Today we’d like to introduce you to Erica Michelle.
Hi Erica, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I picked up the guitar and started playing when I was fifteen. I wrote my first blues song when I was 16. I wanted to be a great guitarist like Stevie Ray Vaughan or Jimi Hendrix when I was a kid. So I focused on learning the guitar. I learned by ear and never learned theory.
I was an extremely anxiety-filled teenager and felt uncomfortable almost anywhere until I stepped into my high school’s choir classroom. My choir teacher Karla Cruz, who also taught Gary Clark Jr, molded myself with music that I had never experienced before. Classical, gospel, blues songs that helped me vocally but I was always still the shy one.
The first time I sang for the public was my senior year high school talent show. I sang a Joss Stone cover, “Right To Be Wrong” and did so bad. The dark auditorium and crowded room freaked me out. I didn’t do much music after that terrible experience.
I was pretty much lost after high school. I turned to a lot of drinking, drugs and partying because I felt so empty. I’d go home and play the guitar, but for years I could not get back into music. I was in a mentally abusive relationship with a drummer at the time. I wanted so bad to start a band but every time I would show my songs to my significant other at the time, I would be shot down. I was told my voice wasn’t good enough.
I spent five years partying, listening to his terrible advice and treating myself so poorly. When I was 25, something hit me. Maybe a realization or some kind of epiphany that jolted me into shock. How did I miss so many years of music? I was extremely disappointed in myself for never trying music and giving up so easily when I was younger.
I had enough of feeling like I couldn’t do music. So I searched Craigslist at the time to find a band who maybe was looking for a singer. I had no idea where to start but I always enjoyed singing and wanted to deep my toes into the water. I was rejected multiple times until one band liked what I had sent them. Although they liked the mediocre bathroom recordings I sent them, it took so long to get an audition. For a while, I thought I was being silently rejected again but I was so driven to do something in music, I constantly emailed/called and begged for the audition. Finally, I landed one.
I joined the band and it was very uncomfortable for me to be surrounded by men musicians and me being the newbie. They told me to take the instrumentals they had recorded and go home, write and think of melodies. And so I did. We booked small gigs at restaurants and bars. However, we got lucky with a private party at House of Blues in Dallas. THAT was my first time I performed with a band. After our set, the host came up to me and told me, “There was a person from Capitol Records here and he said, ‘that girl can sing’.” I felt for the first time like I was doing something right.
I only stayed one year with the band because we did not see eye to eye when it came to new material. I wanted to focus on songs I had written and covers I felt were great for my vocals. With all the ending drama of one year with a first band, I was sitting at the end of the bar after our last set when I heard the drummer drunkenly say, “We made her, she will be nothing without us.” At that point, I realized it was time to do things on my own.
Transitioning into a solo artist was very hard work and still is so hard. I started back with guitar and practiced songs so I could take them out to open mics. My first open mic was at the legendary Cactus Cafe. The best listening room in Austin. I remember being on that stage, quiet and dark room with the spotlight shining in my eyes. It felt like I was back in high school for the terrible talent show. I played my original song “Up In My Feelings” and when I finished, I heard the host say, “wow”. To my relief, I felt happy and confident to keep going.
For the next years, I played any open mic I could. I was gaining some local and regional attention that I was set on some bills with amazing musicians like Charley Crockett, JD Pinkus (Bassist of Butthole Surfers) and Patrice Pike. I met so many people through open mics and caught the attention of a local musician named Ray Prim.
Ray invited me into a songwriting group and I was overwhelmed to be in the same group as fantastic musicians like Roger Blevins Jr and Jaime Harris. I submitted my first songwriting prompt and Ray ended up liking it. He told me, “let’s record this thing.” We ended up recording at his home, one of my first songs that would later be on my first EP. Ray believed I had some good songs, so he decided to record the three other songs of mine and help produce them.
On June 26, 2020 I got to release my first debut EP “Cry About It”. The EP was a hit and I had my first airplay on Lone Star State Of Mind ACL Radio. My mind was blown away hearing Loris Lowe say my name on the radio. My song “Be There Soon” was loved by Suzanna Choffel, an Austin legend/radio DJ. She played it multiple times on a radio station called Sun Radio in Austin. With the small success of my first EP, I was featured in Austin360. I keep thinking when I didn’t think I could even do music. I was surprised with myself and feeling motivated than ever.
When covid happened, I was barely getting off the ground musically and with the shutdown, I lost that burning potential. It was difficult to release a debut EP during a pandemic.
For my day job, I am a nurse assistant. I worked in Seton hospital during Covid and used to bring my physical CDs to work and leave them in the break room for purchase. It was that kind of hustle.
After the EP release, I just wanted to keep going forward with music. Covid prevented everyone to do things in music so I started to look around online to see what I could do. I found a songwriting contest to enter and if you won then you would receive a scholarship to attend the workshop. I saw that one of my favorite artists that I grew up on was the instructor! His name was Ian Moore and I submitted my essay as quick as I could to get the chance to attend the small workshop.
I submitted and won. I attended the workshop in November and met with Ian one on one. I showed him a song I had been working on and played it for him. His words, I’ll never forget, “that is a great song.” I played multiple songs during the workshop and Ian told me to contact him to work on my song, “Six Hours”. With his guidance and help of Ray Prim to produce/record it, I released my latest single “6 Hours” in March 2021.
Presently, I am now working on releasing an album, playing as many bar/restaurant gigs to fund my music. I work full-time at a dementia care facility to help me pay my rent. My momentum for music is rising and rising and I’ll never stop.
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?
No, not a smooth ride at all.
I struggle a lot with anxiety and depression so it clouds my views and my ability to keep going. My last entry has more detail.
I have always been in and out of college, never sticking to something. My family has never supported my music until now with the small successes.
So it was hard to accept if I was doing the right thing. As much as I felt in my heart that I wanted to do music, my anxiety shook me and told me to stop.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’m a singer/songwriter and I work in dementia healthcare by day. I’m proud of my EP release and my music in general. What sets me apart from others is that I create music and also take it with me to my nursing home day job. I’ll play my music anywhere and everywhere but I also use my music and singing to help people with dementia.
We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
I stopped going to college years ago to focus on music. In my heart, there was a fire burning for music. The biggest risk that I’m taking now or thinking about taking is to go part-time in my day job and tour.
Contact Info:
- Email: Ericamichellemusicatx@gmail.com
- Website: Ericamichellemusic.com
- Instagram: Instagram.com/ericamichellemusic
- Facebook: Facebook.com/ericamichellemusic
Image Credits
Jay Ybarra (PhotoJay) Catherine Elizabeth
