Description

Do you ever feel like you're trapped by expectations, afraid to make bold moves in your creative journey? What if the key to unlocking your full potential is to embrace burning it all down and starting fresh? Today’s guest is platinum-certified and Grammy-nominated songwriter Nisha, who has amassed over 300 million streams. She’s sharing her powerful story of artistic reinvention and how embracing setbacks and maintaining high standards has shaped her career and life.

From this conversation, you’ll learn:

-How to embrace change and navigate personal transformation

-The importance of maintaining high standards to protect your artistic integrity & creativity

-Practical advice on handling setbacks and failures as an artist

-Tips for balancing ambition with personal well-being

-The simple advice Nisha gave me that changed my life

More on Nisha: Nisha's music has been heard across the globe, from the U.S. to India and South America, earning recognition in Rolling Stone, Hulu, NBC, and Netflix. Beyond her hits, she’s a mentor helping artists navigate the ups and downs of the creative industry, while staying grounded in their true identity.

-https://thisisnisha.com/#about

-Presave my new single, "Genie in a Bottle" Here: https://ffm.to/genieinabottlecover

-Remember to subscribe/follow the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your pods. Please leave us a rating and review- it helps SO much in getting the show out there. And tell a friend about the show- podcasts are very personal and tend to be spread person to person. If this show helped you or made you smile, share the love :) 

• Follow the show: @unleashyourinnercreative 

• Follow me: @LaurenLoGrasso

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Transcription

• Speaker #0

  Have you ever had a hunch that something in your creative life or journey just wasn't quite right? Something felt off, your gut said no, but you still felt like you should move on and keep going toward the project or working with the person or whatever it is. But then, if you're lucky, something happens that snaps you out of it and makes you realize you need to take a different path. Today's guest did that for me with my music. She is beyond inspiring and insightful and will bring you insight on how to trust your intuition. Her story of artistic evolution, embracing change, and finding empowerment through creativity will help you immensely. Welcome to Unleash Your Inner Creative with Lauren LaGrasso. I'm Lauren LaGrasso. I'm a Webby Award-winning podcast host and producer, singer-songwriter, public speaker, and creative coach. This show sits at the intersection of creativity, mental health, self-development, and spirituality, and it is meant to give you tools to love, trust, and know yourself enough to claim your right to creativity and pursue whatever it is that's on your heart. And before we get to the guests, I want to remind you that I have a brand new single coming out. It is my cover of Genie in a Bottle.

• Speaker #1

  It's out October

• Speaker #0

  11th, and you can pre-save it now at the link in my bio or in the show notes. Pre-saving helps so much. It's basically how you tell Spotify that they should care about the song and that maybe they should put it on playlists, and it just really helps bring the song visibility. So please, please go pre-save it at the show notes or at the link in my bio on Instagram. Now to the guest. Her name is Nisha. She's a recording artist and musician whose catalog has amassed over 300 million streams. And also, she's my friend. Nisha's music has earned an RIAA Platinum certification, a number one debut, and a number three spot on Billboard's World Album Charts. She's had a Grammy nomination as a songwriter, and she has a loyal... loving fan base. She's written hit songs in the US, India, South America, Brazil, and Korea. Her pop catalog has been heard all over the world and featured in The Fader, Rolling Stone India, XM Radio, Hulu, NBC, and Netflix shows. I wanted to have Nisha on the show because as I just told you, I have a brand new single coming out, my cover of Genie in a Bottle on October 11th. And Nisha has been a huge inspiration for me, especially when I started my journey as a musician and singer. And you're going to hear the full story of how One piece of advice she gave me literally changed the course of my life. I can't wait for you to hear that and to think about how maybe somebody has done that for you or you've done that for someone else or maybe how you feel like you might need someone to do that for you now on your creative journey. Having one person's insight and advice can make all the difference. Her unique perspective on navigating the complexities of identity, artistic reinvention, and finding empowerment through creativity will inspire you. From today's chat, you'll learn how to reinvent yourself creatively. practical advice on how to handle setbacks and heartbreak as an artist, the importance of maintaining high standards and protecting your artistic integrity, tips for balancing ambition with personal well-being, and much more. And also, before we get into it, one thing to note is since Nisha and I are friends, we started out in a very untraditional way for this show. We just, we're gabbing. So you're going to enjoy us dropping right into the middle of a conversation about our hair. And I think you'll love it. And the other thing is, she's got... two cutie pie dogs and they were definitely trying to be part of the podcast at times. So here's some barking throughout,

• Speaker #1

  but it will just help you feel like you're hanging out. So now finally,

• Speaker #0

  here she is, Nisha.

• Speaker #1

  You have evolved your hair so many times. I've been on that journey this past couple years. I've been like four or five different colors in the past like five years.

• Speaker #2

  Which colors did you do? Yeah.

• Speaker #1

  So I started out, I went like darker than my normal hair color. So I went like one shade.

• Speaker #2

  What's your norm?

• Speaker #1

  It's very, very dark brown, but I went like one shade above black and then I had purple extensions and it was so much fun. Then the pandemic hit and my extensions fell out. Then I started inching up and going lighter and lighter and lighter. So like blonde for a while. Then I went full blonde, like I wasn't bleach blonde, but I was like golden blonde and I had long extensions. Then I got those extensions out and I was just like normal blonde for a minute. Then I went blonde again. And now it's like looking brown right now, but like I'm in an auburn red era. But I need to like go deeper into the red the next time.

