The Artist Rise #017

Welcome to your weekly resource for all things branding, release strategy, and overall artist development.

Every week I'll help you tackle brand-building and strengthen your artistry by asking questions that dig deeper into your true artist self. Let's get into it.

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The Question

This week's question: What artists are your biggest influences/inspirations? Who is at the core of your music?

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Let's get into it.

The Importance

When you ask an artist who their biggest inspiration is or what bands influenced their music most, it feels like a really surface level question.

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Like the main outcome is discovering if they're fans of who you're also fans of, and hopefully that indicates whether or not their music is for you.

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But I like to look at it even further, because like most things, there's more than what meets the eye.

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I ask a question on the Why Music? podcast that goes like this:

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If you had to pick 2-3 artists that your music is like a combination of, who would it be?

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Aka, what three artists do you think have the biggest alignment with what your catalog sounds like?

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It's fun, it's a challenge, but here we're going further than that.

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Because I don't know about anyone else, but half of the music I listen to on a somewhat regular basis is nothing near what my music sounds like.

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For example, some of my most listened to are Jon Bellion, AJR, Quinn XCII, and so on.

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(I make acoustic folk-pop music, so we're not in the same realm at all)

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But my story with music starts with Jon Bellion.

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I started writing music because of one of Jon Bellion's songs. He's an influence of mine regardless of whether I can make crazy production like him or not.

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The first song I learned on piano was "Someone Like You" by Adele. That 100% has bled into the way I make music today.

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THAT is what I'm getting at here.

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As artists, we're products of what we consume musically.

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I think listening to groups like Goo Goo Dolls and Matchbox Twenty and Lifehouse drove me to acoustically-based music.

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I think Adele, P!nk, and Alicia Keys made me fall so deeply in love with piano ballads.

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THAT is where my music brand as an artist was born.

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And there's telling signs beyond the surface for yours too.

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Your Task

Look back at the different eras of music you've listened to.

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Think about the artists that have stuck out most to you and are names that jump into your head instantly.

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Who made you fall in love with the style of music you're in now?

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Who first showed you that you too could make music that people would learn to love?

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Who do you listen to now that you're trying to emulate?

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And what connects them all together?

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Dissect your catalog, start connecting dots, and see what sort of equation you come up with that results in your music.

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Dig deeper, don't just think about who you sound like, but look into who drove you to the way you approach music.

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Who has inspired you rather than just influenced you? And what can you do with that moving forward?

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Move with intention always.

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-Ava

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Talk it out: As previously promised, I want you to provide the opportunity to talk this out and explore it further, so you're welcome to share your origin/growth story in a reply to this email, or chat about it with me.

That's it for this week! Hopefully this helped you take the next step in developing yourself as an artist and a brand. Stay tuned for more next week.

If you have any topics you want to see more of or any questions you'd love for me to answer, simply reply to this email.

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Keep learning and growing,

Ava Rose Lynch

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