Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Lydia Shae. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Lydia thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I started playing music as a kid. I always had a musical family so piano lessons, banjo lessons, and seeing my dad play in bluegrass jams and bands was very formative for me. It wasn’t until I was around 12 that I started to take an interest in the writing aspect of music and started teaching myself guitar.

When I was in high school my band mates were all older and graduated high school and went off to start their lives. I wish that I would have found another band because being on my own really stalled my music growth and when I went to college it was no longer a priority for me even though I continued to write. It wasn’t until I graduated that I returned to it. Finding other songwriters, surrounding myself with other musicians has quickly taught me so much that I wish I would have done it sooner.

Lydia, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’ve been a songwriter for almost my entire life. From a young age in rural Ohio my dad was taking me to bluegrass jams to sing with my sister. My first instrument was a piano (like many others) and that started to give me the foundation of writing melodies. However, pianos aren’t known for being very portable. At the time I was also learning banjo (which is heavy for a 12 year old) and decided to try my hand at guitar. I stole my dads guitar and started teaching myself every song I could and from there and spent hours writing really bad songs in my bedroom. This lead to a few very fun years with a group of friends in a Christian Rock band, which taught me a lot about creating and making music with others.

Almost all musicians I know are creative in other ways of their life and I was no different. While I had a love for music, I also had a love for art. When I finished high school, I chased art as a career path and graduated with a degree in graphic design. All the while I was still writing while performing took a backseat. This gave me nothing but time where songwriting was a creative outlet just for myself, to process life and relationships. Music became entirely a release, a discovery of what other artists and writing inspired me. In a way, I found my voice in writing through this time of musical isolation.

Coming out of college and moving to Louisville with a lot more free time on my hands, I slowly returned to performing in a new band, Hawks. It was a 70’s rock inspired band lead by Danny Cash. For me, it was a return to my first instrument, keys, and an opportunity where I got to just contribute to the music in a way that supported someone else’s writing and vision. It helped me remember how much joy I got out of creating music with other people and performing together.

In 2020, when everyone else was also getting perspective on what they wanted to do with their lives, I was thinking about refocusing on writing, playing, and recording. While I had recorded in the past, the advances in distribution and the ease of tools available to independent artists was a completely different landscape. During the shutdown, I processed and made it through the only way I knew how which was creativity in music. I promised myself that I would create something for me when I was able.

That’s how I got here. Decade Diaries is quite literally a decade’s worth of writing about life, struggles, relationships, joy. That album has been a gift to myself and everyone who has supported my creative pursuits until now. Finding new friends in music through my current band members and songwriting community, and playing this album for people across states has been one of the most rewarding challenges I’ve ever faced but just the beginning.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

Cincinnati is not a big city by any means, however the abundance of writers, artists, producers has blown me away. All big artists and talents started somewhere and needed local support. I guarantee if you look you will find someone who you really enjoy and believe in that’s creating in your area. These venues, events, and artists couldn’t exist without people who supported them so go to their events, buy their merch, tell them why you enjoy what they do. It’ll give back to your community ten-fold.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

For someone who’s a self-taught writer and guitarists, sometimes you can feel like a fraud being in spaces with other musicians who have had more formal training and experience. For Christmas one year, my husband bought me a copy of Jeff Tweedy’s book, “How to write one song”. Reading a successful professional’s advice on how anyone, regardless of skill level, can write inspired me beyond measure that what I create has value to bring to the music community. It reinvigorated my desire to create.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.lydiashae.com
• Instagram: lydiashaemusic
• Facebook: lydiashaemusic
• Youtube: lydiashaemusic
• Other: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3lLdUtRzoTJllymdQ9YGg7?si=genJrSx7QGmv4qMladg5zQ

Image Credits

JWB Imagery
Lilo Gonzalez Photo
JONBOB Photography
Jordan Granada