We recently connected with Misy Gardner and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Misy, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.
As a kid, I was a little performer! I started performing really early in musical theatre productions at my church, and that helped me realize quickly how much I loved to sing and perform. I also took dance classes and had recitals every year, and I looked forward to that day every year just as much as I looked forward to Christmas. My childhood consisted of many performances for my parents, and my sister would be the “backstage manager” and she would hit play on our boom box, control the lights, and use flashlights as spotlights on me… haha!! It was probably hilarious for my parents every time. I would put on full productions for them, have my own dance routine that I made up, dress up with tons of jewelry and my moms dresses, and I’d sing for them as loud as I could.
I also loved the subject of English in school and I really enjoyed writing. I started writing poems and songs pretty young, but didn’t share them with anyone… and I remember I even tried starting a book once when I was like 10! When I was around 13, I wanted to learn guitar and I started taking lessons. Taylor Swift actually inspired me to pick up a guitar and really start songwriting. And my guitar teacher really helped me develop my confidence as a writer. I would see him every Saturday and I would bring him all the new songs I wrote that week. He told me if I wanted to be a songwriter, I should move to Nashville because that’s where the songwriters go. He believed in me and believed that I could be successful as a musician and writer. So moving to Nashville became a goal of mine as an early teenager. And later on, I made the move and I haven’t looked back since! Now I am doing music full-time and I couldn’t be more grateful for that.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I’m Misy! Like Missy, but with one S. That’s how you can remember me! My real name is Melissa but my friends and family have always called me Missy. I actually dropped an S after I moved to Nashville for my artist name… so to answer the question you may have – no, it was not always spelled with one S. All of my music is under MISY with all caps. I did that because I wanted to stand out and I felt that it encompassed my music the best. I make a lot of soft pop music, but I also have some folk, jazz, and even hip hop elements in my songs. MISY with one S felt a little more mature and mysterious for my music brand.
Growing up in Southern California, I listened to a lot of pop music with my sister. The Britney Spears, Boy-band type pop music of the late 90’s and early 2000’s was my go-to when I listened to my boom box. We also loved singer/songwriters like Jason Mraz, Jack Johnson, and Colbie Caillat because we regularly hit the beach! And I always listened to Taylor Swift as soon as she hit the scene. Sara Bareilles is a huge inspiration as well, especially vocally. My mom listened to a lot of country radio and artists like John Denver, Simon and Garfunkel, Joni Mitchell, etc. On our road trips, we listened to a lot of Shania Twain, which is a core memory for me! My dad either had jazz or hip hop playing in his car… which is such an interesting juxtaposition, but being exposed to those two genres influenced me a lot in my craft. When you listen to my music today, you can probably hear the influences of all these different music tastes.
I started playing small gigs in and around my hometown of Mission Viejo, CA when I was about 14 or 15. I would play at the local coffee shops and malls. Later I would start playing the local fair and venues in LA like Whiskey A Go Go and the Viper Room. Interestingly enough, I had a lot of stage freight to get over when I was younger. Playing my own songs with just my guitar was a lot more intimidating than being in a full musical production performance with an entire cast and a character to play. I had a hard time showing myself to the world throughout my younger life, and I still have struggles in this area. I deal with a lot of self-doubt, imposter syndrome, and insecurities being in this industry. But as I evolve as a human and in my spirituality, I’m realizing that this career path I chose is a lot bigger than my own vain. Now I’m focused on bringing joy to people’s lives, helping people love themselves for who they are, making them think broader like the great songwriters always do, and connecting to others.
It can be really easy to feed the narcissistic sides of the human ego by being a music artist, and that is not what I’m here for. In times like these, I think songwriters have a responsibility to not only document the current state of the human race, but to shine light in the darkness. The mental health conversation is so important, but so is the gratitude conversation. And I truly believe there is a lot more to be thankful for than to be sad about in this life. So my goal is to talk about the struggles, while still recognizing the silver linings and all the beautiful things we have to be grateful for. I think that sets me apart. That’s why I consider myself a spiritual “lightworker,” because I feel a bigger calling to bring light into people’s lives through my art. I used to write a lot about love and heartbreak, and I still do, but my writing topics have branched out to broader topics. These days, AI can make a great love song, but AI can’t put their blood, sweat and tears into a song about human struggles.
