We recently connected with Sabrea Aijalon Curiel and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Sabrea, thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?
I definitely got it from my family. I had to start working at a very young age when my dad found out he had a tumor in his ear growing towards his brain and at the time my dad was our primary provider. Him and my youngest brother ended up investing in a kettlecorn business for me, my sister, and my mom so that we’d have something we could work to provide for ourselves with in the case of the worst outcome. Luckily, my dad is alive and well and tumor-free 🙂 but yeah it was a scary moment but a lot of good came from it. We kept the business going until I moved out here to New York City for college, my mom still does it from time to time though. Im def very grateful that I was in a sense forced to work very early on. I mean of course in the moment I was pissed cause all a middle school wants to do is play video games all day and go swimming LOL but in the same regard I did like that fact that I never had to ask my parents for money when going out with my friends. I took a lot of pride in the idea of being able to “provide for myself” at a very young age and got used to the idea of having to work for what I want and creating oppurtunites for myself and not being at the mercy of other people. That translated a lot in college when I went to AMDA for musical theater and getting a day job; my bosses were always very impressed with my work and just the way I was raised, I developed the habit of always doing a little more than asked and I enjoyed the recognition I got from it and most times I was shocked when reciving it cause in my head I was just doing my job but in reality, people just tend to do the bare minimum. Which there’s nothing wrong with that but I just had other values instiled in me which I really appreciate.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
HELLO YES! So I am a Music Artist currently based out of NYC but originally from Pomona, California #putpomonaonthemap #pomonapride!!!! I’m currently twenty years old and have been making music/taking it seriously for about three years now. I learned guitar my senior year of high school where we just learned basic chords & how to sight read, from there I was self taught. I’ve also been singing since I was like three, always in choir, never took it too seriously until senior year when I realized I could give it a real shot. I’ve always been hooked on the idea of loving my job and my job being something I genuinely enjoy and could see myself never getting tired of. At this point I have 3 EPs out and 4 singles! I just recently hit a mileston his past December with my single hitting 38k streams on spotify, my most streamed song yet!! Very exciting moment and milestone :,) Since Janurary of this year I made a comittment to myself, even though I’ve never been to big on new years resolutions, but I wanted to give this music career thing a real fighting chance by putting my true ALL into it this year. To start that I had a kickoff concert on Janurary 11th held at the Off-Broadway Triad Theater in New York City! I got a band together (Aria Avila, Nora Jean, & Nathan Whitman) because I really wanted it to be a live music true experience when playing my music live out here and they’ve been so helpful and just truly amazing to collaborate and work with. Getting paid to play your own music with your friends and partner is litterly a dream baby Sabrea could’ve never even fathomed. Since then we’ve played a live show at LEAST once a month and various venues like Brooklyn Music Kitchen, The Shrine, Ariston Flowers, and many more. Always got new music in the works as well, working on a bunch of singles and collabs as well as my newest EP titled ‘uptown to downtown’ planned to come out September 11th of this year! My next BIG MAJORRRR show is going to be at The Delancey NYC June 12th which I’m SOOOOOO excited for!!! This will be my first concert held in a standing venue and I’m going all out! Doing some new songs, old songs, covers, giving away free merch…. its gonna be big and if you’re in the city I’d love for you to come be apart of it 🙂
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 three skills or qualities I think were most impactful in my journey is persistance, authenticity, and kindness. I think for anyone whose just starting out their journey should keep authenticity at their forefront. I mean, at least just me, if I’m going to be forced to make music I dont resonate with or forced to dress a certain way, I might as well have went to school for something more stable and got a 9-5 job behind a desk. I make music because it’s truthfully the safest way I can express myself and it’s so fufilling to create art!! I say figure it out stumble a little bit, find what you like creating and STICK TO IT! Do NOT let ANYONE in your life tell you your art and creations aren’t worth putting your all into. Every piece of art has an audience WAITINGGGG to see, hear, and experience it! You just have to find them. And trust me I know firsthand how hard it is to slip into thinking you’re not good enough or that you’ll never make it, but the only way to get closer to the front of the line is by staying in it; you have no chance of getting there if you’re out of it, unless you’re a nepo baby of course. And do not think kindess is overrated and a given because people can be SO RUDE in this industry so trust me when I say kindness and showing appreciation goes a long way. And follow up with venues and people, stay consistent! Reminding people you’re there isn’t bugging them! Of course don’t go emailing the same person or venue everyday but there’s nothing wrong with a little follow up email if you haven’t heard back in a couple weeks. People get busy, emails get overlooked, sometimes they truthfully just didn’t see it 🙂
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?
The number one challenge I’m currently facing is celebrating the progress and the small wins I’ve had. I think I speak for a lot of people in the arts where there’s this struggle of being so attached to your end goal that every little step made closer to that goal feels unimportant which is SOOOOOO untrue! And majority of the time once you finally get that goal, you pick a new one! Latley I’ve been very fourtnate to have supportive friends, partner, bandmates, my therepist (SHOUTOUT RACHEL!!), and my family and their words def ground me a lot and remind me that I am doing something of significance, that I am doing something that’s contributing to something way bigger than myself. I constantly remind myself that at the end of the day I’m doing this because I love it, because it makes me happy.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://sabreaaijaloncuriel.com/
- Instagram: @sabreaaijaloncuriel
- Youtube: Sabrea Aijalon Curiel
Image Credits
Benny Ethan Pham, Roni Trypucko, Olivia Lattimer
