We recently connected with IVEEN and have shared our conversation below.

Hi IVEEN, thanks for joining us today. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

Earning a full-time living in the music industry these days is pretty challenging especially if you’re just starting out. When I first started pursuing music as a solo act I had just moved back to Atlanta from a few years of touring with a Latin band out of Monterrey, Mexico. Being able to tour around the entirety of Mexico and many parts of South America was such an amazing experience because I got to do two of the things I love most (performing music and traveling). It was also great to have a reason to become fluent in Spanish since it’s something I use on a regular basis to this day. In Mexico I became really home-sick, and even though I really loved living there, I really missed my family back home and also had a huge desire to do my own music and pursue a musical career path of my own (instead of touring with a band as an instrumentalist in the background).
When I finally moved back to Atlanta (my hometown) I really didn’t even know where to start. Since I really wanted to record my original songs, I started teaching myself basic music production on garage-band and recorded my first self produced Album. After that, I knew I needed somewhere to promote the album, so I proceeded to search for open mic nights in my area and surrounding areas. Almost every single night of the week I would go to a different open mic to perform a few of my songs and sell my little self-made albums. Sometimes I would drive up to 3 hours away to open mics just to be able to reach new areas and make new music friends in those areas.

I did these little “open mic tours” for months, and because of the consistency of going out and playing music so often, I started to make some great music friends and really started to get well connected in the Atlanta music scene. I met some great booking agents and music producers along the way who got me going in the direction to end up where I am today. Francisco Vidal (fellow musician and booking agent) was one of those friends I met along the way who has been the kindest and most helpful person I’ve known in the Atlanta music scene. Before I knew it, I was getting booked to play music at restaurants, bars, private events, festivals, ticketed shows and concerts, weddings, you name it—I had a gig there (most of these gigs were all thanks to Francisco Vidal). I was making a real decent salary (5 to 6 gigs per week sometimes even 2 gigs back to back on the same day!) doing what I loved.

The only problem was that I was starting to get really tired after doing this for a few years. Yes I was making good money, but the amount of physical labor I was doing was really starting to wear me out. My voice was starting to crack a lot from over-use, my left shoulder started to get really sore from having a guitar strap resting on it for hours and hours of guitar playing/gigging per week. My hands started to get really sore and achy from playing guitar for hours and hours, I wouldn’t sleep well at night because of the pain I was in after a long evening of gigging. On top of that I also had to carry all of my own equipment to my gigs. I’d carry heavy speakers, sound equipment, stage lighting, instruments, and merch/tables (sometimes carrying all of this in high heels—haha because it’s scatterbrained me and I’d forget to bring flat shoes for load in/out), all the way up long flights of stairs, into elevators to the top floor of Atlanta sky view hotels/restaurants. Sometimes I’d have to walk through the dark late at night alone to get my gear back to my car and many times felt really scared and unsafe because people had often followed me to my car (luckily nothing dangerous ever happened but looking back that was crazy).

Fast forward to 2020, all of my gigs were put to a dead stop. I went from gigging 5+ times a week to having all of my gigs cancelled indefinitely due to the pandemic (the entire music industry took a huge blow along with me). So I knew I had to change directions and luckily I was already headed that way with all of the health problems I was starting to have from gigging too much. My left shoulder pain eventually spread up to my left jaw joint and turned into a really bad case of TMJ—so bad that I could barely open my mouth to eat. Luckily I will finally be getting surgery soon to correct it (after over a year+ of physical therapy with little improvement).

With of all of these new big changes it was almost as if something was telling me to take a step back and slow down for a while, so I did. I didn’t stop music though, I just started to take music production and audio engineering more seriously. Darrick Atwater has been teaching me audio engineering and music production for the last couple of years (he’s an amazing teacher and music producer/sound designer) and I finally started to find a niche of my own as a producer—creating sample libraries/packs for other producers and major audio companies. I already play 10+ instruments so sitting in the studio for weeks at a time recording different melody loops of vocals and all of my different instruments has been pretty fun and cathartic. I don’t overdo it anymore or strain my body the way I did with gigs and yet still get to be really creative with my music and my work. I also love that now when I do shows, I will be well rested and bright eyed for my performances! With that being said I’m super stoked to be performing at Imagine Festival on September 15th 2022 with the amazing DJ Ironheart. He makes really cool medieval/fantasy themed EDM, we also have a track we wrote together that will be coming out early next year 2023, super stoked about that too!