My most recent single, Lavender, is focused on self love, reconnecting to the Earth, and finding the beauty in little moments. It’s a song I am super proud of because it has really helped my own mental health, so I know it can do the same for others. I also feel like I’m really coming into my own and finding my true path in this crazy music world, and writing that song made me realize who I really want to be. Releasing Lavender felt like a new era of light for me, since I was focused on more dark, moody pop elements in the past. And don’t get me wrong – I still love that music! But for the future, I plan on releasing a lot of bright, uplifting songs that are more in the singer/songwriter genre of music. My next single is called “Keep Your Head Up” which I wrote in 2021, and it’s about finding positivity through crazy times! I truly cannot wait for that one to come out!
When I’m not doing music, I like to indulge in activities like yoga, meditating, grounding, hiking, herbalism, and gardening. I also love animals and regularly volunteer at the Nashville Humane Association in the cat room! I have two black cats of my own – Billie Jean (like the song) and Doc Martin (like the shoe brand but Martin is spelled like the guitar) who are my little babies. My family has a border collie rescue back home in California named Alphie, too. And I do have a passion for politics and human issues, but you won’t see me running for office anytime soon. I’ll stick to the activism for now!
For the summer months, I will be playing regularly every week around the Nashville area. You can find me on every Monday for happy hour from 3:30-6:30 in downtown Nashville at the new Hand Cut Chophouse, every Friday Night in Franklin at the Aloft Hotel from 7-10pm, and every Saturday night in the Gulch downtown at Big Shakes Hot Chicken & Fish from 6-8:30pm. Come meet me!!
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
I believe art is the most important aspect of our society. Without art and creative thinking, nothing would exist. Roads, buildings, clothes, phones… pretty much everything is art. And yet, we don’t always value art in that way collectively. I think it’s pretty absurd that most musicians are expected to play for free when they are first starting out. And it’s even more absurd that those same musicians aren’t getting fairly compensated for music streaming, either. The big hands in music make so much money, and the backbone of the entire industry, the songwriters and artists, are scrounging for the pennies left over. That’s why buying physical copies and merchandise is so important! But I truly believe there needs to be an entire reform for music streaming to benefit the creators. More laws should be discussed about a limit that streaming companies can take for each song. I also think we need to start celebrating the people who walk the road less traveled, instead of ridiculing them. The “starving artist” stereotype is well known, but it’s not protested against enough. Why should artists be starving? Why are we repeating that and continuing to believe that narrative? What if we made a world where artists are the breadwinners? After all. artists are actually shaping society. But in order to do that, we all must make a personal decision to support artists directly – through their website, merchandise, and album sales. If we cut out the middle man, we would starve the corporations instead of the artists. That’s a conversation that I believe needs to be much more common.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
I think because I started performing in musical theatre, I was always comfortable being a character in front of people. So when I was about 17 and was really starting to make music my career path, I chose a stage name and built a brand based off of the name “Merleau,” which was pronounced like Merlot but spelled with a French spelling because of my French heritage. I had a whole vision for Merleau to be a jazzy pop project, but I ended up going back to my true name a few years later. I decided that not using the name I actually go by just made it harder for me to connect with people. I released an entire EP under this name and played a lot of venues in LA during that time. I almost signed with an independent label in SoCal under the Merleau project, but I ended up going another route.
This was a huge pivot in my career because I had to basically start from scratch and make new social pages, or rebrand my old ones if possible. I also had boxes of physical CDs with Merleau on them that weren’t cheap, which I think are still sitting in my moms garage! It was a huge decision to abandon that project and go back to my true self. I feel like the loss of that time in my life discouraged me for a little while, but moving to Nashville gave me that fresh start I needed to rebuild my artist brand as myself. And even though I still kind of have a “stage name” since I only use one S in Misy now, it’s still my name and feels like me. For a long time, I did not like my last name, and it’s only recently that I’ve realized it’s not so bad. I think I am just a very particular kind of person and I tend to overthink, which I’m working on! I’m also forever on a journey of self-love and acceptance. For all of my songwriting credits, I use my full name of Melissa Gardner on those. But being Merleau for a little while taught me a lot about myself, business, the music industry, and how to brand myself.. which I’ll always be grateful for. Merleau kind of ended up being the test run for what I’m doing now, so it all works out in the end!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://thenameismisy.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thenameisMISY/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thenameisMISY/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/thenameisMISY/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCMbbfCO710sER6K9Q4PeFQ?view_as=subscriber
- Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thenameismisy
- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6l1jQBRRy4KjyMTBz2tXLa?si=03Ze1KWaSkS_boc3reY2OQ
- Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/misy/1442478955
Image Credits
Credits to Holly Sigafoos, Raena Skyy, Josie Bruno, Jeremy Aguirre, and Austin Dellamano.