Daily Inspiration: Meet Daniela Spagnolo

Today we’d like to introduce you to Daniela Spagnolo.

Hi Daniela, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I find the beginning of a story is most certainly important and interesting… But how and where we land speaks to how we navigated ourselves along the way. What kind of journey has it been. And we are all on a journey aren’t we?
So my story begins with being from Italian descent, raised in Rochester, New York. The smell of my grandmother’s cooking, the sound of the Italian radio station in the background on Sundays, and an upright piano was a perfect recipe for how I came to where I am. My father came to America, because he had a dream of becoming a successful singer. Since he had a family, he had a day job while working his way into singing in clubs at night. He bought a piano for the house. On Sundays, I would hear beautiful Italian songs, go to the piano and try to play them. My father asked me if I wanted to take piano lessons, to which I enthusiastically excepted!
Off I went into the world of music. At age 10, I began my training at the “Hochstein school of music”. Every Saturday, I had theory, music appreciation, and my private piano lessons with my very cool teacher, Caroline Norwood.
She had super cool hairstyles and always had a can of peanuts. She introduced me to Bach, Mozart, and all the great composers. She was extremely talented and knowledgeable in the classical world, but at the same time encouraged the songs I began composing and singing at the piano. She never had an elitist attitude because she came from classical music. In fact, she taught me to value creativity in myself and in others. At the end of our lessons, she would listen to my new songs as she crunched on her peanuts, I loved her!
My high school years were also very influential. I was lucky in that the music department had an abundance of practice rooms with pianos, along with a beautiful theater. I was also lucky to have amazing teachers. They absolutely shaped and guided my path in music and theater. I discovered Carole King, Elton John and the band YES. I had super talented classmates. We performed musicals and started some pretty cool bands. It was so much fun!
Time moved on, and I decided I wanted to go to college and continue my path in music. I was excepted to the “Crane school of music” at the University of Potsdam, where I majored in voice and piano. I found myself again among amazing teachers. These human beings called teachers were absolutely crucial in my life. it’s so important to honor those who teach and show them love and respect…
On a summer break, I went to the Newport jazz festival where I heard Ella Fitzgerald. She literally changed the course of my life! What was this thing called Jazz??? I began to immerse myself in everything Ella. I listened to as many records  as I could get my hands on. I copied what she did. I listened to her phrasing, and felt her deep soul. I found my way to clubs in New York City, where I began to sit in with jazz trios. It was terrifying at first. One night, a musician said to me “don’t come on my stage and not know your key or how to count off a tempo! Get your stuff together (he didn’t say stuff)
It was a little harsh. I went home, cried just a little, got my stuff together, put on some red lipstick and went back to the club on another night. There was no more crying, or turning back from the forward motion of my path towards Jazz.
After spending time in NYC and getting experience singing with some wonderful musicians, I moved to Cincinnati, Ohio. I had an offer to join a group that was signed to a record label. There, as divine guidance would have it, I met almost the entire horn section for Ella Fitzgerald. I met Lester Bass, Booty Wood, and so many great musicians.  I eventually started working with them. These kind and gentle souls helped to shape my path as I learned from these masters. It seemed like they never labored, like the notes that they played were so effortless. One night, I sang possibly the worst  scat ever known to mankind and I knew it.
I asked Lester what to do. He said “ when you don’t have anything to say, just don’t say it”. A life-changing moment for me. I use it to this day in every area of my life.
Since I had to pay the rent, I learned how to sing in the studio and started singing on commercials and records, which helped me immensely later on when I moved to LA to do more of the same. I eventually began recording my record “Daniela Sings” which was later considered for Grammy.
Can you imagine? From crying in the club to the Grammy world!

Los Angeles is where I currently live. After years of continuing to perform with wonderful musicians, I felt like there was something more. I wanted to take all of my influences and have a place to pour them all into at the same time. That something more turned into composing for TV/film. It allows me to incorporate everything I’ve carried along the way of my journey. Classical, jazz, YES, and all of my beautiful teachers.

