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

DENI, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?

It took me 14 years to finally be able to perform music full time. There were so many steps I took along the way, so if this ends up being too long for the article.

From 2012-2014, I was in musical classes such as chorus and marching band, which taught me to use my ear and blend with the voices and instruments around me. It really helped me with reading sheet music.

During this time, starting in 2010, me and my sister formed a duo called “Luna and Sol”, and our mother was named “momager”, meaning she reached out to venues and booked us shows at bars, restaurants, and music events. This was my first taste of the gigging industry, but since my mom did all the music business work, I still had no idea how the industry actually worked. Mom would just let us know we were playing somewhere, and me and my sister would just show up and kill it. Due to our young age, we didn’t have to try hard to get audiences interested. The sole fact that we were 14 and 15 years old was enough for people to enjoy our music.

In 2013, My sister left for college and pursued interior design. Her passions were in the visual arts, and she enjoyed the comfort and stability of a consistant 9-5 with a nice balance of artistic expression. It was hard for our family and friends to accept the end of Luna and Sol, and it made it slightly difficult for people to care about my solo career as DENI. But at the time, I didn’t really care about people paying attention to me or my music. I loved creating and singing, so that in itself was enough for me.

I decided to pursue this passion into my college years. From 2014-2017, I attended Belmont University, where I studied commercial music and attended performances classes which helped me develop my stage presence, vocal technique, and how to make charts using the Nashville Number System to give to bands that would be accompanying me. It taught me how to work together with other music peers, how to balance pushing for my ideas and following my music peer’s ideas.

From 2018-2020, I attended Atlanta Institute for Music and Media. I learned the anatomy of my voice to further improve my technique, performance classes where I was learning a new song every week instead of spending a whole semester on a small selection of songs, and how to work in a studio as a work-for-hire vocalist. I improved my songwriting, and learned a lot about audio engineering.

The next year, in 2021, after a terrible day at work in a thrift store, I realized my music career had not gone anywhere during the past decade. Mom was no longer the momager. I didn’t have the opportunity to split the work with my sister. I no longer had other people pushing me to higher levels in the industry. I spent so much time improving my craft that I forgot about showing that to people. My crippling insecurity that I struggled with made me think, even after years of training, that I was never good enough; never good enough at singing, at playing guitar, at writing.

When I was in Atlanta, I started seeing people who were just mediocre getting all the work. It confused me and frustrated me to no end. Why were people that I was so much better than getting all the gigs? I looked at their social medias out of pure spite and ended up swallowing a hard truth pill. I realized that it wasn’t about talent. It was about marketing. I realized that my social account were mediocre. I never posted videos of me singing or playing. I never told people who I was. I would have to put the work in myself, and that just because I am trained and skillful, no one is going to notice unless I make them notice.

I was fed up with my job at the thrift store. I knew I was meant to be in the music industry. So I put together a reel of me singing and playing. I looked up all the venues I could find that had live music, and I sent my reel to all of them. Even before I got any responses, I felt my insecurity begin to fade. I didn’t care anymore if the people I sent my reel to thought I was good or not. I didn’t care anymore about my level of talent or if I was qualified to play these venues. For the first time in my life, I didn’t put all of my value in my skills. And that was a freeing moment.

A couple days later, a booking agent and music performer named Francisco Vidal reached out to me, saying he saw my reel I sent to the Truck and Tap venues in Alpharetta and Duluth. He told me both those venues were booked by a company named Pro Music Service. He told me a long time ago that he tried to book me when I was in my duo, Luna and Sol, but I guess my mom never got back to him. It solidified the fact that if it wasn’t for my mother posting and spreading our name around, we would never have gotten work as teenagers, even if we were pretty good. He booked me at a couple venues. At this point, I applied for music retail jobs so that even if I had to have a 9-5, I would still be able to improve my music skills for the gigs I had after my shifts.

