We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Skaivi. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Skaivi below.
Skaivi, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Has your work ever been misunderstood or mischaracterized?
Definitely. There’s this general attitude from others towards me that I’ve noticed since I was a young girl. All my life, people have often just naturally been drawn to me. There has always been this “cute” kind of aura people saw in me…something soft and warm that made strangers trust me, and even made wannabe-bullies want to secretly be my friend and hang out with me. And I guess I am not surprised that people saw that aura in me; I was always trying my best to be kind to others, and I was innately a gentle person—that didn’t always work in my favor, though, as I ended up being quite a people pleaser for many years. Over time, it started to come to my attention that there was a pattern going on. The softness I had, even as I got older, came with assumptions that I was naive, innocent, and unaware. People would sometimes laugh off my insights a bit, or say things in a certain way that insinuated that I couldn’t possibly understand the complexities of adulthood, careers, trauma, or other various life topics. They saw the shy, cartoon-loving, silly neurodivergent girl and thought that was the whole story of my personality and who I am. In truth, I have quite a few things in my life that no one would guess by looking at me. I know very well what it’s like to live a life full of hardships and difficulties. I’ve carried grief, fought to stay strong and heal from trauma, and built my career from the ground up. I’m not a perfect person, but I always do my best to grow and to handle my business. And though some days (or even weeks) can get particularly hard, I continue to keep my strength every time, and I am proud of what I have achieved in both my personal and professional life so far. So, yes, I can definitely be seen as “cute,” and I even may enjoy it at many times, but I am also a human being who has many layers to my existence. I can have child-like fun one moment, and be serious or more adult-like the next. And I am kind, but I have gotten a lot better at expressing myself and showing boundaries. I am soft, but I am also incredibly strong and learning to be firmer in who I am. Gentleness doesn’t mean someone doesn’t know anything or that you are able to use them like a doormat. Being mischaracterized used to hurt me a lot. But these days, I better understand that other peoples’ assumptions are not my responsibility. I get to live my life how I want to—with the many wonderful facets and layers of my personality and artistry—and I shouldn’t worry about people thinking it’s not how I “usually act” or something. And you know, in a way, I kind of like the aspect of being unpredictable. I like surprising people with unexpected things. It fits in well with the version of myself I am growing into.
Skaivi, 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?
My name is Skaivi, and I am a singer, songwriter, and music producer. For fun, I like to call myself a wizard of sound because music creation is often a magical thing that feels like creating spells to me! I basically practice audio sorcery, which is super rad. I am also from and currently based in Chicago, and I have Polish and Slovak roots from my immigrant parents. My desire to be a musician sparked a flame when I was around 5 years old. I was obsessed with Lady Gaga and wanted to be just like her! I really loved her unique flare and how bold she was. I didn’t do anything formal in music, though, until I joined my school band at age 11 as a percussionist. That was quite fun for me, and I had quite a knack for percussion (which involved various instruments like snare drums, glockenspiels, gongs, etc.). A couple years later at age 13, I started venturing into songwriting and have been honing my skills in that area ever since. Songwriting is one of my biggest loves, and my mother and Tyler Joseph were both really big inspirations in starting. Another few years later, I then began digital music production at the age of 17 on my iPhone in GarageBand, until graduating to Logic Pro on a MacBook at 18. I’m someone who tends to have strong visions when it comes to the music I’m working on, so I feel that me adding music production to my skillset was a natural progression. I like to have control over my projects (at least the solo ones). I actually wanted to start learning music production earlier, but I lacked the confidence to even give it a chance. I’m so glad I finally decided to just try it out one day! Music production is truly another one of my biggest loves in life. When it comes to who I am in my career currently, I am honestly still in the midst of defining my artistry…and I actually don’t know if I’ll ever really define it other than just “Skaivi being Skaivi.” Since 2022 (when I started my music career officially) I was trying to box myself into overly-specific genres and niches. But I have come to recognize that boxing myself in does not fit the road I desire to take as an artist. I want so much more for myself and for my listeners, so I promised myself going forward to never limit myself: if I want to experiment with something, I do it. One thing about me for sure is that I adore theatrical and dramatic styles—any vibe from dark, gothic electronica to fun, bubblegum dance-pop, I just love it when a song (and often a visual as well) has a big personality! I don’t like to do boring. So…don’t expect anything particular from me…instead, wonder what I’m going to do next! I think that’s a lot of fun, and I enjoy the same idea when it comes to a lot of my own favorite artists. I love when musicians play around with different kinds of elements and styles. It keeps things interesting. Also, yes, I am definitely still a fan of the fabulous Lady Gaga!
Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?
I think one facet of being a creative that non-creatives can struggle to understand is how non-linear the creative journey as a whole is, and just how much work and resources it can take to “make it.” Like, let’s talk about the musician’s journey since I’m one. First, you have to do the most important thing: make you sure you have recorded music that actually exists in the real world—and it has to be both unique enough, as well the highest quality possible, so you can actually stand out at all in the vast landscape of millions of other artists also trying to make a career. Into basic music creation goes the writing of the top-line melodies and lyrics, the compositional melodies, music production and sound design, recording of the vocals and instruments, and mixing and mastering. That in itself is a pretty lengthy process, and it can also cost you quite a bit of money if you don’t, for example, mix and master by yourself. You also need to have a good cover art that goes with the release too. Then you have to deal with administrative matters. For my catalog, I register my songs at my local performance rights organization (ASCAP), SoundExchange, Songtrust, and of course my music distributor of choice. I keep track of my catalog’s metadata and enter in any information required for registration. And we’re not even at post-release matters yet! If you want a successful release, you then have to promote your music as much as possible on multiple social media apps (even better if you have a planned promotion strategy); spread the word about it online and/or in person; send press releases to various blogs, magazines, and radios; search for and contact curators about adding your music to their playlists, and there can be more, but those are just some basics. So, you do all that, and guess what…no matter how incredible your piece is, no matter how much effort you put into everything, it does not guarantee success. Things have to align in the right way for your music to start garnering attention, and it can take quite some time to see your hard work pay off. And even when you get some attention, that attention can waver a lot. One moment you can get so much praise from everyone, the next you’re talking to tumbleweeds. It’s not always easy on your self-confidence. Not to mention, after all that, it doesn’t mean that you suddenly become rich when you see a bit of fame. Most music consumers understandably use streaming services to listen to songs, and us musicians get paid only a few dollars for thousands of streams. That’s why it’s technically a good idea to build up more artist-supportive methods of income generation like selling merchandise and CDs on websites like Bandcamp. I do hope that streaming services will pay artists more for their streams eventually, though. It’s all a lot of work. To succeed in the music game, a determined attitude and a strong will to not give up is a must—and, of course, a strong passion for music and growing a career!
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
The most rewarding aspect of being a creative is 100% human connection. The act of artistic creation itself is, of course, extremely important too; I create because it’s how I best express my experience of being, my thoughts about the world, and my own mystical inner realm (dreams, stories, fantasies, etc.). But even with how important creating is, there is nothing that surpasses the feeling I get when someone conveys to me that my art spoke to them and impacted them in special ways. I’ve gotten told many times about how people “needed to hear” my music, or how a song of mine brought them comfort and healing. Those are such inexplicably beautiful sentiments that touch my heart deeply. I often feel like I was put onto the Earth for this reason—to help people with my music. Creating my music heals me and my artistic soul, my music heals people who need it, and the fact that my music heals those people circles back to heal me once again too. Wonderful loop going on there. I don’t know why I adore human connection to such a huge extent, particularly as someone who is, oftentimes, basically a hermit who likes a lot of alone time…but it just really drives me and my existence, and it also drives me to keep creating, no matter how many moments of writer’s block or low energy I have. This is my soul mission here, and not only do I want to honor it, but I profoundly love it!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.skaivi.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/skaiviofficial/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skaiviofficial
- Twitter: https://x.com/skaiviofficial
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@skaivi
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/skaivi-official
Image Credits
I have all the rights,