We were lucky to catch up with Bella Skyller recently and have shared our conversation below.
Bella, appreciate you making time for us and sharing your wisdom with the community. So many of us go through similar pain points throughout our journeys and so hearing about how others overcame obstacles can be helpful. One of those struggles is keeping creativity alive despite all the stresses, challenges and problems we might be dealing with. How do you keep your creativity alive?
I keep my creativity alive by surrounding myself with creative people and doing creative things. I also have the opportunity to work with other artist, helping them with creative things as photoshoots and mood boards, writing songs, timelines and social media. I believe that if I stay creative and work with creative things, my creativity will only grow. I also believe that you can be creative in so many ways, but working with music, the creativity sometimes just comes, I don’t have to force anything. My creativity can come from listening to a new song, a phone call from a friend or working with other creative minds. creativity really has no limits and that’s what I love about it.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
Two years ago I moved from Los Angles to Stockholm. Los Angeles had in so many ways become my home and a place where I felt like I belonged. I didn’t start my career in music in Los Angles, but after a few years of not doing music, Los Angeles felt like the right place for a fresh start. After building myself a network and a safe ground I had to move back to Sweden because of Covid. I was in many ways heartbroken to leave everyone I worked with and all my friends. Instead of moving back to my hometown I moved to Stockholm with hopes of continuing with my music career.
My two years in Stockholm have giving me a new network, more knowledge about the music industry and lots of good new music. Last year I released a song called ‘Alone with me’ with a Swedish label, Comedia, and it went really well. Shortly after that I attended a showcase festival where I got to sing my new single and some new songs that will be released this year.
As a pop artist I want to create fun music, write lyrics that will stuck in your head, hooks you can dance to, but most important, I want to create music that I love. My latest single ‘Alone With Me’ is a combination of everything I just mentioned. A fun pop song with some sort of heartbreaking lyrics that I believe a lot of people can somehow relate to, still a song that I wanna dance to and a song that I absolutely love.
This spring will be a fun one, I will release lots of new music. The first single ‘Home With You’ will be released in April. ‘Home With You’ is a fun dance song that I wrote back in Los Angeles. I felt the need to write a song about how friends sometimes disagrees with what you spend your time on. I was the only one among my friends that had a passion for music, and I spent all my time on that while my friends did something else and I got used to hearing that I was never present while everyone was hanging out. ‘Home With You’ is about how I decided to focus on my music and what I love doing.
This spring you can expect fun pop music, maybe even a collaboration with one of my closest friend.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
First thing first, if you want something you have to dedicate most of your time on that. Prioritise it. That can sometimes be really hard, especially when there’s other things you want to do. What I have learned and what I nowadays know, is that great things takes time and you have to work hard to get what you want. As an independent artist I had to prioritise my music and everything around it to make it work. When I look back now, I have a portfolio with many songs and experiences that I’m proud of.
Second thing is staying focused on my goals. I have to structure thing up to stay focused on what I want. Do lists of things I have to do and goals I want to reach. Everything becomes easier when you have things structured. Make lists, set alarms, do the little extra things and I promise you will be one step closer to your goal.
My third advice is to never give up. Being an artist isn’t easy, especially when you’re still “up and coming”. We all will make mistakes and things sometimes goes wrong, but you will learn from that. Just keep pushing yourself, believe in yourself and good things will come.
Okay, so before we go, is there anyone you’d like to shoutout for the role they’ve played in helping you develop the essential skills or overcome challenges along the way?
Definitely my friends and family. They have always been very supportive when it comes my music and my career. My family and friends are also the ones I turn to when I need advice or help. Having supportive people around me has always been very helpful in any situation.
Cleas Olson who I work with have not only helped me with my music, but he has taught me so many skills and things about the industry which I’m so grateful for. I have grown so much and are more mature in my decisions than I was before. He always helps me overcome challenges and really believes in me. Woking with him is so much fun and I have learned so much from him.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.bellaskyller.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bellaskyller/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bellaskyller/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@bellaskyller2054
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/bellaskyller
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5c8mQlkuj5vXcRsPvdAdjD?si=Mljz456RSo2r8k9QzhHDFA
