Today we’d like to introduce you to Willow Waters.
Hi Willow, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
For as long as I can remember, I have always been attracted to sound and music. I grew up in a non-musical family and had to find my own way as a musician. I have two older siblings who both played instruments in school and I was so eager to have a chance to play myself. We had a piano in our house growing up and despite not having much success taking lessons as a five-year-old due to my yet undiagnosed ADHD, I still found myself playing it a lot at home. I loved trying to improvise and experiment with sound from my own vantage point. When my sister got a guitar, I was immediately attracted to it and asked my sister to show me everything she learned on it. Through the rest of my years in school, I continued to find new instruments to mess around with. I played violin for a year in 5th grade, switched to baritone in 6th grade, picked up electric bass to join jazz band in 7th grade, switched to electric guitar and tuba in 8th grade, got a drum set in high school, and then made a decision to study music education at CSB/SJU in central MN.
In my last couple of years of college and the few years following, I started to really find my voice as a musician. Through these several very challenging years, I struggled with questions of identity and self-worth. This finding of my musical voice was in direct correlation with finding language to express my gender identity and finally rejecting the pressures of society, allowing myself to dress and present in a truly authentic way. I began to see all the ways I had closed my true self off from the world and began finding ways to break free. Making music had always been a source of joy and inspiration but for the first time, I really felt like I had something to say. Suddenly the songs I was writing felt like more than just a playful exercise, but actually had a message. Songwriting became a tool for working through mental health struggles, processing difficult experiences, speaking truth to power, synthesizing my philosophical ponderings, and expressing aspects of myself I had kept hidden from the world, namely my femininity. I identify as non-binary and genderfluid and I am queer. Honoring this truth is central to my work as an artist.
Since that very transformative period in my life, I have maintained a true passion for making music. I find deep meaning and love in connecting to the world through sound waves. Every person I get to collaborate with teaches me something different about myself. I play with 10+ different acts in Minneapolis (Sister Species, Ginger Bones, La Curandera & The Ritual, Floating Perspectives, Unlawful Assembly, Brass Solidarity, Joni Jane & The Midnight Sugar, and Carlisle Evans Peck, to name a few), and each and everyone feeds a different part of me. I feel so blessed and humbled to be able to make music with so many incredible people in so many different styles of music. I also make music for theater productions whenever I have an opportunity and it is one of my absolute favorite things to do. A couple of highlights include writing and performing the music for a comedy adaptation of The Most Dangerous Game with Sheep Theater in 2015 and 2016, collaborating on a live score for Bone Mother with Sandbox Theater in 2019, and collaborating on a live score for Queen Bee with Wild Conspiracy in 2021. My ADHD definitely encourages this scattershot approach of collaborating with anyone and everyone and I wouldn’t have it any other way. There are just so many amazing and kind creatives in this city and I want to befriend and collaborate with them all.
In addition to all the music I get to play, I also find deep joy and meaning in sharing what I have learned as a music teacher at Twin Town Guitars. I have been working as an educator since I was in high school. Two of my first jobs were as an art teacher doing summer camps at the MIA, and as a skateboard instructor. Working with young people is such a life giving endeavor I imagine I will be doing so for the rest of my life. I also appreciate not having my main source of income tied to my art and what I create, which I imagine would make me burn out rather quickly.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
I have always struggled with identity. It has been a rocky road and a long journey of finding true and honest ways to name and express myself. Society has tried its damnedest to squeeze me into a box that does not hold me, and I have had to face unbounded criticism and scorn to just exist authentically. To this day, I still see the questioning, confused, and often disgusted looks on strangers’ faces wherever I go. I may have fostered a truer relationship with my identity, but the struggle continues. I have made it through the hard work of finding the language to describe myself and learning to face the daily hatred for wearing makeup, tight clothing, dresses, and simply moving in feminine ways. Nonetheless, 2021 was one of the hardest years of my life. I went through one of the heaviest waves of depression and anxiety. Despite all I have overcome, I still struggle with self-worth and I kind of lost my way this past year. In recent weeks, I am finally rediscovering myself and disrupting the negative self-destructive thought patterns. Praying that I can maintain this momentum.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I am a multi-instrumentalist, a singer-songwriter, a composer, an arranger, and a skateboarder. Each one of these skills allows me to express a different side of myself.
As multi-instrumentalist, I as able to connect with people through sound. I love the experience of listening to someone speak their truth through sound waves alone and finding a way of reflecting their story with my own. I love the experience of feeling something different pulled out of me just by picking up a different instrument.
As a songwriter and composer, I am able to do so many things. I can speak about truths that I have come to know; I can process difficult or otherwise profound experiences; I can capture a feeling or a moment in time, and if nothing else I can explore and yearn and retain a feeling of awe and wonder for the world. I often write songs that reflect my yearning for love and acceptance, my spiritual kinship with the more-than-human world, the need for justice and mutual aid and a shift in our collective perceptions. I write folk songs and rock songs and experimental songs, and I have a deep influence from blues and jazz harmony and rhythms. My music is unique in that it doesn’t center itself in any one style, but rather sifts and shifts just like my gender identity and expression. I like the terms gender-fluid and genre-fluid, and I feel they both reflect the ways in which I move and change within myself and my environment. I often write for large ensembles, but also love the sound of a trio or a quartet. I also often perform solo. My forthcoming album involves eleven different musicians. I am feeling hopeful I will be able to release it before the year is up.
And as a skateboarder, I can manifest my passion for the world through flowing movement; I can work through my problems via their physical manifestations, and I can meditate on creating my own happiness through determination and fostering a sense of calm and confidence.
Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
One of the best pieces of advice I got early on was to accept every opportunity that you are offered. It might it little bit hyperbolic, but I really took it to heart and I do think it has led me to amazing and unexpected places. This might be one of the reasons I play in so many projects. I have learned that every new collaboration is a learning experience and a moment for growth and discovering more about myself. Not every gig I take is great and sometimes they are plain unpleasant, but even at their worst, every gig has been an opportunity for maturation and evolution.
Contact Info:
- Website: willowwatersmusic.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/willowwatersmusic/
- Other: https://willowwaters.bandcamp.com/
Image Credits
Annabelle Marcovici
Ryan Stopera
Nick Henry
