We had the good fortune of connecting with Abigail Joran and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Abigail, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking.
I see an abundant list of risks in every decision I make. Risk is just doing something out of bravery, even when there is a possibility of loss or failure, which there basically always is. In a creative career, there is no way to operate without risk. Even just beginning to write a song is a risk- how will thinking about this make me feel? Will this feeling offend someone? Will this be important to anyone? Will this sound resonate with people? And don’t even get me started on the risk involved in a performance. Even just dedicating time to a creative path takes time away from a more ‘predictable’ or ‘stable’ path, and that time allocation is a risk too. Although, it would also be a risk to choose the stable path. I think that when you only seek stability and fear the idea of risk, you are actually risking much more. You are risking the fading away of your dreams, and you are risking looking back on a time of your life as one where you operated out of fear and let the world just pass you by. That, to me, is a much more dangerous risk. Everything holds risk, but we absolutely must take the risks which have the potential to bring us closer to our wildest dreams and deepest desires, if we want to have any chance at all.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
When I was 17, I was forced into an extended period of isolation and depression by a global pandemic, hitting during the same season I’d have to say goodbye to my childhood life. I discovered an overflowing well of frustrated emotions and creativity that I had been neglecting and distracting myself from for years. I began to realize that I had a gift for emotional awareness and that I had perspective to offer to the world of art. But I deeply lacked a sense of self- discipline, and I had basically no practical musical skills at all. All I had was 5 chords on the guitar and a deeply therapeutic relationship with writing lyrics- but I wasn’t even a very good singer. But slowly I felt myself latch onto an obsession over a vision I had of my songs being in a sort of final form. I thought it would take a couple months. It took 5 years. I switched my major to music, changed schools, started from the absolute bottom in piano and theory and production classes. I made and remade a thousand terrible demos. I shared the with people who thought they were terrible, which hurt, but somehow I knew deep down they just didn’t get it yet. I learned something new and remade them again. And I kept writing. By the end of year 4 of this, I had 6 solidly written, but still terrible sounding, fully composed demos using midi (computerized) instruments. That was when I fearfully but desperately sent them to a friend, Gerardo Brito, who would go on to become my lead engineer for the final recordings. I thought we’d spend 4 months just taking what I had and turning it into real instruments. It took us an entire year to record, one instrument at a time, which we did almost entirely in my parent’s living room with the help of many friends made along the way. We spent the days in- between recording sessions comping, tuning, re-arranging, listening, obsessing. It was electric. After that year of recording, G and I still had about 6 months of sitting in a dark room doing the most tedious of tasks together- editing, re-arranging again, mixing, before it got anywhere close to where we wanted it.

From ages 17-23, I was completely obsessed with finishing this one project. I saw the finish line stretch and feel so close yet so far more and more, every single month. And although I often felt frustrated, discouraged, insecure, doubtful, exhausted… I never even began to dream of giving up. I knew that it was my purpose to deliver the message of my songs in the most effective way possible no matter what it took. I knew that I had to get these songs to sound exactly how I dreamt they would, or I could genuinely never move on with my life. And with every new lesson, my ear got sharper, and my standards for what that would sound like got higher, which meant it would take even longer. All that’s to say, what I want people to know about this process, is that it would have never happened without extreme determination and emotional investment in the meaning of the songs. Every time I learned something new, I found 5 new things I needed to learn, which would be several months of work. Making really good music that is emotionally provocative, thorough, thoughtful, intentional, and completely DIY… there is so much more that goes into it than you think when you’re just starting off. Realizing how difficult it is could make you want to give up- to wait, to put it off until someone with money will do it for you, to blow it off for something else. But if you really love the work, you can learn anything. That was my biggest take-away from this creation. It has shown me that I am capable of anything, but only if I really truly deeply want to. Nothing can stop me from chasing my dreams!

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
If my best friend was visiting, we would be hanging out in Long Beach. We’d be seeing live music at Vine on 4th street, looking at jellyfish and green glowing worms in the Colorado Lagoon, having dinner at Thai District, and throwing ragers with the friends who have become my Long Beach family!!!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
My shoutout has to go out to my childhood best friend, Avery. Avery was my first, and still is just about my biggest fan. She was the only person I played my music for for years growing up, and she was the one to push me to start taking myself more seriously and going bigger.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/abigailjoran

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGR_cCZh-iybYmb0k0g3iKw

Other: BANDCAMP: https://abigailjoran.bandcamp.com/album/rosy
SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/album/1ZBfJMipbbiN4jlZXNA6ka?si=ARIWW_wmTty0XkFCuCLfCg
APPLE MUSIC: https://music.apple.com/us/album/rosy-ep/1823176577

Image Credits
Gialise Francesca, Katie MacNamara, Lily Matthey

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