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

John, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?

This is actually something I think about often. Sometimes I think I should’ve started putting out my music sooner. I’ve been writing songs for years. I started posting clips of my songs on Musical.ly when I was 17, but never any full uploads of my work online until I was 20. It was ingrained in me from an early age that since I do not have musical talent, I shouldn’t pursue music as a career and should rather focus on acting as it’s a relatively more “realistic” career. So for the longest time I just accepted music as my hobby, deleted my Musical.ly account, and focused on my theatre studies. It was then at 20, during my junior year in an undergraduate acting program, that I joined a school choir and my love for music was reignited again. I released my first single the spring semester of my junior year. I mean, I get it takes time to discover who you are. Hindsight is 20/20. I just do wish younger me was more confident in myself and didn’t listen to the people who said talent is necessary for be an artist.

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’m a singer-songwriter and actor. I got into acting as a child. I was born and raised in Los Angeles, and my sibling and I both did background and small speaking roles growing up. Music was my first love. I was obsessed with Britney Spears when I was a toddler and I started doing show choir in middle school. Now in adulthood I make music and I act. I feel for me the common thread that connects both mediums is storytelling. As an actor, I play characters and as a songwriter, I often write music from the perspectives of fictional characters.

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

So, I kind of have two answers to this.

The first is kinda selfish. Honestly, just having an outlet to express myself is so healing. Especially someone like me who has always struggled with communication, but whose mind is always running 100 MPH (thanks ADHD). Putting out a project that succinctly states what I want to say is so fulfilling to me.

The second part is really a bonus but it really warms my heart when it happens: when I receive messages and comments from people who appreciate my work. Ever since I came out publicly as being on the spectrum, I have received messages from fellow autistic people thanking me for my work. It makes everything that I do worth it.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

“Talent is required to be an artist.”

I mean, everyone’s definition of talent is different but I personally define talent as a natural inclination for a certain skill. Particularly an ease at excelling at eurocentric standards of execution. So I do think talent is somewhat of a social construct. I think growing up in LA, being a competitive city since everyone and their child is a creative, the schools I went to had very eurocentric ideals for what was considered “good”. For example, my choir classes often tested on knowledge of music theory. Dance classes were based on how fast and precise you could memorize a combo and technique. I struggled in these classes so I just convinced myself I wasn’t talented and shouldn’t seriously pursue these fields.

It wasn’t until I got to college and started studying African-American folk music and doing experimental dance-theatre that I realized oh… well maybe I am “talentless” from a eurocentric perspective but from a global perspective… I’m just a normal person. Since school, I have discovered many artists who, although lacking in “technical skill,” I find to be far more interesting and exciting than some “talented” artists.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.johnidalis.com/
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/johnidalis?igshid=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA==
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/johnidalis?mibextid=LQQJ4d
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/johnidalis
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@johnidalis?si=YP09exLdVv6fUUT_

Image Credits
John Idalis, Jenny Gerena, Misti Green, and Diana Perales Harris.