What NOT to do as a musician.
I started singing when I was 2 years old.
I started playing piano when I was 4.
I started writing song when I was 11.
I started recording music when I was 16.
Over the span of almost 20 years, 18 of them have revolved in some way around music. I have jumped from project to project, genre to genre, trying to figure out the one thing that every musician is trying to figure out: what the heck they're doing.
What is my sound?
What is my style?
Do I stick with what the general population likes or do I try and go out of the box?
Am I even capable of going out of the box?
Ya'll. Writing music is freaking hard. It's fun and it's liberating and it's life changing and it's depressing and it's hard all in one. But I wouldn't want to be doing anything else.
Writing songs that people love & can relate to & feel deeply is what makes all of the crap worth it.
Like the crap when I first started recording music.
I was 16 & I was working with someone who did not only not know what they were doing, but they were very arrogant and rude. They didn't understand how to take a concept of a song and turn it into an incredible song.
That left me working in uncomfortable situations with tight deadlines, zero room for mistakes and little to no guidance in the actual process of writing the song- I'll talk more about this another time. Anyways, it lead me to release a song that was
- Not finished
- Not the style I actually needed to go towards
- Under-produced
- I am now quite bitter towards.
Now yes, it's still available on iTunes & Spotify because I think it's important to show how far you've come, but for all of you musicians out there, a word of warning:
If you don't absolutely LOVE the song, do not release it.
You will regret it. Period.
In October of 2016 I released my first original song: “Fly Back” and oh how I regret it. Not only was the song DEFINITELY NOT finished, but I sound 12. Now yes, I was 16- but it still makes me cringe.
After I released that song I released “Boy” from the same producer. Same outcome- bad song, underproduced, young Riley, should've never happened. But it did and I learned from that song as well. I'm not even linking that one because it made me cringe so hard- go stalk me and you'll easily find it. 😂
Fast forward 2 years of writing music, focusing on life experiences and not releasing a single original, I, on a whim, released my single “Didn't Let You Go”.
I do not recommend this. Releasing music on a “whim”. Why? Three reasons.
1. Advertising and promotion are a VITAL aspect of a successful release. This on average should take 2 weeks to plan and 2 weeks to execute, pre-release.
2. Your distributor doesn't have enough time to get it out to all platforms and the day of the release, half of your audience can't even access it. Yup. That happened. #fail
3. The song needs to be done, done. Not like third draft done, like 123rd draft done.
After that song I had a wonderful and loving mentor come along who didn't want to see me “fail” again. This lead to a month and a half whirlwind of writing a song, re-writing a song, re-re-writing a song, pushing myself as hard as I ever had lyrically and emotionally, recording the song – see the bts video for an inside look into the studio - and creating promo content.
On top of “Stitched” being an incredibly emotional song to write and record, it was very emotional to take photographs for & to put my story out there so vividly. You can watch the Stitched video below to see just how much I've grown. I'm so proud of myself- and that, is something I never thought I would say.
https://cinnamon.video/watch?v=122479330604353298
But ya know, that's what being an artist is about. Looking through this article I see SO much growth not only as a lyricist, musician and artist, but as a human. Being an artist about creating within yourself and outside of yourself- finding new ways to impact people. For instance @Coil – an incredible way to share my craft, I had to jump on it. It's out of the box, it introduced me to an entirely new demographic, people like me are few and far between and the community is incredibly engaging. Coil truly jumpstarted me and gave me the kick to start releasing music again!
I really encourage you to look back on your past and appreciate both the triumphs and the fails because they both shape you into who you are. I have a feeling I will look back on this article in a few months or a few years and laugh about where I thought I was now. I'm not done growing. I'm not done writing. I'm not done. That being said... keep an eye out for new music dropping September 6th. 😉