We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Gaby Paul. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Gaby below.
Gaby, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?
I’ve been professionally trained since the age of 14 and I learned vocal performance through opera and classical music. If I knew then what I know now, I would’ve started piano at a younger age rather than at 14. Although I do know a lot now, I think music theory practice as a child would have really benefited me. The skills that I believe to be essential were the ones I was lucky enough to focus on at a young age. Those skills were vocal projection, range and lots of performing experience all relating to singing. The main performing obstacle that really stood in the way for me when I was a teenage singer was the fact that there were a lot of pretentious teen students that were unnecessarily mean spirited and unwelcoming in vocal performance. They were unnecessarily competitive when there was nothing to compete for at that time. Of course, I understand it’s usually insecurity when people act that way. There were also some teachers that were not the nicest when I was studying opera and classical music in Minneapolis. I think it’s most important to nurture those younger than you, especially if you are an instructor. I would say those were the two major factors that were standing in the way of me learning more, unfortunately.
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 background and context?
I am most proud of my original compositions in my music library. My music is inspired by real experiences I’ve had and I’d like to say I’m a pretty blunt person for the most part. I’m a real lyric person. I value stories and if you’d like to get to know me a little better, read my lyrics.
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
In my opinion, I think society can support artists better by spreading the word on a new artist they dig. I think social media can be a lovely tool to shout out your favorite musicians but also to help music artists gain a bigger following. It never hurts to write about why you like a certain musician’s work, even if it’s a short and sweet tweet or Instagram story about fresh new music you enjoy. It means the world to an artist to read about why you appreciate their work, I know it does to me.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
A particular goal in my own creative journey would be to combine my audio and visual art together. I’d love to write music for movies and/or show series. It’d be such a dream to work alongside some filmmakers and create a soundtrack to a film. I’m a visual person, so movies have always been a personal favorite of mine.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @soundofjanuary
- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3EAhsxoUxkUF56FTQhR6ey?si=rw9BmA7ESyiHPbcTQvBQFA