Today we’d like to introduce you to Pozzi.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Pozzi. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
My parents bought me a guitar for my 8th birthday. I never put it down. I’ve been playing in bands since 6th grade, some serious and some not-so-serious. I grew up outside of Boston and decided to move to LA in my early 20’s on a whim. Once I got here, I started performing and digging into the local scene pretty heavily.
After a few years of that, I grew tired of just being a guitarist and I became obsessed with writing lyrics and crafting songs. I played my first solo show singing my own songs in 2018. Released my first single under my artist name Pozzi in 2019. I then released five more studio singles and a live-acoustic EP by the end of that same year.
This leads us to 2020! I have an EP on the way that I recorded with the brilliant producer Frankie Siragusa in Highland Park, and I will be finishing up my full-length album that I started in 2018 with my dear friend Anthony Lopez. Hopefully booking many more Pozzi shows to come. That’s pretty much the extent of the journey, give or take some heartaches, many beautiful friendships, countless shows, a couple of trips to Dubai, losing a gallbladder, being fired from a band for making a mistake, waking up after a show with dollar bills stuffed into my pants, pretending to read sheet music during a gig, opening for John Oates, getting a tattoo in a hotel room, having a showdown in the lobby of Circus Circus, living behind a sheet, eating out of a dumpster, and lots of writing and practicing…lots and lots.
Great, 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?
The road has been just about everything besides smooth, which is expected with any creative endeavor. I’ve struggled with depression, overwhelming self-doubt, anxiety, loneliness, alcoholism, indecision…the list goes on. The important thing is to always be learning from those experiences and finding healthy ways to pull yourself out of it. Songwriting is the greatest form of therapy for me. I’ve also worked with people that weren’t beneficial to my growth, people that didn’t see my worth and took me for granted, or people that rooted for me to fail. There are always going to be haters. You can’t please everyone so you have to tune that garbage out and be as true to yourself as possible. With all the struggles, there have been far more positive and fulfilling experiences that make it worthwhile. That keeps me going.
We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
I’m a songwriter first and foremost. I spend a great majority of my time working on lyrics, trying to think of interesting and honest ways to get my thoughts across. Since I spent so many years focusing on being a guitarist I find that writing chord progressions and melodies comes very natural to me. However, the heart of a song is the lyrical message, so that’s where my real focus lies. I hear a lot of people nowadays that are what I like to call “production junkies.” Basically, they obsess over getting a cool drum sound or a crazy synth pad nobody has ever heard or getting their vocals to sound perfect with the right effects, etc. And that’s all cool and all, except that you have to have the lyrical part down as well, otherwise you don’t really have a song. I’ve heard outlandishly expensive albums that sound huge and incredible, but when you strip the songs down to an acoustic guitar and vocal, they don’t quite hold up. I write from the bottom up…it starts in the heart.
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
Staying true to myself and being disciplined.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.pozzimusic.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pozzi/
Image Credit:
Photos by Kimberly Zsebe.
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