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

Yvonne, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today 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.

People often say “No risk, no reward.” That is absolutely true. I’ve always wanted to be in the arts, whether it was acting in theater, movies/commercials, writing music, composing, producing or simply as a performer. I needed to create something, and that need still exists.
If it hadn’t been for the number of risks I’ve taken along the way, I definitely would not find myself making a living off of music and creativity like I am now.

My creative story can not be summed into one pivotal risk itself, but rather a series of them that would lead me to making a living being an artist.

I always told my mother that when I turned 18, I was going to move to L.A. to become a starving artist, sleep in my car if I had to, and audition to be the next big star. While that exact situation didn’t happen, fate would have it that I did leave home at a ripe age of 19 with a single suitcase to New York City, where I would study acting and audition for Broadway.
Of course, without a real job and only the tenacity to make it big, I had to return to my hometown in Olympia, Washington after a short stint. But I couldn’t end there.
After a few years of working and changing art schools, I found my next big jump: Las Vegas. Off I went to another city that I had never stepped foot in. My goal was to make a ton of money cocktail waitressing, and then venture back to the Big Apple to be the next Sutton Foster.
But the 2007 recession happened, and so did every “plan” I thought I had.
I spent the next few years just trying to keep my head above the water financially. I went through deep bouts of depression and anxiety, writing song after song on my guitar.
I began doing open mics, spewing out my music to anyone who would listen. And one night I realized, “What am I doing? I”m working a dead-end job in an industry I have no passion for”.
I went into work the following day with my letter of resignation, knowing that even though I had JUST gotten back up on my feet financially, this decision would either make or break my creative life.
It was absolutely terrifying. The hustle was incredibly real. I found myself knocking on every door possible to perform, write or be included as a creative professional. But with all of those risks, came a huge reward: I found myself. I started being paid to perform, started developing a following, a small fan-base. I began to feel confident in my writing and production abilities. Soon, I would be able to support myself solely on music, performance and creativity. I’ve been able to teach myself more in-depth and release music completely on m own. If I hadn’t taken all of those risks, I would still be stuck at some dead-end job in a different industry I hate.
This is an extremely diluted version of my story. However, the one thing that resonates for me, now that I am older, is how much I wanted “it”. “It” being a creative life. Those of us who are creatives understand the need, but so many of us are held back by the “standards” the world gives us to live by. But there is a way to explore, live and make a career out of our strengths if we have the confidence to take that risk. It may not work out the first time, or the second, or the sixty-eighth- but Rome was not build in a day!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Hi, I’m Yvonne. I’m a mostly self-taught musician/instrumentalist and music producer.

I’ve spent the last decade performing as a one-woman-band in the lounges of Las Vegas with my guitar, keys and vocals. I always had a passion for music, a need to create and a willingness to jump into the unknown. Through my own experiences, struggles and achievements with music, performance and teaching myself, I have also developed myself as a music teacher to kids. My goals with my students is to make them understand music at a young age like I could not do, to empower them to believe in themselves.
I have created, produced, performed and recorded all of my music releases completely solo, which for me is the biggest thing I am proud of. I always thought you had to achieve fame to have music released. To know that I have the power, myself to not only write and create a song, but produce, mix and release it all on my own is beyond gratifying.
I’m currently working on new releases for myself and my side project, “Bailey Downs”, and am looking to expand in production with a few close artist peers.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

The one, single thing I think people fault to understand about being a creative is this: We are not all aspiring to be famous.

Yes, famous people can make a lot of money. Yes, famous people get more accolades, pull, and even more respect. But it is not the be-all, end-all for those of us who truly love what we do.

It is possible to have a life and career in music without the need or desire to audition for “America’s Got Talent”, and it is still gratifying to release my own music on Apple and Spotify without a major record deal. Sure, I will probably only reach hundreds, or maybe even 12 people. But that is 12 more than I would have if I had just sat around working toward a record deal that I wouldn’t have the ownership over, anyway.

My personal journey and mission as a creative is to CREATE, the second is to be heard. Of course I want people to listen to what I’ve worked so hard on, but the truth is 99.999% of the world won’t. So I have made space in my head to recognized and feel accomplished with what I create and achieve regardless of the hype and attention that may (or more likely may NOT) follow.

Being an artists is EXHAUSTING. Some days I am much better at marketing myself than others. Some days I just want to cry. But it’s not because I haven’t achieved fame or made a million dollars. It’s because I just want what I create to count; I just want to be heard, even by 12.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Social media. oy. Where to begin? The first thing I can say or recommend is to remember: social media is just media, and we all know that media always teeters on the truth.
You want your “following” to be genuine. The only way to achieve that is to genuinely make relationships with those you connect to on social media. If you are doing your part in the community, whether it is performance, street art, farmer’s markets, or wherever/whatever you can do to be social in the real world, that is where your social media following will “follow.”
There are different kinds of artists, and some are VERY good at being social, and the rest of us are left with this crippling social anxiety, be-it in-person or over social media. Promoting ourselves is not easy, but if we stick to showing our genuine self, and not just a carbon-copy of what everyone else is doing, we are more likely to attain and maintain the friends and support we are looking for.
Social media is more than numbers. You can have twenty-thousand followers, and ten-thousands likes, but when it comes down to buying your art, selling your song, hiring you for work, those numbers dwindle to the 0-10’s. Stay true to the value of your work, and your value will increase in time. It’s a long, hard wait. I’m still struggling with it! But I’d rather have genuine people interacting with. me than strange creeps and bots.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.yvonnesilva.com
• Instagram: YvonneSilvaMusic
• Facebook: YvonneSilvaMusic
• Twitter: YvonneSilva_
• Youtube: diva1226

Image Credits
Fred Morledge, Joaquin Lares