2023 is starting with a lot of good news regarding both my Atmospheric Gothic metal solo project In Spite of Thunder and my Gothic Doom band Spell of Enchantress.

Yet, none of today’s successes happened overnight.

I started auditioning when I was 17, both as a singer and as a keyboardist.
For about 4 years, I kept auditioning and getting rejected.
Sometimes I was told I didn’t look the part (sorry I was never a tall slim brunette), sometimes I just never heard back.
The only bands I had were the ones I would create.
And more often than not, I was the only one really interested in writing songs and playing them.

About 6 years ago I decided to improve my voice and I started speech therapy. I went on to get some vocal coaching and years of private vocal lessons. I just felt like being a singer was missing from my life. After all, as a kid my big dream was to become an opera singer and I spent 12 years at music school working hard on my music skills.

I started auditioning again but honestly didn’t have much of a portfolio to share. So I started building one.

Meanwhile in 2018 I started In Spite of Thunder.

Fast forward 2023, I now manage my 2 music projects, work on collabs, write for other artists… and feel incredibly grateful people contact me to work with me.

It would be easy to let impostor syndrome take over. But I worked hard for this. None of this happened overnight. I listened to criticism and did what I had to do to improve myself as a musician, composer, singer… but also as a business woman.

Success means something different for each and everyone of us.

For me, I always said I’d be successful if my music made someone’s day better, somewhere, somehow.

Receiving messages from fans all over the world telling me what my music means to them is so heartwarming. I made it. I made complete strangers’ life a tad bit easier with my music.

So it was all worth it. The horrible comments, the rejections, the humiliations, the physical pain, the financial risk…

Now my songs are out there, and they are part of your life.

This gives me the necessary strength to continue my music journey in 2023!

What about you, how do you define success? What are your dreams, your goals?

Take care,

Cathy