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

Amulya, appreciate you joining us today. Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?

I’m a big mourner of lost time. Be it childhoods spent less than ideally or dreams only hesitatingly pursued, “I wish I knew better sooner” is simply a tool of self-torture in the game of life- at least that’s how I see it. Like every other person who has a dream, I too wish I had started pursuing mine sooner. For years I would tell people that my “embarrassing dream” was to be a singer. Not to be famous, but to create and to be seen expressing my truest, most vulnerable feelings, without fear or judgement. Original songs collected dust in my voice memos for over six years, and only now am I finally producing them and giving them their dues. I especially find myself wishing I found the will to pursue the arts wholeheartedly and without shame the second I fell in love with creating in the first place. I grieve the painful and arduous process of un-judging myself bit by bit, until one day a door opened for me and I finally had the courage to walk through. It’s not like I didn’t try to do all this sooner. I could wish a million things to be true about my life, but at the end of the day, I was always trying my best and the time it took was the time I needed to build my courage and self and skills in order to one day be ready for the opportunity in front of me. Wishing I had started sooner continues to be a tool of self-torture in the dream-chasing game. Today, I whisper to myself in moments of doubt: “Trust the process. You can’t rush the stars to align.”

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

My name is Amulya Pilla and I have been in “The Arts” for as long as I can remember. I started learning Kuchipudi, an Indian classical dance form before I was even five years old. I started learning Carnatic singing shortly after. I dabbled in painting and poetry and philosophy and romance- all arts in their own right. I started writing original music in my freshman year of college and always secretly dreamed of being a singer. Bit by bit I began surrounding myself in the work of art creation. I organized annual recitals, performed in huge dance productions, I toured with the Berklee Indian Ensemble, and submitted films to film festivals. I produced a music video for my friend and am working to start my own dance workshop in NYC. And after years and years of saying “one day”, I finally began working with a few friends to produce my first album of original songs.

I’ve never been someone who wanted to do or be one thing- and I never will be. I’ve lived in over five countries, have friends all over the world, and am deeply passionate about people. What makes them tick? What makes them burn with excitement? Who, oh who, are they really? There are a million and one things I want to do in this life time and a million more I’d like to explore. The one thing that ties all my work together is this- whatever I do has to matter to people. Whether by making them feel something or learn something or care about something new, the work that I do in this life must matter to someone somewhere. And that is enough for me.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

Pay people for their work; if you can’t stand on your values, they are not values you hold. It feels cliche to say “be the change you want to see in the world”, but I really do believe that there is empowerment and grace in the idea of doing the best that you can with the sliver of the world that is yours. I can’t and won’t pretend that I have the power to change the entire state of the music or arts industries. I can, however, decide that I will not create my own music without paying the artists that help me along the way. That much I can do. And it is definitely not easy- I don’t really have the money readily available to make that happen, but that is a problem that I am willing to put the energy into solving in order to stand on my words. Society, at the end of the day, is us. We are society. If we take care of our sliver of the world, if we each stand our ground in supporting artists and paying them for their time and energy and expertise, that would be society doing its best to support and sustain artists in a caring and just creative ecosystem. If we put our money where our mouth is and stop saying we value art without doing something to value it, I think we’d all be living in the world we really want to live in.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

For me, being an artist is all about fear. I crave to be seen and understood, like everyone else. But for me, I believe the fear of being misunderstood and unseen can only be conquered by showing people the stuff you’re most scared of, and even in the face of their judgement, not judging yourself. Pushing yourself to the edge of vulnerability in order to practice the deepest form of self-compassion. Because ultimately, I want to be an artist so that I can live without fear. To me, that is the most rewarding and liberating part of creativity- for yourself and for others. Because when someone witnesses you conquering your fear, it can inspire them to do the same for themselves. When people ask me why I want to be a singer, my answer has nothing to do with fame or passion or creativity for creativity’s sake. I want to be a singer because for whatever reason, that is what scares me the most in this life. And my dream is to live completely without fear.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://pillaamulya.wixsite.com/introvertswanderlust
• Instagram: @alwaysplayfromtheheart; @potato_4250
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amulyapilla/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@amulyapilla9189

Image Credits
SPV Photography