Today we’d like to introduce you to Uchenna Ngwu.
Hi Uchenna, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
In 2022, I started college and found myself surrounded by an abundance of new experiences and emotions. For a while, I stuck with journaling and recording video diaries to express my emotions. I always felt like something was missing: a sound, a voice, some form of art. I have always been an artistic person, theatrical even. I did theater and acting in high school, and once I graduated, I had no outlet for those arts. Over time, I started experiencing so many different feelings that I felt like I was overflowing with joy, sadness, anger, gratitude, frustration, everything! I remembered that I used to write songs on GarageBand, and one day I cracked my laptop open and tried again. The first song I ever wrote was to tell my partner at the time I loved them. I was able to express and feel everything through singing and putting tracks together. The music of my own voice and my own story coursed through my veins, so I never stopped. I wrote songs of sorrow, of love, of peace, and of everything I felt, and that’s when I knew that music was my calling. It was my way of expressing and manifesting the life I lived and wanted for myself. Fast forward to today; I recently released a mini-album called “The Siren’s Song,” which is about the phase in life I am in right now, and I only pray to keep writing music forever and sharing my story for as long as possible.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
In terms of the process of writing and releasing music, it was easier than I thought. Especially writing lyrics, everything I write is about my experiences, so it was pretty straightforward. Getting the lyrics out was smooth sailing, but some of the things I had to experience to get those lyrics were challenging. It was heavy to write about my sorrows, and it was difficult to voice the ways my heart had been broken, but I knew that someone had felt the same feelings as me. That gave me the drive to keep writing, even when it was hard. I’ve fallen into writer’s block quite a few times as well. That was always difficult. I would start a song, feel really strongly about it, process the feelings, and lose the passion for the story I wanted to tell. The struggle of that is something I work through currently, but my songs are deeper rooted than they used to be.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am a musician in the Twin Cities. My music is very introspective and story-telling. I would say the category of “singer-songwriter,” is what I specialize in. I would say I am known for singing for student groups on the UMN TC campus. I am extremely proud of taking the steps to release music. My most recent album, The Siren’s Song, took about 1-1.5 years to write, and I am very proud of creating something so beautiful while I am still learning my voice and my sound. I would say I am still finding my individuality in the music scene a little bit, but I am working towards a vibe that touches your soul. That was my intention with “The Soul, The Mind, The Body.”
Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
There is nothing wrong with feeling. I went through a lot of my freshman year of college feeling like I needed to suppress or stop my feelings. That I needed to heal and never speak of these feelings again, but that just isn’t true. Experiences change you and the way you view the world, and that is okay. The most important part is to have an outlet in any form; it doesn’t have to be music and it can be as simple as coloring. This world is heavy, and there are a lot of things that we have to carry as human beings. We need each other to get through the weight of this world, and even if some people don’t like my music, I do. I know that there will be someone else in the world who relates and uses my music as their outlet. It’s all a cycle of helping and being helped
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/uchennatyra/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/uchenna-ngwu-249b06233/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@uchennatyra
