BLOG ENTRY 010: The Truth as an Indie Artist
If you know me personally, then you know that I make music. But why don’t I share this more openly and directly?
I was inspired by a question I was asked when I posted on my Instagram, where someone asked me, “What inspired you to create music and what’s the thought process of it?”
I can answer this question and I love when people ask me! But I feel the need to share how I feel about music and my point of view/journey.
So, let’s take it back to September 2019. I decided to record a song that I couldn’t get out of my head that I had made a month prior. I had a Samsung and a ukulele I got as a Christmas gift from Amazon in my bedroom. I stayed home instead of going to homecoming that year. Since I had published it on SoundCloud, I was happy. My first move into making my own music! As I’m typing this blog entry, that song, Michigan, has almost 18k listens!
If you look at my uploads there on SoundCloud, I did post a few covers and original songs. I also got an opportunity from a family member to record a song, which I chose Cold Water, now I smile, laugh, and cringe at the song but so many people love it and plus, the song is now evidence of character development.
This year, I actually released a song that I had felt the Lord let me publish, Oklahoma. I had someone DM me about how this song felt for them and they nailed the meaning:
“At first for me it went from ‘oh wow this person really wants to live in some rando of Oklahoma.’ to ‘Oh wow, this person longs to be in the constant state of being home in Christ.’”
Now you’re all caught up with where I’m at today! My view has now changed four years later. I consider music as a hobby. Take that in with me and I can explain: You know that I’m a barista and I love it (obviously!!!) and I’m attending a community college online. But what the majority of people don’t know is that I am also a caretaker. I don’t always tend to that job but every day I do something with taking care of someone as her sister. Music since then has really been pushed back and like for most of your favorite artists, making music is an outlet.
The truth is that I don’t have any new ideas and haven’t written a new song since August when a family member had a health scare, and I was so scared and somehow my first instinct was to write a song. Now that barley happens! I mostly just come up with the melody with a few lines and some guitar chords and record on my voice notes and that’s it for the process! I don’t have all of the recording stuff and since I’m not a millionaire, I only record with the song with harmonies if it’s finished and I can hear the add-ons and melodical parts to the lyrics.
I feel bad that maybe I haven’t made the right connections yet who can offer me a better studio space and the right production things. I don’t even know what else is really involved when you have the right equipment. I’m just grateful that I have the resources to make music that I enjoy now.
Oh, almost forgot! I really don’t write songs about other people, maybe some of my exes think a certain song is about them but in actuality, I don’t think about them as a subject of a song. I don’t want to be victimizing myself because I had one bad experience or memory of them. Pirate and Lighthouse are definitely not from a past experience, just a figment of imagination of an alternative universe. Most of the songs I write are not the happiest LOL. And maybe I write songs about my love life BUT NEVER WILL EVER POST THOSE ONLINE! The themes of my songs lately have been about growing up, family dynamics, and possible ‘what ifs’ of a small conversation that made me overthink everything :) or possible crushes… NEVER PUBLISHING THOSE ONLINE! Those crushes will pass and I’m not putting those guys on blast.
There you have it, there is the truth, if you don’t do your research on what to use to publish music or don’t know your music style (what you like to make), do a deep dive in your favorite streaming app and the internet’s search engine. I won’t share all of my secrets because I chose to make my life more interesting or pretentious, you pick which one fits me there.
keep pouring,
Khalie x
