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

Hi MIDRA, thanks for joining us today. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

As an artist based in Brazil, I know that is not easy living 100% of my art, of course I’m saying that just with my experience living in Brazil, but I can imagine the difficulty in other places. I can list a lot of obstacles that turn this way hard, the pay is not so good, there aren’t lot of place to play/show the work, you need to resort to other sources of income, the “artists/musician”, the title “artist/musician” is not very valued, etc. It’s not easy but I understand that it’s not impossible too. When I was 18 I started playing in restaurants only acoustic guitar and voice, in this period the pay was terrible even though the cost of living was lower than it is currently, I needed to resort to other sources of income. So I started to work as salesman in some music stories. The ideia was doing that for a short period but it’s lasted for 10 years, working in others companies (not only in music stores) during the day, playing in the night, it’s not a comfortable/normal routine. But the hardest thing for me was realizing that I was getting used to it (because of the money) and when I realized it, music was taking a backseat, playing, recording and producing music but much less. I was totally sad, I was dissatisfied, with anxiety and stress problems due to these corporate environments that I didn’t fit into. But I was already married and with my son, is not easy and safe abandoned everything to back living only as a musician again. I needed the support of my wife and friends to make this hard decision. I did a plan, I saved enough money to keep the bills and my family “stocked”, and started of zero again, contacting producers, clubs, licensing agency, music labels, finding other artists that need to recording something, producing, releasing my music… I’m in the game again!
It’s a a summarized part of this process, but with everything I have experienced I learned that it is possible to live 100% of art, even with child, married, paying rent, etc. You need to be an excellent professional, network a lot, a network of artist friends who will support you and help you with more work, being friends with everyone is fundamental and will open doors, and having family support.

MIDRA, 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’m MIDRA, an indie pop/rock musician, composer and producer. My music is about having a dream, being persistent, encouraging others to believe and love.
I’ve been constructed my career in the digital, doing covers on YouTube, releasing digital singles, interact on social media, etc, but I noticed how is important interacting in the real life with the fans and the concerts are the better way to do that. I can impact people during my performance, arrangements, talking during the show, and all of that generate afinity between the public and the artist.
I’m constructing my fan base, more and more, every single I notice more people following, identifying with the songs messages, interacting with the content, goes to the concerts. It shows me that I’m in the right way.
I am still walking on this way and maybe far from the goal, but the most important is this awesome journey. My music will connect with people who need to believe it’s possible to make (yours) dreams come true.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

Being an artist means trying to understand everything that surround us and sharing the questions and answers you find with people. The meaning of art is to imagine, create, develop and implement something that offers people a beneficial result. This is art because it is the elaboration of something that does not yet exist in the real world and because it is done with the hope that something can be done better, even when the conditions for it to happen are not yet there. Art is living the future in the present. That said, as an artist, having your work incorporated into people’s routine, creating identification and affective memories with something that was created by us artists, is the most rewarding thing for me.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I always try to do my best during my process creative, trying to deliver the best song to my audience but sometimes you need more time, more money, more enthusiasm, inspiration, etc. To maintain the constancy you need to put more efforts independently of circumstances, identifying what you can do that will supply your audience. In my case I noticed that launch new songs in a short time is more complicated but I know that is easier doing some lives in Instagram/YouTube, recording video cover version, reels… It will maintain the constancy and prepare the audience for a new release. Being an independent artist needs to reinvent yourself every moment to not become forgotten and stay in the “game”.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.midra.com.br
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/midraoficial?igshid=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA==
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/midraoficial?mibextid=ZbWKwL
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/midraoficial
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/midraoficial

Image Credits
Studio’s photos credits: Wanzza Vieira Live photos credits: Juliana Rosa