is a goal I’m working toward…when exactly, I’m not sure, but hopefully within a year. I just got a new audio interface that increases my recording capabilities, and I’m already going over some of my previously recorded tracks to upgrade the sound.
Finally, have you got anything to share regarding upcoming gigs, and what have you got planned for 2023?
No gigs yet. Trying to get more recording in and will start small. It is different doing this without a band, which is all I’ve been exposed to. Would LOVE to be in one, and maybe that will happen someday. Until then, I’ll do some gigs with just me and the keys and others with a recorded backing. In the remainder of 2023, the flow is leading me to get more songs recorded, build more musical relationships and collaborations, continue to refine my musical skills, and build more self-promotion skills.
