We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Lexi Nguyen a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Lexi, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?
My resilience comes from the innate desire to make younger Lexi (aka, younger me) proud.
I got into music when I was very young. I’m Vietnamese & singing karaoke is a big thing in my culture. At my Bà nội & Ông nội (means “paternal grandparents” in Vietnamese) house, they’d turn on the karaoke machine & my toddler self would always hold the mic & put my hands on the karaoke speakers. When my parents turned off the radio or the CD player, I would whine at them and kept telling them “nhạc, nhạc!” (means “music” in Vietnamese).
When I was five, my Mom played “We Belong Together” by Mariah Carey, as I was waiting in my high chair for the bus to take me to school. I’d always swing my sketcher adorned feet to the beat. That song inspired me to start singing & to express myself authentically. I was really shy at school, yet doing elementary school plays and being so connected to music took me out of my shy shell slowly.
At age 14, I finally built up the courage to sing in front of a large crowd. I sang “Hopelessly Devoted to You” by Olivia Newton-John in front of my middle school classmates & teachers. To my surprise, I got my first standing ovation.
Yes, I’ve gotten online hate comments from strangers saying nasty things about my music and my singing, but I like to say that I just simply move on & be the classy girl that I am. I’ve had times where my performances don’t go as expected, but I tap back into my inner child and she tells me to keep going. I always think of how music moved me as a child & I carry that same passion into my live performances, working on new music, writing my songs, and singing on stage. My resilience is keeping my inner child happy and seen in my art.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I’ve been singing since I was five and been writing since I was 18. I was very shy growing up, but music was that outlet for me to express myself. My Dad played R&B and soul music and my Mom would play 80’s pop and Rock. I also listened to 2000’s music a lot on the radio. So, if you blend my parents favorite music and 2000’s pop, that would be my sound as an artist.
My Mom forced me to do my first school play, and I ended up loving it! On my own merit, I did the school play every year and even did Orchestra for three years in elementary school. After I performed “Hopelessly Devoted to You” by Olivia Newton-John, I knew I wanted to do music for the rest of my life.
When I was 18, I had Tiffany from famous K-pop girl group, Girls’ Generation, react to my cover of her song “Teach You” on Glamour Magazine’s “You Sang My Song” video. I started releasing original music at 19, performed at Seattle talent shows, did open mics at my alma mater, performed at Capitol Hill Block Party, and sang at Seattle Center’s Winterfest. My song “Fever” also ended up on local Seattle radio station, 107.7 FM The End.
Most notably, I opened up for Grammy Award artist, Macy Gray, at the Bing Crosby theater in Spokane. That was a wish come true! I manifested that opportunity because months ago, I wrote in my journal that “I will open up for a very big female artist.” My drummer, Abi Bokare, my guitarist, Khaner Gross, my Dad, and I did a three hour road trip to Spokane. I did a 30-minute opening performance and had the pleasure of meeting Macy Gray backstage. She was so kind, gracious, soft spoken, and grounded.
My music is about overcoming obstacles of all kinds, with an R&B, 80’s, 90’s, & 2000’s Pop, Rock, and Neo soul flair. My influences are Mariah Carey, Ciara, Min, Thuy, NIKI, Alicia Keys, Dua Lipa, and Janet Jackson. I grew up in Seattle, Washington and I still reside there today.
I’m in the process of finishing up my debut EP & I’m really excited to release it next year. I really poured my heart and soul into this project with my producer, Josh Hill.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
First area of knowledge would be how to market myself as an artist. I’m not just a singer-songwriter, I’m also a business woman. I’m always studying what similar artists as me, are doing on social media and how they format their website. I take inspiration from what they do and market my brand as my own. I’ve learned that the things that I like, should be consistent and emphasized in my brand image. For example, my entire website is pink, most of my stage outfits are pink, and even my captions on my social media posts are pink. Pink is authentic to me because it represents elegance, optimism, positivity, and confidence. My music even has a bright, euphoric tone to it—which perfectly connects to my pink brand image. My advice is first make music that you are proud of–music that authentically reflects your style. Then, see what kind of colors/fashion style correlates with your music. Then, consistently post online to grow your following. Believe me, there is someone out there that is dying to have your music in their playlists. You just have to know your audience; their age range, what are their likes, dislikes, etc. Your music career is for you of course, but it’s also giving your art to your fans for their enjoyment.
Second area of knowledge is always asking for feedback from your music peers & to not over listen to your new music. I’ve been making my EP with my producer, Josh Hill, for six months now. Before the song gets mixed, I show my music peers to see what their feedback will be. I tend to get very involved with the production of my music, but there were times where I was overthinking my music. But, my producer told me that it’s good to take breaks from listening to my EP. Then, show your music friends what they think about your song. They aren’t paying attention if the high hats are hitting right or if the synth pads are loud enough. All they are looking for, is if the song feels good and catchy to them.
Third area of knowledge is being protective of my energy. I’ve gone through toxic friendships that have caused a lot of growth for me. It taught me to surround myself with like-minded people. As an artist, I need to have uplifting, kind, supportive, and positive friendships. I’m lucky to say the current friends in my life are just like those qualities. I’ve even gotten the occasional hate comment online and I don’t take those personally anymore, simply because I know they took time out of their day to try to bring me down & they are a stranger to me. I see those as compliments in a way because it proves that I’m being authentically myself online. Being authentic means not pleasing everyone’s perceived impression of you. My advice is list out what you want in a friend and what you don’t want in a friend. Visualize those types of friends and make sure you don’t waiver those standards if someone doesn’t meet all of them. But, also understand that your friends should love you for you, not because you get attention or notoriety by being an artist.
As we end our chat, is there a book you can leave people with that’s been meaningful to you and your development?
A book that has helped me in my development is called “The Artist’s Way” by Julia Cameron. Julia taught me that we all need to take ourselves out on “Artist Dates”, at least once a week. Funny enough, I’ve done solo dates for five years now, but not every week. Once I started this book, the weekly Artist Date was nice, just to make sure that I’m not too immersed in my music career. Julia Cameron mentioned that artist dates are necessary to feed your inner creative child and to come back into your creativity stronger. For example, I went out by myself to watch “Wicked” in the movie theater for that week’s artist date. The scene where Elphaba shows up to the party and starts to dance, actually made me cry. It reminded me of when I was shy in school and i felt so different from my peers. I came home and I started writing a song about feeling different as a kid, because “Wicked” inspired me to do so. Julia Cameron also urged us to write three pages a day in your journal called “morning pages.” Even if you ran out of things to write about, you can even draw something or say anything silly. I’ve already journaled for 12 years now, but I’ve never done three pages a day. Doing that for three months taught me to say whatever is on my mind and it taught me not to overthink. Creativity isn’t meant to be perfect, it’s meant to flow out. Julia cameron even taught me to write a song everyday, even if it’s bad. When I do this, I get to pick and choose the songs that are good. I’ve even written two versions of a song, then finally on the third version, I considered it my best version.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.lexinguyen.com
- Instagram: reallexinguyen
- Youtube: www.youtube.com/@lexinguyen5614
Image Credits
IMG_8700 is by photographer, Camille Watson aka Grace note Creative (that is her photographer alias).
