Today we’d like to introduce you to Esther Blue.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I was born in Toronto, Canada, and am the oldest of two. Growing up, I loved music- pop, rock, soul…anything with a catchy melody. My family was quite musical, and my grandfather, who was a singer, would sing songs at almost every family gathering. I wanted to sing and be expressive like these artists I admired, but being a first-generation Canadian, my parents hoped I would pursue a more traditional career path.
To appease my parents, I fast-tracked University. I studied Culture & Expression, and after graduating in 2011, I moved to Montreal, Canada, and began writing, recording, and playing my music live.
I was asked to join the band TR/ST on tour as their keyboard player, and that led me on a journey of traveling across the United States and Europe to play music live for the next 10 years.
I fell in love with Los Angeles almost immediately after performing here for the first time, and after several years of flying back and forth from Montreal, Toronto, and LA to play and work on music, I decided to relocate to Los Angeles full-time. It’s been several years since I moved my studio out here, and I love it more and more each day.
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?
There have definitely been some challenges. I think most creatives can attest to the inner struggle of not feeling “good enough” to put themselves out there. I’m a self-taught player, and it has been somewhat challenging for me to play in front of an audience at times due to nerves and self-doubt. I practice breathing, meditation and just exposing myself to things that scare me to work through fear and perfectionism.
Besides this, I’d say the greatest creative challenge I have faced thus far was being able to transpose the music I heard in my head onto the piano. Because I only started teaching myself piano in my twenties, it was really difficult to improvise and play out the melodies I was imagining in my mind onto the piano. It was a long and arduous process, but now I am able to play more freely.
I realized that the process of practicing, expanding my skills, and growing as a songwriter is intimate and beautiful. I look forward to these nitty-gritty, behind-the-scenes aspects of my work now and get excited when I master new techniques or embark on learning a new style. I also realized that the majority of musicians I look up to are self-taught, too, and are always working on and improving their chops. Nobody’s perfect, and it’s okay to mess up. All that really matters is to keep going and to keep evolving.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am a singer, songwriter, and musician. I have released music under the name Dreamboy, and I am currently working on my debut full-length album. I’ve toured the United States, Canada, and Europe as a solo artist, with the band TR/ST as their keyboard player. I’m influenced by oldies, lonesome country songs, folk, rock n’ roll and the blues. I love writing songs and I also love playing with other musicians and contributing to their sound.
Something that I’m proud of is making at least one person shed a tear during every one of my live sets. If I can inspire a dream, a memory, or an emotion in someone, then I feel I am doing my job. I think music can be used as a form of empathetic engagement- I like to bond emotionally with my listeners, and in doing so, I think some of my songs tend to be quite vulnerable.
We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up.
When I was a kid, my family would rent a cabin on a small lake in northern Ontario. The lake was very calm and shallow, and I would spend hours and hours wading in the water making up songs to sing to myself and imagining what life would be like when I grew up. I remember snorkeling in the lake and being amazed by the old Coca-Cola bottles, beer cans, and other long-lost treasures that I’d find in the water. I try to imbue my work with that sense of childhood awe and wonder.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/planetesther/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@dreamboyofficial344
- Other: https://estherblue.bandcamp.com/album/endings
Image Credits
Esther Blue
Sarah O Driscoll