• Speaker #2

  Into the fireflies, yeah.

• Speaker #1

  I need the orange.

• Speaker #2

  I love it. You're my pumpkin spice.

• Speaker #1

  I'm just trying to be appropriate for the season at the end of the day.

• Speaker #2

  That's really what we're here to do as artists is just... provide a little bit of ambiance. Ambiance, yeah.

• Speaker #1

  Wait, so the last time I saw you, your hair was blonde. So take me through your journey.

• Speaker #2

  So before that I had curly hair and then I got extensions. I also went kind of the brown Auburn with extensions. Then I moved to LA and I went blonde, like in stages. I went one at a time and then went full blonde, bleach blonde down to my root. And then I shaved my head.

• Speaker #1

  No, that's so cool. Was that really liberating?

• Speaker #2

  It was, yeah. I was just, I think I was going through, I was turning 34, 35. I was just going through this, like I'd found so much. power and empowerment in my music. And the most free I could be felt like the most me I could be.

• Speaker #1

  I love that. So the bald hair put you in touch with your truest self bald head, I should say.

• Speaker #2

  Yeah. A little baby niche. And yeah. Oh my gosh. It was such a trip because, you know, I act and stuff. I've done a lot of different creative things. And you know, when you do, especially film yourself, you look at every angle, you look at like you hyper-criticize and when you shave it all off, there's nothing. There's no like whipping your hair back. There's no like hiding your face and like being cute. There's just like, it's me all the time. But it was lovely. It was very empowering.

• Speaker #1

  What did it teach you about who you are underneath it all?

• Speaker #2

  That I was a lot more separate from the physicality, which is, I think, why a lot of people shave their heads is to find themselves like, okay, if I take this off and I take this off and I take this off, it's actually was listening to the podcast the other day. And you said something about. How, like when you figure out that your only job is to be you. Oh yeah. When you figure out like, oh, I just have to be me. But the thing is, it's such a statement that it has the opposite effect. And that is also what I learned about it is the more you pursue liberation that way, people are going to think you're doing like some cool brand thing, you know? And you're like, no, I just couldn't deal with it anymore. You know, like I couldn't, the dying, my, and it always been kind of a, my cousin did it. It always been a. Something that I really wanted to kind of do because I knew, you know, I knew my parents would be like, I just wanted to see their face, to be honest.

• Speaker #1

  I love that. You know, when you said something about you did it to like strip everything down and then people thought it was this like branded thing. Right. Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between what your personality is and what your inner essence is and what everybody has always just reflected back to your whole life about who you are.

• Speaker #2

  Identity is not, one, it's not fixed. and it's not linear and it's not static. And it's always occurring inside a web and a network of perception. I think for a long time, I had a hard time with that because I was trying to define myself as an artist. So anytime I got pigeonholed into something, I had to sort of, I had to break my own mold every time until you get to the point where you're like, okay, wait, now I'm just the artist breaking the mold. The other way of stripping it down for me was like, I'm just going to do nothing. I'm just going to let my hair grow. And that's sort of where I am now.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah, it was like almost you had to go back to the very beginning so you could grow from a foundation that was stable.

• Speaker #2

  And I moved back home. You know, I got into like a lot of my trauma work and therapy and stuff. And it definitely was that.

• Speaker #1

  That's so nice. Tell me about what it's been like coming back home after being in L.A. and New York for a long time.

• Speaker #2

  Oh, my gosh. In the beginning, I spiraled completely. like my first two years here, like my first, well, the first year was the pandemic. Yeah. And I also like, when I left LA, I also left my network of work and stuff. So I really started over financially. It was wild girl. I was like 35 with a platinum record, you know, cleaning the men's bathroom. After all you can eat brunch after a double shift, just like cleaning the toilet with my platinum record. And it was like, it was, it was kind of a wild trip, but it was the total restart of a lot of things in my life. I came back home. I lived with my mom for a bit. At first I spiraled and now I've come to. really appreciate Orlando because I think the ceiling here is a bit different. I think that in New York, people are really ambitious for, you know, a lot of like big statements, sort of, they want to make a career, they want to have money, power, all that stuff. LA too. It's like, people are really, I think they're ambitious in a different way. In Orlando, people are kind of ambitious for fun.

• Speaker #1

  Aw, that sounds lovely. Maybe I should move there.

• Speaker #2

  You should. I think everyone should. It's one of the fastest growing cities. I love Orlando. I rep O-Town for sure. It is. And it has a lot of the incubation spaces. You know, I met Eliza, who's our mutual friend from high school doing a lot of theater and stuff here. And so it has a lot of incubation studios and spaces to develop your art in kind of a school scholastic way, in a way that doesn't put market pressure on it. But there are opportunities to get your work to market here and to really train it on the level that you can perform. New York and LA and big, you know, big studios and big stadiums, but have a bit more of like a family feeling here. And again, like the pressure here is like, no one here is trying to win. They're just trying to have the best time.

• Speaker #1

  Oh my gosh. That sounds so beautiful. There's so much to break down from what you just said. And we're going in a totally different direction, but I'm so down for it. I love, obviously we haven't seen each other in a while and we're through Zoom, but there's just like a level of peace to you that is emanating energetically through the Zoom screen.

