We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Isaac Alley. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Isaac below.
Isaac, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.
My family, like a lot of families in Southern Ohio, only listened to country and gospel so while I was growing up that’s all I ever heard. When I was thirteen I somehow stumbled on a different type of music that lit a fire within me that still burns to this day. I distinctively recall hearing “Vincent” by Don McLean and just being absolutely floored, how could someone create something so beautiful? As I listened to more and more I quickly realized that I too wanted to create something that brought people the joy and peace that I was feeling.
Isaac, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I’ve been playing and writing for a number of years now, but I’m entering only my second year of pursuing music as a potential career. There’s a lot of pressure (mostly self-imposed) to achieve something wonderful and find new ways to stand out amongst my peers, but at the end of the day I can only ever be who I am and to me, if the cost of success is changing the music I love to make it into something more popular/commercial then it’s no success at all.
As a songwriter my hope has always been to write a song that gives people a feeling that they’ve perhaps never felt before, the kind of feeling that I get when I listen to the music made by my heroes. To not only write songs like that, but to then go out and deliver it to people at my shows is the standard that I’m always chasing, to make sure that people have a good time and enjoy the show!
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
Creating an environment where artists feel not only welcome but supported is not the easiest thing to do. I’ve always been very fortunate to live in a town that values art/music very highly and offers artists many different spaces to display their talents. The absolute best way to support artists is to offer them a space to be seen and heard! So many make art in silence, and you never know what wonderful creations and artists you’re missing out on until you give them an opportunity to shine!
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
I try not to be reactionary with my music, but it’s difficult not to be. There’s no better feeling than watching someone’s face light up when they hear a song or to have them come up to you afterwards and tell you that they loved it. Writing a song is rewarding in itself, but to actually see someone’s enjoyment as they listen is an indescribable feeling.
If the goal is to give people something, than the best part certainly has to be giving it to them!
