Meet Roland O’cello

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Roland O’cello. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Roland below.

Roland, so excited to have you with us today. So much we can chat about, but one of the questions we are most interested in is how you have managed to keep your creativity alive.

There are many methods I use to keep my creativity alive.
One of the most important I believe is treating my creative space as a sacred place that I allow no one but myself to explore my deepest darkest emotions.
One thing I’ve learned over the years is if you have a gift and channel it through the arts or music or anything creative for that matter, You absolutely have to honor that gift.
What I mean by that is staying connected to it at all costs.
No matter how busy life gets your number one priority should be taking care of yourself and taking care of your gift.
Put yourself in positions to allow yourself time to create.
Even if it drives people crazy that you aren’t available a lot of the time.
Be selfish to a certain degree because its easy to get caught up giving all your energy away and feeling depleted with no creative vision left for yourself.
I also keep my creativity alive by not being too hard on myself when it comes to creating.
Not every project is going to yield fruitful.
Accepting that and just enjoying the process for what it is, is key.
See your initial sparks through to however far you can mange them in that original moment.
Not every project will be finished in a day and its ok to take breaks or give yourself space from the work to allow yourself time to come back to it with a fresh perspective and energy.
In fact I find most times simply taking a break is all I need to finish a piece of work.
Taking breaks is huge for me.
Although I feel a sense of guilt when I’m not being productive creating, We as humans need time to process what we’ve been through and what we’re going through.
In order to verbalize or express those emotions and feelings we need to be able to process those emotions and feelings in order to verbalize them or write a song about them.
Be kind to yourself, give yourself some grace, be patient and eliminate all distractions.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I started “Hyper Minds” last year after years of dreaming of being in a band.
I always struggled with confidence and always felt like a fly on the wall my whole life.
I’m a deep observer, a deep thinker and it took me years to accept and honor that.
I write songs about anxiety, depression, ADHD, social anxiety and things of that nature.
These are all things that I’ve struggled with since I was a young child.
I want the people out there to know that Hyper Minds champions the deep observers!
I want to be a voice for people who feel like me and feel they are alone or have no voice.
Because I always felt that way growing up and constantly felt misunderstood.
I want to create a community of like minded people that feel safe in our space and community.
I want people to feel connected to us on a deeper more personal level.
I ultimately want to help people feel like and know that there are many of us out there that feel all alone in this world and we’re stronger when we put our heads together.
Lets create a community that cares for one another.
That normalizes big feelings and helps us grow together as a community.

Last December we released our first EP “At War With Ourselves”.
A 4 song introduction to who we are and what we’re about!
Go check it out and get to know us!
We also just opened our online store with our very first shirt release which you can find on our Big Cartel store.
Lastly you can expect a collection of new songs to hit streaming services late March, early April!
Follow us on Instagram to stay in the loop with us @hypermindsband

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?

I think one of the most important qualities that was essential to my creative journey was loving myself.
Getting to know and understand myself and learn why certain things in my life needed to be cut out.
Getting sober was huge for me in that journey.
As well as realizing what truly makes me happy which is expressing myself through my music.
Once I realized that i couldn’t allow anything or anyone to get in the way of that, I haven’t stopped pumping out music and I’m much happier than I ever was before.
Another thing that I mentioned earlier was patience.
Patience is huge!
Knowing that getting into this industry is truly cut throat.
You have to be of mind that we as creatives are in it for the long haul.
Don’t get caught up on numbers, Don’t get caught up being jealous or wondering why you didn’t get a specific opportunity.
What matters most at the end of the day is that you are creating and honoring your gift as an artist.
As long as one person connects to the work, in my opinion, I consider it a success.
Last piece of advice on that would be DON’T STOP.
Consistency is key in this game.
But at the same time I do believe in quality over quantity.
Even though a bunch of people may disagree with that, I think one of the most important things with music or art in general is that it holds meaning and integrity.
When I put something out, I’ve worked on it for months and months before it’s released.
I may have written our newest song last year for example.
Instead of rushing out something that I feel isn’t quite fully realized for the sake of consistency.
I’d rather give that piece of work the time it needs to develop and be fully realized.
At that point I absolutely cannot wait for people to hear it because I know that I gave it everything I had and I honored to work to its fullest potential.
At the end of the day only you know what integrity you want your art to carry.
Do your best to honor that and remind yourself why your doing this in the first place.
Is it to express yourself and find solace in that process and connect with others?
Or is it for the likes, streams, views and opportunities?
Both are nice and definitely possible to achieve.
But what comes first is the art.
That is what you should be spending the most time, effort and heart on.
The art is why I do it, expressing myself is why I do it.
If I wasn’t doing this I’d be depressed, confused and unhappy.
Music is essential in my life and creating it is my purpose.
Anything beyond that is bonus.

Any advice for folks feeling overwhelmed?

I have a few strategies that I go back to often.
Often times I find when I’m feeling overwhelmed it’s a direct result of me over exerting myself especially socially.
My biggest fix for this is reconnecting with myself with as little distraction as possible.
Spend time alone with yourself, journal what your feeling and what you want to fix or change.
Put down the phone.
Keep it on silent or do not disturb.
Do not be afraid to disconnect from social media especially.
I find social media has endless of ways to get it our heads and create a false sense of reality or making us feel unworthy or not enough.
I don’t find it to be a healthy thing for an artists mind.
Or anyone’s mind for that matter.
Social media does not define us and some of us need to realize that the happiness we seek within is different than seeking it through social status.
Take a break and reconnect with other passions or creative endeavors.
Watch your go to movie or read a new or familiar book.
Hang out with loved ones that will understand you when your overwhelmed and see the struggle through with you.
Use those deep feelings to communicate creatively.
Most of my music has come from a place of being overwhelmed and anxious.
Pick up a pen when you feel overwhelmed, Pick up an instrument and see what happens.
Sometimes as well, Sitting in complete silence can help drastically.
In this day and age from the moment we wake up to the moment we go to bed at night, We are smothered by distraction, smothered by advertisements, smothered by “content” .
Everyone is begging for our attention.
But when we are feeling overwhelmed the one begging us for attention is ourselves,
And we need to recognize that and honor that with everything we got.
Stay in control, Don’t allow outside influence to infiltrate your mind, body and spirit.
Easier said than done, but this is how I cope with it all.
When’s the last time you went a whole day without looking at your phone?
When’s the last time you sat in complete silence for 10 minutes without the need to feel entertained or distracted?
Do it.
It’s GREAT for you.
I promise.
Your art and your spirit will only benefit from this.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

B&W Photography by PJ-@cxmerap
Cover Art by Salvador Covvarubias-@_psilo.cybin

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