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Becca Stevens – Music, Identity, and Composing Your Truth
282 Plays21 hours ago
In this deeply personal and wide-ranging conversation, Laura sits down with Grammy-nominated songwriter Becca Stevens to explore the living edge between creativity and spirituality. What unfolds is more than an interview—it’s a meditation on trust, intuition, and what happens when we let go of control.
From a serendipitous Instagram message to an unforgettable backstage meditation on 11/11, Laura and Becca reflect on the invisible threads that guide us when we’re willing to listen. They examine the dance between the muse and the critical mind, the fear of “getting it wrong,” and the discipline required to serve something larger than the ego.
If you’ve ever felt stuck in your creative process—or wondered how to align authenticity with success—this episode offers a grounded, honest look at what it means to trust the flow. Creativity is not forced. It’s received. And when we learn to quiet the mind, something far greater can move through us.
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Transcript
Introduction and Guest Welcome
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey, you, you.
00:00:26
Speaker
Welcome to this week's episode of The Art of Authenticity. I am here with Becca Stevens.
Becca Stevens' Musical Journey
00:00:33
Speaker
She is a Grammy-nominated songwriter, a multi-instrumentalist, and a producer um who came into my life ah in the funniest and oddest of ways. And we're going to share that story. We're going to talk about her ah story and journey into music, um all that it's meant to her, how music and creativity might align to some of the things that I'm thinking about. But um I'm very grateful to have you here. Thank you so much for joining.
00:01:06
Speaker
It's a pleasure and an honor to be here. I'm so excited to talk with you and share it with whoever crosses our paths. Thank you, thank you, thank you. And I'm just going to butt you out right out of the gate. um Super humble, such a sweet person. I've had the honor of getting to know just over the last few weeks. But I mean, a Grammy nominated artist, this is not somebody new to the
Success, Skills, and Authenticity
00:01:32
Speaker
craft. And so um I just want to share with the audience that, you know,
00:01:38
Speaker
success is something that doesn't necessarily define our um ah skills and abilities and how we show up in the world but um you're definitely coming from a place where you've taken creativity and worked at it as something that is um but deep and you know massive part of your life so i'm grateful for you to share with the audience some of the things you've learned and and your journey um So this audience specifically is very interested in how we blend our passion, our authentic self with an ability to be successful at the same time. And I think with the arts that can be really challenging. So again, thank you very much for for coming on and and sharing.
00:02:23
Speaker
Yes, that that um rings all my bells. Um, I, I, the first thing that came to mind when you're talking about the marriage between authenticity and, and success is, um,
00:02:39
Speaker
is the Buddhist quote about loving the process. Like, um, the, uh, if you enjoy what you do, then you are truly successful.
00:02:52
Speaker
Um, and my relationship to that is also relishing in the slowness of, of the process of being an artist that's um coming from authenticity and constantly redefining and falling off, the or maybe I should say like throwing people off the horse, because when someone, when an artist is being authentic, then chances are you've never seen what they're doing before because there has never been of them before. And so you're asking your audience to constantly have to like redefine their idea of what art is in order to metabolize what you're creating. And sometimes it takes beyond that artist's lifetime to be successful.
00:03:43
Speaker
Yeah. Do you know what i mean? Like it's only in their dying that people are like, oh, I missed that weird thing that they were doing. Or it dies with them. and And I think this is again another interesting way in which philosophy and spirituality overlaps, right? So much of this work, people die with their thoughts and um perspectives not being shared and some do and it's a little bit of a, who knows, give it up to to the
Musical Upbringing and Family Band
00:04:08
Speaker
universe. Before we get into all that though, I want to just to take the listeners. Let's go. Just back for a heartbeat um and hear, you know, have you always been in the arts? Have you known since you were little, you know, that this was a calling, a passion? um i think you mentioned you started young with your mom. um What got you to this place that it's a full-on career at this point? um when what
00:04:34
Speaker
What age did that begin? And were there any times when you when you quit and we're like, I'm not doing this. I've got to get a different job or quote a real job, right? I think artists struggle with that part of like um how to pay the bills and and find that way of of making it sustainable.
00:04:52
Speaker
oh This is ah a long story and ah and a short one. um And the long and short of it is ah as born into a very musical family, we were already a band before I was born.
00:05:06
Speaker
So before I could walk or talk, I was in a bassinet on the stage while they were performing my dad's songs to children. And then I grew up in that environment. We were performing at schools and summer festivals and um sometimes...
00:05:25
Speaker
ah where often it would be like the first act was a musical that my dad had written for us to perform. And then the second half was our Toon Mammals was the name of the band. You can look it up. It's on Spotify and all your streaming platforms.
00:05:40
Speaker
um So Toon Mammals, we performed like witty, humorous children's songs, you know, mostly on the East Coast a little bit.
00:05:52
Speaker
ah around the country. And um you know, that's awesome. A lot of really long, I was looking to see if I have a picture within reaching distance of the two mammals. There's something close by, but I think it's around this corner.
00:06:06
Speaker
um But yeah, a lot of really long van rides. um And we even made a movie when I was five or six years old that was like a feature length film called Boyd's Shadow that won the Parents' Choice Award. I mean, I was just like very i I was very it's surrounded in in a very rich musical environment from a young age.
00:06:29
Speaker
I had no idea what direction I wanted to take all of that until I was 16. And before that, I was like, is it theater that I like the most? Is it dance? Is it... um At one point, I was sure I wanted to work at the zoo just so I could hang out with monkeys the time.
