We were lucky to catch up with Shannon Phillips recently and have shared our conversation below.
Shannon , 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?
It comes from my deep drive to create and share what I am super passionate about which is music, dance, and art. Everything that I truly love, and honestly I don’t think I could live my life without pursuing it. I love music so much, and want to share that with the world. Ever since I was a little girl I loved all 3, and loved to perform. Even though I was/am a super shy person the love I have of the art makes me get on that stage, and give it my all. I knew from a very young age that I wanted to be a performer. I remember being at my first co ed birthday party, probably at the age of 8 or 9, and everyone was outside hanging out, and I was in the living room by myself, listening to Madonna on repeat choreographing a dance to perform for everyone at the party. I have had a strong drive ever since I was young to create dances, create shows combining all of my passions. I was lucky enough to go to a Performing Arts and International Studies High School that celebrates the arts. It gave me a lot of opportunities to create and perform. I also taught dance and choreographed for other dance studios around town. When I moved to LA, to be a professional dancer, it was extremely different/ hard. I was in the audition grind with not a lot of opportunities to be creative. I was disillusioned by the lack of soul fulfilling dance opportunities, and wanted to dance to the music I loved. Which was music that wasn’t so commercial, and music more popular in Europe. So I realized if I wanted to see my creative vision through I would need to become the artist who makes that music. Create the music, then hire and choreograph the dances, and make the kind of shows/art I want to be involved in. I had already been playing music my whole life, piano, voice, and drums. And I had started Djing when I was 15, so this was a logical next step in my trajectory. But it has been a very long winding journey as I realized to become the artist I had wanted to become I would also need to be an audio engineer, as most of my favorite musicians also produce and mix their own music. But the drive to create and share the way I feel about music keeps me going on this journey.
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 have been working as a professional DJ, under the name ShanLynn for the past 9 years. I am an open format DJ, which means I play all different kinds of genres of music, and I specialize in private events. I love music curation, and collaborating with the clients to set the right mood or vibe. I also am a music producer/ composer/ audio engineer and I am releasing my own original music under two different artists names. One is ShanLynn, also my DJ business name, whose music falls under the genres of electronica, balearic house, chill out, downtempo, nu disco, indie dance, and melodic house. And as another artist I am releasing under the name NNON, pronounced N.N.O.N which music falls under the genres of Techno, Leftfield House, IDM, LoFi, Elctronica/Trip Hop. I will be combining my love of dance and art with these releases, as I will be releasing music videos to go along with most songs. I recently launched my own independent Record Label called Open Shape. I am so excited about this, and it has been such a journey starting a new business, while running another one, and learning how to start a record label. But is is very cool to feel like I am in control of my own destiny, and have no rules or boundaries with my music/ art. Which is why I started it in the first place. I feel like I don’t really quite fit in, and wanted a place where I can celebrate other artists who are hard to define, and bend musical genres.
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?
Three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful on my journey are
Having a strong level of tenacity in me. I think the drive to keep going when you get rejected, knocked down, things don’t go your way etc. finding the strength in yourself to keep going, keep trying. Because it is hard to be a creative, and make a living as a creative. You have to sacrifice a lot. You have to believe in yourself, and not let self doubt get in the way. It is extremely difficult when you feel like you are doing this all by yourself. Don’t give up when things get hard.
2. Another quality is having a strong work ethic. Being a professional DJ requires you to be able to handle stress, be extremely professional, ready for anything, and flexible. It is a lot of preparation that you may have to do on very short notice. And that is where the strong work ethic comes in. Also with being a music producer, you constantly need to make music, learn new skills in production, challenge yourself. Failure is a part of the process. You will fail and you will need to not give up and try again. If you do not have that work ethic it is easy to get lazy, stagnant. You need to keep striving to get better at what you do.
3. Another quality is having a curious mind/ continuing to learn. In the world of music, technology is always changing and it is so important to continue to learn new things to grow as an artist. I am constantly listening, watching people I admire, learning from them, trying to absorb some of that magic and spit it out into my own creations and work.
My advice to folks who are early in their journey and how they can best develop or improve on all of these is advice my Dad always gives me, “Think from the End” Where do you want to go with your journey, what are your goals, and why? If you have a strong vision of where you want to go, what you’re passionate about, what you are doing, I think that drive and tenacity will come through. When things get hard and you may want to quit, remember Why you are doing all this in the first place. And you will need a strong work ethic, or people who want your dream more than you will go and get it. You should stay humble and learn from the people who paved the way for you. Continue to grow as an artist and as a human being.
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 obstacle I am currently facing is learning all of these new skills to successfully run a record label, while trying to balance my time being a professional DJ, and also finding the time to be creative and make new music. Time management is crucial for where I am in my life. Learning how to optimize your time, and what works best for me to accomplish all of this has definitely been a process. Learning to create boundaries with my time and energy has taken a lot of work, discipline, and focus. I have learned that I do have to say no to some work, to make time to work on my label , and create music. Which has been very hard, as I love to work, and I find it also very scary to turn down work. I have to remember that without risk there will be no reward, and whenever you are saying yes to one thing, you are saying no to something else. You have to trust in yourself, and believe in yourself. And go boldly into the direction you want to go in your life. 🙂
Contact Info:
- Website: www.shanlynnmusic.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Shanlynnmusic/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Shanlynnmusic/
- SoundCloud: https://www.mixcloud.com/ShannonDancing/
- Other: https://openshapemusic.com https://nnonmusic.com https://openshape.bandcamp.com
