We were lucky to catch up with CAYLEA recently and have shared our conversation below.
CAYLEA, appreciate you joining us today. Can you recount a story of an unexpected problem you’ve faced along the way?
Comparison of timeline is probably still my biggest problem. It’s easy to look around at your peers in any industry and wonder why you aren’t where they are yet, or why you haven’t reached certain goals yet. For most type A personality creatives like myself, it’s rarely a lack of effort, although that is the number one question that plagues my mind – am I doing enough? Usually, yes, but it may be a matter of how you’re going about something, or it simply isn’t the right time. I have multiple personal experiences where I was waiting on something to happen in my career that took way too long in my mind, but then it ended up happening in a completely unexpected way. I can look back and see God’s plan and protection in the waiting, so that’s what I have to remind myself during the lulls.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I am a jack-of-all trades creator of music, and my main thing is making sure people know they are not alone in whatever they may be feeling or going through. I have been a songwriter since early childhood and earned my B.A. at Belmont University in Nashville, studying songwriting and music business. I am a recording artist, and darned as they try, people haven’t been able to put me in a box genre-wise. I am a hard-core vocalist writing super raw lyrics, sometimes influenced by my Christian faith, that often get mixed with elements of rap, so I like to describe my music as hip-pop. It’s really a blend of RnB, Pop and Hip-Hop. I produce my own music and have produced a few other people’s projects as well. I often get comments on being a female producer, which baffles me because it is completely unrelated to gender and has everything to do with the hours you put into honing your craft. Passing on a love and knowledge of music is also a passion of mine, having grown up with a mother who has taught piano for nearly three decades now. I teach voice, guitar, piano, ukulele, songwriting and Logic Pro to about a dozen students currently. Music is literally my life, aside from my husband who is in the Air Force, and my cat and dogs. They hang out in my studio while I’m working and it’s literally the best.
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
Personally, I feel not many people truly appreciate or value the craftsmanship of being a creative. There are quite literally thousands upon thousands of hours that go into getting good enough at something that you can provide a service or product for someone, and often thousands upon thousands of dollars that go into starting up that creative business. When people don’t think about that, it’s easy to balk at prices for services or products made by creatives. Also, just show up for your creative friends. We hate bombarding people with messages asking them to listen to our song, come to our show, or whatever it may be; but we have to do it in order to not only get our art out there for people to engage with, but also hopefully make a living from it so we don’t have to stress financially while working overtime to pursue our creative careers. The concept of a “day job” is ridiculous when comparing to creative careers; the only difference is how much society values one career over another. I think if we could change how we value the arts, not as many people would have to hold “day jobs” while making the art that others enjoy for entertainment, often for free. I’ll step off my soap box now!
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?
I’ll try to create an example, which relates to the question about society’s support of artists. If you are a lawyer, you had to get your bachelor’s degree, then your law degree, read a boat load of books, take a bunch of really difficult exams, and probably get a slightly more menial job at a law firm to start out. Plus, it probably cost you a LOT of money to get there. A creative like myself often goes to school for their bachelor’s, invests in tens of thousands of dollars of equipment needed for their craft, and spends several years making that art for free or for very little money in order to “gain exposure”, and ten years in still has people think that even low to median prices for their art are too high, without any knowledge of what an artist at the top of that field would charge for the same thing. Again, it’s about valuing people’s time and craft. No one career field is better than another simply because it earns more money or makes it more easily, and I do wish we as a society would change our view on that. Start by valuing everyone’s time, equating it with what you would think is fair treatment of your own time.
Contact Info:
- Website: cayleamusic.com
- Instagram: @cayleamusic
- Facebook: @cayleamusic
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CayleaMusic
Image Credits
Annie-Beth Photo