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

Alright, Ally thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

I’m ally luna, a singer-songwriter and musician. Today, I wanted to share the journey behind my first music single DESTINY, which is a part of my greater project- the DESTINY concept album. Creating this single, the sixth song of the album has been one of my most meaningful music projects so far. The DESTINY concept album is temporarily on pause as I’m working on recording my first EP album Nostalgia. I still hold a very precious place for it in my artist journey and wanted to share the evolution of the project in parallel with my growth as a musician.

Although I’m not a professional musician by training or education, I had a strong calling to create and release my music a few years ago after turbulence in my personal life.

The song ‘DESTINY’ is so meaningful to me because it’s the very first song I’ve created (written, sung, conceptualized, and co-produced). It’s also a very personal album and the story of my growth which I believe anyone can relate to. I think the first to anything is always special and meaningful, and I think the journey and process to create this project was very unique. There are a lot of small moments and learnings I have to share along the one-year journey. I’ve been starting to share more of the behind-the-scenes journey into music on my social media platforms like my website, TikTok, and Instagram, so please check those out if you’re interested in seeing the process of my music creation.

I don’t always love to share my personal life or thoughts, but I want to share this journey because to me it represents the journey of listening to and following your heart. I think nowadays there are a million different types of content or messaging we can listen to, but I want my music to be about staying true to yourself, faith, and self-love.

Because it was my first music project, there were lots of difficulties as well as silver linings and serendipities. I was able to find the right teachers, mentors, collaborators, and even the right inspiration at the perfect times! Seeing the DESTINY single come to life at the start of 2024 was so meaningful and I’m excited for the rest of the DESTINY concept album in 2025.

Ally, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am a multi-disciplinary artist who branched into music in 2023. The unfolding of an unrelated but profound inner journey culminated in me being drawn to writing a single, and a deep and unforgettable understanding of why I wanted to create music. Music is close to the heart, and it’s close to being free. So I believe the messages in music can be shared with less barriers and restrictions. It also speaks quickly and intuitively to people in terms of emotion and message, without the need to always have education or background context.

I grew up loving music and finding a lot of solace in it. I call myself a lonely kid, haha.
I started playing piano when I was five, while the whole time thinking I was a terrible musician because I could not seem to meet the rigorous technical standards of classical piano. I grew up with a very rigid black-and-white system of “good” or “bad” and it wasn’t until my early twenties that I began to open up my way of thinking, especially around music. I realized music is about people and the magical, weird, human experience of being alive. There is no right or wrong and there is room for divergence. It was a breakthrough that I never found in my early memories of playing and practicing piano within a strict classical environment.

When I reconnected with my own musicality after stressful circumstances, I suddenly really wanted to create music that celebrates life and the magic that is all around us. To me, listening to great music at the right time felt like I was living in the most beautiful moment. Sometimes it feels like each beat of my heart and the music seemed to beat in unison with the Universe itself. I wanted to create and contribute my own music to this world as well.  I’ve found so much support and unexpected serendipities in my music process so far, with ally luna. I’m so grateful and excited to start sharing more and more of my journey!

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I wanted to create music for my transcendence, for your transcendence, for universal transcendence- to a space beyond what controls and restrains us. Along the way of my music creation, I want to empower other creative people. I want to collaborate and be supportive of other creative people, instrumentalists, musicians, artists, producers, etc.

From when I first got the idea, it took me a year to create my first single, DESTINY, which is the 6th song of the DESTINY concept album. I worked extremely hard every day, self-funded the project and paid generously, and found myself in situations across California and Tokyo when I was working on the song where I wasn’t sure if I had the means to continue. Through it all, I kept believing I would make it happen.

The song DESTINY gives the feeling of soaring above the darkness that tries to keep you down. The main message of the song is to walk and go your own way. The song represents the soaring feeling of knowing that you’ve grown, that you’ve become much stronger, and nobody and nothing can take that from you!

I worked with a talented Japanese illustrator, nocotyo, to bring my album vision to life. DESTINY is a storybook concept album that has seven songs in total. Every element on the album cover is symbolic and appears in the lyrics and storyline throughout the album. Ultimately, the album is about escaping the pain of being a young person in a sometimes isolating and modern world, to finding the ultimate solace and transcendence. The journey to bring this full album to life might still have some ways to go, but I’m excited for the day it is created and released to the public. It’ll probably be sometime in 2025.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

I always love speaking about the creative journey because it’s dynamic, complex, and evolves with culture and society (for example, recent AI developments alter the creative process). I do believe most people in life have inclinations towards certain experiences; everyone is born creative, and some people might feel more resonance and calling to be creative.

The process is sometimes draining, usually somewhat fulfilling, but always interesting. One thing that I often struggle to articulate as a creative is just how consuming creativity can be. It takes a lot of dedication and doesn’t always seem to make sense in terms of what you might get out of it. I feel like my creativity and my dedication to it has shaped the way I live my life and the decisions I make. It can be difficult sometimes, and sometimes I feel temporary guilt for putting so much into my creative work.
However, I can’t recall a moment in my life where I was not in the process of creating something or expressing creativity – even my earliest childhood memories involve art, music, performance, or writing of some sort. To me, my creative life has been with me for quite a long time. It is my oldest companion. Thus, creativity to me is not optional or an accessory, it is core to my being, and I feel it is my mission on this Earth to create things of beauty, meaning, and significance to others.
This comes with sacrifices- money spent, time spent, periods of solitude, and pushing my limitations in the unrelenting aspiration towards creating something better. It is an intentional lifestyle, like being a professional athlete for example, that demands a lot and doesn’t always fall into expectations of what a fun or balanced life should look like.

And it doesn’t always fit into the system design of society. Creativity is often deprioritized and seen as frivolous unless you’re at the peak of your creative field. Life and the right course of action is unclear as is, a creative calling complicates it one step further. It works ultimately, the creative mind would probably get bored or restless if it were any other way.

Thank you so much for reading my interview with CanvasRebel Magazine. My first EP ‘nostalgia’ is coming out Summer of 2024- thank you for being a part of my journey!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://allyluna.com/
• Instagram: @allylunamusic
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@allylunamusic
• Other: ally luna Spotify – https://open.spotify.com/artist/0NZgMex2cnMG6F4SP4fgXJ?si=QWlHFXb7Q7WYb1WNG8NMEA ally luna TikTok – https://www.tiktok.com/@allylunamusic