Less than 12 months ago, Gold Coast artist OMRA was working in a hospitality job she didn’t like and staring at dwindling Spotify algorithms for songs she’d made that had failed to gain traction. Over this New Year, she entered the world of professional performance with three sets at Queensland’s biggest festival. This is her story.
“I’ve always believed in my music, and since the age of 11 I’ve written over 100 choruses that would fill me with passion and inspiration that I one day hoped to share.
Though songwriting has always come naturally, I seemed to face the same recurring problems. One: the struggle to gain the financial support and interest I need for my creative projects, and two: my complete lack of music theory!
I’m a big believer in setting strong intentions and letting the universe take care of the when and how, but we all have to admit that social restrictions like time and money make it very difficult to stay consistently positive. What recently happened to me, I’m glad to say, has reinforced this belief tenfold, and made all my conscious manifesting and small but meaningful actions toward my goals worthwhile.
When I thought things were going in one uncertain direction, I picked up an unexpectedly delightful gig as a singing teacher! While the demands of the job had me feeling like I was thrown in the deep-end, I found myself hungry for knowledge, and able to quickly apply new information to my instincts.
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As I watched my students open up and discover their potential, my own singing began to improve. Soon, I found myself performing at work functions in front of crowds for the first time, slowly beginning to let go of my performance anxiety with an abundance of praise and encouragement I never anticipated. For the first time, someone other than my mum thought that I could actually sing!
Fast-forward a few months, my friend kindly offered to source my partner and I some tickets to Woodford Folk Festival. Ambitiously, he shared my music with the team in the process. A week later, I received a message that both terrified and excited me beyond belief:
“Got tickets. By the way, you’re performing!”
I couldn’t wait to break the news to my partner, who I knew would love to drum on stage with me. After the initial excitement, the reality sunk in: we had a strict paperwork deadline due by the end of the day, and were yet to get a band together, let alone have any idea what we were delivering!
It’s amazing what you can do when your dreams are at your fingertips. In the space of two months, I was able to source an incredible team of session musicians, write six more original songs, compose them (learning a lot from the band) and prepare for three 50-minute sets!
Through limited rehearsals, logistical challenges, and the occasional meltdown, we came across so much support from the community, and grew exponentially in our confidence and ability.
Moments before my first performance as OMRA, knowing what could go wrong, I felt completely calm. I looked up at the moon above my stage and was flooded with the same feeling I had when I finished my first song:
“This is exactly where I’m meant to be.”
To experience people dancing, enjoying my music, asking where they can find it… it’s so surreal. The ability to spread positive energy through a crowd of people and have it bounce back with enthusiasm gives me so much hope for our industry.
I know I’m still emerging with so much to learn, but I feel so blessed to have started my journey at Woodford, of all places. My biggest lesson so far: performers are vessels of the creativity that lives in all of us. Our job is to awaken it!”
Follow OMRA here, and take a listen to her tracks below:
