Today we’d like to introduce you to Abi Nav.
Hi Abi, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Absolutely! I was born in New Jersey and moved around as a kid. I started playing guitar when I was 10. I was super into this girl in middle school who was really into guys that played guitar. I guess you can never know for sure when you’re 10 but I was trying my best hahaha. My grandpa had gifted me a guitar for my birthday and it was just sitting it home. I taught myself how to play Boulevard of Broken Dreams by Green Day and that was the start of my journey in music. The funny thing is I never got the girl but instead got my whole life in music.
I started out wanting to be the best guitar player ever, and I sang a little bit, but not well enough to call myself a singer. Guitar was cool, and I spent the next few years practicing upwards of 3 hours a day for months on end. Childhood was never smooth sailing for me: there were struggles, and I really found myself dealing with most of my problems through music. I used to lock myself up in a room and just play guitar for hours on end. It shut the noise out. It was peaceful. And so I got better, not because I was trying to, but because there didn’t seem to be any other way.
When the time came for me to express myself through music, just guitar didn’t do it for me. And that got me into songwriting. My aunt was a writer and I was super into poetry as a kid. And so I started writing songs when I was 17. I bounced these songs off of a few people other than my parents (they definitely love your music but they can sometimes be biased, hahaha), and they seemed to like them. That was the first time I thought, “Ah I might actually be able to do this for a living!”, and I crafted a modest portfolio of songs before going to Berklee College of Music in 2018.
My freshman year I just worked and crafting songs outside of class. My portfolio expanded, and I understood better where I stood among my peers. With that came more confidence, and I released my first EP in 2020. It did pretty well, and I ended up dropping out of Berklee in 2020. I spent the next couple of years in Boston, just figuring out what to do with my music and my life, with Covid and everything else. Since then I’ve met some incredible people that I am lucky enough to call my friends, and I moved out to LA last September to try and make it as an artist here.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
Certainly not. For about a year for December 2021 through November 2022, I struggled with severe anxiety (I am talking panic attacks all day, every day, for months), severe depression and insomnia. It was the hardest time of my life, and I lost interest in pretty much everything, including the only thing that had kept me going in hard times in the past: music. I continued to write and make music, but with much less vigor. In the past, I’d been put down by many external factors, but never had I been at war with myself. It was tough.
2022 was also the year I discovered meditation, and through meditation, I confronted my self-inflicted suffering, accepted it, and learned to let it go. It is the single hardest but also the most important thing I’ve ever done. In the process, I learned so much about myself, how life isn’t always easy (it’s mostly shitty), and how learning to accept whatever comes your way can free you of your misery.
All I’m trying to say is, if you ever feel low or are even really struggling, and feel like there’s no hope, DON’T GIVE UP. It only seems that way. I went from not sleeping for days on end and contemplating suicide to being possibly the happiest I have ever been. If I did it, you can too. If you can’t be fixed, maybe, just maybe it’s not because you’re fundamentally flawed but because you aren’t broken in the first place.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am a singer-songwriter, recording artist and touring musician. My music is kinda like John Mayer meets Radiohead meets Pink Floyd. It’s mostly pop-rock music but with psychedelic elements and ambient soundscapes. As I make more music, I’m getting closer to the sound I had envisioned for it. I’m leaning more heavily into my rock roots for the record that I’m working on currently, and I feel like it is finally all coming together in terms of the sound. It has been a lot of experimentation and trying new things, but not a single thing has gone to waste. It has all been a learning experience and I can’t wait for everyone to hear the end result. I’m super proud of it.
I feel like the separating factor in my music comes from how I basically approach every song as a guitar player first. Those were my roots, and I feel like looking at writing through the lens of a guitar player inherently brings to the table very different things than say a vocalist or a songwriter would. All of those parts do come in, in my case, just a little later. The guitar player in me wants to start everything, hahaha.
Alright so before we go can you talk to us a bit about how people can work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
I’m an open book, and I love to make new friends. You should reach out to my Instagram or contact me through my website! I’m the fastest to respond that way. If you like what I do and want to support it, show your love on any of the social media platforms by sharing my work and following me on my Spotify so you don’t miss a single release! Here are all of my socials and my Spotify!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.abi-nav.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/abinavmusic
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/abinavmusic
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/abinavmusic
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCA9qc_yQIZ9UqezcqLtg67A
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-44698890
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3oRQ8kmys6lXb6x063FJUy?si=WiYJUdlRQR6128DCx64B7g
Image Credits
Ben Pu, Cole Nelson, Alex Nielsen
