Lily Massie is a singer known for her songs: Harmless, Eyes, Reflection, and Twenty Four Seven. In 2019, Lily's music had 57.5 streams in 77 different countries which is very impressive for her first EP. She shared her excitement and appreciation in the caption of her post saying that it's crazy to her to think that "10,000 people care about my life and 57,000 people care about my music." If you're looking to become an artist, what does it take?
What are the pros and cons? and is there any advice that can help you? In this article, Lily shares the answer to these questions and more about herself.
When asked what inspired her to start a career as an artist, Lily answered that when she was younger she looked up to a lot of artists. She says, "I just wanted to be like them." She mentions that when she was asked what she wanted to be as a kid, she answered a drummer which later turned to an actor and then a rapper. Lily always knew that she wanted to be involved with music. "I remember that in first grade, everybody wanted to be a firefighter and I wanted to be a drummer," Lily shares. "My whole life I've always wanted to do music. I always knew that was going to be my career."
It's inspiring to hear stories about people that actually achieve their dreams. Lily knew that she wanted to be an artist from a young age, so she went for it. But as it is with all dreams and careers, there are good things and the inevitable bad.
Lily shares what the hardest thing about being an artist is. "The hardest part about being an artist is probably the uncertainty of being an artist," she says. "There are so many artists that you can easily get lost in the wave. Being in the spotlight, in general, is just hard." Many influencers have stated before that it's grueling to always have to be "on" and Lily agrees. She says, "Having everybody always look at you and having to be on point all the time is definitely hard."
Of course, being an artist also reaps in many benefits. Lily shares that for her, the best thing about being an artist is inspiring people. She says, "When I was little, Ariana Grande was like somebody that was always there for me even though she wasn't.
She's obviously famous, but I want to be that person for my listeners and my followers." It's true what they say, music can speak to your soul and comforts us even when others can't. Lily shares that in her experience she gets a lot of messages of how her music has inspired her listeners on such personal levels. "People look up to me. That's definitely the best thing," she said.
As more and more people look up to Lily, she can accomplish more with her audience. She hopes to continue inspiring people and helping them, but aside from that, she aspires to perform at Coachella and to go on tour. She says, "there are a lot of things that I haven't done so I'm excited." At the top of her list is to go on tour and to perform at festivals. She also hopes to drop a whole album soon.
Lily humbly shares that she isn't proud of one song more than she is another. She says, "They all took a long time to make and it took different steps to get there." If she had to pick one though, she shared that she'd pick Cry Anymore. "It's a really personal song for me. It was a song that I really wanted to write for a while, but I couldn't figure out how to put it into words.
Once I figured out how I was feeling, it was really easy for me. I wrote the song in ten minutes and I didn't edit it or change any lyrics from the moment I wrote it." She also shares that being personal and vulnerable to the public is hard so she's definitely proud that she was able to do that with this song.
Lily Massie hopes that her listeners take with them a feeling of love and acceptance of themselves and others. "I just want them to learn how to love. If life was more focused around love and acceptance then life would be so much better," she says. It's true that nowadays it's hard to find love or acceptance because there is just an abundance of hate and negativity. Lily shares that even though her songs can be about heartbreak or have a really sad tone, "there's always a positive outcome."
What advice can we get if we want to be an artist, but we're too afraid? "If you want something," Lily says, "go get it." When she first started as an artist, she shares that she was so nervous about everything. She didn't want to be the center of attention, so she wouldn't raise her hand in class or she wouldn't get up to go to the bathroom. Soon after she realized that the only way to be an artist was to be in the spotlight. After that, she got over her fear of judgment and being in the spotlight, because she was truly passionate about becoming an artist. "If I wouldn't [have become an artist], I definitely wouldn't be truly happy."
"There are people that aren't passionate about anything. If you're blessed enough to have a passion, you should take advantage of that and try to conquer your fears."
- Lily Massie
Apart from being a talented artist, Lily is also a person just like everyone else. we decided to ask her if she had any hidden talents besides singing and she answered that she could play the drums, but then reconsidered this because she plays the drums often. "I think that my hidden talent is that I can memorize songs in like a minute." That is a truly impressive talent considering most of us still mix up the words to our own favorite songs.
Lily released a song called Thought it Was Harmless and we wanted to know what her inspiration was. "All my songs are about personal things," she says and this song is no different. Lily shares that she wrote this song about all her relationships in general and how they made her feel at the end. It's also about "when you go into a relationship whether it be a friendship or a love relationship, you think it's going to be easy, but sometimes you get hurt in the end."
She also shared the emotional story behind this song. when she was writing this song, she was falling out of love with someone that she wasn't dating. 'We saw each other a lot and we were really close, but it wasn't going to work out. We were just both going to get really hurt in the end. We just weren't meant to be. It was just going to ruin a lot of things in our life so we both came to the conclusion that we shouldn't be together." She also mentions how going into relationships, everyone thinks it's going to easy, but it's not.
Lily also shared from where she gets her inspiration. She says, "I draw inspiration from my personal experiences, but also from the experiences of the people that are in my life. Like many artists, Lily writes her truth. She's written songs about gun violence and political things that although she hasn't experienced firsthand, affect her anyway. She says, "I write these songs from my own heart no matter what."
Lastly, we asked Lily about her song Ghost which she released on October 10th. Although it was dropped in the month of Halloween that's not what it's about. Lily explains that instead, it's about the year of 2019.
She explains, "It wasn't a good year for my mental health. I wanted to talk about how when I was depressed, I was supposed to be on medication, but I really didn't want to be." Lily believes that we shouldn't try to suppress our feelings even if they're feelings of pain or hurt. "I think we should feel. I didn't want to be a ghost." She also explains that she believes that everything happens for a reason. She needed to go through the tough times to learn. "I needed to go through that to learn to be a more empathetic person and to realize that life is so precious. It's important to feel."
You can find Lily on Instagram @lilymassie
