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

Hi Blood , thanks for joining us today. Do you think your parents have had a meaningful impact on you and your journey?

From a very young age, my parents began to teach me that in life, I would be better off taking my own path rather than following a path that somebody else sets for me.

“Be your own man, build your own world, work for yourself… or you’ll get stuck working for people who don’t respect you…”

They noticed right away that I was a talented artist, and had me enrolled in art schools. From 3rd grade through college I studied fine arts and music. I was always willing to spend all my time creating.
I would play musical instruments, paint, animate on the computer, sing, dance… pretty much developing every outlet of expression I could.

Once I reached a certain age around high school, I started thinking about how my creative gifts could actually turn into a career, so I took on another layer of discipline in my work. All I ever did was create, for years and years.

Years continued to pass, and it reached a point where it seemed like maybe they had done me a disservice… Perhaps they made me so unwilling to conform, that I might not be able to get by as an adult…
But I did not care at all. I had decided already that either I would forge my own path or I would drown.
I figured that if I failed, It would still be a spiritual success.
Had I taken an easier path, like working for a salary, I might have been more comfortable with all my possessions, but deep in my soul I would feel I sold out…

More time passed and eventually things did begin to manifest as I always dreamed.
I started releasing music as the name “Blood Orchid” and the music started becoming popular, getting millions of streams over the internet.

I was able to use analytics to see where people were listening to the music, and start traveling to those places to play shows.
Finally one year, (This year actually) I booked a 30 city tour, and began booking concerts internationally.

My parents did a great job raising me as an individual and now I try to spread that message to people all over the world, along with the message that it takes a lot of patience.

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?

I am a musician and visual artist from Miami, Florida. I play guitar, bass, synthesizer, sing, produce, and create all the visuals to accompany my music.

I started pursuing art more seriously in 3rd grade when Pokemon came out, I drew all the 100 original monsters, and my art teacher met with my parents to tell them I needed to be in art school.

From that point, I studied all sorts of fine art mediums, the history of the arts.
Once high school came, I went digital learning graphic design and animation.
This is where I began playing guitar 3-4 hours a day as well as learning to produce beats on a laptop…

After a few 10,000 hours of visual and audio, I had began crafting my own signature blend of animated music videos,
and I would perform the music with my visuals playing behind me. Eventually I became known as “Blood Orchid” and I would begin traveling all around the United States performing in a new city every week, finally now going international too.

One thing that was really challenging in my lifelong pursuit of the arts, is getting lost in your identity.
We often imitate things we like, because its a way to explore. Sometimes we mistake the imitations as our own identity.
For a while I certainly got lost in who I thought I was. It took years to shake it off and get back to myself.

Overally Id say I’m proud that my life revolves around being an individual, being authentic, believing in myself and being willing to fail as myself than to succeed being somebody I am not.

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

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is reaching a point where nobody can teach you anymore. Nobody can tell you how to be yourself.

Once I reached college, I had to drop out of art school because it felt counterproductive.
Having a teacher telling me how to be an artist was no longer a pursuit of creativity.
It became a design job, creating a product to get validation from a stranger…
Thats not the goal of an artist in my opinion.

The goal is to find the part of you that is natural, and lead with it. It’s not about making something that makes you popular, its just about being yourself.

It’s hard to be yourself in this world that constantly tries to turn you into someone else.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I’ve been releasing music since 2010. It wasn’t until 2019 when I began releasing music as Blood Orchid that I started developing a strong following.

In the past I used to always look for some entity who I thought would help me grow. A blog, a record label, an already established artist… I thought I would be discovered and that would make me “blow up”
But in hindsight, I feel as though I wasn’t believing in my own power.

When Blood Orchid started, the goal was to forget about asking anybody to help me. All I had to do was make music, and release it, and let listeners enjoy it…. But I released ALOT of music. I’d put out a new song every 2 weeks, along with multiple formats of video to promote it.
Then I would run advertisements on each video, and whichever video did best, I would reallocate my budget to that one.

I kept that up for a few years and went from zero listeners to over 90,000 monthly listeners.

I never stopped to ask if somebody can help me, because I know that I am powerful. I can and will develop my own system for success. It takes that confidence. Anybody you look up to who you think can help, they had to start with nothing too.

Be proud, be confident, and work relentlessly.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bloodorchid/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BloodOrchidMusic
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@BloodOrchidMusic
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6HKQlmergzUB4c9Eo1KxpG?si=Ni2iJ5z2Tvqk6t_KQqz-Yw

Image Credits
@Psychi.Media @thebrandy__rose @chongamadonna