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

Richard, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with 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?

I suppose I have been lucky in that when I announced that I wanted to be a musician for a living, I didn’t get the raised eyebrows, head shaking admonition that I needed to choose a serious profession, that one didn’t become a musician to pay the rent…

Instead, my parents, teachers and musicians that I looked up to, all said that if that’s what I wanted to do, I should learn as much as I can about music–playing the piano was fine, but if I learned how to write and arrange music, conduct and lead an ensemble; accompany singers, just work to get competent in other skills, then I would always have a job.

It was sound advice, although I admit that as a seventeen-year-old I didn’t see where all of this learning would eventually lead. So instead of hitting the road right out of high school, I took a training detour and went to college. After earning a music degree, THEN I hit the road!

Richard, 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?

I am a full-time professional musician, a pianist/keyboardist, composer and arranger.   These days I do shows and smaller live performances mainly with my duo and trio, as well as solo piano (I was a Nordstrom pianist for 10 years!).   Along with my production and performance partner I also arrange and record music for various clients (including a church’s weekly online Sunday service), compose original music for businesses and websites, and create, produce and perform theme shows for the many retirement communities around where I live.    I’ve been doing music–and earning money doing it–since I was seventeen. I always knew music is how I wanted to make a living, and have been fortunate to be competent enough that I’ve not had to do anything else!

What I love about what I do is that it brings smiles to people’s faces. The music can evoke nostalgia, happiness, sadness, longing…in short what I play, write or arrange can move someone, and so for the duration of a song, we have a connection.

I am most proud of those few times when a performance has made a such a difference for someone–that what I played moved another person in such a way that they reached out to me to tell me that. I am also amazed that music has taken me around the world–literally. And in places where I haven’t been, my songs have been played there on radio or TV!

I have been performing and writing music for a very long time, and each time I play or compose, I still get excited in that wide-eyed way that I felt when I was starting out. I feel blessed to get to do what I do, and I’ve never taken that for granted.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

I would say that the driving force that propels me on my creative journey is one that perhaps has become somewhat of a cliche. I’ve heard or read other artists’ interviews, from famous and not-so-famous personalities, that mention the part about making the audience happy, satisfied, fulfilled. And it’s become somewhat of a stock answer to say I am there to please the audience.

Well for me, it is true–whenever I do a live performance, I am playing for them (the audience). Not to them, or at them. And whatever feelings or emotions come up for people, the music at a particular moment gives them the space to experience whatever it is, and that makes me want to give it everything every time. I do not ‘punch the clock’ or ‘phone it in. I bring the same commitment to the music–whether I am on the big stage in concert, or if I am backing a singer on a cover song in a lounge.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

When COVID shut down the world, performers saw their entire calendar wiped clean. The reality hit that none of us were going to be playing a live venue anytime soon. And what made it very hard was that no one knew when–or if–there was an end in sight. There were musicians that playing live was their sole avenue and revenue. When I realized that I wasn’t going anywhere for a while, instead of sitting on the couch and lamenting, I decided that I was going to teach myself how to record music with my computer and a digital workstation. It wasn’t a cakewalk in the beginning, but gradually it began to make sense, and I was able to reach a point where I could actually record music. I would never call myself an audio or recording engineer, but I got to a place where I could do basic recording and mixing. Good enough that I was able to–with my performing and songwriting partner–turn out recordings for a church’s weekly virtual Sunday service.

So what seemed like an unplanned ‘what-am-I-gonna-do-now’ situation during the lockdown turned out to be a growth experience that has really added another aspect to my musical palette, one that has served me well to this day!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.richardpalalaymusic.net
• Other: www.wildeplay.com