Meet Maxine Edmonds

 

We were lucky to catch up with Maxine Edmonds recently and have shared our conversation below.

Maxine, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?

When I hear that I did not receive something I have been working towards for multiple months or sometimes my whole life, it only makes me work harder.

My name is Maxine and I am a pop artist and songwriter. I am in an industry where the most common word I hear is “no” or the phrase “unfortunately you were not accepted.” While I have been working in this industry professionally for the past 3 years, my resilience started way before this. I performed in musical theater for 15 years. The company I worked with was one who decided the main roles through politics: such as who do they know already that has already had a lead role. The same people always got the leads and I was always left to the ensemble. I remember crying every time the cast list came out. My first thought was always, I will never be good enough, but my second thought was: what am I doing wrong and what can I do now to be where I want to be. This caused me to sign up for multiple lessons in acting, singing, and dancing in order to learn more and improve so that I could get to where I want to be.

Now, in my current industry, I constantly audition for shows and work in sessions. I will make it to the second round of callbacks and then not get the part; then I will see the same people who had the roles in the last show get the leads again. That’s just the industry that I am in. But it doesn’t push me away. I have dreams and goals that I have had since I was 6 years old: I have always stated that I am going to be a pop-star, and I can’t let my child-dreams down. Another part of my industry that I find I have to bounce back from is when I am creating my original music. There will always be people who don’t like my songs, the way I sing, or what I sing about; and then there will be some who love what I do. I have learnt that I cannot please everyone. All I can do is keep creating from my heart and hope that it resonates with the people who are open to it. I have also been in multiple sessions where I am blatantly ignored. I will write tons of lyrics and sing melodies and then I find that people have moved the lyrics I wrote to the bottom of the page and not say anything about my melody ideas. This breaks me, but I just decide that while I can learn from listening to their ideas instead, these are not the people I should work with and I can instead become better at sessioning in a safer environment.

I realized that I have to make opportunities for myself. When my friends get opportunities out of nowhere, and I feel like have I applied to so many things and get nothing even though I push myself to learn new things, write, and practice everyday, it then makes me realize that I have to work even harder. An example of making an opportunity for myself was when I walked by a beer garden that I thought it would be a great place to gig at so I reached out to City Hall when I couldn’t find their email, and after a couple weeks I got on a call with the owner and set up multiple gigs to perform for their customers. I believe that making opportunities is a big part of resilience because when I don’t get an opportunity that I want instead of crumbling down I pick myself up and build the world that I can be happy in.

Lastly, I get resilience from the people who are close to me. My family and friends are the first people I go to when I have been knocked down and have been overthinking in my mind too much. The people who are close to me know me best and who I am and they always help me to regain confidence to try again so I am very grateful for them.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I am a pop artist and songwriter who writes, produces, releases, and performs my own songs. I wrote my first song when I was 6 years old when was overcome with emotion from moving houses. I still continue to write songs today to express how I feel and share my life’s story. Most of the songs I write are about the romantic relationships I have had because love is always full of emotions to be told. I have released 10 singles so far and 1 EP on streaming platforms. All I hope in my music is that people can sing along to it and dance to it. I want to make people feel something, whether it’s feeling like they can relate to, are supported, or just feel a good vibe.

Although I have spent the past 3 years in Boston while obtaining a Bachelors of Music in Songwriting and a Minor in Recording and Production for Musicians at Berklee College of Music, I am a true California girl at heart. I am a fitness girl who loves smoothies, the beach, and nature during the day, and the clubs at night. I like to write music for each of these activities so you can check out my beachy song: “Advil In California” and then my club song: “Gasoline”

My main passion, however, is being performing my songs live. I love being able to connect with the audience and use my voice to tell my story. The connection I also have with my band is special. We have performed all over Boston, California, and Valencia (Spain).

I am taking my career to the fullest right now writing music everyday and performing. You can check out my upcoming releases and live shows on my instagram: @max_louise

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

The three most important qualities that were most impactful in my journey have been never giving up, being confident and comfortable in your own skin, and being open minded.

First, I have never given up. As I stated earlier about resilience, I believe that it is the most important because no matter how many times you get knocked down, knowing how to pick yourself up is the most important. The more you keep getting up the stronger you get and the closer you get to your goals.

Secondly, I think that the best quality to have in any industry and simply just as a person is to be confident. Of course we are always still working on finding ourselves as people, but accepting who you are now is important. Having confidence has allowed me to reach out and talk to people I wouldn’t normally and to also put myself into new situations and environments. Having confidence never means thinking that you are perfect and don’t need to keep learning, it just means that you can accept yourself for who you are and really be in tune with what you are good at and be aware of what you need to work on.

Lastly, being open minded is critical. You want to always be open to trying new things and meeting new people. If you close doors on yourself too early and pin point only one thing you want to do, then it stops you from getting opportunities that could blossom into something and change your life.

Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?

I am always looking to collaborate with people! I think a big part of music is being able to share it people and to create something together. As a singer and songwriter I like to collaborate with other writers and producers. All of my songs I release have been created with people because I think it’s always great to have multiple ears on something and it is more special to create together. If you are in need of a singer, performer, or songwriter you can reach me through my instagram!: @max_louise

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