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

Robbie, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

I knew I wanted to do music professionally sometime towards the middle /end of high school. High school was the first time I really noticed that I had talent. That being on stage was something I knew for a fact I was good at and no one could tell me otherwise. Being on stage is where I am the most at home, where I am the most confident, and through performing, I realized that what I can do is special, and it makes me feel good to make other people happy in that way. I was captain of the dance team and I was also in the concert choir. Often times the choir would travel to other schools, or team up with other choirs to put on shows. As a freshman, I was getting really big solos, and when I would sing in front of these other schools afterward the room would be silent and all you could hear were gasps, and “woh”‘s. I would get asked if I was a senior and when I would tell them I was only 13 only a freshman, jaws would drop and that made me feel good. Made feel like damn, I really do have something.

When I was about 15 years old I had the chance to compete in a competition called the World Championships Of Performing Arts (WCOPA). 53 different countries competed in singing, dancing, acting, and modeling. I trained for a year getting ready to compete with the Northern California team. When the time came I completed all four categories. At the award ceremony, I secured the gold in Hip-hop dance, the silver in RnB vocals, and silver in gospel vocals, I was so excited it just confirmed even more that this was something that I was supposed to be doing. It’s all I have cared about since.

I just want to sing my songs, perform for the world and make people happy. I don’t think I am asking too much.

Robbie, 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 story is kind of all over the place but with that said I have only ever had one goal and that has been to create music and to create it the way that I want. After the competition happened my parents had me focus on school and if I am being honest, I wasn’t the best at that. I ended up dropping out of HS and getting my GED and after that, as a young rebellious kid of like, 18, 19 years old I found an opportunity to move to Southern California. I moved to Downtown Long Beach with no plan, no sense of how the real world worked. I just knew I was talented and said to my dad “Dad, I’m leaving to be a dancer and singer, okay bye.” It was the hardest time of my life. I could barely afford to take classes, my job wasn’t great, and I didn’t know what it meant to hustle and figure it out. I took classes when I could but it was also the first time I was around people that were either just as good or better than me and it was scary. The universe was checking me and I had no one to turn to because I was on my own, no family or friends. I had no idea what to do, where to start, or even begin. I struggled for just over a year and some change before I had to move back to the Bay Area with nothing to show for my efforts.

18 to 22 years old were the hardest times of my life. I had no money, I didn’t have a place to stay, I would couch-hop between friends, and one time I slept on a bench. During that time I still wanted to perform and be in front of people and I fell into the theater scene. From there I started to ground myself again, towards the end of the show I was in I found a new place to live. My housemates were all musicians and it was just what I needed. I turned 23 and the next thing I know I am running shows throughout the Bay Area’s Indie, Alternative, and hardcore metal scenes. In 2012 I went on my first tour singing with my friends. After the tour, I was still trying to figure out how to keep doing this but I realized quickly I couldn’t continue to do music the way I wanted without a steady job to fund it. I ended up getting a job at Google.

I worked at Google on the main campus on and off for 4 and a half years. My first job there was working in tech support for the Google Play store. I was there for 2 years before I fell into criminal research at another company. That job was really depressing so I went back to Google after a year and a half of working there. I then got hired on the content review team at Google and then after a year was promoted to data analyst for Google Shopping Express. While I was at Google, I was able to start a band called Nu Ethnic. We were an indie alternative rock band with very pop and RnB undertones. We were together for a couple of years and released a project called “Learning To Fly”. We played sold-out shows all throughout the Bay Area as well as a few shows in LA and San Diego. We broke up literally due to creative differences. When we did I found my way back to the theater.

I was in three productions in Bay Area, ‘Chicago’, ‘Rock of Ages’, and ‘In The Heights’. I landed my first lead role as Benny in ‘In The Heights’. While I love musical theater I realized my true love is pop and Rnb music but I felt kind of defeated. Trying to find this balance of life and art in the Bay Area was very demoralizing. I took a break from performing a for a while. I ended up working at Facebook in 2018 doing trust and safety. From there I got a job working at another company called Baidu working with their self-driving cars. After that, I was at Pinterest in the community department. I was there until March of 2021 and it was then I decided to move back to LA.

