New recorded tunes!
FIlming material is hard. How can you capture your entire essence as a human being through the screen!! I mean it’s a perfectly unachievable balance - Making your setup not too fancy and high tech - but not to casual - and NOT in front of your self tape backdrop. Making it authentic but filming material that actually is useful to showing the world what you do. Don’t use a YouTube karaoke track, so accompany yourself on guitar to be authentic - but only if you actually play guitar. If you can’t accompany yourself then pay someone else to do it because - money is unlimited, right? Look nice - but don’t look too fancy or too casual. Don’t film yourself dancing in dance class because that’s not authentic but also have footage of you dancing.
This constant back and forth and JUDGEMENT that comes with promoting yourself and your talent on the internet is so inhibiting - that most of us just say “fuck it" and steer clear of it all. But the problem is - so much of our marketing and networking is online. It has all come down to how we promote ourselves on social media. The meticulously crafted, perfect version of ourselves we want our peers and industry folks to see. We all know it’s not real - we all KNOW what lies behind perfectly crafted emoji captions and casual videos of triple pirouettes and high belting. - Hard fucking work. -
I’m challenging myself to be more supportive of my friends - outwardly - on the internet. I - as an artist - KNOW how hard it is to try and capture that essence and be happy enough with it to share it with thousands of people. I know how much of a difference one supportive comment makes on my posts and lack thereof. What I’ve come to realize during this audition season is that my friend’s success is MY success. Bringing admiration and gratitude for your surroundings into a room speaks volumes. Being brave and being authentic inspires others to do the same. Acknowledging the hard work we put into that “perfect” video on Instagram imakes the biggest difference to someone who spends their livelihood waiting for (and not receiving) the validations of others. Validation that looks like “I see you. I admire you. Keep going.” Social media is fake, but it doesn’t have to be. It can be vulnerable, celebratory, beautiful and authentic. So - in the name of vulnerability, celebration, beauty and authenticity - here are some new clips I had the honor of recording with a friend, Kenneth Gartman.
Doing what your heart cries out for is first. Everything else is second.
Laura