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Meet LaRyss (Luh-Riss)

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Today we’d like to introduce you to LaRyss (Luh-Riss).

LaRyss, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
 Well, I like to tell people that I basically came out of the womb singing and haven’t shut up since. Singing and performing has been a part of who I am for as long as I can remember. When I was two years old, I’d stand up in the cart at the grocery store and serenade people as they passed by. For my 8th birthday party, I went to the studio and me and my friends each got to record ourselves singing Avril Lavigne which we got to take home burned onto an actual CD-ROM haha. As I grew up, I continued singing and performing at church and in school through choir and musical theatre but it wasn’t until I was a senior in high school that I got in the studio and started writing and recording my own original music and started my journey as an artist. So, for seven years now I’ve been working at my craft on a professional level, while growing and evolving as a woman. I feel my personal growth can be heard and is evident just by listening to my music over the years. I am turning 26 this year and the woman I am today could NOT be more polar opposite of the girl I was at 18. I moved to Los Angeles when I was 20 to pursue music where I learned many lessons of the industry and of life itself.

Currently, I live back Home in Houston and travel back and forth to LA to work and this is definitely the way I prefer it. Family and relationships still always will be my priority in life and keep me grounded in my purpose, which is not solely to make music but to be a vessel of God’s Love to the people around me. I believe music, singing and song writing is just the talent God blessed me with to use as a tool to do this exact thing but on a larger scale. To help and love on the masses is what I’ve come to see as my sole purpose in making music and the way I can do that is by sharing my story, my trauma, my struggles and my triumphs and the things I’ve been through and the love and peace and joy I’ve found through it all by keeping my eyes UP. Today I’ve built a fanbase of about 55,000 people online and have finally honed in on my sound, what I want to represent as an Artist and who I want to be as a woman and I have so much art just waiting to be released that truly captures the essence of these things. So more than anything, I’m thankful for where I’ve been but really excited for where I am headed.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It most definitely has been the total opposite of a smooth road lol. Finding your sound as an artist and your voice as a woman is hard enough but what’s been more challenging is the trials and tribulations and growing pains of life, becoming an adult and taking the time to introspect and deal with the pain and trauma internally that most people suppress or avoid. I got to the point in my early 20’s where I feel like my whole entire past just kind of bubbled up in my face and 100% HAD to be dealt with. When I moved to LA, I got into a relationship that ended up being emotionally and mentally abusive. I could have never guessed how long it would take to heal from such a thing and how truly traumatic it would be. My whole life I had struggled on and off with depression after being abused at a really young age but it wasn’t till this damaging unhealthy relationship that I crashed deeply into dealing with depression and anxiety and panic attacks. I felt like a shell of a human for about a year and on and off during my healing process. It was during this time that I recommitted my life to Christ and started going to counseling which was the beginning of a long road to healing.

Amongst this we met people in the industry who screwed us out of a lot of money and time and we got burned over and over trying to navigate this dark business with integrity. I don’t want to get too woe is me because I am extremely blessed to have had a supportive family through all of this and to have found a relationship with my creator which is the only thing that saved me and gave me peace. Needless to say, it hasn’t been a smooth road what so ever. I’ve been disappointed many times, I’ve disappointed myself many times and I am still not where I want to be BUT, I am thankful for every single trial I have faced, the God I’ve come to know and the person God has helped me to become through suffering. These are the things that have laid the foundation for me to have a career of longevity and that have taught me the type of integrity I want to maintain in both my personal and professional life regardless of the way others go about things.

Please tell us more about you. What do you do or what do you specialize in?
 I am a Recording Artist/Singer- Songwriter. Which is just like being an entrepreneur or small business owner but the difference is that I am the product. My art is the product. This question proves how, though all industries differ, business stays the same. Label Executives and music industry professionals love to ask this question lol. To that I would say, my story is what makes me unique as an artist. What makes me ME, is the same thing that makes you YOU. What connects us all as humans is the same thing that separates us as individuals- our stories. Everybody has a story but no single story will ever be the same as another. Not a single other person on earth has my heart and not a single other person on earth has my voice and not a single other person on earth has lived my exact life, my experiences, my trauma or my triumphs. Therefor there is not a single other human on earth who can offer what I have to offer when I put pen to paper or when I step in the booth. No one else can see it the way I see it because they don’t have my eyes and nobody can say it or sing it like me because they do not have my same voice. I don’t mean that to sound pompous because that would be the same for YOU if you were an artist. We are all created in Gods image but we all live and breathe different images and walks of life. This is what gives us our power and makes us unique as individuals. My purpose and mission statement in my brand as an artist is to love and to help and to give all I have inside of me via my art. With that I also strive to be a philanthropist in my community and use my platform to bring awareness to organizations and issues that I am passionate about and those two things are MENTAL HEALTH and HUMAN TRAFFICKING. I use my music to partner with organizations doing great work for these issues. I will always be authentic and talk about things of substance.

Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
Of course, I have certain dreams and sort of “bucket list” aspirations in my career such as singing at the Houston rodeo, touring overseas etc. but my measurement of success is not in those things. I would say what characterizes success for me is the way I make people feel and the type of impact I have on the hearts I reach. If I help someone through what they’re struggling with and they feel heard and seen in a way they have never experienced, I have done my job. If my music is filled with things of substance, hope, light, love, joy and peace, I have done my job. If I am taken seriously as a person who is here to use their gifting to HELP other people and encourage them toward behaviors and perspectives that bring LIFE to their souls, I am a success. If I am successful in God’s eyes, which is usually not the same way the world measures success, I have achieved what I am on earth to do!

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