NAS 10 Questions with Lavender Fire

This time on NAS 10 Questions we get to know Lavender Fire, a singer-songwriter and pianist based in Virginia Beach. With influences like Kate Bush and Tori Amos, she hopes to become an activist for the LGBTQIA+ community through music.

The track "Lavender Fire" is featured in the New Artist Spotlight Family of Playlists.

Link To New Artist Spotlight Playlists:

https://www.newartistspotlight.org/playlists 

1. Tell us a little about where you are from and what you are currently doing.

So I’m originally from the DC suburbs! I grew up in northern Virginia, about twenty minutes outside DC. But now I’m living three hours south in the Virginia Beach area. So I live right on the coast! It’s a cool place to be, because you’re not too far from the beach, a major city, or even the country. We have a little bit of everything here, along with a pretty cool music scene that I’m happy to be a part of!

And what I’m doing now is a LOT! I actually just put out my first maxi-single release as Lavender Fire, with a song called..... Lavender Fire! It contains the title track, an acoustic version of the title track, an exclusive b-side, and a Depeche Mode cover! I also co-wrote a song with my friend, mentor, and fellow musical artist Charlotte Martin, called Return, and that song will be coming out later this year!

2. What inspired you to start playing and making music?

My parents! They aren’t musical themselves, but they encouraged my brother and me to take part in music lessons so we’d have something to do after school. My brother took up the drums, I took up the clarinet. And I played clarinet for five years until I decided to join the choir instead, and I just kept going! Music was a fun activity for learning and focusing on something I was good at!

The rest was all on me. I’m the kind of person who always strives to learn new things, and so I took it upon myself to learn a lot of different instruments. Clarinet. Autoharp. Guitar. Ukulele. Kept me out of trouble as a kid!

However, of all the instruments I’ve ever learned, the piano, however, is my favorite thus far! I’d always wanted to learn piano, so I bought a $200 keyboard from BJ’s Wholesale Club and the rest is history! I’ve been learning ever since!

𝟯. Who are your biggest influences?

The big two of alternative female artists: Kate Bush and Tori Amos. I lean more toward Kate than Tori because of how I use my voice and where my voice naturally sits (bright and up in the mask of the face). I have this bright, forward sound that Kate was known for in her early years, and while I can’t get up there all the time, I can definitely sing higher than I ever thought possible! (Don’t ask me to do Wuthering Heights though; MAN is that a hard song to sing!)

But also I take from Tori a lot of things; using your vulnerability as a strength. There’s a lot of that in her music, about finding who you really are, etc. I think that’s why her music resonates with other LGBT folks especially, like me!

I’m also influenced by some of the darker 80s music I love to listen to, especially Depeche Mode. They are a HUGE influence for me in terms of the use of dark sounds and electronics and writing songs that sound good even with an acoustic guitar. Or in my case, with a piano!

4. What are your goals in the music industry?

My biggest goal in the music industry is to be an activist for the LGBTQIA+ community, to express my unique experience of being a late bloomer lesbian, and to show that we exist and what our experiences are.

No one talks about what it’s like to finally come out of the closet when you’re an adult. I was 34 when I came out, so it’s been 5 years now since I came out. I had inklings for years that I wasn’t straight, but I shoved them down, until I couldn’t hold them in anymore. No one talks about what leads to that point, why it takes so long for some people, etc. One of the truest songs I ever wrote was Late Bloomer, which I put out in 2023 under my old name. I’d never found a song expressing that kind of experience, ever. So I was compelled to write it.

So through my music, I want to express that long, arduous journey to help others feel less alone and to help them feel validated. Like anything in life, it’s messy and complicated and the answers aren’t always clear. But I want people to feel that no matter what, your experience matters and you’re not alone. Since coming out, I’ve met so many other late bloomers like me, and it’s a great feeling!

Another goal is to add more to the LGBT music scene! We have such a vibrant scene of colorful people and styles and I want to add in some piano pop and etherealness to it all! That’s why it was important for me to help create a special NAS playlist of other LGBT folks in the community!

And my other goal is to just keep writing and singing. I love my day job as an over-the-phone interpreter, but singing and playing music is what really feeds my soul. :)

5. Tell us about your creative process when you make new music.

It starts from anything. And it doesn’t always happen at the exact moment I want it to happen! A new song sometimes starts with a piano riff, or with a random melody that comes into my head that I just HAVE to record on my phone, or with a drum loop in Logic! Most of the time, I’m at the piano when I come up with stuff, and I get to be creative with chord shapes and melodies. That’s what I like about playing piano: all the keys are right there, I can make whatever I want!

Other times, I create a song while waiting for a call, and I end up top lining over it, which is another fun thing to do because it forces me to focus on melodies and what I can remember. I used to be a lyrics-first kind of writer, then I realized the importance of melody, so I focus on whether the melody is good first, THEN I put the lyrics to it :)

6. What is your all-time favorite song?

I answered this question before for my Cecilee 10 Questions and the answer remains the same: Cloudbusting by Kate Bush. It’s my favorite song of Kate’s and of all-time for so many reasons. One: it’s hopeful! Even though it’s a bit of a sad song subject-matter-wise, there’s a lot of hope in it. “I just know that something good is gonna happen, I don’t know when but just saying it could even make it happen.” It’s a mantra I have to remember sometimes in my own life! And it also distills what I love about Kate: experimentation within a pop structure, the cool rhythms, the gender-bending story, and her layered vocals. How can you NOT sing along with her at the end of the song? (If you’ve heard the song, you know what I mean by that!)

