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

Gfire, 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?

Over time I have built up my capability of earning a full-time living from my music.

My first milestone was when I got paid to sing in a wedding/cover band at age 19.

My second milestone was when I started teaching singing when I moved to Austin Texas after college, but it was part time at first.

My third milestone was playing singer/songwriter gigs in Austin, some paid and some unpaid shows.

Gradually I was able to teach music full time and make some money from my singer/songwriter gigs as well. That’s pretty much where it’s at right now!

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 always knew I wanted to pursue music as a career. I sang as early as kindergarten in front of my class, sang in choir beginning around 10 years old, and sang in my first wedding/cover band at age 19. I took private opera singing lessons from age 14 and all through college, studied piano in college, studied guitar on my own and with guitar teachers. When I got to Austin, I started taking a ton of songwriting classes as well. In 1996, inspired by the underground dance music at the time, I also got into being a rave DJ, which I did for about 8 or 9 years.

In addition, I had also found a book called “Science and Singing” when I was in my early 20’s, and was intrigued by the level of detail it gave as far as the head sinuses affecting vocal tone. I studied with a singing teacher, Peter Giles, in Canterbury, England, who had a certification in the “Science of Singing,” and eventually got my own full certification in the “Science of Singing” after two years of studying, four 2000-word papers, and a 2 1/2 hour oral examination in the UK.

While still in Baltimore, I went to an ASCAP songwriting workshop and gave a cassette tape of 4 original songs to Grammy Winning producer Don Was. He sent me a nice note a few months later praising one of the songs and that made me feel like I was going in the right direction with my singer/songwriter self.

I also studied Kundalini Yoga for my full 500 Hour certification and I use ancient yoga breathing techniques for myself and my singing students.

I now give singing, piano, folk guitar, and songwriting lessons 6 days a week, and schedule performances around my teaching schedule. I recently earned a $10,000 City of Austin Live Music Fund Grant. It enabled me to produced a 5 song EP available on hot pink vinyl, and perform a highly successful all-original singer/songwriter set at the prestigious Austin venue “The 04 Center” on May 9, 2024.

For my voice lessons, I have developed my unique singing technique “Yoga for the Voice” which combines classic yoga breathing, Bel Canto (literally “beautiful singing” in Italian) singing exercises, and breaking down a performance piece so that my students can achieve singing mastery with every song.

For my piano lessons, I work with students at all ages and all levels. I’m really good at getting small children into their first piano studies. I also work with intermediate and advanced students on more challenging classical pieces and popular songs. I can show an adult who has had no prior piano experience how to play and read music. I also work with touring band members who need help with keyboard parts for their performances.

With folk guitar, my primary focus is on finger picking, flat picking, guitar TAB, and developing performances of songs that the student wants to play, either for their own enjoyment or on stage.

My songwriting skills include exercises to open the students’ creative process so that the lyrics are really special. I also can help with creating demos with my Pro Tools set up, working with the arrangements of the songs, suggesting interesting chord progressions, and being able to sing and play at the same time.

My style as a singer/songwriter is what I consider to be “folk-tronica.” In my heart, I shall always be a folk singer, albeit classically trained, who wants to share my stories in an interesting and musical way. With my rave DJ skills, I make electronic backing tracks, including drum programming, bass lines on cool synth sounds, multiple keyboards, and input from other musicians, including electric guitarists, banjo players, fiddlers/violinists/viola players/cellists, and others.

I put a lot of work into all of my lyrics and tracks. I generally create tracks over a period of months and sometimes years so that each track is as musical as possible. I have been able to perform my original music in Austin, Baltimore, San Antonio, San Marcos, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Cannes (yes in France), and many other cities around the US and elsewhere. I even got played on the NPR radio stations as part of a series called “UnderCurrents.” I have also received praise from journalists, radio stations, and other musicians all over the world.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

Just speaking for me as a singer/songwriter and music teacher, several ideas come to mind.

1. Increase the royalties paid to singer/songwriters to make sure we are making a living wage. It’s beyond any sort of normalcy that Spotify pays pennies to us, when producing the music and sharpening our craft takes thousands and thousands of dollars.

2. Increase the normal rates paid to us for performances. There are too many gigs that expect us to work for tips or well below our worth, just for “exposure” or other reasons that don’t translate to income for the artists.

3. Implement plans in other music cities that are similar to the new City of Austin Live Music Fund. Austin established this fund in 2023 and hundreds of us were able to qualify for $5 K and $10 K grants that allowed us to create art at a high level. This year, the grants have increased to $15 K and $30 K. I am planning to apply for one of the new grants next year (not this year) so that I have time to develop new material. The added grant money will also allow me to get a proper publicist and publicity campaign to accompany the release of my next album.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My main goal for my singer/songwriting is to express myself authentically and musically. I draw on my own life experiences, good, bad, and neutral, so my songs are mostly autobiographical.

Musically, there aren’t that many people combining folk and electronic music, and I want to continue to do deeper and deeper dives into how I can make unique and interesting sounds in my production and singing.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://gfiremusic.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gfiremusic/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gfiremusic/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gfire-76242/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/gfiremusic
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/gfire-austin
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/gfire
• Other: TikTok:https://www.tiktok.com/@princessgfire

Image Credits

1. The main head shot photo and the photo of me in the blue dress, black shoes, and blue background are shot by Dave Creaney.

2. The album cover for “choosing my own colours” – the photo is shot by Dave Creaney, the album artwork is by Emily Shirley.