• Speaker #2

  My spirit guides are happy.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah. I want to know more about that. So, okay. To go back to, you had to start over.

• Speaker #2

  Yeah.

• Speaker #1

  Walk me through the whole thing about like working the double shifts and cleaning. toilets and like how because like when you're in that you know logically I'm sure you know like this isn't forever like I have all these things behind me I know I've got a future ahead of me with my art how do I justify yeah like how do you go through those like human moments where you're like what the fuck is happening right now this

• Speaker #2

  isn't the first time I've done this I've made some pretty big leaps in my life like when I left New York to move to LA I had a teaching studio there I was a professor at NYU I had my own teaching studio making great money had a very stable life and when I left for LA I was cleaning Airbnbs until I signed my record deal. I think it's also a part of it is that I grew up always kind of having a job and having something on the side as an artist. And there was a part of it that I needed to do for money. And there was a part of it that I needed to do for myself because after the pandemic, I had been at home. I hadn't been outside. And when I got the job waiting tables, it was difficult, but I started to see that it was getting me comfortable around people again. Yeah. And I was very lucky, obviously, in the sense that I still had my teaching career and I still had royalties coming in. And I was able to, you know, kind of leverage that job and ended up booking a commercial, which is how I ended up. So I transitioned into acting. The thing about those moments is they are, they're really difficult, but it is when you hit the effort button. You know, SZA has this line. She says, now that I've ruined everything, I'm free. And sometimes when you're like me and you put, you know, like you, like you're very high accomplished. You set the bar high for getting these things done. Kind of the only way to make a change in your life, to get to something else that you really want that maybe is hidden behind your accomplishment is to take a step back. It's the hardest thing, but it's the most fun. Like I still have friends from that time. It's also that it's like, as an artist, we have to look at what is really our job, right? And our job is to communicate and express for people through our own inner work, right? To go a little deeper, solve an equation, create a piece of art that allows people to see themselves. And we have to be open to walking all forms of life. You know what I mean? We have to be open to being at the top and being at the bottom and relating to the humanity within ourselves at all level, or else it's a pursuit of power.

• Speaker #1

  Oh, oh, oh, you're so good. Okay. It reminds me of what my friend Jordan said. He like took a construction job and he said, I think artists need to spend more time out in the real world with like real people doing real work. And People who are doing that need to spend more time with artists. Like we both need to pull from each other. And by the way, I believe those people are artists too, but they just don't know it yet.

• Speaker #2

  I knew it. When you said it, I felt that layer underneath of wanting to acknowledge that we're all artists and that some of us circumstantially or for whatever reason are in this position to do this thing. You know, I don't know what I'm doing half the time when I go in to make something new. You know, what I learned is when I learn a new skill or project that I have to learn for something else. I discover how it's all the same thing. And then you can kind of take that and go back and apply it to what you were stuck in art. Yeah. You know, it's like make a pizza and then go write a song and you'll have more abilities.

• Speaker #1

  Yes. One hand washes the other.

• Speaker #2

  Plus it's great to have a steady paycheck.

• Speaker #1

  And it's great to have a pizza.

• Speaker #2

  Yes. Oh my gosh. That is the point, isn't it? You get your pizza and you're good. Yeah, it was actually, it was an Italian restaurant. It's funny that you said that. Because I was working. Yeah, look at your intuition popping off.

• Speaker #1

  Well, I was going to say your intuition. So I want to ask you so many questions at once. It's hard. But I feel like I want to go to this now. You have really changed my life a couple of times. And I don't even know if you know that our lives and our paths have like weaved in and out via Eliza, our dear friend, who is one of my favorite humans many times or at least several times. And the first time I met you at a party at her house when you were visiting from New York. Do you remember this at all?

• Speaker #2

  Yeah, she was going away and she had like buckets of stuff for people to take. And it was like all her like shampoos and stuff.

• Speaker #1

  Right. Sorry,

• Speaker #2

  Eliza. Yes.

• Speaker #1

  She's giving away her most treasured possessions. Shampoo. Yeah. Thank God I snagged a few of those. But I was with my ex-boyfriend at the time and we gave you a ride home. And you witnessed some like kind of alarming behavior from him. And you and I exchanged rings. I still have the ring that you gave me. And you said. you don't have to stay in this you know you can get out of this and like i've been there before and like this isn't a good situation you're like sorry if i'm overstepping but i just want you to know like i see what's going on and you don't have to keep being in this no i did that yeah you did

• Speaker #2

  Good for me. Good for us.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah. I mean, I still stayed for like another year and a half, but still.

• Speaker #2

  Wow. I'm so sorry that you were going through that. It's funny. The minute you said ex-boyfriend, I said boo immediately because I remembered, I remembered him. Yeah. That was a really crappy situation and it was hard to see. It was hard to see you in it, knowing how grounded you are in the alchemy of life to see you dealing with an obstacle like that is somebody else's darkness is not all yours to eat.

• Speaker #1

  Ooh, say it again for the people in the back. put it on a t-shirt. Yeah, I didn't know that at the time. I thought it was my job. See, the problem is, and the beauty is, I think the best thing and the worst thing about you are usually the same. And the dark part of the beauty that I have is that I can see who someone really is. Like, I see their higher self. But sometimes I think that person is playing out in real time when they're not. They're behind a lot of trauma, pain, issues. That was one of those. I do think he had a beautiful heart, but there was a lot of shit standing in the way of that a lot of the time.

