In this new episode of our Artist Stories segment, we have the pleasure to welcome the multi-talented beatmaker, finger drummer and instrumentalist Gnarly.

Besides making music, DJ-ing and giving workshops, the British-Sri Lankan artist has performed live at various festivals, and worked with brands such as Native Instruments, Akai Professional, Redbull Music, Pioneer DJ and many more.

Gnarly has been making music for over a decade and is currently a self-employed full-time artist, who has a lot to share on both her professional and personal journey. In this episode, she reflects on how she overcame the mental blocks that weren’t allowing her to pursue music as a full-time career and managed to change her mindset in order to start making things happen.

She talks about discipline, motivation, dedication, overcoming anxiety, exploring and finding what is it that you want to do and giving your best in order to make things work out. She also shares what’s her experience as a female producer. Needless to say, this episode is full of inspiring drops of wisdom and one not to miss out on - whether you’re an aspiring artist, a fan of Gnarly or both.

Links

» Gnarly (@gnarly.music)

» Stereofox (@wearestereofox)

» host (@inspiration.noomra)

» Join our Discord Server

Show Notes

[02:19] on how does a Gnarly-day goes by

[03:36] on how she got into finger drumming

[06:56] on making music her full-time job and her mantra  “don’t be afraid to succeed”

[13:24] on taking care of her mental health, counselling, doing the inner work and changing her mindset and how finger drumming helped her in the process

[17:40] on how she quit her day job in order to pursue her music career

[24:59] on her various revenue streams and why it’s important to future-proof what you’re doing 

[27:06] on her social media presence and how it affects her career and opportunities for income (e.g. brand partnerships); the importance of high-quality content

[32:04] on how she started to give finger drumming workshops and use Patreon amidst the Pandemic

[33:56] her artist brand and the importance of ‘being yourself’ on social media

[35:50] on organisations that support female creatives, especially female producers

[37:08] on her being a female producer and double-proving herself

[44:14] on being independent as an artist vs collaborating

[47:22] on experimenting and getting involved in conceptual projects 

[49:31] on what motivates her

[53:18] on anime characters that inspire and motivate her to push past her limits

[54:26] on what she would advise artists based on her own journey so far and what she considers to be the recipe for success