Today we’d like to introduce you to Jillian Rae
Hi Jillian, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I appreciate the opportunity! Well, I guess it started back in 1992: After a solid year of begging, I started taking violin lessons going into the second grade, at around seven years old. From there I had the good fortune of joining up with a performance troupe and started doing musical performance touring at around age eight. As I grew older I went from those childhood Scandinavian fiddle gigs, to orchestral performances, to singing and fiddling in our little local small town country shows, to dabbling in theater. I honestly never thought of doing anything else! I was madly in love with music, the violin, singing, and being on stage. I was definitely “that music nerd girl” in town (laughs). After my small-town high school graduation, I ended up in a slightly-bigger college town to study music. After finishing my degree it really took me a minute to figure out what kind of life in music I wanted to pursue. In college, the focus was pretty strictly classical– which I do love and enjoy! But once that intense period of classes, and rehearsals, countless orchestral performances, and recitals had come to an end, I realized that I really missed my more well-rounded musical upbringing— which included country and fiddle styles, Scandinavian folk, jazz, improvisation, singing, and even dancing– in addition to the classical violin stuff.
The one thing I knew for sure is that music had been my constant in life. My passion. The thing that I loved the most and, in my eyes, the one thing that I was truly good at. (Please don’t ask me to do math in my head or catch a ball. I simply cannot!) Another thing I had a pretty strong suspicion of was: There is no one “right” way to be a musician. So, over time I tried out a lot of things to figure out what works best for me and what brings me the most joy. I played in orchestras. I did studio work. I spent years playing string quartet gigs at weddings, private events, and everything in between. I played and toured with indie bands. I performed regularly in a cover band and really worked up my chops. I taught private lessons. I opened a music school. I started writing and releasing my own original music. And most recently, I began building a recording studio with my partner. For me, having that huge passion for music mixed with blind optimism, massive determination, and a solid emotional support system have been the driving factors in carrying me through from little-girl-dreamer of yesteryear to grown-ass-woman living the music dream today.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Definitely not. I think that pursuing your dreams in any capacity comes with its fair share of struggles. There is no handbook for this stuff. So the bumps in the road… I feel like we almost need to plan for them. Accept them as being part of the ride. It’s no secret that being an artist and pursuing music is not the most stable career path in the world. Especially in America where we have next-to-no social support systems in place. (Hello, broken healthcare industry!) So, right out of the gates I think we all struggle with how to make our artistry and musical livelihood work. Luckily for me, I am one of those people who has a pretty strong work ethic and (until very recently) undiagnosed ADHD. So, my career has been filled with piecing a lot of things together to make it work. I write. I perform. I sell merch. I license my music. I do studio work. I teach. I collaborate with other artists on stage and in the studio. I think there is a level of “hustle culture” that most, if not all, professional musicians adhere to. And I think for a long time my ADHD was kind of my superpower in that regard. But as with most things gone unchecked, the longer I’ve been in the biz, the harder it’s become to balance everything. Time management, taking on too many things at once, dealing with burnout and the toll it all takes on your physical and mental health… these are all things that I have and still do struggle with from time to time. The good news is, the longer you do a thing (and perhaps this also comes with age) the more you learn about yourself. Your limits, your boundaries, and maybe most importantly: how to say “no” to things (even when you really want to say “yes”).
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
The short version is— I am a musician and artist. The long form version is— I am an indie musical artist, singer, songwriter, violinist, multi-instrumentalist, studio musician, producer, composer, arranger, teacher, mentor, small business owner, manager, video director, admin director, bookkeeper, janitor… the list goes on, I’m sure! That “hustle culture” I mentioned earlier is very real. But I’ve also found that I truly enjoy working on a variety of things vs. just one thing. So, for me it kinda works. Right now, I’m putting the bulk of my focus into three areas of my work: Jillian Rae the indie artist, the building and opening of a recording studio (soon to be Iron Bull Records), and my teeny tiny studio of private music students (whom I cherish and adore).
I’d say my specialties are a mix of violin, voice, songwriting, recording session work, production, performance, and pedagogy.
I have released two full length albums, one ep, eight singles (including my brand new single, Silence – give it a listen!), and nine music videos, and have much more planned for the future. My stage show is pretty high energy and there is always a lot going on with several different instruments. So yeah, it’s a good time! I also fiddle and sing in a folk trio called Corpse Reviver— we are a tribute band to Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music and play tons of old “early American” tunes from the 1920s and 30s. Playing in that band has been a great time for the last 15 years, doing a monthly “1st Sundays” residency at the 331 Club in northeast Minneapolis. We’ve definitely fostered a beautiful following over the years. Our little Corpse Reviver Sunday family. I’ve also been collaborating with other bands and artists for long before I ever started releasing my own stuff. So I’m probably known as “that fiddling singer gal” in various other projects, as well.
What am I most proud of? Other than plain old persevering in this equal parts wonderful / equal parts insane career path, I am pretty proud of my album releases.
And with no label budgets, big-time producers, or big-time management pumping me up, I am pretty proud of my album releases.… the fact that my little team and I have been able to create some good old fashioned high quality music, and somehow get it out to enough people to help us keep the lights on makes me feel pretty darn good.
What sets me apart from others? Hmmmm. As much as I’d love it to be my good looks and killer personality (laughs) I think it’s probably my classically-trained violin chops fronting a rock band that sets me apart. And when the song is right, I do love to wail.
What would you say have been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
Hmmm. There have been so many lessons learned! If I have to pick only one, then I’d say: prioritizing. Prioritizing your time, your focus, your energy, and with that figuring out your work/life balance. When I look back on the whole of my adult life being spent as a working musician, I can easily see now how much time I spent early on doing things that I shouldn’t have been doing, for one reason or another. In the beginning, I had the mindset of just “putting myself out there,” trying new things, and saying “yes” to everything. Which I think is definitely a great thing to do when you are first starting out! But it took me a little longer that I would have liked to figure out how to pick and choose, prioritize, and like I mentioned earlier, say “no” to things if the timing just wasn’t right or if my plate was just too full. I operated at 150% for a very long time and as a result experienced the very real backlash of operating in burnout-mode for far too long. But you know what they say: hindsight is 20/20. I’m glad that I learned and grew through those things enough to have this kind of clarity looking back. And that’s one of the many reasons why we talk about this stuff openly and publicly, right? So we can learn from others. (laughs) Please learn from my mistakes, darlings!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://jillianraemusic.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/jraemusic
- Facebook: https://Facebook.com/jraemusic
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/jillianraeviolin
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/jraemusic
- Other: https://jillianraemusic.bandcamp.com
