We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Rhiannon Stark a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Rhiannon, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

Throughout life, we as humans are faced with countless decisions every day that we make without realizing it. Looking back at my life from where I am now, I can see very clear moments that changed everything but could have been so easily missed if I hadn’t been willing to take a risk.

I have always been drawn to the music world as long as I can remember; ranging from chior all through out school to repeated attempts at learning different instruments. Fast forward to 2016 and I had the desire to explore a rave music festival but didn’t feel safe going alone. By chance, I met an incredible human in the woman’s restroom of a club who invited me to join their group. In this situation, I was faced with the decision of joining someone I barely knew in an enviornment I’d never been or stay home. Suffice it to say, I chose adventure and the St. Patrick’s Day themed rave called Lucky changed my life forever.

For those unfamiliar, the rave scene is built around a culture of “PLURR” which stands for Peace, Love, Unity, Respect and Responsibility. The goal is for each person that participates to do so with intentions of treating others with respect and kindness, while taking personal responsibility to keep yourself and others safe. While there I kept having the thought of, “I want to do this, I want to build and give this to people.”

Fast forward again to 2021, and through A LOT of lived life, an opportunity was presented to me again: a local Seattle DJ was interested in taking on students to learn how to DJ and help bring new life to the scene, all one had to do was reach out. In this situation, I was faced with FINALLY chasing the passion I’ve had on the back burner my entire life, or continue to make excuses for why now wasn’t the right time.

Thankfully, in a moment of bravery I chose to at least try. Since then I have been fortunate enough to curate vibes at several different fundraising events for local businesses and causes, share the music I love and my favorite club in Seattle with so many other people. Even though I am not yet headlining my own festivals and haven’t released my own music yet, I am still acheiving my goal of creating a sharing a space for others to exist as themselves free of judgement and none of it would have been possible if I wasn’t willing to take the risk.

Rhiannon, 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?

Music runs in my family in one way or another and I’ve always felt drawn to it myself too. In adulthood, there was always something else that took priority until I found myself planning a memorial service in 2021. The service was for my partner, who introduced me to the world of industrial music and all the amazing sub-genres it has led to.

While organizing the service, I met a Seattle based DJ that played at a club he showed me on our first date. Through this memorial service, the DJ and I became Facebook friends and several months later he posted that he was looking for people to learn the craft and breathe new life into the local scene.

I was extremely fortunate to be one of a few he chose and I’ve been taking every opportunity to curate vibes and share the dance floor ever since. So far I’ve played genres ranging from industrial to new and dark wave to EBM and EDM. I like to go into each situation with an individualized plan but it always boils down to what the crowd resonates with most.

You can count on me to keep the energy up and quality tracklist to live your night to.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

I’ve regularly come into contact with people that ask questions like “Are you sure you shouldn’t be applying that time and energy into something more realistic, like math or science?”

To this, I usually say:

Each brain is wired and geared for different things and each living thing should be able to spend their life doing things that bring them joy. Because of the world we live in, being skilled in those things can absolutely be beneficial and world changing in their own ways, but I cannot lose myself in a math equation or science experiment the way I can with music.

If I had to choose between a scientist that LOVES everything about that role or a scientist who is only doing it for money, I’d choose a passionate scientist every time.

Music and art is exactly the same way. Every song you’ve ever made a memory to (like at weddings) or movie night with the family or trip to the museum was created and made possible by a team of people working together and following their passion.

Just because it’s not a pursuit you would want or could see for yourself doesn’t mean it’s not a worthy and admirable journey for someone else. Follow your passions and allow others to follow their’s and watch how the beauty unfolds.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

The biggest lesson I’ve had to unlearn so far has been that there’s only one way to do something. When I first started learning music production software I was watching whatever tutorials I could find to try and learn all I could. One day I was trying to create a specific sound effect and spent six hours frustratedly pushing buttons (literally) and pulling my hair out (figuratively) when I was inevitably overwhelmed by options and conflicting advice. I eventually figured it out completely by accident and now I can definitively say: there’s no ONE or ‘right’ way to do whatever it is you want to. Sure, there may be things that work most often for most people, but it is OKAY if what works for you is different. What you’re creating is how others will get to know you, not just all the things you’ve learned.    

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