We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Adira Sharkey. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Adira below.

Adira , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Do you think your parents have had a meaningful impact on you and your journey?

My parents are not musicians themselves but they are music enthusiasts, and there was always music on in the house, all different genres from all over the world. Not only was music playing when we were cleaning up or making dinner or having people over, but my parents also took me and my sister to live preformances from a very young age. They really encouraged us when we would sing or make up our own songs or be banging on whatever makeshift “drums” we had, even though I’m sure the racket must have been beyond obnoxious! So when my sister and I expressed interest in playing musical instruments (piano, trombone, guitar), my parents always had an emphatic, positive response to that expressed interest and made sure we got access to the instruments we wanted to experiment with, whether that was helping us get signed up for the school band or finding us instruments to have around the house. My parents never limited themselves in listening to only one or two genres, and they certainly never limited us to playing only a certain type of music. I think that their expansive taste and enthusiasm for music as a whole influenced me and has made me a more flexible songwriter and musician.

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?

Like a lot of musicians and creative types, I can’t really remember a time when I wasn’t doing the thing, which for me is songwriting. I have always liked stringing words together in a way that rhymically complements the melodies that are always springing into my head. My first instrumental love was trombone, and I think that’s because I have always loved the bass-ier register of instruments and voices. In high school, I switched to guitar, which was so satisfying because then I could write my own musical accompaniment for the songs I had swimming around in my brain all the time. I am self taught, and holding a pick never felt right, so I developed my own way of finger picking that is a little percussive and (I’ve been told) unusual. That coupled with my lower, sometimes gravelly singing voice winds up coming together for my own take on the folk/country singer-songwriter sound. All that being said, the thing that is the most interesting to me, and the part of songwriting that compels me to create the most, is figuring out the lyrics. I am most proud of the songs I have written where I was able to convey deep, dark emotional experiences with words that felt true to the feeling without sacrificing musicality.

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

If there is one goal driving my creative journey I think it would have to be expressing myself honestly and not shying away from the darker elements that often emerge in my songwriting. I have found that the songs audiences resonate with the most are the ones that were written from the deepest, truest part of myself, sometimes even lyrics that I don’t know whether people will understand or if they even make sense at all, or sometimes I think “oh no, these lyrics are too creepy/weird/cryptic, no one’s going to be into this”, end up being the lyrics that people ask me about after a show. As a songwriter, I would be doing myself and my audience a disservice by polishing away some rougher edges and sugar coating messages to try and achieve larger appeal. That doesn’t mean lyrics and songs have to be over complicated, just that they should be true to you as the writer.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I am still trying to unlearn this really pervasive message that if you’re over 25 it’s too late for anything meaningful to come out of any artistic pursuit. The last three years it has been challenging to engage in music with the level of involvement that I would like to, but that’s because I’ve been pursuing a master’s degree in another field that I’m equally fascinated by. So while I should feel lucky and should feel very fulfilled (and I often am) thinking about just how blessed I am to be able to pursue two careers, I am still haunted by this shadow of doubt that the clock is ticking, and I’m running out of time for my music to get anywhere. But when I actually run the numbers on my performances and songwriting since I moved to Seattle and went back to school in 2021, it has very much been a quality over quantity era: I’ve played some of the most successful shows of my career with the most talented artists in this time period, so it’s just a complete falsity when I get caught up telling myself that I’m not doing enough in music just because I am also pursuing a master of science degree. So many artists and creative people I know are teachers AND musicians, carpenters AND songwriters, hair stylists AND singers, and I’m really looking forward to us getting our shovels and burying this idea that if you’re an artist you have to be 100% all art all the time in order to be a “real” artist.

Contact Info:

• Website: adirasharkey.bandcamp.com
• Instagram: @adirashark
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@adirasharkeymusic

Image Credits
Katey Shoenberger (Mad Harmony Photography), LauraAmy Patterson (L.A.M.P Photography)