Today we’d like to introduce you to Sonia Rao.
Thanks for sharing your story with us, Sonia. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Sure. I grew up studying violin, piano, and flute classically (guitar and ukulele were only self-taught later on) so my childhood was spent in a rotation of practice, auditions, competitions, and orchestra rehearsals. Expectations were specific in my family, so at that point music felt more like a continuation of these expectations rather than something to do for pleasure or creativity. Now that I write songs with these same instruments, I am grateful for the years of training I was given. I’m also thankful that I learned early on from my teachers how to be disciplined, and that tiredness, lack of inspiration, or “not feeling like it” weren’t valid reasons to not practice or work. When my violin teacher would give me a particularly difficult piece of music, she taught me to break it down, learning one measure at a time—sometimes even one note at a time— starting with the last note and adding on backwards one by one, until you reach the beginning and can play the whole piece easily. Or if it was a very fast piece, she would have me play to a metronome mind numbingly slowly, then crank it up by just one BPM each run through, until I could play the entire piece with precision at full speed. This approach, even if excruciatingly slow, worked. Now whenever I’m taking on any daunting project, I take this same approach, starting at the end and working my way backwards “note by note”. It’s slow, but it’s allowed me to not give in to overwhelm or self-doubt when I am trying to create something new.
It was only when I began writing songs that I really fell in love with music. Writing my first songs felt revolutionary to me. The simple act of being able to express openly for the first time, to release and let it all out was the beginning of my starting to heal and come back to life after years of being completely numbed out, self-destructive, and turning all of my anger inwards.
This is why I feel so strongly about creativity. Creativity is just a manifestation of our inner voice. I know how powerful it can feel to find and use that voice again after it’s been silenced. The resilience of our inner voices is incredible to me…how even the most violent attempts at silencing never really makes it go away. I really believe that tuning back into this voice is how we heal ourselves and this world around us.
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?
I wouldn’t say it’s been easy, but I really believe we’re given our specific set of challenges not by accident, but as a gift to open our eyes, face hard truths, and grow. It’s tough to remember this sometimes, especially on hard days or even years when you’re in the muck and not yet on the other side, but the experiences in my life so far have made me trust in this process.
Tell us about Creativity Coaching.
I do creativity coaching where I help people find, heal, and deepen their relationship to their creativity. I’ve been helping people finish their books, albums, and business plans, and helping people who feel numb or uninspired figure out how to come alive again and find their next steps. The dichotomy of artist and non-artist is a false one — everyone is creative. Some of my clients are working artists and some are people with corporate jobs in finance, politics, and law. I love the variety of people that I get to work with.
People need support, encouragement, and accountability when working on anything creative. It can be tough to see a project through to its end, to not get derailed by distractions, depletion from the work day, self-doubt, or a comment from a parent or friend. Having someone to nudge you along and believe in you can make the difference between reaching your goals versus having another year go by. I do this work because I experienced the opposite of this, so as cheesy as it might sound, this is the reason I care so fiercely about providing support for people as they try to become more of who they are.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
Doing anything with my best friend Lauren. She was and still is the funniest person I know.
Contact Info:
- Website: book a Creativity Coaching session here: soniarao.com/coaching
- Instagram: @soniarao
Bio:
After graduating from UC Berkeley, Sonia Rao was on her way to becoming a psychologist, with offers from Stanford and Columbia’s graduate clinical psychology programs. Sonia decided to go a different way, though, turning down both offers and moving to Los Angeles to pursue her love of music.
Since then, Sonia has released three albums, toured from New York and Minneapolis to Japan and Indonesia, and performed and spoke at Microsoft, Indiegogo, Disney, and more. Her music strikes a chord of hope and resilience in listeners, who adopt her empowering and transformative anthems as their own. Her songs have been featured on more than 35 television shows, leading BMI to name her their Spotlight Indie Artist. Sonia was Buzzfeed’s Asian American Artist to Watch and a contestant on NBC’s The Voice. Her powerful TED talk, ‘The shame and power of being a woman’ has been viewed over 75,000 times. Most recently Sonia was featured in the book ‘My Morning Routine – How Successful People Start Every Day Inspired,’ alongside Arianna Huffington and Marie Kondo. Sonia plays violin, piano, flute, guitar, and ukulele, and is now working on her fourth album.
Image Credit:
Gil Riego, Hamad Altourah, Amy Hoggart, Jeff Fasano, Alexandra Ballensweig, Anna DeMarco
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