Today we’d like to introduce you to Michele Zayla
Hi Michele, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
Originally from NW of Chicago, I grew up mostly in Southeast Florida where I started a business with another friend and singer called Perfect Harmony at the age of 11. As a duo, we sang and danced at retirement facilities, parties, and events throughout the region. I also grew up performing in community theater and then went on to college for music and theater in Philadelphia at the University of the Arts. I moved to NYC after graduating and made a full-time living there as a professional singer and musician for about 16 years before taking a trip to Thailand, for what I thought would be a month, to recover from burnout. I ended up staying for a year and a half in Southeast Asia. When I was heading back to the US, I didn’t want to return to NYC. I wanted to be in a gentler friendlier place that felt more doable in daily life. I wanted it to be warm for most of the year, with an active music, dance and artistic scene, and good produce. Austin checked those boxes.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Cognitive dissonance has been a struggle for me in general! I was finding that the arenas that I had skill in also required aspects that kind of went counter to my makeup. I went to college for Musical Theater because I had skill in voice and dance and improv, but I was way more drawn to performing and writing popular and soul music over Broadway style performance and musicals. I kept bending the ‘rules’ of the theater world and so didn’t quite fit the form and felt I was often on the “outside.” I started doing recording work as a singer and found that there was a real emphasis on ‘creating an image’ and a definable ‘theme’, and the ones suggested for me (girl next door with an edge) didn’t feel honest. Being genuine felt important to me. Also aspects of networking meant going out late at night in crowded and loud bars, or sitting in weed-filled rooms and just ‘hanging out’, or having to advertise myself and present well and ‘be seen’ which I didn’t really seem built for. In NYC, one of my main gigs was performing in 10 piece bands for fancy events, weddings, etc. I did that for the better part of 15 years. I appreciate that it mostly paid my rent and food. I found that my desire to do anything else related to music while I did this work, sort of just dropped off. It took out all the juice for singing. It also didn’t really contain the creative aspect that was the original draw to music for me, starting very young. I loved creating something new, being in that process. Making a living singing cover music seemed to mean there wasn’t creative energy left to use to keep a balance. Also NYC was one of the only cities in which I could make a living as a full-time singer, and I got to be a part of some amazing shows and recordings with talented players throughout my time there, but it was often too much for my system. I had to regularly leave because I kept getting burned out. When I would try to move elsewhere- Los Angeles, Berkeley, Boulder- I wasn’t able to fully make a living in music, and every other job I tried kicked in major depression. Music work at least felt doable for me. I continue to struggle with the aspect of making a living- paying for my needs- mixed with keeping the creative work going, which feels pretty vital to feeling vital for me. Making things requires a lot of open time to fiddle around, be relaxed, investigate, focus and dig and spark stuff. Yet it also requires a comfortable and safe place to exist without constantly stressing, which requires money, which requires time doing something to make that money, which might drain! Tricky. I keep my life and needs as simple as possible and live with very few belongings and overhead to prioritize having the open space to create and feel inspired.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I have two creative worlds that I bounce between, music and roller skate dance. I have been writing songs since the age of 6 and I had my first live public singing performance around that same time. Writing original music is what I feel I specialize in, but I have been more known for being the “little girl with the big voice” in a huge variety of settings from singing the National Anthem for the Florida Marlins, traveling the country for many years performing with renowned Pink Floyd Tribute, The Machine, singing alongside symphony orchestras, singing onstage with the Temptations, opening for platinum artist, DMX, singing backup vocals on Joan As Police Woman albums, performing with quartets in NYC legendary jazz clubs like Smalls and Fat Cat, and writing the theme music for an Australian Radio station. I have started singing a bit more out live in Austin as of late, performing solo with a guitar at an art gallery, and sitting in with local musicians at places like The Elephant Room and Batch. I also may be starting to teach songwriting and voice soon at the new Music Academy of Austin.
I have been putting out original music on my YouTube channel (@MicheleZaylaMusic) for many years, and as the pandemic really kicked into full gear, I started independently engineering and producing a lot more, and also creating and shooting entire music videos, some with choreography, performed at various Austin locations, to accompany the music. It was extremely low to no budget. I love using what I have, what I can make, and what I can find (including friends), and being consistently in that process. Some of my songs hover around existential and relational themes like “Float” and “Second Wind,” but I also love bloopers and silly ridiculousness, so some of my music can also have a bunch of that, like “Blazer Time”, “Get Used to It”, and “Tailfeather.” Some are pop dance style, like “Thought I Was Ready.” I wrote and recorded a song about beauty standards and asked some of the amazing women I’ve connected with around the world to send me some videos of them, make-up free, which I edited together to create the final music video, “You Don’t Have To.” I also have been asked to write for others, including birthday songs (“HEY JJ”), or any theme that someone needs a song about which I enjoy and would love to do more of. Even though I appreciate the connection I feel with community when I am out performing jazz standards or cover music, I feel most proud of music and videos that are created from scratch- even if they aren’t as popular!
In the past few years, another creative world opened up, and I fully immersed right from the start with Roller Dancing. I grew up training in dance, and in college dance was a big aspect of my major. I roller skated as a very young person, but mostly just around the rink, backwards and forwards and outdoors, including to school with my sister. There was about a thirty year hiatus until recent years when it sparked again, and this time within dance skating. The joy and love for skating has shifted how I feel and go through daily life. Teaching myself, inspiration, consistency, riding the edges of injury, fitness, finding my own pace, my own way of learning and challenging myself. The skating-to-life metaphors abound. I have a Youtube channel, as well as an instagram page called @ZaylaSkayta where I post tutorials, original combos, freestyle dance skating, and gear reviews. I also have been teaching both independently online and locally and through Ignite School of Skating here in Austin, as well as performing at local skate events, and even in a recent music video for Jelly Ellington. The skate community here is beautiful with so many unique and talented skaters with their own creativity and style. I am honored to be a part of the community, both here, and through the connections I have made throughout the world with other skaters. It’s the best part of the internet! I LOVE continuing to add more and more to my internal library of moves to incorporate into freestyle dance skating and flowing- it’s a lifetime sport!
Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
If by luck, you mean things that “just happened by chance,” I would say most that happens feels like that to me.
Ideally I am just doing what I feel most drawn to, and then by default, getting more familiar and comfortable with those things, and that might register to others as useful skill. Often the opportunities that came in were in relation to just doing the thing, being immersed in the thing, and others witnessing it and requesting something. I would get music work through doing other music work, so it really helps to get those first gigs! I met a conductor who I instantly got along with through someone else’s gig, and then he called me up years later to perform with his symphony when we happened to be in the same state. Is that luck, skill, connection? It’s probably some of all of it! I meet other skaters in the community, and even that community has led me to some music work, and music work to skating work. It’s the people! And which people happen to need a specific thing at a time you happen to be around. It also seems mysterious and has a bit of a magic feel at its best.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zaylaskayta and www.instagram.com/michelezaylamusic
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@zaylaskayta and https://www.youtube.com/@MicheleZaylaMusic
- Other: Donations paypal.me/michelez4 or Venmo @michelezayla
Image Credits
skating group shot- Ernie Gilbert