All in all, I guess the main thing I’ve learned recently is that with enough creativity and hard work, you can continue to make a living in the music industry as long as you are willing to be flexible, try new things, and push the boundaries with the talents you already have.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

First and foremost I’m a singer-songwriter & multi-instrumentalist (with the Harp as my main instrument). I really love performing live shows and really love using my Headrush Looperboard to live-loop my instruments and vocals while performing both original songs and covers at shows. Really excited to start doing live shows again soon and will be announcing those upcoming shows and tours dates on my social media pages! For those of you who haven’t heard my music yet, I combine a lot of traditional Irish/Celtic music with pop and ambient styles. My upbringing/background is mostly in Traditional Irish/Celtic music because of my dad Mickey (my dad, siblings, and I had an Irish family band growing up and performed at festivals all over the south-east when we were just little kids. So I’ve truly been performing my whole life). As far as my music production/sample pack/library journey goes, so far I’ve made thousands of samples/loops since the start of this new venture. Have also made libraries for and worked with some pretty major audio companies including Cymatics, Slate Digital, Busy Works Beats, n-Track Studio, and various custom sample packs for individual producers and artists. I’m currently finishing up another huge fantasy themed sample pack that will be distributed by the record label “New Dawn Collective” this September 2022. I’m extremely excited to see the fruits of the hard work we’ve all been putting into it, it’s pretty exciting to see an idea of mine start from nothing and slowly watch it turn into something this huge!

Also really excited to officially announce the launch of my Patreon page this August 2022. Will have tons of merch giveaways, exclusive content, free sample packs/libraries for fellow producers, livestreams, and even will be offering one-on-one zoom call lessons/sound advice for fellow musicians and music producers. Truly I’m beyond excited for all of that to be finally launching.

: Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

Another huge focus of mine has been on mental health. I’ve had a lot of mental health struggles in the past that have really hindered the success of my music. But because of regular therapy, self care and constant use of support systems, I’m doing better than I ever have and I’d say that the majority of success I’ve had in music has to do with the fact that I’m keeping all of that in check. I always make it a point to share my mental health journey with fellow artists and creatives especially since poor mental health has been such an epidemic amongst so many people during and after the start of the pandemic in 2020. With the loss of jobs, loss of loved ones and over all stress of change in the world, poor mental health is at an all-time high and it’s something I really feel called to talk about often and include in my art and music.
Music has always been something that has helped me to turn negative and even traumatic events into something healing and beautiful. I can only hope that my music and message can help others with their own struggles as well. I plan to be an advocate for mental health for the remainder of my music career and am also in the process of becoming a certified crisis councilor starting next year in hopes of helping others who struggle with mental health disorders and addictions. My amazing cousin John Hurd has been a huge inspiration to me in this field of wanting to become a counselor (he was a counselor for many years). He recently lost his battle to lung cancer, and though it’s beyond sad to lose him, I find myself so grateful to have had him in my life and can’t thank him enough for being such a beacon of light, hope, and inspiration throughout my own journey and to those blessed enough to have him in their lives. Recovery in mental health and addiction is possible when you put in the work, and his life was a true and powerful example of that.

I’ve lost quite a few family members this year and it’s been really tough. I have had to take many breaks from music to take personal time to process these emotions and always urge/encourage other fellow artists and creatives to do the same when possible. Healing from grief and loss takes time and you have to be patient with yourself and others during these times. Self-care is a much needed practice in today’s go-go-go crazy consumer non-stop pressures and lifestyles. We simply just need to remind ourselves to take a few moments every day to slow down, stop, and smell the roses, listen to the birds in the morning, go hiking, take your socks off to put your feet in running water, allow the stresses of your life to wash off and run away with nature—if only for a moment. Nature is my favorite place to be to remind myself of who I truly am. Whenever I am stressed out or need to take a moment to re-ground myself, I go do something in nature and it’s almost like a miracle how quickly I get recharged from it! 10 out of 10 highly recommend spending more time in nature for people who have a lot of stresses in their lives!

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

A secret that I’m really excited to share with fellow artists is that Instead of having traditional music management (like most independent artists and producers have these days), I decided to try an alternative way of keeping on schedule and on track with my creative works and projects. I’ve been using this really great coaching company called Commit Action this year and I will say it is just as helpful (if not more helpful in my experience) than having a manger. Commit Action has really been helping me to commit to my goals and weekly tasks. One thing I love most about them is that they don’t try to take a percentage of my music royalties (this is something that most music managers do even when they aren’t contributing to your music other than keeping you on schedule and setting deadlines for music releases and content.) So I’m beyond excited to start sharing more about them with fellow creatives and artists because I really feel like more people would really benefit from using their services as an alternative to music management. Unless you’re a superstar or crazy huge like that, you really don’t need that type of manager. I’m a firm believer in “do as much as you can yourself unless extra help is absolutely necessary” and utilize tools and services that are in reach that truly help you to succeed in the long run. Trying new things and alternatives to the “norms” in the music industry has really been a game changer for me and I’m sure it can be for others who are willing to give new things like this a try.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.IVEENofficial.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/IVEENofficial
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/IVEENofficial
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/IVEENofficial
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/anbeanceol
• Other: www.tiktok.com/@IVEENmusic