I got a job at Music and Arts and worked there for about 5 months. During this time, I was gigging after my shifts. I would even have to ask off every now and then so I could play a show or two. Since most of Music and Art’s employees are gigging musicians, they were always supportive and flexible when it came to asking off for gigging work. I knew I made the right decision to go into music retail.

I think the moment that changed everything was when I started to decline more and more gigs as my time with Pro Music Service went on. I had a conversation with Fran, my nickname for Francisco Vidal, about having an agreement on consistant gig work. We hashed out the numbers and Fran gave me his word that he would book me enough work to match what I made at Music and Arts. Taking a leap of faith, I put in my two weeks at Music and Arts, telling my manager and boss that I finally am going to do music performances full-time.

It was a bittersweet leave, but a situation that Music and Arts is very familiar with. The have many employees who eventually leave when their big break arrives. They didn’t want to see me go, on one hand, but were also extremely supportive and proud of me.

During this time, I was living with my parents. Over time, with the combination of gigs and my retail job, I was slowly able to take on more and more financial responsibilities. It wasn’t something that happened all at once, and it’s also not something many people are able to do. My parents paid for my health and car insurance until I made enough money to pay for it on my own. They never charged me rent or made me pay for my own food until I was financially able to. One expense after another was added, and after about 5 months of full time gigging, I was pretty much paying for everything I needed to live with the sole exception of paying rent, since I still lived with my parents.

Once I got my foot in the door, I learned that talent truly did matter once you were playing shows. 90% of the venues I played at asked for me back. My mother always taught me to be kind and polite, so I never offended any venue owners or audience members. My dad taught me to be ambitious and professional, so I never settled on staying at my current skill level, even if people thought I was good enough. Customers in the restaurant would come up to me and hire me for private events. Other venue owners having a night off would see me and ask me to play at their venue. My work and network grew with every show I played, and the quickness of it all was because I had spent a decade perfecting my craft. People weren’t waiting around for me to get better so that I could play higher paying shows. I was already there. It was nice to discover that talent did play a part in having consistant work in the music industry. It motivates me to never stop trying to get better.

From this story, it’s obvious to say that I am not the sole reason for my success. If I did not have the parents that I had, I would not be where I am today. They bought my first guitar, they bought my first PA system, and they let me stay in their house rent free so I could focus solely on breaking into the industry. It is very rare for people to have these blessings, and a lot of musicians have to give up for the sake of feeding their family and paying their bills, causing them to turn away from music and gigging. This fact keeps me humble.

If it wasn’t for Fran and Pro Music service discovering me, I would not have the connections and opportunities that I have today and in the future. I will always give them the credit for being able to finally pursue my dream. Many booking agents that I applied to didn’t pay attention to me. Fran saw something in me that no one else did. And I will forever be grateful for that.

Due to these cherished people in my life, I always approach everyone I come across with a downsized ego, always remembering that I am not the sole reason for my success. Yes I worked hard and continue to work hard, and I do know that my professionalism plays a role in my current position, but would I have that if not for my parents who raised me to be that way? Would I know as much as I do if it wasn’t for the hundreds of calls and meetings I had with Fran, him teaching me and showing me the framework of the local music industry? Everything I do is rooted in the gifts that these people have given to me. All I can do now is make them proud.

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 background and context?

My name is DENI. I am a singer/songwriter and performing musician! I’ve been writing, playing guitar, and singing for 14 years.

I play solo shows, which can either be me with my guitar or me with my piano.

I play duo shows, which can consist of me and a drummer, me and a bass player, or me and a lead guitar player.

I do trio shows, which can be the following combinations:
– Vocals with guitar, drums, bass
– Vocals with guitar, drums, lead guitar
– Vocals with guitar, lead guitar, and saxophone

I also have a band named “Anything Goes”, which is a 4 piece with Vocals with guitar, drums, bass, and lead guitar

I sub in for corporate bands for East Coast Entertainment and Music Garden as a performing vocalist.

