{"id":7340,"date":"2017-11-10T20:24:01","date_gmt":"2017-11-10T10:54:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ezramagazine.com\/?p=7340"},"modified":"2017-11-10T20:24:01","modified_gmt":"2017-11-10T10:54:01","slug":"sereda-featured-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ezramagazine.com\/?p=7340","title":{"rendered":"SEREDA | Featured Interview"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We absolutely love discovering new artists and talking to creators from all over the world and this week we were able to have a quick catch up with Toronto\/LA based musician Ally Sereda a.k.a \u201cSEREDA\u201d. Sereda\u2019s opera and gospel trained voice pushes the usual boundaries of pop songs. Her extensive vocal range and the moody element to her first single \u201cI Got You\u201d is expressive and downright catchy.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For Sereda, creating music is &#8220;the process of turning feelings into sounds,&#8221; which is true for her first single. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI\u2019m usually thinking about a person in my life or an event that moves me to the point that I write something down about it,\u201d she said. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cMy favourite way of writing songs is to hear the chords, and then freestyle the song down on the mic the first time.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As the creative world and event of globalisation is allowing thousands of people to share what they have created, it\u2019s especially hard to set yourself apart from anyone else. This is true for photographers, designers, musicians and painters. With YouTube dominating global searches and with streaming services like Soundcloud and Spotify, it\u2019s becoming easier than ever to discover new talent. However, it\u2019s often \u201ccrippling to get going\u201d for an artist. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cBe yourself. Be yourself. Be yourself. That\u2019s all you can really offer that no one else but you has. And don\u2019t listen to people who tell you that you need to sound like anyone else, or like what\u2019s current (especially when you\u2019re undeveloped and just getting started in the industry).\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIt\u2019s a trap. Do <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">you<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> until you\u2019re comfortable you\u2019ve developed your style to your satisfaction, then share it with the world.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/344962622&amp;color=%23ff5500&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=false&amp;show_comments=true&amp;show_user=true&amp;show_reposts=false&amp;show_teaser=true&amp;visual=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"300\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Self confidence and self belief can be two things artists have to deal with on a weekly basis. Self critiquing can be good in some ways as it allows you to improve your work, but it can often lead to feelings of disappointment and anger; especially when an artist is starting out. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201c&#8230;especially now, when most aspiring artists have more or less one choice, upload a song to Soundcloud and pray anyone will even listen to it,\u201d she said. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cBut at the same time, I do believe in myself. You just jump. I try not to worry if what I\u2019m doing is any good or not, and just do it. That might sound crazy, but what else can you do? I can\u2019t change if someone likes or hates what I\u2019m doing with my life or my music.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Another factor that threatens self-confidence and self belief is being a female artist in the music and movie industry. Both industries are rife with sexism and prejudice towards women*, sexual harassment and horrible displays of people abusing power to get what they want. I have had my share of sexual harassment as a female journalist and photographer and as a female within society in general, so I can only imagine what it would be like in industries that involve a lot of money, fame and power.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIt can be hell.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To be honest I don\u2019t know a girl who hasn\u2019t experienced (prejudice or sexism). So if you\u2019re a girl and you\u2019re thinking about getting into music, get your armour on because it\u2019s a very long, sometimes painful road and some guys react pretty badly when you say no.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cDon\u2019t let it stop you. It\u2019s hard to get respect. In many cases you won\u2019t be given the same opportunities as men, especially as a producer\/engineer, and even as a writer.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIf you encounter that, just search elsewhere for people willing to give you respect, and do good work with them. Don\u2019t waste time trying to please people or work with people who will never give you a fair chance.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_7344\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7344\" style=\"width: 1188px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-7344 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/ezramagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Screen-Shot-2017-11-10-at-8.57.43-PM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1188\" height=\"1076\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-7344\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">&#8220;To be honest I don\u2019t know a girl who hasn\u2019t experienced (prejudice or sexism).&#8221;<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As an any artist will probably tell you, there will always be\u00a0obstacles, hoops and walls in the way of achieving goals, wants and desires. It takes guts, hard work and dedication &#8211; as told by the many artists, photographers and musicians we have interviewed. For Sereda, her way of overcoming any hurdles that come her way is by knowing that she has nothing to lose.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cLife is too short, and in the grand scheme of things, obstacles will come and go. If you let them consume you, you\u2019ll be missing out on the parts of life that make it worth living.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>This idea is the same sentiment expressed by many interviewees we have featured in the past. Obstacles are there for a reason; often to challenge you and to make you a better person. You can face the challenge, accept it&#8217;s going to be hard and tackle it head on; or give up. How you overcome challenges often displays true character.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_7349\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7349\" style=\"width: 950px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-7349\" src=\"http:\/\/ezramagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Screen-Shot-2017-11-10-at-8.56.15-PM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"950\" height=\"1074\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-7349\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">&#8220;There\u2019s so much room for growth, I\u2019d like to just get better and better in general, especially at doing live shows.