Today we’d like to introduce you to Tanya (Fae) Negin.
Hi Tanya (Fae), please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I’m originally from right outside of the Washington, D.C. area and for as long as I can remember, making music is the only thing I’ve ever wanted to do. I would write pages and pages of lyrics from as early as third grade – I think I have a song that’s three pages long from this time since I had no idea about song form at the time – and even convinced my third-grade teacher to let me push the desks together to perform to the class. I joined chorus in middle school and high school and became heavily involved, and eventually picked up a guitar around the age of 14, followed by keyboard about a year later, and started taking voice lessons and teaching myself how to play music so I could start writing songs. From there, I attended Berklee College of Music directly out of high school at 17 for two years before eventually leaving. At the time, I had actually given up on wanting to pursue music, but a few years later, I circled back around to it. I actually moved to LA to study fashion and ended up leaving the industry after realizing it wasn’t a good fit for me and started focusing on creating music again. I put out my first single and EP last year and have followed up with several more singles and two music videos, and am currently working on my second EP and just shot a third music video last week, which will also be my directorial debut! It took me a long time to feel like I could really call myself an artist – and I’m still learning – but I feel like I’m finally developing into exactly who I want to be.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Not even a little bit. I actually really feel like I’m still in the process of coming into myself as an artist, but one of the biggest struggles for me was dealing with mental health issues while also trying to find the motivation to write and create. I sometimes get really sad when I think back about my time at Berklee – there was so much opportunity in one place, and I just look back and feel like I wasted it, but I also recognize that I wasn’t in a good mental space to really thrive then. I struggled with really bad seasonal depression, so living in Boston was super difficult for me. It was hard enough to get out of bed and attend my classes, let alone try to meet other musicians and create with them and really seize the opportunity that was there. Living in LA has honestly been incredibly beneficial for me since I don’t have to deal with that as much. Sure, I still have bad days, but at least here I can breathe.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’m a dark pop artist, musician, and writer, and am wildly influenced by artists that are unapologetically themselves. Almost everything I write starts with lyrics. I specialize in creating music that is snarky, irreverent, and makes you feel like you can be the loudest, most brutally honest version of yourself and not have to say sorry for it. I frequently feel like I’m writing music that I wish my younger self had, and hope it reaches people that are similar to an earlier version of myself. I used to be quiet and shy and worked hard to make myself into someone that is unashamed of who they are and always speaks up for themselves and others. What I’m most proud of is how my music has been able to affect the people it’s reached. My music encourages people – especially young women – to speak with a sharp tongue, disregard traditional societal norms, and be the version of themselves that they want to be rather than what’s expected of them.
Before we let you go, we’ve got to ask if you have any advice for those who are just starting out?
The best piece of advice I have for people starting out is to just know that it’s okay to reach out to other people for help and not be afraid to ask questions! I feel like the best thing I’ve done for myself is to stop being afraid to ask questions, and now I can’t stop. I ask my friends that are more established in the music industry about everything: from how they found their producers and cowriters to how they create income as an artist. I also want to pass on the best piece of advice I’ve ever received. I emailed this amazing artist Luna Shadows back in 2016 and her response included a piece of advice that I still pass on to anyone who will listen to this day. She told me that once when she was struggling with writer’s block, she challenged herself to write a song every day for a month – and it didn’t have to be good, it just had to be done. Doing this took the pressure off creativity and put it on discipline which is so important. As artists, we don’t have control over inspiration, but we do have control over our own discipline. I also wish I had known that people who put out great work also have bad work and that not everything you create is going to be amazing, and that’s okay. The first step to being good at something is being bad at something…and that’s okay.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: listentofae.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/acidfairy_/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/listentofae
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/acidfairy_
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/channel/UCTTRKpE8L1qkTzKN4WgLy0Q
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/listentofae/
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7gcUMQcBkw833YqXciq0WB?si=6D33rJn1RQSVGdrsbBRdJQ
Image Credits
Danika Karolinski
