We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Dawn Shipley Rodriguez a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Dawn, 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?
There are a few things I feel are imperative to keeping creativity alive. First and foremost is caring for the soul, which also cultivates the mind. I find a daily meditation and chakra balancing helps me stay connected to myself and the world in a way I’m more susceptible to getting ideas and having the mind to follow through.
My next imperative is to be submersed – almost fanatically even – in creating. It may not be a lot of active work or always be the same type of creative project, just as long as the creative juices keep flowing on a daily basis. When I’m not actively working on something, my mind will always be listening and watching for ideas. I keep a notebook and write them down as I get them – catchy phrases for songs, etc. For melodies, I keep voice notes. This alone has been so helpful in keeping my creativity flowing.
Lastly, keeping my inner child alive is imperative. I think it has to do with presence in the moment, not being preoccupied, taking the time to stop and smell the roses. And then inspiration comes and we are ready to receive 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?
I’m currently singing and writing for a music project called Blue Dawn & The Day Breakers. It’s the epitome of what I’ve wanted to do musically since I was a pre-teen singing into a hairbrush in the mirror. Our sound is sharp, cool, rhythmic, moody and sultry, mixing our favorite elements from past genres like 60s Popcorn, Exotica, Gypsy Jazz, & Rock with hints of Darkwave, Shoegaze, & Pop/Rock and our own modern touch.
I started out and had a fruitful 20 year career as a software engineer, all the while also fronting my first band, Dawn Shipley & The Sharp Shooters, doing traditional Rockabilly. We played shows around the US and on multiple continents for nearly 2 decades, released 3 cds and 1 vinyl single, but life changes caused that to fizzle out around 2016. The stresses of software engineering became too much, too, and I left that and then took professional aromatherapy classes and spent 5 years as an aromatherapist and skin care formulator with my company Blue Dawn Aromatherapy. In 2021, my health challenges got worse and I had to leave that behind, too.
In 2022, this new project was a very welcome surprise sparked by a common love for music & a desire to make music together despite being nearly half a world apart. Gary Day (known primarily for his work in the foundations of the neo-rockabilly/psychobilly scene and his time as Morrissey’s bassist) asked me and my guitarist husband, Watts, if we’d like to try doing a song together, to which there was only one possible answer. We enlisted our good friend, percussionist /sound engineer extraordinaire, Robert Frank from Minor Chord Studios, & dusted off an old original track dying to be recorded. Ideas started flowing & that one track turned into something much bigger and more special. Each Day Breaker has their own rich history with music that really adds so much to each song. Plus, we have guests come in and add their special touch when a song calls for it. Each song gets released as a digital single with a supporting lyric video which I create with photos we’ve taken over the years. We released 3 songs last year with the next release (that I’m really excited about!) being close to completion.
Creating with such amazing musicians is a huge part of why this project is special, but also because it is my defiant stance against debilitating chronic illness. My illness has taken so much from me. We weren’t sure I was capable of singing when Gary asked if we wanted to do a song with him, but we knew we had to try. We have found ways to accommodate my limitations and make it happen. It is not easy but is so necessary and fulfilling.
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?
First and foremost perseverance has been most impactful on my journey. While obstacles and failures can make you feel like you want to throw in the towel, they are really the things that shape you and build wisdom. You learn what doesn’t work for you and streamline what does. After a while, you’ll have created an empire without even realizing.
And with that, adaptability helps us persevere and is thus very impactful as well. Everything changes – people, knowledge, the world around us. We get best results when we allow ourselves, including our goals, to change along with us on the journey.
It’s also of utmost importance to understand business if you want your creative endeavor to be fruitful and sustainable. Though I stumbled upon the knowledge through friends and online searches as I needed it (and once by Los Angeles County reaching out to me! I had to pay an avoidable fine if I’d only learned the basics first), I’d suggest taking advantage of resources like the free webinars the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration host and/or taking a fundamentals of business class at a community college. Also, any creative niche will have other related topics to also learn, like for music, sync licensing and royalty collection is important. Take time to do online research or take some classes in your field.
What is the number one obstacle or challenge you are currently facing and what are you doing to try to resolve or overcome this challenge?
My biggest challenge is that I’m mostly bedridden with a lot of pain and so little energy the last few years, sometimes my body doesn’t have enough energy for the behind the scenes bodily processes. It does make it quite difficult to do much of anything, lol.
Complications with chronic conditions such as hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome along with chronic stress and burnout forced me into this state, hence I’ve been focusing mostly on my health to overcome this challenge. My daily plan focuses on physical, mental and spiritual wellbeing.
From a physical perspective, I’ve found that diet, movement, sleep and sunshine are key ingredients to feeling the best I can and getting the most out of my days.
I’ve learned it’s important to be delicate and loving with oneself, while still pushing just a little; celebrate the little victories, while taking the failures in stride; and also not lingering on the negative while taking time to fully process and release it.
Meditation, epsom salt baths, binaural beats and essential oils are all tools I employ. And I do small exercises to work on building up strength near daily. I also do puzzles like jigsaw and sudoku for brain health.
As for how I started singing again, I had to start with breathing exercises then build up to scales, all lying flat in bed. My voice started out hoarse and scratchy with unreliable pitch, and I could only do 10 to 15 minutes a day to start, so it took quite a while to get better. Even now if I don’t keep up with my vocal exercises, my voice can get gravely.
So once I’m ready to sing a song, the guys will get the drums and basic guitars laid down before I go in to the studio. We plan for me to rest for days before and after my session so that I feel ok and have ample recovery time. In the studio, getting my vocal tracks is the only focus, and I can only do one song per day for my energy levels. I use my zero gravity reclining chair to sing in, reclined back to a comfy position, get the track done, relax a bit, and then head back home to recover. It may cause a flare of pain and fatigue lasting for days or weeks, but it’s well worth the accomplishment.
I do hope that in time my healing routine will lead to the rebuilding necessary so that I can also return to formulating skin care and writing, two of my other most treasured creative adventures.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blue_dawn_and_the_day_breakers/
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/dawn-shipley-rodriguez-4b9398
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@dawnshipleymusic
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6CLt6rCKdOjx3mvTwQRqZT?si=pJ0jMEvkQbuoFjU5erOirg https://music.apple.com/us/artist/blue-dawn-the-day-breakers/1660714442
Image Credits
Lu Rodiger, Tonya Rodriguez Photography, Tony Diavolo, Marcel Bontempi