Find Your "Why", an open letter by Mia Schuster
Find Your ‘Why’
Mia Schuster
Music that means something… that’s what I want to create. That’s all I’ve ever wanted to create.
I moved to LA just over a year ago, and in the time here, I’ve learned more than I can pretend to keep track of. I’ve found myself with shiny, new words that make me seem like I know what I’m talking about (when in reality I’m just as clueless as everyone else). I can throw around a couple of ‘elite’ phrases and glide through a discussion about my branding. I’ll gladly whip out my business card and chat contracts and PR, like any part of me has any idea what the actual hell we are talking about. I mean honestly, what are we really talking about?
These days I seem to be hearing less and less about what people are creating and more and more about the glamour that surrounds it. Too many conversations about the shiny gloss that coats the surface and not enough about what lies beneath it.
When did we get to this point? When did it stop being about the music? When did our dreams turn into strategies, our identities into brands?
Now hear me out, I mean absolutely no disrespect when I say all of this. We started caring about these things for a reason. The tools we use are not evil or bad; they are all, in fact, quite important and helpful. The reason you’re even reading this right now is because of my rad publicist, and while I type this I literally have a half-drafted up contract open in another window. Not to mention, I spent a good portion of my day putting together marketing/branding materials. The systems we have are not meaningless or pointless, but they also are not everything. Sometimes we need to put the tools down for a second and go back to the blueprint to remember what it is we were even trying to build in the first place.
I’ve caught myself slipping deep into these places in many moments. Caring way too much about things that at the end of the day, truly aren’t what’s most important (I usually have a good reality check around the time I start getting overly concerned with my follower count. I mean who really care how many followers I have anyway? And what does it matter if they do? Laaaame.) So I then have to trace my steps back to return to where I first started. To once again find my ‘why’.
I remember the artists that have changed my life. The songs that have made me laugh, cry, and dance in joy. The songs that defined relationships or memories. How just a single moment in time that can be brought back in an instant when that first chord hits. Ten streams or ten billion makes no difference - when music speaks, we listen.
So why am I doing this again?
Because music means something. Music changes the world.
Creativity has the ability to shape culture. We cannot forget that – especially those of us who hold the pen. Our words can be weapons of light, or they can fade to dust. Our melodies can be a medicine to the soul or a poison that pollutes it. It’s our choice.
While I fully recognize the dramatics of the above statements, without a doubt I know them to be true. I have witnessed it first hand time and time again. What we as creatives do with our time here on earth is important. No matter how much we get distracted by things such as streams, followers, money, fame, etc. Our purpose remains the same, and we mustn’t forget it, not even for a moment. Art is powerful, and we are the lucky ones who get to make it. When we create with that in mind and begin to adjust our intentions, I believe our definitions of success will change in the process as well.
We all want to be successful, myself included. There’s no need to skirt around that fact or hide from it. It is not shameful to want to know what you do is important and carries value. While success is such a relative thing to each individual, I can understand why so many of us have gotten so roped into some of these more technical parts of the industry. Mainly because we all want our music to be heard.
It’s painstaking to make art when it feels like no one is paying any attention. I mean how can you change the world if the world isn’t even listening? So we fight and fight to make that happen, then somewhere along the lines we get a little turned around and forget what we even started fighting for.
Personally, I’m trying to get better at marking my successes by the value of what I create rather than by the numerical stats. If I can create art that makes a difference in one person’s life, just one, then it will all have been worth it.
Because at the end of the day that’s what it’s all about isn’t it?
Making music that means something.
Even if it’s just one moment of joy, and I never even get to see it.
I think that would be enough.
- - -
Hello! My name is Mia Schuster, I am a singer-songwriter based in Los Angeles, CA. I am originally from Fargo, ND. I write music to bring life, light, and joy into this world. I’m still figuring a lot of things in life out and have next to no idea what I’m doing on this crazy music journey, but I’m very grateful for every moment of it. Thank you for being a part of that story by joining me here in this moment.
If you would like to hear some of my music, my new single, ‘Always’, is now available on all music platforms. This is the first song I am releasing off of my upcoming, debut album, Happy (Again), available everywhere June 12th.