We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Krystofer Maison. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Krystofer below.
Krystofer, appreciate you joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
As musicians, our most meaningful work is certainly the music we put out into the world. I recently released an EP called MAKE A SCENE, which I conceived as a musical journey of self-discovery in four acts. It’s my rebirth into the theatre kid I denied myself to be for many years.
I have been a singer since I was 6 years old, when I started regularly performing in musicals. As I entered high school, I developed a keen interest in opera and also the business world, so when I got to college, I was still an opera singing major, but my future focus pivoted to the business side of the arts. When I turned off my “performer switch,” I started writing my own music just for “fun.” Having taken a hiatus from being an entertainer to do nonprofit corporate partnerships, a car accident left me with enough mental health challenges to reignite my love of performing. The accident knocked me into rediscovering my inner self: the theatre kid who needs to perform to fulfill my true purpose.
I moved back to New York and continued my day job while building the brand of my stage name, even during the pandemic. As an artist who had built a decent corporate and media network, I was finally presented with a series of opportunities where I had to make the ultimate choice: Do I want to stay in the nonprofit sector, or do I want to be a recording artist and entertainer? The answer to that was fairly simple, but I also maintained some of my “old life” by taking on producer roles in film, TV, and gaming.
It has been a little over a year since I became a full-time entertainment professional, and to say there was little I could do to prepare for this rollercoaster of entrepreneurial life is an understatement. I have faced significant challenges in being a self-managed artist, but in finding the keystone of what was going to launch me back into being a new artist, I knew I had to release an EP with my authentic sound. My EP, MAKE A SCENE, resulted from finding some musical patterns I had written 10 years ago, interweaved with music I wrote in the last year — all reinvigorated into songs with a dramatic, theatrical pop sound. The record really reflects my rebirth as an artist, and I’m lucky that the studio I worked with (Invite Only Studios in Chelsea, Manhattan) encouraged me to be myself fully and truly, weirdness and all. It has made me feel like a theatre kid again, only now I can spread my wings and explore the dramatic traits I used to hide as a queer teenager who lacked the language to express myself.
This EP is the most meaningful project I’ve worked on because it has mirrored my personal growth and professional rebirth in the entertainment industry. It feels like a biographical snapshot that is setting up the future success of my musical journey.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I am a singer, songwriter, recording artist, and TV/film producer. First and foremost, I am a musician. That’s where I feel my professional life coincides strongest with my true purpose. My stage shows always range from special events to full shows of my own music, and everything in between. Part of what makes me different is the way I curate each performance to the moment and the space; I love taking audiences on an emotional journey.
Having a background in fundraising, I am still really exhilarated by repping and establishing partnerships for creative fundraising in the entertainment space. As such, I maintained a producer line of my business as well, collaborating with a Comic Con-based talk show, a VR game from a studio in London, and a mental health film charity, among others.
What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?
I was a performer from 6 to 22 years old until I decided I couldn’t keep up performing (at that time), so I took a 4 year hiatus. Following a car accident and mental health struggles, my performance itch came roaring back. I was living in Boston at the time, having worked at the Boston Symphony Orchestra and then the Museum of Fine Arts. When I wanted to perform again, I started giving private cabarets in my friends’ living rooms just to feel the rush of performing again. Then, I wanted to move to New York to have greater access to the music industry and more opportunities. I was grateful to take a job offer in corporate fundraising at the LGBT Center in Manhattan, and almost as soon as I moved, I got to work on my stage name and brand presence. Within 3 months we launched a website and a show, and another 3 months later, I sold out my first show at The Duplex in the West Village.
Then the pandemic hit. And while I was grateful to have job security, not being able to perform was painful. I had taken so many risks that I was lost about what to do in the pandemic. I didn’t have a brand as I had just started performing again, and there were no performance opportunities. So I made music with my friend in my apartment just to put it out there — the pandemic, in a way, was a driving force for many good things to come into my career.
My network from corporate fundraising was fairly strong. In 2022, my performance schedule was finally so robust that many folks in my network started realizing that the “singer” version of me was getting increasingly serious. From that, I had a few consulting and brand partnership opportunities presented to me as an artist, and I had to make the choice to continue in my fundraising job or go out on my own.
I chose music. One of my key struggles was simply thinking of myself as an artist. It was challenging in the beginning to even know where to begin… I was learning and building my brand practically alone, so I said yes to many things. I pitched some more, and through trial and error I was able to realize a clearer path forward and establish myself as a recording artist. The entertainment world, like so many other industries, is faced with such a high percentage of rejection that it can be hard to keep going. But the opportunities I’ve been presented with this year are far different than those I received last year. It can sometimes be hard to see the level-up, but taking a step back and looking at the bigger picture — as long as you’re growing as an artist — then you are succeeding.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?
But all of that growth can be painful. Facing rejection on a daily basis and feeling like you are misunderstood is just par for the course. So I had to reframe my thinking. Back when I was a corporate fundraiser, if a company came to me with a proposal at a lesser amount than I valued the institution, I never hesitated to say “no thank you” or negotiate the real value. But for myself, that seemed impossible. In order to get to a place of peace in business opportunity outreach, I had to remove my “self-manager” persona internally from my performer persona. I’m now able to move through my relationships with more ease, understanding that if someone doesn’t want to work with me or value me at the same rate as I value myself, it’s on to the next and no hard feelings.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://krystofermaison.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/krystofer_maison/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/krystofermaison/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrd2dFp2p4BbACo8LzaXu_w
Image Credits
Yellow coat in park – Natalie Shmuel Dark on stage – Sean Jamar Outside stage purple – Katie Beth Musem photos – Maggie Loh Big white skirt – Leah Munnelly