I have been back in LA now for 2 years and it’s been incredible. I think I needed to go through all of that to fully understand my power and my ability to do what I need to to get what I want. The entertainment industry is hard and finding people to take you seriously can be even harder. But it is not impossible. I have more of an understanding of how to go about this journey and I am still learning things along the way. In my first 2 years back I have landed 4 commercials/ads, and recorded an EP that I will be releasing this year. I have performed on the mainstage at LA Pride, released solo music, found steady work within music marketing, and recorded my first music video. This is the closest I have ever been to doing this thing my way and I don’t plan on stopping anytime soon.

My Current sound is Pop Rnb, I am obsessed with pop music and I love me some RnB. When the two combine the possibilities become even more endless. I describe myself as an honest and bold lyricist. My current project is called “Nothing Seems Like Something” and my most recent single “Artificial Love” is a very upbeat dancey pop track. Lyrically it’s quite sad and dark, but I find the upbeat tempo to be a metaphor to stay strong and hang in there, to stay resilient. I am looking to explore more indie soul after this current project and really make people dance. I’d love to watch dancers doing choreography to my music and that is a big part of the goal.

I am a Pop Rnb singer-songwriter and performer. I can sing, dance, write, act, and perform damn near anything thrown my way. I am looking to also top line for other producers and to add my vocals to other projects aside from my own. I am also willing to provide session and backing vocals for artists as well. My ability to blend I believe others will extremely valuable. I want my name to be the first people think of when they need something. I want them to know that if they call me they know for a fact I can and will deliver.

While my solo work is kind of just now starting at the age of 34 I have been at this for years and sometimes it seemed like the universe was against me. I will admit at times I gave attention to the wrong things and the wrong people. I lost sight of wanted in some ways and it set me back a bit. But now with everything I have gone through, I can say I am ready and more focused than ever. I truly look forward to growing and learning even more. What I want any fans or followers of mine to know is that it’s never too late and it will never be “too late”, you can start whenever. That the concept of “cool” is whatever you decide “cool” is. Don’t let anyone tell you what you are doing or what you have created is wrong or won’t work. What you create yourself will always be unique and no one can do what you do the way YOU do it. Master P said it best “If you don’t understand my record then you don’t understand me so this is not for you”. That applies to all forms of art, your art will not be for everybody and that is okay. But it will be for someone else, and it could very well be just what they need to make their day, month, or even their year.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Growing up I was taught to care about what everyone else thought of me. That when I stepped out of the house if I didn’t look a certain way or if I didn’t know how to speak properly or do things the way everyone else did that I wouldn’t be taken seriously. I was taught that If I didn’t do well in school or got a degree that I would never land a job… That messed with me for a long time. It was because of that that I struggled hard with being authentic to myself when it came to how I moved in space, my sexuality, and how I spoke to people. After time and time again of just feeling like everything I do was failing I realized, to put it bluntly, I wasn’t giving the right fucks. Not being real with myself and not asking myself hard-hitting questions was going against me. So I had to reintroduce myself to me! And really tell myself the only person whose opinion that matters is mine, and that it is okay to be selfish. I had to learn to finally give the right fucks.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding thing for me about being an artist is people being able to relate to my words, my lyrics. To have someone come up to me and say “I have gone through exactly what you just sang about, but I didn’t know how to put it into words until now.” Feels so good! This may sound cheesy but I have always felt that there is no one in the world that will understand you, the way your favorite songs understand you. If I don’t have the words for something, best believe I know a song that does. So being able to be that for someone else, is the best feeling in the world.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: robbiereignmusic
• Youtube: robbiereignmusic
• Others: Bio Link: http://robbiereign.ffm.to/robbie

Image Credits
Colleen Bajaras Sebastian Garnett John Phan Jereimiah Drummond Vudaje