Confidence is Contagious

A couple months ago, I had the opportunity to open for a band I very much respect: Reina del Cid.

The next week, I grabbed coffee with Reina. We chatted all about music and life and passion and dedication. She put her band together almost a decade ago, and she’s been in heavy pursuit of her dream ever since. Needless to say, it was an inspiring cup of joe.

Her answer to one of my questions really stuck with me, though.

Me: “When you were originally putting your band together, did you ever feel a sense of guilt or pressure because they were giving their time to the songs you wrote?”

Without missing a beat, she replied: “No. I wrote my music and I thought the songs deserved to have a solid band backing them up.”

She gave her answer with such confidence, that it helped me see my music in a new way. I have a habit of feeling bad when people give me their time. Especially when it comes to bringing a band together, I often worry that my songs aren’t good enough or that I won’t be able to find musicians who like my music enough to spend their time practicing it and performing it with me.

But immediately following my conversation with Reina, I scheduled band rehearsals for my album release show. When my band came over for our first rehearsal, I couldn’t believe how much fun we had, and how much life was brought into the songs I had written. And now I see, these songs DO deserve to have a band playing with them. I’ll always love my simple, acoustic renditions of my tunes, but it’s okay to believe they deserve to have a full sound, and it’s okay that I can’t get that by myself. It’s amazing to work together with other talented and respectful musicians, and it’s okay to have confidence in the things I create.

My album has since been released, and the band was phenomenal at the release show. I am so grateful to have shared their talents on stage, and you’d better believing I’ll be calling them in the future.