We were lucky to catch up with Alyson Greenfield recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alyson , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s jump back to the first dollar you earned as a creative? What can you share with us about how it happened?

Years ago I won a contest on MySpace that was presented by Fox Network. The winner was guaranteed to get a song licensed to the network. I ended up getting 4 songs licensed and two songs placed in two different TV shows. I was then asked what my PRO (Performing Rights Organization) was, so the PRO could collect royalties for the TV placements. At that time, I was actually in graduate school for creative writing–I didn’t know much about the music industry, and I certainly did not know what a PRO was. Luckily I had recently gained a trusted friend in the music industry (shoutout to Allison Tartalia (Allison’s Invention), who was able to guide me in these matters. I quickly signed up with ASCAP as my PRO and was off to the races. I was moved that the people at Fox actually waited for me to sign up for the PRO so they could work with me and place my music. It was all very exciting, and also a little overwhelming to move at a fast pace to get everything done I needed to get done. I had never imagined my music in media before, but this showed me that my music could work in that way. I remember being mailed the first royalty check and smiling ear to ear! I also remember wanting to frame it, but alas, depositing it, and actually making the money from my music was also very important!

Alyson , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

No one in my family played a musical instrument, but I was always drawn to the piano since I was young. Every time I saw it, I just felt like I needed to play it! I ended up having to be persistent and ask for piano lessons for years until I was allowed to actually play the piano. I loved playing the piano, but I didn’t love the lessons. They seemed regimented compared to what I wanted to do. I wanted to play by ear and compose music, so I quit lessons after a couple of years. However, I continued to play the piano all the time, playing by ear and composing songs and practicing them. I really fell in love with the outlet of creating my own songs. For a long time my music was only for me. It felt so personal and vulnerable and I wasn’t ready to share my songs with too many other people. A couple years after I finished college, I finally got the urge to share my music publicly, so I went to an open mic and played and sang a song on guitar. I was nervous, but it felt really amazing, and from then on, I knew I wanted to start sharing more songs with more people. Pretty quickly I formed a back up band, and I was playing in all the local spots in Columbus, Ohio– where I lived at the time. After doing that for almost a year, I moved to Alabama to pursue my MFA in creative writing. When I moved there I was still wanting to pursue my singer/songwriter career, but I didn’t have a built-in music community yet. Someone suggested I go on MySpace and MySpace opened me up to a larger world. I thought it was a weird suggestion at first, because I didn’t know much about it, but MySpace allowed me to share my music with a bigger audience online, and I ended up having some opportunities from it– getting my music placed in TV shows, traveling to NYC to open for a band on their Northeast tour, and also getting a booking agent. Being in NYC felt like an incredible place of possibility and I decided to finish my MFA and move to NYC to start my music career. Since I moved to NYC I founded and ran a women’s music festival, I have composed music for films, performed at many venues and festivals, and have gotten to experiment with so many different types of music and collaborators. I started very much as a piano and guitar playing singer/songwriter, but then I moved into indie electro pop, hip hop, and composition. Last year I started a totally separate hip hop project called “Aly G.” It has been really fun to make music and videos from Aly G’s perspective, because she is a bit more of a goofy/comedic/pop/personality compared to my singer/songwriter self! My music has always been a way to express myself and my truths. Sometimes the inspiration comes to me through a piano ballad, and sometimes it comes to me through a quirky rap flow– but I just let the art tell me how it wants to be expressed.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

A year after moving to NYC I founded a music festival and I ran it for 4 years. It was a huge undertaking and came with lots of highs and lots of lows. After the fourth festival I was so burnt out emotionally, physically, and financially. At the time I felt like a failure because even though we had amazing artists and lots of press, and sponsors, I wasn’t able to live my life and run the festival in a sustainable way. I was so upset and I was so depleted. However, being so depleted forced me to get in touch with the fact that I needed to start having more balance in my life. I had created something that served and benefitted emerging female-identified artists and NYC nonprofits empowering young women through the arts, but in doing all of that I had not truly paid attention to how I was caring for myself in important ways– including resting and making enough money to live. When things don’t go our way or they don’t pan out how we wanted them to, it can feel like we have failed. I took some time to recover from that last festival, and the fact that I really needed to have a better balance between work that paid me and work that didn’t. I finally realized I had not failed– in fact I had created spaces for lots of awesome artists to perform and be given a platform, and I had created community because of it. After giving myself some time I started to do less. I decided I could not put on another festival, and that I had to have a better work/life/art balance. Even though it was a hard time and I judged myself at first for not creating something sustainable, after enough time, I realized how much I learned and accomplished and I have since had so many opportunities that came from the skills I gained while running the festival. I decided to stay open to new opportunities, and there is resilience in still being open!

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is that I always have an outlet to express myself! I am so grateful that I have something outside of myself that is very much like a trusted friend. No matter what is going on in my life I always have a way to move through it, and make space for myself and my feelings. I have had this “friend” with me my whole life, even before I was sharing any music publicly. Whether I’m sad, angry, or excited, I can process the feelings through making art. I find it especially helpful when I am having sad or angry feelings.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.alysongreenfield.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alysongreenfield/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/officialalyg
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alysongreenfield/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/alysongreenfield
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/alysongreenfield
• Other: Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@officialalyg
  Linktree: https://linktr.ee/officialalyg

Image Credits

Andy Bridge, Fanny Revault, Rachel Neifeld, Madison Massey