Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Charlie Aky. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Charlie Aky thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.

One of my biggest risks was leaving my full time job as an electrician and going full time as a musician. It’s not just a job but it’s walking away from stability and taking a chance on something uncertain. It’s also sacrificing weekends and time with friends, family and all the people that mean the most to you. There were moments of doubt and fear, but deep down, I knew music was what I was meant to do.

It also wasn’t something I’d particularly planned for either. Lockdown hit, and like many others, I found myself bored with nothing much to do. But there was an old guitar tucked away in my room, and that was the moment I fell back in love with music. It became clear to me that I needed to make music my way of life. So, I started sharing covers on platforms like Instagram and TikTok to document my journey and my progress as both a guitarist and a singer.

Which then led to getting lots of gig to the point where I couldn’t sustain both so I had to give up one and I definitely wasn’t giving up music!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I grew up in Leeds and was always into music at an early age. I started out at stage schools doing both break and street dance, then transitioning into singing and performing. I stopped dance and focused on singing (as this was what I really loved) moving between different stage schools until I found one that offered singing lessons. being one of the few very young singers I often found myself getting various roles in the shows.

However, as I moved into secondary school, I began to lose my passion for music due to peer pressure and the prevailing notion that being a singer in the UK at that age wasn’t particularly “cool”. So, I decided to step away from music. When I left school I worked as an electrician. With no real care or real passion for anything I Unfortunately ended up going down a path that wasn’t great for me and suffered mentally.

I then rediscovered music after picking up a guitar in lockdown which then led to writing and recording songs. So, much so that I’m full time. After success with a few singles I signed a deal and now I have my first release with SEAR music coming out in just a few weeks which is the first of a very long string of releases and I’m VERY excited

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I think just always showing up and making sure everything you do is quality. If you speak to anyone close to me they will tell you that I’m a bit of a perfectionist and because of that I overthink things horrendously but that usually means I really care about them and want them to be the best they can be. But if you keep producing quality content in this case music/ performance people have no choice but to start to talk about you.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I built up from not even being able to play the guitar to now being signed but it wasn’t an easy journey. I’ve talked somewhat about this already so I won’t go too in depth. however learning an instrument and getting to a good level in anything takes a huge amount of resilience because it takes time and a whole lot of effort. From sitting in your room for hours to busking on the street and playing shows to getting good at recording it all takes an immense amount of time to perfect (which I’m definitely still no where near) and that in turn takes a huge amount of resilience.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/charlieaky.music/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Charlieaky.music
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@charlieakymusic5891
• Other: TIKTOK: https://www.tiktok.com/@charlieaky.music
  SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2XjfqtKegSw5Xv6frdij14?si=IftsXpCESsmNXVgP9Dbvfg
  APPLE MUSIC: https://music.apple.com/gb/artist/charlie-aky/1647762333