Today we’d like to introduce you to Ava Bryant.
Hi Ava, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I grew up knowing I was meant to pursue music. I started playing guitar when I was seven years old, and I began writing my own music at ten years old. Throughout my preteen years, I became a regular at local open mic nights, where I would test out my new songs in front of a friendly audience. These performances were crucial to my development as a writer and a performer. At 13, I wrote the song that would be my debut single and manifest my dreams of being a professional artist into something tangible: “Always You”. The song is an ode to the innocence and sense of immortality of young love, and it seemed to resonate with everyone I played it for. I knew I had to do something bigger with it. My freshman year of high school, my family and I took a leap of faith and decided to have the song professionally produced in Los Angeles. I released it in June of 2018, and it has been the gift that has kept on giving.
Since then, it has amassed over 2 million streams on Spotify alone, and – most recently – it was featured on a new MTV series this past May. After graduating high school in 2021, I moved from Spring, TX, to New York City to start my bachelor’s degree in acting for film, television, and theatre. I am thriving in the artistic community of the city, and I am constantly writing and producing new music. I have released three other stand-alone singles in the years following “Always You”, a two-track single of Kate Bush covers (“Running Up That Hill” and “This Woman’s Work”), and the first single off of my debut EP. The EP is titled “My Life So Far”, and it is a chronicle of the lessons I have learned while trying to get to know myself as a person and as an artist. It will be out this Fall, and the second single from the project, “it’s so fun!”, will be out on August 19th.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The road to where I am today, as is any journey worth taking, has not been a smooth one. There have been some amazing wins, many losses, and a plethora of valuable lessons learned, the most notable of which being the necessity of confidence and determination. In any field, but especially one as public and vulnerable as performance, it is vital to have a thick skin. People have opinions, and negative opinions about you or your work are inevitable. I have had people look down on me because of my age and my choice of profession. When you take a non-traditional career path like I have, people often expect you to have a backup plan and are judgmental when you do not. In my case, there is not – and never has been – a backup plan. The way I look at it, this is the only option I need. If you leave yourself the safety net of a backup plan, it is easy to rely on this second choice out of fear or insecurity. It is so important to spend time becoming secure and confident in yourself and your choices because only then can you take action and start the voyage to reaching your goals. It took time for me to get there, but ever since I have, there’s been no turning back.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I like to think that I am a storyteller first and foremost. I think it is so important for people to see themselves and their stories represented in media, whether that be through a character in their favorite television show or through song lyrics that speak to them, and I strive to be a mirror in which people can see their experiences reflected back at them. Although my songs are personal to me and the things I’ve learned or lived, I have come to find as a writer that people have a lot more in common than we tend to expect, and you can find a piece of yourself in the most unlikely of places. That is one of the things I love about writing music: music, and art as a whole, is so subjective. Where someone sees loss, another sees new opportunity, and pieces of art can be interpreted in so many different ways. I hope to be a source of comfort for people who listen to my music. I put my whole heart into everything I write, whether it is a wistful ballad or a fun, summer, play-with-the-windows-down anthem, so I love to think that people can listen to my songs and feel safe knowing that someone out there is feeling the same things as them. When I am not writing, I can be found performing. While I am home in Spring for Summer and holiday breaks, I play regularly at a multitude of venues across the greater Houston area, all of which can be found on my website.
Networking and finding a mentor can have such a positive impact on one’s life and career. Any advice?
My best advice for networking is really quite simple: just go for it! Although it can feel intimidating to approach someone in your field who you admire or hope to learn from, you will miss out on a possible connection if you don’t at least try. Most of the connections I have made have been the result of me putting myself out there and just asking for guidance, and I have never regretted it.
Contact Info:
- Website: avabryantmusic.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/avabryantmusic
- Facebook: Facebook.com/avabryantmusic
- Twitter: twitter.com/avabryantmusic
- Youtube: YouTube.com/avabryantmusic
Image Credits
Angi Lewis Chelsa Floyd
