We were lucky to catch up with Alexis Lombre recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alexis, we are so deeply grateful to you for opening up about your journey with mental health in the hopes that it can help someone who might be going through something similar. Can you talk to us about your mental health journey and how you overcame or persisted despite any issues? For readers, please note this is not medical advice, we are not doctors, you should always consult professionals for advice and that this is merely one person sharing their story and experience.
Despite this past year being one of the most successful years in my career, I’ve suffered from severe depression which makes it all the more confusing. I’m sharing this because while I’m here on this earth I want to help people understand the things that I’ve gone through and have my story be a testimony to how it is possible to get better even when you’re in the thick of it.
I had to first of all learn to tune into myself just to even know that “oh, I have depression”. I started going to therapy and actually getting a good therapist with an accurate diagnosis to know that “oh, I’m not just lazy” and realizing that I had an issue was a huge help in overcoming it.
I am so grateful to be able to be a full time touring musician. I am fully aware that it is a huge privilege and I see my career as a garden that has been sowed into by many mentors, teachers and organizations. I wouldn’t choose any other life for myself, but I’ve learned along the way that I have grossly underestimated how the difficulties of the lifestyle, even in the best case scenario, can throw my mental health for a loop. I think a lot of the challenges were just the really long work days. Between rehearsals, travel days and show days. I would have 14, 16, sometimes even 18 hour days. Super long travel days and like playing a gig straight after flying internationally. And then the time changes the severe jet lags, going back and forth through multiple time zones and getting lost in time itself I would often end up not even knowing what day it is. So with combined with the lack of sleep, sunlight and a disjointed circadian rhythm it was clear to me that there were several factors that were affecting my brain chemistry.
There was just a long time where I would sit in my house and just only listen to Alice Coltrane. For me I think that music, the industry part that is , and the job parts of it can be the very thing that stress you out. but I had to remind myself that it can also be the very thing that heals me. I started getting closer with God and listening to a lot of Alice Coltrane and started making decisions by blindly following my intuition.
I really reflected on the times where I was happy and began replicating those times again in my own way. I started withdrawing my energy and taking account for the ways I’ve wasted my energy and understanding the phrase
“progress but not perfection” really helped me. I had to take account of all the ways I overextend myself and I had to start saying no even though it was painful but it was necessary for me so I can have more time to actually care for myself. Truly tapping into my intuition really can look crazy and unusual but I do it anyway now and it is truly how I’ve been able to find my happiness again. I think thats really helped me overcome it, so now when I wake up in the morning , I wake up feeling so much more peaceful and so much more at ease. My waking thoughts are so much more centered and loving towards myself and the world.
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?
I am a pianist, vocalist producer artist bandleader. I write songs about my own experience I think what I love about my songs are they’re very authentic to me. They are really true to my heart and my spirit as a young black woman from the south side of Chicago. I grew up in jazz clubs and the very first time I’ve felt the Holy Spirit was in a jazz club when I was 14 years old. Since then in addition to leading my own band, thanks to God I’ve been fortunate to have played with a lot of amazing people. This past year i’ve played with the Miles Electric Band, Jon Batiste, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Dan Wilson, Nicole Mitchell, AACM and Keyon Harrold. And in past years I’ve played for artists such as Marcus Miller and Nona Hendryx and I’ve been very fortune to have these very unique experiences to play with once in a lifetime artists and I am now in the
place in my life where I really want to showcase who I am and what I have to say. Of course I am a woman in jazz and I’m proud to take up that space but I see myself as my own artist and my artistry is what makes me unique. My first album “Southside Sounds” was a reflection of the straight-ahead jazz influences that I listened to growing up on the Southside of Chicago such Eddie Harris & McCoy Tyner. My next album, my first full-length album is mores about my self discovery and what it means to be true to myself; both personally and musically.