I currently do independent contracting work with three booking agents: Pro Music Service, SouthEast Elite, and MWH Music

I am a songwriter working on an EP with Joint Venture Studios, under the producer Mike Shrout (yall should check them out, by the way. I’ve worked with several studios and they are by far the most professional, kind, and artistic I have ever worked with. It’s why I am doing my whole album there!) I have a single out called “Dear Jack” – Deni. It is on all streaming platforms, and was recorded by Jack’s Uncle, Jimmy Guthrie, recorded at Arcade 160 Studio. They are also a very professional, fun studio to work with! Their main focus is on commercial and TV music production, but the are also killer at recording songwriter’s music.

I also do songwriting collaboration work, ranging from in-studio work at Deaf Star Recording studios, working with songwriters such as Layne Denton and Olivia Zoe, and also song-writing requests from clients (I wrote and recorded with another studio a song using the words from a poem a client wrote for her soon to be husband to play during their first dance)(I got to see it and cried hard). My main focus of expertise is lyrics and vocals, but I also write simple guitar and piano chord composition.

I guess what sets me apart is how I focus more on the craft than the look. I don’t really try to push an image or a certain kind of performance. I like to have the music be the main focus, not how I look or present myself. This is definitely something that a lot of people aren’t looking for. A lot of people love the glam and the choreography. And that’s okay. I don’t judge that, if anything I commend those artists that indulge in that. It is not easy and requires a lot of stamina and hard work. It is just not who I am as an artist. When people listen to my music, I hope they focus on the music and not me as an image.

I think I am most proud of my versatility as a musician. I’m not only good at one thing. I have worked very hard to dabble in many aspects of the music industry so I can provide myself with as many opportunities as possible.

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

Songwriting for me has become a coping mechanism for the trials in life. In the beginning of my songwriting journey, I wrote a lot of songs about all of the stages of breakups. The shock, the anger, the depression, the acceptance, and the lessons we learn from them. These songs helped me discover what I want in a partner, what my boundaries are, and the happiness one can find when they are alone.

I was diagnosed with BPD 3 years ago. Knowing this, I used songwriting as a way to express the emotional rollercoasters one goes through when they have this disorder. From writing, I was able to pinpoint exactly how I was feeling, what was causing those feelings, and healthy ways to cope with those feelings. Songwriting has helped me find out all the broken parts of myself. Not only that, it helped me figure out how to put those pieces back together.

My song “Dear Jack” is about an acquaintance of mine who passed away from fentanyl poisoning, and recently, one of my closest friends committed suicide. It was the first time in my life experiencing the trauma of losing people at such young ages. These kind of situations can derail people, tear them down and throw them into very deep holes of despair. And I would be lying if I said I was able to avoid all that while songwriting.

However, I believe resilience comes from experiencing terrible moments, trials, and self-discoveries. You can’t be resilient against things in life that are good. You have to be thrown into challenges and hard times. I use songwriting as a tool to navigate these experiences. I am able to heal myself and hopefully the people around me with words and melodies. I have never learned about resilience as much as I have in other aspects of my life than in songwriting. Songwriting has strengthened me in ways nothing else can.

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

To help people the way music has helped me. I think everyone has a philanthropy that they were meant to pursue. Some people are passionate about helping the homeless, getting people to adopt animals instead of shop from corporations, or aiding third-world countries. For me, I wanted to pursue a philanthropy that I would be the most effective in. What can I do in my own personal life that will make the biggest difference? Sure I can volunteer at shelters, donate money, or many other things. But I am not incredible at those things. I help, but not in a huge way. I find that my music has helped countless people. I find that people can look up my music, and heal, and I don’t have to physically be there to help them. I have realized that my biggest impact on the world is music. I can help many people in a shorter amount of time. I think that is not only my goal in my creative journey, but in my life.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @deni_music
• Facebook: @musicbydeni

Image Credits
Photos by Smiling Eyes Media Facebook: @smilingeyesmedia Instagram: @smilingeyesmedia_ Website: www.smilingeyesmedia.com