We were lucky to catch up with Meli Tierra recently and have shared our conversation below.
Meli, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?
I think that I started my creative career in a number of ways and in the time frame that made sense to me. I’m glad I started when I did and also am happy with the decisions I’ve made to gain other skills and learned about all sorts of things and traveled and have put my time into more than my music alone. Music and songwriting for me are personal accounts of the things I’ve experienced as I process them. The more I live, the more music I write.
Meli, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
My name is Meli Tierra and I’m a singer songwriter from Denver, Colorado now living in Guilford, Vermont. My work consists of composing music and lyrics on the guitar and I also play ukulele. I’m known for playing a mix of indie, folk, and rock music and releasing the album: Lessons in Letting Go in 2021. The album is ten original songs that are driven by guitar and storytelling melodies written about my reflections on the human experience. One thing that sets my music apart from others is the personal, emotional, and sometimes overly wordy lyrics. I also dabble in several genres and moods throughout the album. The album Lessons in Letting Go is available online on my BandCamp and also Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, SoundCloud, etc.
I like to write in a stream-of-consciousness manner while processing events happening in my life and the world around me. I’m most proud of the album and music video for Pens and Ink, available on YouTube, that I dreamt about for years and finally took the leap to release publicly.
I am currently working on the next body of work which is yet to be determined if it will be a full album or series of singles/EP. New music is underway, but I will be looking for support recording the new content as I just moved to Vermont this January and don’t have a music network built up yet like I did back in Denver.
I also play music live and enjoy performing solo and with a band, depending on the year and event.
Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?
There are a plethora of resources for up and coming musicians and business owners on YouTube and online if you take the time to really research. I found that CD Baby also had a lot of great resources and articles for beginning musicians on the marketing side of things on their website once I decided to use them as my distributor. Another resource that helped me with my creative journey for years has been Ultimate Guitar and practicing covering other artists music in addition to writing my own original songs. The tabs and chords have been incredibly helpful as a self-taught musician. Also, there is funding out there for creative pursuits. Don’t let financial stress keep you from pursuing your dreams! There are always ways to make music and share music for very little money, start small and grow as you can. Your investments will pay off the harder you work to promote yourself and the more you let the world hear your music.
How did you build your audience on social media?
My advice would be that I had no idea how to build an audience on social media, but managed to do so by simply starting from the very first post. Just regularly making content makes it easier. You just need to take the first step and post something about your art or business. The feedback from people always helps, too. Listen to your followers as far as what kind of content you post, for example I noticed they enjoy live music clips more than photos of me playing. But don’t let other people’s opinions about your music change anything about what you write or how you sing, it’s your art and your artistic expression. There will always be nay sayers, but don’t pay them any mind.
Contact Info:
- Website: melitierra.bandcamp.com
- Instagram: @melitierra
- Facebook: @MeliTierraMusic
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2Covr2iwgccHaVJ8YTmq5w
- Other: http://open.spotify.com/album/5ZYLnZ4pNIfkuXnsBIfhLw
Image Credits
Image Credits @2022 Megan C. Willhite, Leigh Jardine, Matt Krieger, and Tommy Wilcox