• Speaker #2

  Those are the best ones to make art out of because those are the ones that will force you to ask the questions that'll bring you to your most prolific work. You know, like you'll have to solve those problems. I said that to you and probably texted my toxic person is the truth. So we try really. And it's always easier from the outside. What I discovered today about it was that sometimes it's also when we have this need to shine because it's in us.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah.

• Speaker #2

  Then we find someone who needs a lot of that shine. And then we feel like if we don't shine for them, they won't have that. But we are now not shining in a balanced way. We get hijacked into that system and it happens all the time. That's attachment stuff. I'm glad you're out of it though. And you're so happy now.

• Speaker #1

  And I'm with an amazing guy now. so you really are I know I see it I stand so much wait so I have to tell you the other way you changed my life because you don't even know you okay so we're in Vegas of all places and we're down oh we're waiting at Starbucks at this time this is like what 2018 Eliza's Bachelorette Eliza's Bachelorette and I'm like will you listen to my song because I had all my songs completely done and I was ready to put them out in the fall and so you're like yeah yeah sure so I gave you the headphones and you listen to the song and you're like bopping your head and you take the headphones out and you're like, okay, I'm going to be honest with you.

• Speaker #2

  I was going to say, oh no, what did I say?

• Speaker #1

  No, you were like encouraging. You're like, this is good. But the production sounds dated and I can like, you know, if you're trying to do like pop rock, you sound really theater-y. Like you can't, I can't remember exactly what you said, but basically like the vocal didn't match the song.

• Speaker #2

  I also remember feeling like it wasn't. Like you hadn't gotten to the two steps away from the thing. And I remember being like, this is the point where you just hit the gas pedal.

• Speaker #1

  Right. And you know, what was funny is like, it never did. The production of that song never really felt like me. And I was fine with the vocal. But like, you know, once you told me what you heard, I heard what you heard too. And so I couldn't unhear it once that happened. And then I brought it to another person who was advising me at the time. But she was like, oh, yeah, no, I totally agree. I thought that the whole time. I just thought the song was like, why would you not tell me what you thought? Like, I can go back and change it, but not once it's out. So anyway, after that, I went back to my producer. We decided we were going to revamp the whole song. He was amazing. And then I told the guy who was supposed to make my music video. And I was like, I want to still have you make my music video, but I can't put out the song. Like, this is my first single. It has to reflect. me. It has to be as good as it can be. And long story short, that guy, it was someone I knew for a really long time since someone I'd known since I was a kind of a kid, like 18 years old. And he at first was like, okay. And then he tried to like strong arm me into doing the music video. And then he turned out to be a really bad guy. Like he turned out to like threatening me and because he had spent money without my consent or without us like signing anything. And he, It was just, it was a really, really bad situation. So your advice removed him from my life, ended up making it so that I had a way better song. I went back and even rewrote parts of that song and put out an incredible like pop rock song that I was really proud of and was like 100% the best I could do at that time. And most importantly, ended up protecting me from these really negative energies that were just latched on to me because they wanted to basically take my money.

• Speaker #2

  That is the biggest. value of high standards. High standards are not about being snobby. They're not about being a know-it-all. They're not about thinking you're better than other people. High standards are about protecting you from people who are not capable of giving to you equally and are looking to receive unfairly. That's awesome. Right? That makes me super happy. I'm so happy to hear that.

• Speaker #1

  And you also saved me a ton of money because I would have been like sinking money into that video to make a video that wasn't what it should have been. Do you have a lot of experiences like that? Because I feel like you have a weird spidey sense where it's like, yes, you had that feeling about the song. But I also feel like there was something in you that maybe you weren't even aware of that was like advising me on this spiritual journey I went on.

• Speaker #2

  I do have experiences like that. I was like, we should trade some music video horror stories. Yeah. Because I had a director that I was working with. I was putting out this totally empowered song about never taking shit again. And the director of the video came on to me the night before we filmed. Can you imagine my empowerment song, Wendy, the one that was like...

• Speaker #1

  I love that song. It got me through the pandemic. I used to dance in my bra and underwear to it in my living room.

• Speaker #2

  I love that. We love that. We love Wendy. It was such a powerful song. But yeah, the night before, like the creepy director was like, I want to give you a massage. And I was like, hell no. I was like, what are we doing? I do have a spidey sense about it. But again, it's something that in an industry that's so chaotic and in music and in art, your currency is like your dreams and your conversations. And you're playing with magic. You're turning magic into reality. That's a dangerous place to go if you don't know what's what, if you don't know how to ground things, if you don't know. I would say maybe my sense from that comes from my parents. My parents are just very, you know, show us the proof. Anything you want to do, show us the proof. Throughout my life, every choice I've made has not been independent in that sense. It's been one that has had to pass through critical thinking. And it helped me to develop that ability. But then also beyond that, I do think like just doing it a bunch of times, you also start to realize that you can sort of always push more. And there is a way to. I think what I saw for you, what I remember seeing for you was that you were doing good work, but you hadn't met the archetype of yourself that you were representing. So when you meet the archetype of yourself, the lover, the guardian, the innocent, that picture becomes very intense. And art that really works and has an impact, it kind of takes what's in the middle and it pushes it to intensity, polarizes it so that it stands out, so that it sticks through, so that it creates contrast. And it's not to say that we don't want to do things for attention, but that we can harness our own intensity to represent ourselves vulnerably and honestly. And that is what makes art exciting.

