We’re looking forward to introducing you to Kapri Dabrowska. Check out our conversation below.
Kapri, we’re thrilled to have you with us today. Before we jump into your intro and the heart of the interview, let’s start with a bit of an ice breaker: What do you think is misunderstood about your business?
I think that the most misundestood thing about music business is how much work it requires. People see just a tip of the iceberg: you go on stage for 30 – 90 minutes, your song only lasts 3 minutes 40 seconds, you post a 30 sec cover on tiktok and you’re basically done with your day. That is not even the beginning of what independent musicians do, especially if you work without a team – it is beyond a full time job and requires you to wear multiple hats simultaneously just to cover all the basics of the behind the scenes aspect. The creative process can (though I admit – sometimes the muse does shine on directly and speeds things up) be even more time consuming, and when some songs wrap up within a month time, others can grow, evolve, and develop over several years. As far as time needs for a musician actively working in the industry, we can never have enough of it. Just to take a look at my day as a musician: I start my day by checking social media, because large part of my fan base is in Europe, so we operate on completely different time zones. Morning is also one of the windows I post part of my content. That block takes 45 minutes to 1,5h. Once that’s done I warm up, which takes about 1 to 1.5h. I am better at operational tasks during the day, so i spend about 3-4h immediately after that on whatever “behind the scenes” job is currently most urgent: promotions, grants/investors, licenses, pitches, website, social media calendar, content idea writing, etc. after that I spend 2-3 h practicing or at a rehearsal (but even if i spent 10, i still wouldn’t think like i practiced enough). I spend 2-3 hours on content creation (way more than I wish I did). In the evening my creative brain activates and I can finally focus on arranging, producing, recording, and songwriting. These tasks essentially have no time limit, and no matter how much you do there is always something else to be done, so they can lightly take about 5-6h per day, or more. If you were tracking the math, that totals to 13h45m to 19h, or longer – i have pulled multiple back to back all nighters to meet a deadline or just because I was in the zone and just couldn’t wait to show the world the final product. Other musician’s days can be simpler (16h practice in a row is not uncommon), or much more complex with studio times, multiple interviews, around releases, meetings, or on show days travel, sound checks, fan meets, and the actual shows. I often hear that singers don’t have to work all that hard, but I haven’t really had an actual vacation since 2016, so I have to strongly disagree. There is a lot that goes into music that the audiences don’t see: we’re never off the clock; the more successful you are the busiest you get, the time is never long enough, and when we’re writing about something deeply emotional to us it really takes a toll on our mental well being and ability to be productive or social. So appreciate your musicians, we really put all of ourselves for those 3 minutes you hear on your spotify and the few minutes you catch us on stage 🙂
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
Hi guys, my name is Kapri, and I’m an award winning singer, songwriter, instrumentalist, and music producer working in rock, pop-rock and alternative. I also work as a set designer and art director in commercials, film, and TV, and lead private manifestation/meditation workshops in person and online.
In my spare time I love riding horses, I’m a PSG Dressage rider and a dressage coach.
Great, so let’s dive into your journey a bit more. What relationship most shaped how you see yourself?
While I was extremely lucky to have many wonderful relationships in my life, I think that the main person that deserves a distinction here is my mom. My mom has worked very hard her whole life to make sure that I could grow and develop my interests, and be successful in what I find passionate. I didn’t grow up in a wealthy family – when I was a kid my mom worked 3 jobs, and I never got to see enough of her, so maybe that’s why what she taught me had even more impact. She told me to love without the judgement; that nothing and no one in the world is truly perfect and that the imperfections make us special, unique, and even more worth of loving and being loved. She taught me to never back out, be fearless, and relentless in all my pursuits. She taught me that no matter how delusional your dreams are, they still can come true. She taught me to be a problem solver and always find a way around – or through – my problems to get to a solution. She was also a large part of ideas, research, and evolution of the new treatments we designed with wonderful veterinary team at WULS (and the main benefactor of such) during years of my horse’s treatment there. She spent her life helping everyone around her, and I don’t think she ever gets the recognition she deserves for it, so thanks, Mom!
If you could say one kind thing to your younger self, what would it be?
Buy Bitcoin ;D
But in all seriousness: “Don’t sweat the small stuff”.
I know by the surface looks of it I don’t really seem like it, but to a large extent I actually am a perfectionist. After all, I’m a dressage rider, and dressage is all about perfection – and it really shows, especially when I’m training (if you ever fancy hopping on the plane to Poland and getting up at 5am in a freezing cold to see me getting a training in before everyone shows up – you’ll get to see it). Partially, perfectionism is what pushes the world forward, what pushes US forward, and what makes sure that the things can improve.
BUT what hardly anyone talks about regarding perfectionism is how much it can slow you down.
And when I was younger I didn’t understand it at all.
Everything had to be 120%. If it wasn’t, it sometimes grew in my head to a major tragedy that would pull me to a complete halt for weeks. I was always in a bad mood, because things were never good enough. I could never fully be happy with anything, I could never stop tweaking things, and I could never let go of all the “what ifs” – what if I do this differently, what if that can be better and so on.
