We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Trianna Feruza a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Trianna thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.
I am in process of cultivating my first full length album. In this process I’ve reached out of my comfort zone and reached new professional goals, I crowd sourced for the first time earning my goal, gained my first artist sponsorship through Santa Cruz Naturals and began the journey of this project! I am both recording the music and simultaneously recording a mini-doc series on the process of this album to showcase not only my musical history and creative process but to include the public in how these kinds of projects are made and why supporting art and the artists is so important.
This album will not only showcase my original music but will include some of my favorite musicians from all over the Bay Area. We the people making music for the people, I am so overjoyed to put to record songs I’ve written in the past year and some that have been written since 2016 and all the favorites in between.
Santa Cruz/Bay Area was a wonderful place to grow up and has been a inspiring place to live, has shown me love and community in the most magical way, and how I love my community. This album will shine light on those topics but, this same community has been struggling to maintain it’s culture with gentrification pushing the locals out, this process has made it hard for artists like myself and those included in this work to continue to live in the Bay Area and do what we love for a living, another piece included in this album.
It will focus on the love, the hardship, the gratitude, the hopelessness of the world we live in today. The biggest hit to my community has been Fentanyl and the addiction that has taken many loved members of communities around the globe, not just my own. This album will reflect that greif and the cry for understanding and hope for a better future for those who come after us.
The loss, the plague, the love, the recalibration are all topics we as the human race have been experiencing and that amalgamation of humanity is why this project is so impactful for not just me as an artist but for my community.
I am grateful every day that making music is not only the love of my life, but my career and my way to spread awareness and relate to the world around me and those who need a voice for what we’re all going through.
Music is love, music is understanding and I hope this album will be the kind of music that fosters togetherness.
What a beautiful mission to bring forth, can’t wait till you can all hear it in 2024!
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I really lucked out artistically on the family draw, my grandparents on my father’s side (Marta and Solomon) started getting into world music, bellydance and flamenco at “El Sid” a nightclub in Los Angeles this was circa late 1950’s. They were enamoured and went to the club every night dancing and fingering the guitar. Marta after many months finally found a teacher and began her professional bellydance career eventually creating MECDA the Middle Eastern Coalition of Dance Association in the 1970’s which was the first exotic “Dancer’s Union” in Los Angeles. Solomon learned to play the fiddle, guitar, saz, cumbus, oud, symbolum etc. and was picked up for David Lynley’s first band “The Kaleidoscope” a psychedelic rock band that would play with acts like Hendrix, Big Brother Holding Company and The Grateful Dead. My father and uncle grew up in East LA and created multiple psychedelic punk/hair metal bands in the 1980’s-90’s, while my mother started belly dance at the age of 12.
Now that you have a little backstory, I was performing since the embryonic stage.
My first memory is being on stage at a music festival with my family, brother of the fiddle, uncle on the bass, grandfather on the cumbus, mother, sister and aunt belly dancing and my father playing the Davul. The Davul for those who don’t know is a giant turkish drum that you play by slinging straps over your shoulders and playing with giant mallets on the sides.
I used to dance on that drum. This memory I was probably around three years old, and I just remember being in that environment and thinking (forgive my paraphrasing) this is where it’s at!
My whole life has been enriched with music and art of all kinds, and I am grateful everyday for that background.
What I can offer from this potently musical life is my musicianship, my performance, my commitment to my craft and my ability to not only cultivate my own music but to be a competent band leader, booker, event coordinator, stage manager and writer/composer.
The services I offer are as follows;
– Live Performances ( I have several bands ranging from funk, soul, jazz, Hip-hop, Indie, Live Looping, R&B and World Music)
– Wedding Band
– Features on tracks
– Ghost Writing
– Collaborations
– Opening Act
– Headliner
– Music Teacher
– Band Leader
– Backup Vocals
– Voice Over
– Performance Coaching
– Music Teacher
– Event Coordinator
What sets me apart? That’s for you to decide. But what I bring to the table as a creator is my love for music/performance and my passion and dedication for what I do.
I’m most proud of the people I’ve met along my journey, the campfire jams, the late night studio sessions, the songs that pour out like a waterfall. I’m proud to claim I love what I do for a living and have no regrets on where I am.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
The most rewarding aspect of being an artist? Is the magic. I’ve always been a fantasy nerd and when I really learned how to captivate a crowd and truly cultivate an atmosphere on stage I learned I was a wizard. Musicians cast spells and you can create whatever vibe you choose and there’s no other term that can hold a candle to that feeling other than magic. The way music brings people together is the reward, it’s getting everyone to sing and dance TOGETHER! To celebrate and rock out TOGETHER!
The togetherness of it all is one of the most gratifying moments I’ve ever experienced. To have someone tell you about how that one songs got them through the hard times, how they were listening to you on their first date or how they’ve been to x amount of shows and want you to play their wedding, how they created a choreography for their class from their favorite song…
It’s overwhelming the amount of love and connection that is fostered from music.
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
Buy tickets to your local artists shows! If you can pay $100 a ticket to see your favorite big league artist, try spending $10 to go see a local band! Find out whose creating in your community, go to an art show, check out live painting or book a local band to play a house party. We as a nation need to bolster our communities!
Buy merch from those bands, a local artist, go to clothing popups, maybe a makers market! Your community has so many creatives to support and so many ways and it doesn’t have to be a financial contribution either!
Go like and subscribe to their YouTube! Follow their social media, if you see a flier for a show, or you like a song or photo they’ve posted SHARE IT!
Show their art to your friends, if you like it, I believe the people around you will to! Word of mouth, sharing and following is a great way to uplift the artists in your community!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.triannaferuza.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/triannaferuza/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/trianna.feruza
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/trianna-feruza-aaab8a263/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX8bDOXLj3h8zkJqppdCf0A
Image Credits
Credits to; Maleah Rose Dayne Allen Michael Allen