• Speaker #1

  Wow. So tell me about this process of meeting the archetype. What does that look like in practice?

• Speaker #2

  I've used a bunch of archetype listings. I'll usually Google them or Carl Jung has some. even the tarot ones. Meeting the archetype is maybe identifying what character is telling the story and has that character existed before in the human narrative? Who am I relating to? Is it Joan of Arc? Once you figure out that energy, that's the distilled essence, right? Of like, who's telling the story? Then you ask that archetype. My process is like, I'm like, are you satisfied with this? Right? Is this far enough for you?

• Speaker #1

  That's so nice because it really takes the pressure off of me.

• Speaker #2

  All right.

• Speaker #1

  I would love to have an advisor in this.

• Speaker #2

  You do. You do. You have you have me, first of all.

• Speaker #1

  Yes.

• Speaker #2

  You have so many. You have your guides. But the archetype will tell you the art. Exactly. The archetype is the advisor. I just got that. Yes.

• Speaker #1

  So what is yours right now or do you have many as an artist?

• Speaker #2

  I'm in two archetypes right now. I'm in the Empress. and I'm in the Mother Star. And I've gone through many of them because I was interested in this process. I did a TED Talk many years ago, and it was based around identity. I think identity has been very important to me to figure out because I'm a third culture kid because I grew up, I was born Indian. I grew up in Nigeria. Then I moved to America. And it was just like, you know, you throw a bunch of stuff at the wall and me trying to navigate what parts of those things are authentic for myself and how to be, because some of it is performative. It's like, it was... Trying to reconcile that made me really interested in identity and the malleability of identity. And so, yeah, I've explored a lot of these different, I used to have a big martyr archetype when I was younger. I don't know where that came from. I think that's what I thought goodness was, sort of that blind self-sacrificing for the greater good. And it was just my highest value. And now my highest value is balance, which doesn't mean staying in the middle and being boring because. The Japanese definition of balance is actually sometimes going from one extreme to another, and that helps me maybe sometimes recognize in my life when certain things are in one extreme, I don't have to go to the middle to fix it. Sometimes I can actually go to the other.

• Speaker #1

  Wait, say more. So what does that look like for you?

• Speaker #2

  It's like anything, right? If I've been writing for a really long time and doing a lot of projects, then I'll take like two weeks off.

• Speaker #1

  Love.

• Speaker #2

  Force myself not to do anything to let that reservoir fill up again.

• Speaker #1

  I love that. I want to go back to the advice you gave me in the moment that changed my life because you gave me really honest, really direct advice. in a loving and kind way where I knew it was for me. You weren't saying this to like knock me down. You weren't saying this to make me feel bad. I was like, oh, she's telling me the truth because she has love for me. Yeah. How do you strike that balance where you're super direct, super honest and incredibly loving and kind?

• Speaker #2

  I love you. What a compliment. My God. Thank you, Lauren. I do love you very much. For me, it's about identifying the beginning and the end. So the beginning is. Like, what does this person need from me? And then what's the ideal? Where do they end up ideally? And for you, and that is the part of art and creating that I can't, the inspiration part that I can't explain. I think we are all able to kind of download these ideas and see these, you know, when you get a vision, you see a picture, whatever that is. You know, I think I had enough experience to trust myself at that point. But what happened was I listened to your song and looked at you and I got a picture, you know, even just like my inner child, right? Like who grew up on pop music. And I think that's maybe why you resonate with me is because, you know, we have the same, we grew up same sort of musical taste. It's like Mariah Carey, like, you know, Brandy Boyston, like we love a lot of the same things. And I just was able to hear and see you sort of at that finished point. And so when I was giving you the advice, it was all directed toward that. It had nothing to do with anything else. But how do I move you from this point to this point? Because you deserve it.

• Speaker #1

  Oh. So good. That's such great advice for anyone who's listening, who's a teacher or a coach on how to be really honest in service of the person's highest good.

• Speaker #2

  Yeah. And it's hard because love is honesty, but you also, you know, how you love is the form of love. It's complex when you're dealing with a person or an artist, like, you know, just a person. It's, it does take more time to do things. My studio is pretty small. I don't take a lot of students because I do think the best work happens. Not just on a professional level, but on a personal level, on a level where you're really relating to the details of the person.

• Speaker #1

  So talk about your students and teaching and coaching and mentoring. Like, what is this part of your life? What does it look like?

• Speaker #0

  They're my babies.

• Speaker #1

  Aw,

• Speaker #0

  little ones. I started to do it when I was 19. I went to school for opera. I call myself the bad opera singer because I was in the basement, like chain smoking with the jazz musicians, essentially.

• Speaker #1

  That would have been a cool album.

• Speaker #0

  Chain smoking with jazz. Yeah. Yeah. Released in France. Yes, absolutely.

• Speaker #1

  They'd love it.

• Speaker #0

  I don't sing, I blow you smoke. Yeah. So I started teaching when I was 19. And then I just, you know, always. had a couple of students.

• Speaker #1

  And when you were teaching, you're teaching voice or songwriting or both?

