We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ania Tarnowska. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ania below.
Ania, we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?
I will have to travel back in time for this, as I guess my resilience comes from the passion for music making, and also from the way I was raised. I’ve always been very driven and charged, especially in the areas where I could thrive. When I was growing up, I never was able to fully concentrate on things that I didn’t love. But music, it always felt like reward, like something I was meant to do. Since I was 7 years old, I basically begged my parents to take me to Music Institute auditions. Finally they did and I got in- and it changed my childhood because now I had not one, but two schools. Weirdly though, I didn’t mind subbing my playtime with music education. I had this resilience right there, Between learning how to play guitar, piano, and studying vocal performance and music theory, I lived my dream because I knew my longterm goal. Then I got into a terrible car crash and almost died. I was in long term coma and recovery. I was only 12 at that time but it wasn’t until early 20’s when I could pick up my music dream again. I never once stopped thinking of it but I had to work very hard to get that privilege of music back. My recovery was a main focus. I had to get through a lot of inner darkness during my teenage years, all because this musical arch of life was taken away from me. Not being able to work on my music skills was killing me. But I survived this. I pushed through. And then I left Poland and came to USA. Music was the goal but first I had to build my life from scratch, build security on foreign grounds, figure out school, employment, citizenship. First thing I bought after the garage sale mug, plate and silverware was a microphone. And my re-start of desired life began right there. I finished SAE Institute learning audio engineering and music business, and I created I Ya Toyah where I could write, compose, record, produce, release and perform what I had in me all. this. time. My music. This passion drove me up until today, and I let it stay in the driver seat because it allows me to live the life I always wanted.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I Ya Toyah is my music brand ( https://www.iyatoyah.com/ ). When spoken out loud, in Polish – my native language – it means: ‘It’s just me’, and ‘I am who I am’. People call me one woman army as I am an independent artist who started her own record label, and I oversee every step of brand development such as management, booking, marketing, and then composition, songwriting, production, video production, packaging, merchandise, touring live show design, and so on and on. I started all by myself, but currently I have a team that is growing. I just released a new single, Panic Room. This song is produced with and mixed by Walter Flakus of Stabbing Westward. I’ve always been a huge fan of his talent and now it feels like a dream, because he is a part of my team. I will be releasing many more songs in 2024, all created in collaboration with Walter. The song, ever since it released, has been doing insanely good. I am honestly a bit intimidated by the numbers, it’s amazing! The official music video for the single dropped 2 weeks after the song and it’s been breaking my Youtube haha – in the best way possible. You can find my new release here by the way: https://linktr.ee/iyatoyah
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?
First of all, you have to be all the way in. Take a big dive and risk. When you have the passion, it comes with the territory. But while doing so, make sure you’re prepared. Make sure you make he best music, that there is the best quality in everything you put out to the world, and are ready to shine. Make sure you hav a strong, dedicated team around you. Sooner or later, with the growth, you will need others to help you build this thing.
Then, don’t be afraid to trust the process. Failure doesn’t exist. In reality, if something goes wrong or doesn’t work, it is just a sign you need to evaluate, re-caliber and keep going. There is always a solution, it just needs to be found and applied.
Before we go, any advice you can share with people who are feeling overwhelmed?
Music business is a kind of place where you can quickly find yourself very overwhelmed. I try not to give into the feeling, instead I look for the reason why I feel this way, what is the exact thing that makes me feel this way. This takes bit of time and digging inside your mind, but when the answer coms to surface you immediately know because the uncomfortable feeling becomes stronger. I take that feeling snd start breathing slowly and deep, and soon I realize that it’s really not that bad, whatever problem I am facing. It can be that I start seeing a solution or multiple ideas for solving the problem. Or I realize that I have no control over it so best to let it go and focus on something I can actually control. It’s aways good to stop for a moment and look around, then look inside, analyze. Clear mind is the best friend of creativity.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.iyatoyah.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iyatoyah
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IYaToyah
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/iyatoyah
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/Iyatoyah
- Other: https://linktr.ee/iyatoyah
Image Credits
Promo Photos: Babiracki Images ( Krzysztof Babiracki ) Live Performance Photos: Kim Hansen Photography