All that lasted until my horse’s accident in 2014, that flipped the entire script. Not because I wanted to, but because I didn’t have a choice. There no longer was space for perfection, because in her treatments perfection was not an option. What counted now was swift responses, inventive approach, and a lot of “trust in the process”. And I’m not good at that last one – I need things immediately, and I need them perfect. But because her life was on the line (and for those of you who don’t know me – she was a horse I bought as a teenager that I was possibly more attached to than any other creature in the world), there was no time to baby my need to get everything right, because dwelling on things was a death sentence for her. To make things “easier”, no one could actually diagnose her, so we were operating in the dark. Over 3 years of active treatments we went through 7 specialistic clinics, 11 surgeries, and countless treatments for nothing to work – until the last horsepital at WULS, where I finally got to work with the vets designing treatments to properly address the situation. None of this was perfect, because we weren’t even sure what we’re treating, and we faced a lot of failures and setbacks – but it worked. After 3 years of hospitals I got to take her home and she lived another 6 years happily roaming the fields till her passing in September 2023.
It was a hard hit, but it really taught me to act differently.
When I look back now at how much time I let slip through my fingers, the procrastination because I didn’t know where to take things to make them “perfect”, the things I lost because I was so overfocused on the one outcome that i found acceptable – all of this was unnecessary, and just slowed me down. It took an event that was extremely traumatic to me to shake off the perfection casing and finally get the lesson: done is better than perfect. And the true magic and progress is actually found in the imperfections.
Don’t laugh, but that’s what helps me release the songs faster now. And don’t get me wrong – I’m not saying “half ass it and get rid of it”. It’s more of “You will never be able to grow and progress if you don’t allow yourself to be what you are NOW.” You’re not perfect now – you never will be. But your next self WILL be better than your current one if you let it.
Sure, so let’s go deeper into your values and how you think. Is the public version of you the real you?
Yes… and no.
Yes, because I am way too passionate about everything I do in life, everything I want, and what I surround myself with, that I don’t have a need to “act” or “perform” or otherwise “fake” anything in life. Life’s too short to be an impostor. Life’s too short to not be who you are. Life’s too short to invest the time in things you don’t love. And for me as an artist, life’s too short to be creating things I don’t believe in.
But, just like everyone else – I’m human. So while I definitely allow myself to write and create about whatever I feel – things that are happy, or sad, or frustrating, my desperations, my failures, my wins, the little moments that have a meaning only to me… I relay those things while I’m performing, but I don’t bring them with me on stage. It could be the worst day of my life, but you’d never know, because these things stay backstage. The emotions are real, but when I’m performing I want to share the vibes of understanding, accepting, belonging, joy, and love. I don’t want to bring a bad mood on stage – so I don’t. I don’t want to bring my insecurities on stage – so I don’t. I want my fans to be able to feel the connection – and energy of fear, anxiety, insecurity or hostility block my ability to connect to people. So I leave these to deal with privately, and let the true messages I want to communicate with my music shine through.
Okay, so let’s keep going with one more question that means a lot to us: Have you ever gotten what you wanted, and found it did not satisfy you?
YES, absolutely.
And I think that is a key to being successful in more ways than one.
1. You need to get at peace with accepting that sometimes life won’t match the dreams.
2. Just because you achieved a goal, doesn’t mean there isn’t a bigger one ahead.
Things in life HARDLY ever get to be what we imagine them to be, and it’s not necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes life will underwhelm us, sometimes it will surprise us in best possible ways.
When it comes to that, one of the biggest realizations of my life was that my anxiety about accomplishing goals is not purely about failing to accomplish them – but also about fear of mismatching the reality of success vs my expectations of it.
There have been instances when I have won an award, finished the song, achieved another milestone and i imagined it will be SO INCREDIBLE and it will catapult me to another level… and nothing would happen. To say that I was disappointed would be an understatement. It has happened multiple times, where everyone was so proud or happy for me and I just felt underwhelmed and like “that is not what i expected it to be”. There have been times where my wins bought on trouble, anxiety, more work, new issues to deal with, or stress. Life has a certain ease when you still have nothing to lose and everything to gain. When you accomplish things, gain a certain status, or become more visible, you also get more prone and more vulnerable to negative situations. It’s kind of like “no one can steal your car if you don’t have one” – but that doesn’t mean you should walk everywhere your whole life. Having to deal with more pressure, more difficulties, sometimes more hate is part of growing your success, and it’s important to have a mindset that lets you push forward, or even maybe in tiny ways get to find pleasure in it – because you would never have those issues if you didn’t get that far.
The second aspect of it, is the growth. That connects to being a perfectionist in a positive way – if nothing is ever “good enough”, you will always strive to make it better. This one is not about life not matching your expectations – this one is about outgrowing your goals and setting the new ones to achieve. That doesn’t mean you can’t be happy about accomplishing something or realizing your dreams – it’s about understanding that contentment is the biggest enemy of progress, change, and creativity. If you’re happy with everything, you have no need to be doing anything, because there is no need for you to change anything. I think a lot of people fall into this trap, where they have a “good enough” job, “quiet enough” life, “filling enough” meals, “peaceful enough” rest, that it just becomes so cozy and comfortable that they never think that things could get better, so they never do anything to make them better. But to me life should be a grand adventure, not “just good enough”. It doesn’t mean being constantly in a bad mood or constantly being vastly dissatisfied or moody, or anxious about life. It means finding areas to improve, setting them as goals, accomplishing the goals, and setting next ones. Never settling into “just good enough”.
To me always being slightly dissatisfied (as long as it is a feeling and not an attitude) and knowing when to let go of a smaller goal to set the next one is something that will keep pushing you to grow your whole life long.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.kaprisings.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kaprisings/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kaprisings/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/kaprisings
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/kaprisings
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@kaprisings
Image Credits
Ekaterina Gorbacheva
Paulina Pater
Mike Azria