• Speaker #0

  Voice songwriting and performance stuff. Yeah. Both of them. And sometimes piano too. Okay. Like beginners piano for kids. Oh my gosh. I would have a suitcase and I would wheel it down to Brooklyn and I would wheel it up to Queens and go to, and I was teaching yoga too. I was teaching like kids yoga with brother, big brother, big sister, and as much as I could do at that time. And then I had my own studio. I taught at NYU for a couple of years. And then when I moved to LA, I've just sort of. Teaching has always been something I've done alongside pursuing my own work, really, because I did believe in the integrity of that. I never thought that I could really honestly teach if I wasn't chasing my own gold medal as hard as I was pushing my students to do that.

• Speaker #1

  I feel like it's the only way to go.

• Speaker #0

  It's the only way to go. For your own sanity. My kids would be like, I have a record coming out. I'd be like, I have a record coming out too. Let's sing.

• Speaker #1

  We're in the same boat, baby.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah. I got a show too. Get in here. And so that's what I do now. I mostly work with recording artists. I've worked with a lot of really cool. Can I name drop? Oh,

• Speaker #1

  please.

• Speaker #0

  I taught Riz Ahmed when he was filming the night of. He didn't sing on the show.

• Speaker #1

  But you could feel his vocal power. You could feel it.

• Speaker #0

  I was his breath support. And I've taught a lot of pop singers, Daya. Yeah. I mostly work with recording artists. I'm working with a student named Ale Aria, who's a beautiful singer. A lot of artists out in LA and they're making projects. What's interesting about it is we do voice lessons, but I'm also kind of helping artists figure out the process of like, wait, I'm not inspired anymore. Or like, wait, I have too much coming at me. Or wait, the label wants this and I need to do that. We have to, again, when all that comes in, you take a deep breath and you go, well, I have no problems.

• Speaker #1

  You might, but honey, I'm good.

• Speaker #0

  Well, I make them say that for themselves. And then... from there you can kind of compartmentalize and like, you know, flow your energy into the different solutions. But that's what we do. We sing, I call it the varsity singers club. I make them do squats when they sing. We do old school bel canto technique. It's very physical. I teach singing as a total, you know, vocal gym as a physical practice, breath to bone, bone to muscle, muscle to skin, everything's vibrating. And that vibration travels throughout the entire body. So that's what we focus on is full body singing experience.

• Speaker #1

  That's amazing. I don't know if you know this. I met my cousins in Sicily. I never knew they existed. And then my dad never told me that my grandpa left a brother there. So our whole life, we had cousins that I never knew about. And I went to their doorstep, introduced myself, and now we're incredibly close, texting on WhatsApp.

• Speaker #0

  You're so cool.

• Speaker #1

  It is the most beautiful thing in my life. But my cousin Alessandro told me that I sing in a bel canto style and I play in a bel canto style. But I'm like, that's crazy because I don't know what that means.

• Speaker #0

  I would concur. Valcanto means beautiful singing, kind of really beautiful tone. Nothing is pushed. Your vowels are aligned. You know, very legato, like it's a sweeter, you know, like if you think of like German opera and stuff where they're like, right. Valcanto is like the sound bowl.

• Speaker #1

  Oh, so sweet. Well, I have to tell Alessandro now I know what he was talking about. I was just like, oh, great, great.

• Speaker #0

  Yes, my Valcanto Lauren. Yes.

• Speaker #1

  But you said something. Okay. the no problems. I have no problems.

• Speaker #0

  I know. I love that thing so much. I love that. I have to be careful. I need to, I can't use it all the time, you know?

• Speaker #1

  Yeah. I guess without context, people would be like, what an asshole. But like, also why? Like, that sounds wonderful. I would be so happy for someone if they had no problems. But do you think that humans have to invent problems even when they're not there so that we can feel productive?

• Speaker #0

  No, I think we come in with karma, baby.

• Speaker #1

  Really?

• Speaker #0

  Yeah. I think when things are boring, we're worried nothing's going to happen. And we're just... It'll show up. You know, don't you have those magical moments? Like when you met your boyfriend, you started seeing all these synchronicities and like the butterflies, the rainbows, 11, 11. And then, I mean, I'm spiritual. And I think that we come here to communicate and exchange information and learn things and write these stories really.

• Speaker #1

  I kind of agree with you too, because I never would have met my boyfriend if I hadn't missed three COVID tests because I was supposed to go visit my baby cousin that day. And I like went everywhere to try to get a COVID test. But I like first I missed the first one. And then the second one, I got it done. But it wasn't a rapid. So I wasn't going to get it back for three days. And then the next one, I missed the session. I couldn't like by the time I found the place, there was no appointment. So if I had gotten the COVID test and tested negative, which I was, I never would have met Timmy.

• Speaker #0

  A COVID love story.

• Speaker #1

  A COVID love story, truly. But sometimes it's like the things that you think are the worst things are the best.

• Speaker #0

  And the whole time you're going from one test to another, just being like, what kind of bad luck am I going through? And the universe is like, no, we're aligning you one step to one step to one step to get to this moment.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah. Well, I wanted to ask you too about like the coaching stuff as someone who's like a producer, a coach, and also a host and a singer. I think sometimes people are like, but wait, don't you do that? And there can sometimes even be like a level of like jealousy. How do you deal with that? Or have you ever had that happen?