&#8221;<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When interviewing artists, I love hearing what that they are most proud of. It allows someone to reflect and choose a significant part of who they are that they love. As her first album comes closer to dropping, Sereda mentioned that the development of her own personal style and how that is evolving is something she\u2019s incredibly proud of. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI\u2019m also proud of how far I\u2019ve come as an engineer and producer myself. I feel empowered and confident in my creation because I took the time to learn the tools I needed to maintain control over my sound.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sereda\u2019s own sound, as heard in \u201cI Got You\u201d is a mix between pop and opera, which she\u2019s called \u201cpopra\u201d. And in regards to how music has changed over the past 10-15 years, Sereda believes that more people are going out on their own and &#8220;doing what they want&#8221;.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIt\u2019s kind of like urban pop \/ opera, and combines the two,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI\u2019m excited about it now and embracing it. There\u2019s going to be more of that style on my upcoming EP.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;I think more and more people are doing what they want, not what they\u2019re told they should do by others. That\u2019s just how I feel about the world these days. That applies to making music, too. At least that\u2019s how I feel personally. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;I just hope the internet doesn\u2019t become so controlled by algorithms that unknown artists can never break through using it. Because so far the internet has been the most important tool for me to get my own music heard. I hope going forward artists will still be able to use it effectively.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You can listen, watch and follow anything Sereda at any of her social channels below. Make sure to stay tuned for her album coming out this December. <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Seredaofficial\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/wednesdayswoe\/sereda-i-got-you\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Soundcloud<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.seredaoffical.com\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">www.seredaoffical.com<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<h6>*People of any gender can be subject to sexism, prejudice and sexual harassment in the workplace.<\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We absolutely love discovering new artists and talking to creators from all over the world and this week we were able to have a quick catch up with Toronto\/LA based musician Ally Sereda a.k.a \u201cSEREDA\u201d. Sereda\u2019s opera and gospel trained voice pushes the usual boundaries of pop songs. Her extensive vocal range and the moody element to her first single \u201cI Got You\u201d is expressive and downright catchy.\u00a0For Sereda, creating music is &#8220;the process of turning feelings into sounds,&#8221; which [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7343,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,10],"tags":[95,96,100,386,402,577,585,802,805,1005,1006,1009,1273],"class_list":["post-7340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interviews","category-musicians","tag-ally-sereda","tag-ally-sereda-interview","tag-america","tag-entertainment","tag-ezra-magazine","tag-interview","tag-interview-sereda","tag-music-2","tag-music-industry","tag-sereda","tag-sereda-interview","tag-sexism-music-industry","tag-youtube"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>SEREDA | Featured Interview - ezramagazine.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ezramagazine.com\/?p=7340\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"SEREDA | Featured Interview - ezramagazine.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We absolutely love discovering new artists and talking to creators from all over the world and this week we were able to have a quick catch up with Toronto\/LA based musician Ally Sereda a.k.a \u201cSEREDA\u201d. Sereda\u2019s opera and gospel trained voice pushes the usual boundaries of pop songs. Her extensive vocal range and the moody element to her first single \u201cI Got You\u201d is expressive and downright catchy.\u00a0For Sereda, creating music is &#8220;the process of turning feelings into sounds,&#8221; which [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ezramagazine.com\/?p=7340\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"ezramagazine.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-11-10T10:54:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"tanyshabolger\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"tanyshabolger\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ezramagazine.com\/?p=7340\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ezramagazine.com\/?p=7340\",\"name\":\"SEREDA | Featured Interview - ezramagazine.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ezramagazine.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ezramagazine.com\/?p=7340#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ezramagazine.com\/?p=7340#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-11-10T10:54:01+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ezramagazine.com\/#\/schema\/person\/ff3cfd53b6f5d80e567d3324bdeaec94\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ezramagazine.com\/?p=7340#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/ezramagazine.com\/?p=7340\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ezramagazine.com\/?p=7340#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"\",\"contentUrl\":\"\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ezramagazine.com\/?p=7340#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/ezramagazine.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"SEREDA | Featured Interview\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ezramagazine.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ezramagazine.com\/\",\"name\":\"ezramagazine.com\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/ezramagazine.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ezramagazine.com\/#\/schema\/person\/ff3cfd53b6f5d80e567d3324bdeaec94\",\"name\":\"tanyshabolger\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ezramagazine.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b8bbdd9920a04d7c67d2f1c9d1785107de1614cc7742fac5b1c7d873597f4df7?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b8bbdd9920a04d7c67d2f1c9d1785107de1614cc7742fac5b1c7d873597f4df7?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"tanyshabolger\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/ezramagazine.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/ezramagazine.com\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"SEREDA | Featured Interview - ezramagazine.com","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/ezramagazine.com\/?p=7340","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"SEREDA | Featured Interview - ezramagazine.com","og_description":"We absolutely love discovering new artists and talking to creators from all over the world and this week we were able to have a quick catch up with Toronto\/LA based musician Ally Sereda a.k.a \u201cSEREDA\u201d. 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