Underground Sound Indie Brit Boys For Your Indie Brit Blues
Callum's got the ultimate sad sack playlist for you: mournful sad indie boys with sad songs.
Q&A With Tanya Lacey
Copyright: Molly Perryman
Molly headed to Tanya Lacey’s gig and Q&A to find out more about this Bristol born artist.
Tanya Lacey is singer songwriter from St.Pauls who is currently making movements. Tanya Lacey has written with and for many big artists as well as featuring on songs. She has worked with the likes of Tinchy Stryder and Loick Essiens – one of the most famous songs being T.H.E. for will.i.am.
She also works as a solo artist and recently performed at Colston Hall, where I met her to get advice on how to get into the music industry.
On how to get into the music industry
Work on what it is that you’re good at and keep working on that. Mix with other people who do music. It’s not a bad thing to collaborate. Especially early on. If someone has a studio – get involved. Harness your talent and try and do something every day that works towards it, that definitely helps. The more you do something, the more you figure out what you wanna do or what angle you wanna go down. There’s so many different areas of music to get involved with, not only performing. There’s also marketing too, for example.
On How to Work with Other Artists
Source: vk.com
…because the industry is so small, word travels around and you just have to work hard. If you keep delivering, people are gonna wanna work with you. The music industry is one of those places where it’s so highly competitive. It’s not cool to be slack. Everybody is on top of their game. You want people to be talking about you. You want to shine at every studio session. You want doors to open for you…it took me a year after to moving to London to get my first record deal.
On how to deal with moving for your music
There were times every year where I feel like I just wanna quit music sometimes because it can be so exhausting and sometimes you try so many things and nothing comes into fruition and it’s like a bit disheartening. It was tough but the more I got into the rhythm and the pace of London, the more I started to hone in on what I do. It kinda just felt it was the right place for me to be and I felt grateful to do that.
On how to keep true to yourself
Most definitely, when I first signed my deal I was kinda swept away with it all. I made the mistake that a lot of people make ‘this is it now, I’ve made it’. I had more money than I ever had in my life and was being flown around and I think what came with that was being quite disillusioned by everything and I think if I could go back I would of put more time into staying in the studio because I was going out quite a lot and you kinda feel like you’re a star already because there’s so many people around you that are kind of ‘bigging’ you up so yeah, I definitely wouldn’t of let myself get so swept away with all that hype.
On how to keep motivated
Source: soulculture.com
People think that when you write a record and when it gets onto radio that you’ve got money in your bank and that everything is sweet financially but the reality is that it’s not always like that. There are times when you may get a big bit of money and you have to make that stretch- you have to pay rent, you have to find money to go to the studio. So what keeps me motivated is creating more music that can offer the ability to live and have music as my main job because if you’re not in it fully, there’s so many other people who are ready to take your place so that keeps me motivated.
Tanya Lacey is so down to Earth and I found what she said about the music industry a real eye opener and hope that this helps others understand the ups and downs of being part a small yet large industry.
Did you find this Q&A useful? Do you have any questions or tips about the music industry? Let us know @rifemag and follow @RemixAcademy
You may also be interested in
Four ways to get your music heard
Independent artist Ben Savery shares his knowledge on how to get your music played
Electronic music has gone downtempo during the pandemic – will it last?
Gabi takes you on an exploration of musical creativity through three long lockdowns
About the author
Molly Perryman
Molly has recently left sixth form and feels reasonably ready to take on the world. A regular at live music events, she makes her own music, getting involved in local projects in film or event management, cycling and is a keen photographer.
More from this author
Fourteen Years of Christmas Lists
Molly looks back at all the Christmas presents she has asked for since she was five-years-old to see how things...
An Awesome Bristol Band: Weatherstate
Molly checked out new Bristol band 'Weatherstate' and thought they were ace.
Weatherstate are a four-piece punk rock band from...
What Is Temple Records?
Molly headed to Temple Records' secret pop-up gig in Bristol city centre to find out more about what they're currently...
