Please introduce yourself. What do you do? Why? What do you want people to know about you?
I am an international award winning singer, songwriter, exhibited visual artist and a full time performer. As a multi genre artist who has collaborated with songwriters and producers across the pond, I don’t believe in ‘picking a lane’ and instead consistently seek to deliver a different side of me as an artist with each project I create.
What qualities make you different and unique from everyone else in the industry?What qualities make you different and unique from everyone else in the industry?
I am unapologetically me in everything I do. In my entire career as a live circuit performer and an artist, I have found that being true to myself and my influences is what makes me the artist I am. What is uniquely ‘ME’? Who I am is very simply heard in my music. Seen in my art. Dark, disturbing, painful, playful, thoughful, moody, brooding, I’ve been described as many things with my art and music but never boring.
Describe THAT moment when you realized you’re doing what you were born to do.
I spent a better part of my youth distancing myself from art, music and anything that appealed to my creative side. For me growing up dirt poor and having a father who was entirely dependent on his art to put food on the table was and still is a painful memory. Imagine not knowing if the roof you slept under would still be there when it came time to pay the rent. I always saw pain and worry in my mother’s eyes. I associated that worry with the knowledge that art didn’t pay the rent.
So I avoided art and music for years until I met my partner(who plays the guitar) and took to the stage. Since music has been a part of me all my life, I felt right at home on stage BUT it was the happiness and feeling of belonging that made me realise that I had come home.
Some people spent their entire lives never discovering this. The feeling of belonging and knowing your place in the universe.
It was the day I met my life partner to be.
What’s been the biggest challenge you’ve had to go through and how did you grow through it?
The biggest challenge would be overcoming my own insecurities as a songwriter and visual artist. Since I have been surrounded by many musicians in my growing years and often found myself in the company of visual artists, I often found my art or songwriting wanting. It is a very painful process and made all the more harder when you put yourself out there to be judged. Everyone has scars. Mine seemed glaringly obvious and I wanted so much to hide them. But at the same time I wanted to release myself from all the pain that was buried too deep.
I passed that hurdle but I still write about the pain I see in me or around us.
Who are the TOP 3 people you’d want to meet that could elevate your career or business? Â Why these specific individuals?
SLASH
WARREN HAYNES
STEVE TYLER
Meeting them would be great.
Drop your social media links.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/zacklyia
Twitter: https://twitter.com/LyiaNMeta
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lyiameta/
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/lyia-meta-27069a210
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/lyiameta