We were lucky to catch up with Corina Seas recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Corina, thanks for joining us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

I think pursuing art in and of itself is a risk and compounding that with the objective of not sacrificing the art for popularity creates a high risk scenario that shouldn’t be taken lightly.
There’s nothing wrong with following trends or selling appearance first but for me, I always wanted to see how far I could go without either of those elements being the focus. It’s been a significant risk and potential disadvantage that I chose to always look inside for the muse and not pick a specific genre or style of music to pander to consistently. I’ve often been told I lack my own sound because I write in so many genres, but I’ve always felt that branding myself as a one trick pony didn’t do the art enough justice since I’ve long been inspired by myriad sounds and cultures. I often wonder how my career might have progressed sooner had I just stuck to one genre or focused on producing more sexualized content but ultimately I’m happy with the choices I made and feel that I can now venture into more risqué territories without feeling like I did it as the guaranteed way to win. I don’t knock anybody who has done it because money makes the world go ‘round and that’s just the truth but I’ve been blessed that I’ve been able to live a full life my way. It’s certainly been a painful process to keep the faith though and I’d encourage anyone wanting to do art for art’s sake but still do pop to tread carefully and be ready for a wild ride.

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 am a singer-songwriter/ producer who has been working in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I just released a new single, NO SLEEP, on February 2nd and it’s an important release for me because it speaks to the struggles of being cheated on by a partner I thought I was going to marry. It was a hard subject for me to write about and the song represents a breakthrough for me to be able to open up about the topic because I had really closed myself off emotionally.

As for more info on who I am, I’ve been a singer ever since I could speak and a writer since I was in elementary school and I started my journey in the music industry with an internship at Warner Bros. Records where I worked in the Urban video department, editing promotional videos for artists on the label’s roster.

I then toured with my band around Southern California for about 8 years and worked as a recording artist and independent artist promoting my music. My sound has changed over the years but it typically incorporates pop, hip-hop, R&B, and rock stylings. I write all of the lyrics to all of my songs and I often compose the songs myself as well. I tend to write on the piano the most but some of my songs are written on the bass or as I jam on the drums. I sing and rap and since I studied videography at the University of Florida, I always produce my music videos and/or direct them as well.

In the last couple of years, I’ve been focusing on music production the most so I have a whole catalog of unreleased songs that I’m still working to perfect as a producer. In the early days, I would outsource production but it’s become increasingly important to me that I create entire soundscapes by myself in order to uncover what exactly my “sound’ is. It’s also important to me that I maintain creative control over what I release since I often felt insecure in the past and would listen to other people instead of myself. I still love collaborating however so I still release songs produced by other people periodically as I continue to perfect my own production skills behind the scenes. In the case of my latest single, No Sleep, I got the beat from my friend Gary Dread Music and then wrote the song immediately.

My mission is to become completely self-sufficient in my craft and to inspire other artists like me to do the same. I think it’s a disservice to art when you let other people dictate what you can and can’t do and I want to inspire other artists to believe in themselves with reckless abandon. I also aim to build my career as a songwriter and have been working on many sync placement opportunities where I expand my network and my reach. I’ve been working with Concord Music Publishing as of late and have been writing more songs in Spanish which is a huge dream come true for me. I hope to land more sync deals in order to fund my music and grow my fanbase. I also just love the challenge of having to write happy commercial music since I’ve found that my personal stuff tends to be more on the sadder side when you look at the lyrical content.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

Early in my career, I ran into a few ‘sharks’ of the industry that tried to steal my writing credits on songs that I collaborated on. Being young and rather poor, it was hard to fight these guys that were older, more experienced, and had the money for lawyers so I wish I had known about California Lawyer’s For the Arts earlier and it’s an organization more artists should know about. I’m pretty sure multiple states have similar programs and if you’re an artist needing legal representation that you can’t afford, I highly recommend you look them up in your state!

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I think the fact that I’m still going illustrates my resilience. I started off with no real musical training, no team, no connections, and no real understanding of the industry. I’ve had people try to literally “buy me for a year” to “help” my career and I’ve suffered countless rejections, financial hardships, and failures. I’ve been told i’m average, that I’m not good enough, not pretty enough, not skinny enough, and that I’m talented but just don’t have that “edge.” I’ve persisted nonetheless and I refuse to stop sharing my work. I think pursuing music really broke my spirit in a lot of ways but it made me a stronger person and extremely grateful to the amazing friends that have helped me along the way. I’ve also learned not to take myself too seriously with the art either because if you put all of your self-esteem into the outcome of each project, you can really become self-destructive and that’s a problem I continue to contend with but still, I refuse to give up. I don’t think it matters how commercially successful your art becomes, it just matters that no one ever kills enough of you to get you to stop.”

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/corinaseasmusic/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/corinaseasmusic/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/corinaseas

Image Credits
Photo credits go to Lawrence Perry