Interview with Carly Shea

TurnMeLoud: What's the story behind the visuals for the single "Lovesick"?

Lovesick was one of four visuals I shot in LA with @nvrgrey, an awesome filmmaker. We shot these all pretty quickly in one evening in a park with the focus mostly on the camerawork. My previous videos have mostly been narrative, but on this, I wanted to focus on the aesthetics and song itself. I remember it was really cold filming that night and we had to be quick to shoot, but we managed to get them all captured in their own style.

After the video was cut, I had super talented editor @jake.wojenski create the titles and subtitles to give Lovesick and the other videos a more retro film feel. For Lovesick, I definitely wanted to catch the dreamy vibe of the song which I feel comes through in the color palate and steady one-take of the video.

TurnMeLoud: What's a life motto you try to live by?

Stay curious. I think that as long as you maintain a sense of curiosity, especially about other people's stories and lives, it helps to fuel creativity and passion. Most of what goes into my music stems from stories that came from curiosity, usually when that curiosity leads to an adventure or interpersonal relationship, for better or sometimes not, ha. But for me, curiosity is what keeps me going.

TurnMeLoud: What's the biggest lesson you can share for other indie artists trying to make it?

Well, I'm also on that journey myself, but as someone working to continually elevate my music, the lesson is to stay focused on why you make music. I think it's so easy to achieve something like X amounts of streams or a big publication and get hung up on that for the validation. Or on the flip side, to see others achieving what seem like major goals and getting caught up in that. But the best thing I've found when I get caught up on either side is to remind myself that these are small things and to listen to my music again to connect with the feeling about why I've made music in the first place. I also think from knowing people who've crafted art I admire and love still have the fear of "making it" despite awards, deals, etc just shows that there's always that uncertainty in creating music and that the idea of "making it" changes throughout a music career.

TurnMeLoud: Describe a day in the life of Carly Shea.

My weeks versus weekends are pretty different, but during the week I spend most of my day working at a fashion agency in NYC on the business side. It's creative too, but I get to spend my days on another side of entertainment. It's usually pretty busy and when I'm done, I'm usually out, could be anything from recording in the studio, checking out a friend's show, broadway, new food spots, just being out. I'm not a big stay at home person, I love to explore as much as the city can offer; though there are sometimes I like to chill at home with my CD collection, haha.

TurnMeLoud: What's the hardest thing about being an indie artist today, in your opinion?

It's very hard to cut through the market. There is so much music being put out there daily, and a lot of it is great. But unless the music is groundbreaking or you have a ton of funding or connections, it's kind of a numbers game. Maybe I'm wrong, but I think if you really want to succeed and you're doing it without backing, you need to be 110% focused and to believe in your craft so much that there is no other option to succeed. That can be really hard when you need to earn a living, but if you love it enough, you keep pushing what matters to you.