Meet Maggie Tra

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Maggie Tra a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Maggie , 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?

I think a lot of my resilience comes from my ancestry and resistence. Being Australian born, with family in Vietnam and Cambodia came with so many obstacles within not just life but also in the music and creative industry. It’s taken a long time for Asian artists’ to be seen in the scene and for them to even get the space to showcased. It comes from also not being heard, until I went out and did it myself. I’m a DIY artist, the community that I build comes very much from being excluded from mainstream media. Those little wins of representation allows me to push through, and each ‘no’ has built resilience.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

For me at the moment, I am in two minds of keeping the fight to continue to make music in a space where I feel like I have to push harder to be seen, or to let go of those expectations and just be creative. I started from music blogging, to music publicity and then I became an artist. Coming from a part of the music industry that highlighted artist was just a rewarding path, it felt natural to become an artist. I then went into Djing and producing music, and I felt like I could uncover the world through music. As a South-East Asian artist, I want my music to resonate with Asian Diaspora, the feeling of misplacement and belonging.

I have two communities that I established, 1 is Hanoi Community Radio and the other is SYS Sister Sounds. I never saw myself as a leader, just someone who wanted change. HCR was built to give other creatives an outlet to create shows, not just DJs. SSS was built to push more women, non-binary and trans artists/people into the music industry. These two projects are very much passion projects, there are very little rewards financially and sometimes mentally it can be difficult. But I believe success feels different and better when shared, and these two communities allow me to keep being creative in a way that has purpose and meaning.

As an artist myself, I aim to continue to make music that tells stories of minorities and just self reflection of what it means to be an artist in today’s world. To continue to make music that means something, and for it to reach anybody that it may feel like they can be inspired. I want to continuously grow into a better artist, but at the same time I don’t want to stop playing and bringing people together. I’ve my 4th album coming out ‘Cyclo Theory’ 9th October and I am very excited about it.

Now, I want to push for more live electronic sets, I want to see more POC people in electronic music so I am creating jams to push this further. I have a panel and jam at SXSW Sydney happening in October. I am also endeavouring on a new journey, into acting. So these next months will be in film and I am excited to see where that goes.

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?

The first quality I would say would be the ability to say ‘I need help,’ sometimes in the DIY world you do have to do things alone to get things done. But once you become bigger, it’s ok to ask for help in order to build the community. The second quality would be believing in myself more, I had so much self-doubt that I didn’t start Djing until I was 30. I trust that what is for me now is, but at the same time I wish I trusted myself more. Thirdly would be don’t listen to advice from those who have not achieved what you have. I think when you’re in the learning phases you just want to listen and learn from everyone. But not everyone knows who you are and what you’re capable of. Sometimes their frustrations can be imposed on you and that’s just their lived experiences and projection. So I’d say, getting advice only from those who have gone through your project or journey was something that really helped me achieve my goals and get to where I am today. It made me feel less lonely and more understood.

My advice would be to just do. I know it’s hard, but the first steps are the hardest. Stop going to workshops, stop trying to learn more, use what you have and build from that. When you do, you learn. It may not be perfect, but you’re on the journey to perfect a skill/talent that you dream of. And that really is worth investing in, it’s worth making the mistakes. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes, and don’t compare yourself to other people’s journey. If you do, look at it as inspiration and maybe fuel for you to be heard not silenced.

What do you do when you feel overwhelmed? Any advice or strategies?

When I feel overwhelmed, I stop. Everything. I don’t go online, I get rid of my social media and I just stay present. Meditate and journal. I think about what is really bothering me, when I don’t have other distractions and that is really helpful. I also go in with the mindset that, this is a lot right now, but you have the control to deconstruct this and make things more mailable. What can I tick off? What’s bothering me? Why is it bothering me, and then I go from there.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Yohana Kristanti
@rene.haf

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