Meet Rachel Blackmon

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

Hi Rachel, so excited to have you with us today and we are really interested in hearing your thoughts about how folks can develop their empathy? In our experience, most folks want to be empathic towards others, but in a world where we are often only surrounded by people who are very similar to us, it can sometimes be a challenge to develop empathy for others who might not be as similar to us. Any thoughts or advice?

Honestly being in tune with other people’s feelings was never so much a learned thing in my experience so much as it was an inherited trait that got stronger and matured with age. The compassion that empathy requires also has aged in the same way for me, and become more of the channel through which active empathy can actually flow instead of remaining stagnant awareness of other peoples’ feelings.

As a kid one of my earliest memories is a shadowy, chaotic scene of my mom being whisked away to the hospital in the middle of the night for emergency gallbladder surgery. My own little body felt pain for my mother who’d already been through cancer at a young age (prior to my birth) and stress at the unknowns of sudden sickness.

Likewise with my dad I learned what his stress from work felt like and how weighty it felt. I absorbed my older brother’s emotions much the same way. For years this understanding of and subsequent internalization of others’ emotions simply developed my ability to “lighten the mood”. I’ve always been creative and goofy so I had the perfect set of skills to crack a joke, distract, make things shinier.

It wasn’t until well into high school that I realized my methods didn’t work well in the long-haul. Worsening relational problems in my family hadn’t been healed by my singing and dancing and I only wanted to hide from my friends’ heavy emotions at a certain limit. Since that point in my life, I have been slowly learning that it’s simply not enough to feel what others do if you cannot metabolize it properly. I had simply allowed the sadness others felt to press down my insides until I could not handle it. Dance, songwriting, playing instruments, and singing– these became means through which I started to finally grieve the hurt I witnessed in others and myself. It was through these expressions that I began to feel compassion instead of the need to simply “lighten”. But it’s often through these things that I’m still learning that carrying a greater capacity for empathy towards others begins with compassion towards myself to feel what it is I’m already feeling.

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?

For the past twelve years or so my greatest honor and joy musically has been being a part of a band called As Isaac. Our main desire in our songwriting is to give voice to the Church, and we’ve been surprised at what a global scale that adventure has taken on since the beginning of our being a band. For years we’ve traveled in the States and in Canada, Central America, and Europe, consistently amazed by how our little songs have taken root in the hearts of folks we would’ve never conceived of meeting, many becoming dear friends to us. Even after all these years, and through many changing seasons of life for each of us in the band, we’re still finding new songs to be written and will be releasing new music this coming new year. We feel more than ever that our world needs songs that remind of the true and lovely when often chaos abounds even in the artistic space. And the True and Lovely is never devoid of suffering; (something I wish was a bit more prominent in the Christian music space) it is the very reason why we sing in the middle of it and even through it to the other side. I long to see this Gospel hope given to folks in what we write.

As an individual artist, I’m also excited to release more music of my own that I’ve been working on for the past few years since releasing singles in 2022. Since having my first child in 2023, I have a feeling that some of the lullabies and love songs that have found their way into my journal may be making an appearance into the world as well. I think we all could use a bit more of both in our lives, perhaps.

From Meleah Smith (not Rachel’s answer anymore):
I’ve known since I was 17 that I wanted to help musicians get their songs out into the world and did my internships with artists and a management group in college. What’s so fun is that my brother (Zachary Smith) didn’t even pick up a guitar until he was 16, and he’s six years younger than me. So I was already helping to support musicians before he really began to be captivated more by music.

Then when he was in college and helping to start a worship team for students at our church, I just tagged along so a girl leader would be present. But since I already had experience working with musicians, when people began to ask them to go places, I was equipped to help manage the details. And when people started asking them if they had music recorded, I was able to followup and arrange a producer and all of the details of recording and getting the music out to people.

I truly believe that music is a universal language that helps break down barriers so that the message of light and truth and hope can reach through. It’s one of my greatest joys to have a front row seat to see people that I love dearly able to use their gifts and skills to reach others with captivating and honest truth through compelling and creative music. (end of Meleah’s answer)

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

– consistency
– curiosity
– service

There are far too many things I take for granted at this point in my musical journey that I didn’t realize were impactful at the time. The greatest for me skill-wise was the sheer amount of practice and grit it took to learn a stringed instrument like the violin (I say this smiling because if you’ve played it at all, you know) at a young age and beyond. Consistency was gently made into muscle memory by teachers early on who underscored the value of daily practice, no matter what. Depending on individual temperament it can become tempting to become dogmatic or perfectionistic in your approach to daily practice. But the lesson I am continually learning truly is that simply the ritual of showing up is enough even when the best you bring that day doesn’t look like yesterday’s best.

Curiosity might seem like a silly quality to include but it’s one that I’m daily learning the true value of when applied. For me, curiosity fights off perfectionism and leads to ideas I wouldn’t have had without asking another question, asking another person, seeking a different sound, etc… I think staying curious also forces us to remember we don’t need to know everything. Presuming we do stifles creativity.

Thirdly, is service though I think it should probably be at the top of my list. There is truly so little I’ve done that has been worthwhile when I have done it from a desire to gain for myself. Every creative endeavor, down to the specifics of choosing when and what to perform when asked, can be an act of love and service. As any kind of artist, the constant insecurity and desire to be seen can be downright controlling. But when we are creating as if the work is given to us to give away– there is infinitely more joy in *that* process. I’d also argue that there’s much greater depth in the content itself when the artist is operating in that space.

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?

I would absolutely love advice and help on this one! My greatest challenge creatively right now is simply one of time. My daughter is 14 months old and the only consistent times I can find to write or practice tend to be in the later evenings after she goes to bed and all the daily tasks are done. She’s also now going to Parent’s Day Out program twice a week so that I can find more consistent time to create. While those are the things I’ve found that currently help, I still feel very much on the learning curve of how to be a parent but also strive towards greater professionalism in my creative work.

Answer from Meleah (no longer Rachel’s):
The artists that I am most passionate about helping, including As Isaac, are independent and don’t fit the mold of the traditional music industry. One of my greatest challenges is how to support them and amplify their voices and their music, when they don’t write to radio and they don’t want to be gone all the time. I am regularly trying to think about ways to creatively help their music be more sustainable financially even while they don’t fit the mold of the industry. It is a great privilege to support them while I have other brand management work with business clients so I’m able to afford to work with As Isaac and other music endeavors without relying that for my main income. I firmly believe that I cannot build my own career at the expense of the artists that I claim I am trying to help. But I would love to see their music support itself and their families more fully!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.asisaac.com https://linktr.ee/rachelblackmon
• Instagram: asisaactheband _rachelblackmon_
• Youtube: asisaactheband

Image Credits

Matt Morrison
Aaron Christopher
Meleah Smith