Meet Rhian Bristol

Rhian, we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?
Confidence and self-esteem can be challenging to attain and maintain especially, I feel, for women. At times, it can be difficult to believe in yourself and your abilities, so it is important to remember that everyone has their unique strengths; acknowledge your weaknesses but always focus on your positive qualities and lean into what feels good. Take time to practice self-care. Know that through hard work, you can achieve the things you set your mind to. Surround yourself with family and friends who believe in you and your potential and challenge you to be the best you can be. It took years of training myself to not care what people think of me. More importantly, it took years of training myself to believe I am worthy. I stood in front of the mirror and told myself, “You are beautiful and worthy of love” until I believed it. I have struggled with imposter syndrome most of my life; learning to ignore the voices in my head that told me I would always be stuck was a hurdle that took years to overcome.

I sing, write, play piano, guitar and bass and also produce my own music. I am mostly self-taught and am always looking for new things to learn. I have been experimenting using my voice in unconventional ways, altering it electronically to create all my instruments with only my voice – drums, synths, arpeggiators…just about anything. Right now, singing and songwriting are my focus and performing live whenever I have the opportunity. I am working on an EP and am excited to be releasing new music soon. I am also loving the opportunities to perform live around LA and San Diego. Outside of my personal music, I keep busy with things I love to do. I am the administrative assistant for the Los Angeles Jewish Symphony and the personal assistant to the conductor, Dr. Noreen Green; I am a voice actor for character animation films, a music theory tutor, music teacher, vocal instructor, and model for music videos and local businesses. In May, I will graduate from California Institute of the Arts having earned my BFA in Music with a distinction in VoiceArts Performance and a minor in Music Theory. I will continue to pursue my education at graduate school at USC’s Thornton School of Music in the fall.  I am excited to learn and pursue as many of my passions as I can.

Drive, compassion, especially for yourself, and self-advocacy have been the most impactful qualities for me in my journey so far. Imposter syndrome is a challenge for many artists. It is something that I have struggled with on and off for years. It all goes back to the messages I received from other kids when I was younger, that somehow I didn’t fit in and anything I did wouldn’t be good enough. Those feelings of wanting to fit in but being an outsider, of self-doubt and insecurity, of not doing it right, whatever it was, bled into my art. No matter how good my grades, how much experience I gained, how many people loved my music or my performances or how much I pushed myself, I just didn’t believe it. I worked harder and harder, but sometimes higher standards confirm the imposter syndrome when you do not feel you meet them. I have had to learn to quiet those thoughts and feelings and understand that whatever my best is is good enough. I woke up every morning for about two years and repeated daily affirmations like “you are good enough,” “you are talented” and “you know what you’re doing” to convince myself that I could achieve what I wanted to achieve. Sometimes I still fall into the trap of wondering if I am good enough or if I’ll ever complete the music I have been working on. I have learned to ignore that voice and keep working because at the end of the day I am doing what I love, and I am so grateful. I wake up every day and make money doing what I love.

The number one obstacle I face right now is deciding what my next step will be as an artist and creator. I am overwhelmed with the number of paths I could take with my career and am trying to narrow my direction. Continuing my education is also important to me. I was accepted to graduate school where I will have the opportunity to continue to study music, songwriting, teaching, musicology and music therapy while I continue to create and expand my art and music career. My end game is to earn a PhD in musicology and teach at a university. In the meantime, I look forward to growing my music career whether that means performing professionally, songwriting, being a music therapist or continuing my work for a nonprofit symphony. This is a time of uncertainty in my life, however I continue to work on accepting that the future can be unpredictable, and develop plans that will set me up for success down the road. I have learned that it is okay for me to take the time to explore everything around me and discover what truly sparks my passion.