• Speaker #0

  Not really. Certain things I don't really advertise until after they're done. And then I always present them as like, this is your goal to meet now. I tend to come at it from a place of like, your job is to beat me.

• Speaker #1

  I like that.

• Speaker #0

  You know, like I'm going to sing louder than you, better than you, faster than you. You have to beat me because you're, that's your job, you know? The jealousy thing, I mean, probably it's probably been there. And to be honest, I can't honestly even say that I haven't experienced it the other way, where I've seen artists going on tour that I'm coaching and accomplishing things that I'm just like, oh, man, if I could just.

• Speaker #1

  Oh, I've definitely experienced it the other way. Yeah,

• Speaker #0

  yeah, totally. I think it's definitely there. It's the kind of thing where you want to learn how to deal with it because it's going to be there once you enter the marketplace. Once you enter a lane and you're with a bunch of artists, I think it's like with any other negative energy, it's like you have to sort of clear out what inside you is responding to it. And then you can make a choice of either to cut it out and be like, okay, well, this is not maybe where I need to draw a boundary around these things. And maybe I don't need to share these things with certain people. I'm very careful about sharing my work and my plans with people before. We are in an energy field where people's thoughts and actions toward us affect us. I also think it's good to learn how to run off of jealousy.

• Speaker #1

  Oh, tell me more. Because I feel like I have some work to do in this area. It's not even jealousy so much with me as like, but why can I do that? I know that's inside of me. Like, I know I can teach people how to do that. Like, I'm so close to it. But like, I feel like I'm pressing myself up against glass, like unbreakable glass sometimes.

• Speaker #0

  I hear that. I do hear that. The person that has decided that they're... up against unbreakable glass, it's validating. You have to get that they're validating that thought. They're making a conscious thought to validate that they think they're up against glass because it's not real. The second thing is when that happens, you know, when my students look at me and I can just belt out of nowhere and they look at me like, why can't I do that? And I do have to sort of go, you have to acknowledge for yourself how many hours you've put in to be able to teach and do this. It is your job to create something for people to live into and grow into. I always empower them. But when it's other artists and stuff, I totally enjoy it because I feel that way all the time about other people. So when it comes at me, I'm like, yeah, let's be doing something correct today, I guess.

• Speaker #1

  You got it all the time. Tell me about the break you took from music. This is when I asked you to come on my podcast because I was so inspired by what you were doing with comedy and just trying different things on. We've spoken a little bit about it, but I want to know why you took that intentional break. and what you learned from it.

• Speaker #0

  Oh my gosh. Can I like tell you the truth, like the real thing? Yeah. My parents never really wanted me to do music in particular, my dad, because it was just a very chaotic life that he didn't want. And so even though they were very supportive in a lot of ways, that conflict was still there. And I always felt that tension. And I just had a lot of memories of making music while being at odds with my family. And I couldn't safely enter that space without experiencing guilt. Also because I smoked a lot of weed to write songs to kind of disconnect from how it felt to do something I wasn't supposed to do. Those things were all kind of tied up and I was cutting away from, I was just kind of didn't want to smoke that much weed. So I also tell my students this, by the way, when I teach, I tell them, I'm like, listen, I'm not a good kid. I'm the kid that knows how to survive. You know, I'm the kid that knows how to apply technique at the right moment. But I'm not the person that did everything right or didn't make any mistakes or didn't make bad choices at times. It was just that sometimes, even though music is like probably my greatest love, it was shrouded in a lot of guilt and a lot of loneliness. And it's not easy. You are consuming the void. You're consuming the problem to turn it into a solution. And I became just that kind of emotional channel to my own detriment. And I had to cut it off and be superficial for a while. I had to find other accesses into my creative. spirit and I had to do things like I was just gardening and waiting tables and I got into acting and stuff and it was really nice I will say as a songwriter to have someone else give you a script Yes. And to be able to just like perform through that was like very liberating. And then with comedy, it was like, um, it was that fear thing. It was the shave the head thing of like, what is the one thing I think that I wouldn't be able to do and try that.

• Speaker #1

  What was it like having a fresh relationship with creativity?

• Speaker #0

  Insane.

• Speaker #1

  In your body? The glow up,

• Speaker #0

  my hair got thicker. I was so much more inspired to get up and eat healthy and go to the gym and like It's love. It's love. When you find a passion, when you find a creative pursuit that holds you to it and that you can get attached to something healthy like that, that's love. To me, it's my through line. It's my, it's what keeps me alive. It always is having that thing to invent myself through and to understand myself through relating to an art form like that. I think it's so important. I think that I don't know how people who don't make art survive, because even if you make art for a few minutes and then go back and apply that creativity to your other job, That space is so pure to connect, you know?

• Speaker #1

  Well, you're literally cutting yourself off from your own humanity if you don't allow yourself to be creative. Because I just really believe like we are literally made of creative essence. Like the big bang was creativity, okay? So if you don't acknowledge your creativity and the creativity of others-Life force. Yes. You are shutting off your own life force. You are refusing to acknowledge the divinity in you and other people. And the fact is like- NASA did a study on this. They took a group of 1,600 five-year-olds and they gave them this test for creativity, like a standard creativity test. And 98% of them not only scored creative, but creative genius level. And by the time those same five-year-olds were 31, it was only 2%. So the numbers swapped. So creativity, if someone's listening right now and they're like, I don't know, I want to be creative, but I'm not really. No, you are. And it's not something you have to conjure up. It's just something you have to remember.