7. What is the best advice you have either given or received in terms of music? 

Focus on the music, keep writing, and write your truth.

I have my friend and mentor Charlotte Martin to thank for that advice. Charlotte is one of my favorite music artists of all time. I’ve been a fan of her music since I was in college in the mid-2000s. I was getting into Tori, Kate, and other piano singer/songwriters at that time, so Charlotte fit in there really well! She’s what made me want to learn piano!

In 2017, Charlotte started offering voice lessons and coaching through Skype. I was one of the first people to sign up for lessons with her. So we’ve known each other since then, and even got to play a show together in 2023 at Jammin Java, not too far from where I grew up!

Without getting too much into it, Charlotte’s had her own struggles and triumphs with the music industry. Getting signed, having your first album pulled, having little to no promotion of your album when it finally DOES come out, becoming an indie artist, etc. I could go on! But needless to say, she’s full of advice and experience, and so those three things are the things she tells me to do all the time. She’s been with me through a LOT since I’ve known her. She’s known me since before I even came out of the closet, and she was the one who encouraged me to write about my LGBT experiences in the first place.

8. Proudest accomplishment?

Hearing a collaboration on the radio!!!

It all started when Nick a.k.a. Eleanor Collides asked me to play piano and sing on one of his songs that he was working on, a piece of a song he’s written called Porcelain. He sent over a guitar track and I began working together a piano part, all while waiting for calls on my day job. I knew I wanted to take part in this song because the song really moved me. The lyrics especially spoke to my own experiences of unrequited love as I was coming to terms with my sexuality (I had SO many crushes on straight girls, it was ridiculous!).

And we sent stuff back and forth, for what was genuinely the first virtual collaboration I’ve ever done! I’ve always been a solo artist, so I’d never gotten to write with someone else before. And the feedback the song received from the NAS community really warmed my heart!

Then in late July 2023, Nick let me know that the song was going to be played on BBC Radio Kent! And lucky for me that I could actually tune in to listen too and that I wasn’t blocked because of my location!

Luckily, Porcelain was going to be playing on UK radio at a time when I could listen live from Virginia Beach (it started at 4 PM my time, since I’m 5 hours behind the UK). So as I was going about my day and prepping dinner, I pulled up the show on my phone and listened with my wife. And when the song came on, I cried. We were both emotional. It’s really something to hear your stuff being played on the radio! I was very proud and I still am. :)

9. Just for fun! What's been your most embarrassing moment so far?

Doing a free show in the rain.

Last year, I began pushing on trying to do live shows locally. I had made a list of different venues to call and I started going down the list, just cold-calling people. One of those venues said they’d love to have me, that they do have people play there occasionally and that my style sounded like a good fit for the place. It was a little venue that I hadn’t been to, but it seemed nice from the pictures on Google Maps.

The manager asked if I’d be OK with playing outside and I said sure!

She also asked if I’d be OK doing it for free and again, I said sure!

So I showed up to the place about two weeks later at the agreed-upon time, and I thought it would go OK, considering there was rain in the forecast, but the chances were low for rain. However, I brought a canopy with me, just so I’d have something to shield me from the elements.

I set my stuff up, I was all ready to go, I even had a few folks on the back patio who were listening and enjoying the tunes….. I got into it about three songs in and the little crowd was enjoying it.

And then it began raining.

Hard.

And it KEPT raining…..

All I can say is: thank goodness for that canopy shielding me, or I might’ve been electrocuted from all the electronic devices I had with me (my piano, my little PA system).

And get this: I kept playing. Even as the crowd dwindled. And the venue said they couldn’t have me inside because there was no space……

Finally I gave up after about 45 minutes. It kept raining, so of course no one was there. I was playing for no one.

So what would’ve been a three hour show turned to 45 minutes, and I wasn’t even paid for it either.

𝟭0. Tell us about your lowest and highest points in music so far.

Wanting to give up. I have almost given up on music many times. I keep comparing myself to other people and how they’re doing versus me, why are they getting the gigs and I’m not, why can’t I sound more like so-and-so….. Depression is something I’m always dealing with and though I’m better now than I ever was, it still rears its ugly head sometimes.

But the high points make it worthwhile!

My high points have been many and don’t worry, I won’t keep you long!:

Hearing Porcelain on UK radio!

Singing on stage with Charlotte Martin last year at Jammin Java! In addition to singing background vocals live for her song Redeemed, I also got to sing Running Up That Hill with her, as nervous as I was to be up there! (Jammin Java holds a special place in my heart: it’s the venue I’ve visited most often for concerts, so performing on the stage there was VERY important to me.

Biggest high point was joining NAS! Before joining NAS, I struggled for MONTHS to even get to 3 monthly listeners. Joining NAS has been HUGE for my music career. I’ve gotten to collaborate with other artists (Louise Lewis is another one; she and I wrote a JAZZ song), I’m discovering so many new favorite songs, and I LOVE how SUPPORTIVE everyone is of each other!

I keep telling my other music friends to join NAS because it’s just so much fun to be a part of such a cool community. And as far as I know, one of them has: Emily Fraser! She and I know each other from our local open mic scene here in Virginia, and when she saw me posting about NAS, she joined the community! :D

Stream "Lavender Fire" now

https://open.spotify.com/track/78NO0ycSbV5FDKH6UWXcQB?si=02e73f06573b4a8a

and follow their socials

Facebook.com/lavenderfiremusic www.lavenderfiremusic.com twitter.com/lavenderfiremus

Please share this post and let us know your