We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Alison. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Alison below.
Alison, 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?
In my life I’ve been through a lot of experiences where I simply had to learn how to adapt and had no choice but to be strong in order to keep progressing forward. I never had it easy and am thankful for that because I wouldn’t have the strength, wisdom, and compassion I have to this day if my route through life had been an easy one. I heard once life can make you “bitter or better” and I always choose the second one and try to make my experiences shape me into a better, more understanding person to others and can make me of help to 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 singer-songwriter and producer based in Brooklyn, NY. My sound fuses singer-songwriter/acoustic with experimental hyper-pop sounds. I’ve been creating music since I was little and started releasing music around 5 years ago. My music is becoming more and more experimental and I’ve really been enjoying that journey as I feel like there is so much beauty in unusual sounds and hearing those sound for the first time. I released and acoustic pop track called “Rhyme or Reason” a few months back which I call me “sad mermaid song” because it sounds so oceanic! It’s about resilience and understanding that even if we don’t know why right now, we can have trust that we went through certain times for a bigger purpose. I’m currently working on new music and want to release an eventual EP!
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
When I first wanted to start recording my music I started learning production myself – mainly by trial and error, some through school, but didn’t realize at the time how vital that would be for me discovering my sound based on how much I love to fuse genres together!
I’m a big philosopher at heart and always love to talk to people about life, meaning, and experiences, and this I’ve realized recently this is something that channels through my art. I always wrote my art for myself but realize now those experiences are so universal and can help people process things, and I want to be there for people in that way.
I always had a big imagination. When I was a kid and started writing music I used to make songs about the me I would be in the future, almost as a manifestation. That, I think, is what initially excited me about music – exploring worlds. As a I got older, my purpose for music changed mores to coping with experiences I was going through and it became my solace, and in current day I think it’s a combination of both things! I’ve been learning to listen to my inner child more and still fuse her perception of music into my own.
Advice I would have for aspiring artists is to listen to a ton of music and let it inspire you. As musicians, we all have periods of waxing and waning in our journey and I think it’s important to really remember why you loved music in the first place and use it as fuel. It can be easy to make music on autopilot because you know you want to do it, but be intentional and make the effort to remember your music is you creating something into an art form that literally didn’t exist before – how cool is that?!
Do you think it’s better to go all in on our strengths or to try to be more well-rounded by investing effort on improving areas you aren’t as strong in?
I think focally, it’s important to full send our strongest skills and expand upon those so they can contribute as much as possible to the world, but I think there’s always a hybrid need to also invest in new skills. Always make a conscious effort to learn, because not only do you need to, but often times it will help you in the long run and actualize your current projects. As artists we have to wear many hats, and of course I’ve learned a little bit of everything in addition to songwriting being my main component – performing, style, promotion, development, you name it!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/ALISONSTREE
- Instagram: http://instagram.com/alisonsongs
- Facebook: http://facebook.com/alisonnmusic
Image Credits
Elisa Sojo
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