We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Aaryn Russell a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Aaryn, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How do you feel about asking friends and family to support your business? What’s appropriate, what’s not? Where do you draw the line?

It’s a very interesting line to walk with friends and family. Family, has supported me throughout my life and generally, they are already on it. With friends, it’s a bit more tricky for a few reasons. Many of my friends are artists themselves and so it is more of a community lift, rather than financial support. With the rest of my friends, I reach out as much as possible in the new world of promotion that we use now. In my lifetime, it has gone from posting flyers and word of mouth to calling and texting to creating online invites and now, ultimately some new version that I honestly don’t have a grasp on yet.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I grew up in a very creative family of musicians (which the majority of my family are or were), physical artists and engineers. So, very early on I began performing with my family’s band with my Dad in the summers. This was an early taste of touring. Things like, loading and unloading gear, mixing sound and performing to an audience, along with a multitude of other lessons about the road that aren’t taught, but experienced. When I was a teenager, I began forming my own bands, performing in really rough country bars in Colorado (we weren’t playing country by the way) and house/ desert parties, which toughened me up for a lifetime of performing in extremely varied environments.
Around the early Nineties, I also started making physical arts, such as oil painting and sculpture. My Ma is an amazing physical artist and inspires me constantly.
I’ve worked with many bands over the years and have been blessed to have a catalog of recordings with many incredible artists. In 2020, I began releasing solo albums, of which there are now four available.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

A big change in my industry, like many others happened in 2020. I was two weeks away from leaving on a spring tour with The Invincible Czars when the lockdown happened and the tour was cancelled. Within weeks, our fall tour was cancelled as well. At the time, I was living in Austin, TX and decided it was time for a new view. I went to Colorado, where there were still a few places that I could perform. But, the work was definitely spottier. I did what many of my peers began doing, which was moving to online performances. It was ok at first, but soon it was worse than performing live. Because where before, you were only competing with a limited amount of groups for a venue, now it as a worldwide audience and a world of performers vying for their attention. Luckily, like so many other opportunities arise in life, something came out of left field. My band mate, Zhenya Rock from Flying Balkan Laikas called me about work out in California with a circus!
This opened up an entirely new artistic form for me. I began working with Zoppe Circus, which was the only circus in the world performing during 2020. Because they had also been creative and intuitive enough to change it up as a drive-in performance. I have been with them in varied capacities ever since.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The biggest blessing of being a performer, is the connection with people. When I see or feel a spark with someone in the audience, it is reminder that we are all really just that close to each other. That we are a part of a whole, seeking each other out to re-connect.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/looksallfullart
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aarynmrussell
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdfm8OquhtECk7z5b0Djgtw
• Other: https://aarynmrussell.bandcamp.com/ https://open.spotify.com/artist/45MRNwbzpuWrW9fYSTMBFI https://music.apple.com/us/artist/aaryn-m-russell/1614161980

Image Credits
Main image photo by Katya Novskaya Invincible Czars photo by mshapsgalore Ringmaster photo by Kody Whitall