From that, I recently dropped a single called “Come Find Me” which is about what it means to reconnect to the inner light to combat bad habits. Musically, it’s more eclectic with a more R&B + hip-hop production style even though the jazz chords are still there. You can find all my work available for purchase on my bandcamp where you will see:
– digital downloads of “Come Find Me”,
– Limited edition signed “Southside Sounds” CDs
– my limited edition mixtapes only available on cassette. I made a mixtape last month and this is my first body of project where everything is pretty much produced by me. Only a handful copies are available and after that I will not be printing anymore. I want the cassette tapes to be a very special listening experience to the lucky few who choose take a chance and go on a sonic journey with me.
Also, my next show is in Chicago at the Harris Theater closing out their Mix at Six jazz series Tuesday May 7th featuring special guest producer extraordinaire Georgia Anne Muldrow with Matthew Skillz on bass, Jonathan
Pinson on drums & Morgan Guerin on EWI/Sax/keys and you can buy tickets here https://www.harristheaterchicago.org/performance/alexis-lombre or on my website alexislombre.com
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 ability to leverage what you got and being resourceful
I am proud to come from the hood on the south side of Chicago, I didn’t grow up having a lot. I started looking at the resources around me for me to realize that, even in the times when I thought I was broke, I was still rich in other ways. So understanding your personal wealth that you have within you and you can redefine what wealth is . You can always leverage what you got. You don’t have to depend on one good connection in order for things to pop off for you. I think the best way especially when you’re having connections with people especially if they’re well known I think its important to be genuine and not have this air of trying to use them cause people will sense that and people won’t want to help you.
If you don’t have money then you have connections. If you don’t got connections then you got the internet. If you ain’t got the internet then, you have your health. If you don’t have your health then you have the ability to see, or touch, or listen. I can say that you have at least one thing thats blessed
about you and for me when times have been dark, leaning on that is what really keeps me going
- Frequency and vibration has helped me a lot as synthesizer programmer / player and producer
As a producer and keyboard, piano and synth player, its really impacted me about how to get better at tuning into frequencies. Being more attentive and being more present to what things really are. If you’re somebody who kind of disassociates, you need to be more present to see if what you’re doing is actually what’s fitting the situation. And that doesn’t have to just go with being a producer, that can go with being a musician, or being a masseuse. If you’re not present while you’re trying to help peoples bodies feel better than you ain’t gone help nobody . So I think its the ability to be present that goes in hand and using you sense to actually know wants going on and doing my best to try to set that ego aside. “reading the room” if you will.
3, Listening to my intuition
No matter what you believe in, everyone has a gut feeling about things. And I urge you to trust it even if it means to go against to the grain. I would advise to take yourself and your gut feelings seriously.
The overall thing is to carefully consider opportunities and to take yourself more seriously in general. I think sometimes, especially being in my 20’s I still feel like a cartoon character but I realize oh, I’m actually a person I got pay taxes and get health insurance like it’s not all fun and games. I have to actually
carefully curate my trajectory which seems like a daunting task. However, for me the decisions get simpler when I just follow my gut feelings.
What has been your biggest area of growth or improvement in the past 12 months?
I’ve really improved on not working against myself and have been taking the time to get to know me to see what actually helps me. It’s funny because my recent single “Come Find me” really talks about that and thats why I wrote that. I wrote that back in college but that just goes to show you the growth of a person. You can have these moments of clarity and then go back into the habits and then get back out of it because growth isn’t always linear. I really believe that sometimes you can write ahead of yourself and I’m learning to live the songs that I write about. I even have a song called “Boundaries” thats coming out soon and its about being selective with my energy and telling people no and not engaging in codependent relationships but it’s taken me a while to figure out how to actually live that. It’s been hard for me to finish to song because it has taken a while for it to sound legit cause I hadn’t been living it. So I feel like my other biggest point of improvement is learning how to live the songs that I actually write about so that I can be as effective as a performer (and person) as possible!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://alexislombre.com
- Instagram: @alexislombre
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AlexisLombre/
- Twitter: @aglombre
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/tracitwin
- Other: Bandcamp for merch ! http://alexislombre.bandcamp.com/
Image Credits
1st photo: Luca Rossetti photo 2-6: Isiah “ThoughtPoet” Veney Instagram: 📸@ThoughtPoet77 of @unsocialaes