• Speaker #0

  When you pick your shirt, you're being creative. You know, when you picked your furniture for your house or you order your food, you know, you're creating the whole story all the time. That's very existential. The other thing is, the reason I think it's so important to do is because once you see yourself as a creator, that's a paradigm shift. You know what I mean? That's like, once you see yourself as the person that can create and can do these things and you are anchored in your ability to create, that's freedom to me, because then you trust yourself to go into situations. and work things out. And once you have that, then you can pursue stardom because those things that we want, fame, they move so quickly. It is about making the right decision at the right time. You have to feel empowered to be able to go into situations that are scary and create, to go into situations where you don't know what's going to come out of your mouth and create something. And you have to see yourself as a creator. You know, that is why I do think whether you end up professionally making work or not, if you want to be an artist, Start by identifying as an artist. Just say to yourself, I'm an artist. I create. And then let the mediums, the archetypes, all of that stuff, the karma, let it all come to you.

• Speaker #1

  I love that. It's so true. Speaking of that, though, you have to have a really strong sense of self, like you're saying, in order to be able to be ambitious, really, in a healthy way, in a way where you're not going out trying to get your worth, bring it back, where you're like, I have a lot of ambitions, but I know that who I am is the best thing about me. How do you cultivate that and remember on a daily basis that who you are is the best thing about you.

• Speaker #0

  I have the good fortune of having Crohn's disease. And so my body tells me immediately what's up. And that's been my advice is like the story and all that stuff you're creating is in your head, but the grounding is in your body. So it's like, how's my energy? Have I eaten? Those are the things that bring you back into that place. It's like, it's the simple stuff of like, you know, really like as a producer, like, did I bathe? how long have I been sitting in this chair editing who's coming to get me it's just me

• Speaker #1

  I'm the studio manager too just me creating yeah I want to go back to something you said in the beginning when you were talking about taking the job as a waitress and you quoted SZA and I don't remember the exact quote will you say it again now that I've ruined everything I'm so fucking free If somebody who's listening is afraid to ruin everything, but knows they need to, what's your advice to them?

• Speaker #0

  Do it quickly.

• Speaker #1

  Don't give yourself time to think. That's the enemy.

• Speaker #0

  The more you think, the less you're going to do it. You have three or four seconds between a thought and what's stopping you is the belief that something's going to catch you on the other side, that you're going to catch you on the other side. That version, that archetype is calling you, right? It's going to jump. And I would say one, surrender to the fact that you might fail. I always played that out. I was always like, what is my worst option? My worst option is, and I was, again, I was lucky enough that I have parents. I have a mom that I can go stay with, which I did. Make sure you have your own grounding. You don't need to do this in an apocalyptic way. There's plenty of suffering to be had without creating suffering for yourself in art. Just literally, I know ruining things, a lot of it is about other people's perceptions and their perception of you. That's the difference. What means to be an artist is, can you choose to have your own back against what everyone's going to perceive of you? Is the music that you're hearing strong enough, loud enough? Do you believe it enough? And are you willing to like, let go? Cause it's not, it's a service project. You're going to put it out. They're going to criticize it. You know, they're going to eat from the buffet, what works for them and make a face at the stuff that doesn't work for them. And none of that is your job. It was about you being the person that made that buffet. That's who you are.

• Speaker #1

  Well, I have chills and tears in my eyes. I added a million more questions to ask you, but I can't think of a better way to end. So you're just going to have to come back.

• Speaker #0

  I love you. I can't wait. I would love that.

• Speaker #1

  Nisha, I love you so much. Do you have new music coming out soon?

• Speaker #0

  I do.

• Speaker #1

  Okay. Plug it, my love.

• Speaker #0

  I do. I'm releasing a song called Eons about soulmate and soulmate connection and finding yourself connected to people at a very source level. And the tagline is eons ago back at the start where we were all together.

• Speaker #1

  It is out now. So go get Eons. That is so exciting.

• Speaker #0

  Eons. Yay. Thank you so much, Lauren.

• Speaker #1

  I love you.

• Speaker #0

  I love you too.

• Speaker #1

  Thank you for listening and thanks to my guest, Nisha. For more info on Nisha, follow her at ThisIsNisha and find her music at ThisIsNisha.com, Spotify, or wherever you get your music. Unleash Your Inner Creative is hosted and executive produced by me, Lauren LaGrasso. It's produced by Rachel Fulton with theme music by Liz Full. And again, I want to say one more time, thank you, my creative cutie, for listening. If you like what you heard today, remember to rate, review, and follow the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Share the show with a friend and post about it on social media. Tag me at Lauren LaGrasso and at Unleash Your Inner Creative, and I will repost to share my gratitude. Also tag the guests at ThisIsNisha so she can share as well. Also, remember to pre-save my single, Genie in a Bottle, at the link in the show notes and or at my Instagram bio. Pre-saving, like I told you, helps so much and means the world. My wish for you this week is that you embrace your creativity with fearless passion, that you trust your intuition, and that you always keep reinventing yourself. and going toward your heart. I love you and I believe in you. Talk with you next week.