Meet Lia Woods | Musician
We had the good fortune of connecting with Lia Woods and we’ve shared our conversation below.
Hi Lia, is there a quote or affirmation that’s meaningful to you?
One of my favorite quotes at the moment is from The Artists Way by Julia Cameron. She says, “Very often audacity, not talent, makes one person an artist and another a shadow artist.” To me, this is a freeing truism. So often, “audacity” is used in negative connotation or judgemental context. My worst internal critic says, “What gives you the audacity to make art? What if you’re not good enough to do it?” I, and many artists, twist ourselves up worrying about whether we’re good enough to put ourselves out there. “Good enough” is an ever-moving yardstick that I’ve only ever used to avoid being vulnerable in my creativity. Cameron’s wisdom releases me from fretting too much about all that, and gives me the freedom to believe that I can do things I might not be “good enough” to do. She reclaims “audacity” as a positive and empowering attribute, giving me the power to say back to my internal critic, “I DO have the audacity. And thank god for it.”
Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I’ve been writing songs alone in my bedroom for years, and it’s only in the past year that I’ve actually begun releasing them. I’m also an actor, and for awhile I focused on that professionally. I went to school for theater, and auditioned professionally for a few years, feeling unsatisfied and creatively unfulfilled. I had always been a singer and loved to write, but those things took a back seat as I tried to gun for an acting career. When the SAG strike happened, I thought; this might be the perfect time to put more real effort in something that I was too afraid to do for so long. Right now, I’m proud of having released my first project and overcome my internal critic. I’m so excited to see what the future holds for me, as I feel I’ve just begun.
Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I’ll condense the trip down in to one (impossibly long and ridiculously tiring) day! I would start off my bringing them to breakfast at Millie’s Cafe, because it’s a classic. This day ideally would be a Tuesday or Saturday, because we’d then walk over to the Silver Lake Farmers Market and shop around a bit. I’d then take them to a few different flea markets in the area, landing in Echo Park and heading over to the Lonely Oyster for lunch and a few drinks. After, we could take a walk around Echo Park Lake, and also drive to Griffith Park for a nice hike (read: impossibly long and tiring). I’d take them to dinner at a taco stand, see a movie at the Los Feliz 3, and drive to the observatory to watch the stars at night.
Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
There are so many people I want to shout out, it’s difficult to choose! I’ll give a shout out to The Artist’s Way, which really helped me open up to the positive possibilities in my life and feel confident enough to pursue what I wanted. I’ll also shout out my vocal coach, Lyndia Johnson, for giving me a kick in the pants when I needed it, and True Murra (and Hope Simpson) for believing in me when all I had were crappy voice memos.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/liawooods/
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