All of those people, and all of that experience have led me to where I am now.  Ever since I was a little girl, if I felt afraid or sad, my first impulse was to go to the piano and play. It felt like a safe place. My grandmother and my father were amazing storytellers. I would sit for hours and listen to their stories about Italy, some beautiful and some really challenging. That’s probably why it feels natural to me to watch and listen to stories, then translate them into music. It’s called composing, but to me it’s just an extension of emotion. I love movies! Emotions captured on screen…
I’m so happy to say that I am currently part of the music and scoring team for the movie “Pittwater” produced by Scottpatrick J Sellitto. I also placed music on a tv show called “The Billion Dollar Idea”. I’ve written a lot of new music and look forward to sharing it with all of you! New vocal music, along with more projects with Scott Patrick J Sellitto in upcoming movie projects.  I’m so grateful to Shout out LA. What a wonderful and supportive platform to connect us together!

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I think as self-employed artists of any kind, we all face ways to financially support ourselves on a consistent basis. I believe that makes us incredibly brave, and resilient! I personally have felt challenged to not attach my identity, my worth, to an outside circumstance. It has forced me to have faith in myself, and in others. To believe and have faith that what I dream, what we dream, can become real. I don’t care what you drive, what your zip code is, or what clothes you wear… If you have in any way, manifested one single hearts desire, a standing ovation to you, and to us!
I have always felt a little outside of the box, not main stream. I have at times felt challenged by that. What’s mainstream anyway? Who says we can’t pull from different influences and create our own vision of music, art, cooking, fashion etc? It does take courage…That’s why we need each other. To lift each other up, to encourage whenever we can. Truth be told, I am sometimes brutal on myself! That in itself is sometimes a challenge.
Challenges and obstacles are filled with opportunities. Challenges have given me an opportunity to except myself, to appreciate who I am, as I am. This is a constant practice….

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
I am a Musician. A singer/Pianist/Composer. I have what I feel, is a pretty nice studio at home where I create and record. I send and receive files to record on anything needed. Most recently, I sing on projects both background vocals, or lead. I have a grand piano which I use to compose pretty much everything on. For me, most things begin at the piano. I also have an array of virtual instruments and plug-ins for music and sound design. If other musicians are needed, I’m super lucky to know some of the best!
I guarantee when I’m hired for a project, it will be treated with respect for the vision and executed with passion, skill and heart.
So I’m here, at the ready for 2023!

Before we let you go, we’ve got to ask if you have any advice for those who are just starting out?
Wake up every day and tell yourself that you have something to offer that nobody else does. Know that this is absolutely true!
Embrace how you sound, how you express, how you create.
Try not to be too hard on yourself when you listen, or see what you’ve created. Do we judge a rose as it’s unfolding? Do we look up at the sky and think “well that’s just all wrong’? I hope not! We are unfolding, shinning like the stars in the sky. Even the stars shine at different intensity throughout the night. Sometimes dimmer, sometimes brighter. Like the seasons, there are times when I experience a winter, a stillness in creating. I’ve learned to respect that. To allow it so I can replenish. Did you know that in winter, roots travel under ground and begin to hold hands with other roots to become more stable? I love to garden, I learn so much from it. It’s okay to allow silence, to listen to your next.
Remember to tell yourself “you are brave and beautiful!
Talk to yourself, ask yourself questions. Sometimes I have to remind myself why I started this path of music and why am I still on it?
If something lives in your heart that asks to come out over and over again, it’s needed!
Don’t deprive the world of something that maybe has never been heard or seen. Don’t quit, ever! Ask for help if it gets hard, and it does get hard. You are not alone. Reach out, we’re here.

 

Contact Info:

• Website: www.daniela-sings.com
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@bravadanni
• SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/daniela-spagnolo
• Other: https://theawfc.com/user/daniela-spagnolo/

Image Credits
Rob Shanahan Photography www.robshanahan.com