00:06:48
Speaker
um And then at 16, I started to study randomly classical
Education and Musical Growth
00:06:57
Speaker
guitar. I say randomly because I was scrambling to find um a major that... to that Let me be clear. um North Carolina School the Arts I knew was the school that I wanted to go to and ah getting a classical guitar major was just like kind of the only choice at that time. And um through studying the classical guitar, I had this awakening of like, Oh, music is more than enough.
00:07:25
Speaker
It doesn't have to be all this like myriad of other things that I'm interested in all piled on top of each other. Music is ah is an entire world on its own. And also I love to make my own music.
00:07:37
Speaker
So I studied classical guitar for two years, took a year off to sing in a band with my brother and um and teach at a daycare, and then moved to New York where I studied um voice and composition at the new school for jazz studies here in New York. I'm saying here, even though now I'm in New Jersey, living in Princeton.
00:08:02
Speaker
but um But I was there for 20 years, um state stuck around, started a band coming out of college called the Becca Stevens Band, and then um have also been a very avid collaborator, both singing with people and writing for people, et etc.,
00:08:21
Speaker
Beautiful. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for that. And i mean, I've interviewed so many people on this podcast and I've asked them about this question of having an authentic career. And I have to say you're one of like less than five that knew young at that level that this is what they wanted. So many people, you know, get down that success trajectory, realize, you know, at least five, 10 years in, in a micro midlife crisis or a massive like midlife crisis it later, Like, oh, my God, my life isn't what I want. So that's really beautiful. and i And I love it. And I think upbringing has been the consistent theme where there's parents who are open to them exploring their gifts rather than dictating sort of a ah
Spiritual Connections and Serendipity
00:09:02
Speaker
path. um
00:09:04
Speaker
So I guess ah um I love the long and the short. It's it's very beautiful. and And I appreciate you sharing that. I'd love to jump into this conversation of how we met. yes And I'll share a little from my perspective and then I'll let you jump in with yours. um But I have to say that, like the serendipitous quality of my life goes up exponentially. The more I've been Focused on spirituality, on the ideas of spirituality, I think I've just started paying more attention or perhaps it just increases. I'm not sure, right? That feeling like, oh my God, I was just thinking of you. And then a friend called, oh my God, I liked it. Oh my God. And you know that feeling that I used to dismiss and say, whatever, it doesn't mean anything.
00:09:50
Speaker
Maybe I'm taking it more seriously. Maybe it increases. I can't tell you, but- I can say this, I never go in my Instagram direct messages. I don't really consume very much social media.
00:10:03
Speaker
And I guess there's this area for requests. And I guess within there, there's like some ah people who reach out and um you had sent a request with ah this really loving, beautiful note.
00:10:15
Speaker
And i don't know what inspired me to check that day. But something within me, and I think it's that my sensitivity to being aware arising feelings of curiosity and like knowings has gone up because you get out of the mind and you find there's this entire world of self that lives in the heart around you, whatever. So I don't know, it was this like, gotta check um my my direct message, Instagram. And I go in and there's this beautiful note. And I was like, wow, this is so sweet. And I felt compelled to answer right away, which again, not really like me.
00:10:59
Speaker
So um we ended up in this lovely exchange and only to find out that you're going to be in Chicago two days later, 20 minutes from my house.
00:11:12
Speaker
Again, the odds of that are infinitesimally small. um And so I went and we met each other. And um I know there's more to the story, but I'll just say that from there,
00:11:25
Speaker
This really beautiful conversation started around your connection to the work I'm doing and potential ways that we could talk and collaborate and what it meant. And i don't know, just spontaneously evolved from there. But um do you want to share your version Yeah, totally. little lee and ah And to just add that I had not played at the space in Evanston for six years or something like that. So yeah, the the infinitesimally small chance that I would have been there again two days after you checked was, it's not even just like a yearly thing. It was like, I hadn't been there for a really long time. um and
00:12:05
Speaker
And also... You know, when you get an instinct to do something and you put it off for a few months and then you finally just pull the trigger and do it. That was what I felt like in sending that message to you, too. So it was the perfect timing on my end as well, I guess. um And leading up to it, I had been...
00:12:28
Speaker
oh I'll give a little bit of backstory to your audience that um being on the road can be ah horribly um like isolating and untethered and untethered feeling. Yeah.
00:12:43
Speaker
I have two little babies, a one and a half year old and a three and a half year old. And it's always been hard to be out on the road, especially solo. But now being away from a family, it's just like I'm craving the intake of some something to ground me. And so I'm often on podcasts trying to find something and not even knowing really what I'm looking for.
00:13:06
Speaker
Um, and I had this switch go off when I stumbled upon you on someone else's podcast, you were talking and i was like, here we go. This is what I need to be listening to while I'm traveling before a show, after a show, falling asleep first thing in the morning. Like this is like, this is grounding me.
00:13:27
Speaker
And, um, and the, the host of that podcast read your key. allowed or asked you to read your key.
00:13:38
Speaker
You read your key in that podcast and I jotted it down. This was your key to open the Akashic Records. yeah And this was very new to me. i had spoken to one other friend who said she, um writes music from the records and I was like oh that's interesting that sounds like a really cool um way to get out of your own way you know to just like be a vessel or ah an instrument for something that's greater than you which is what I'm trying to do anyway so that was really interesting to me and so you shared this key and I immediately wrote it down on a sheet of paper stuck it in my pocket read it
00:14:16
Speaker
Every free second I had, i was just looking down at this and trying to memorize it. And as as a songwriter, the natural next step for me was to hear a melody in my head to go along with it.
00:14:29
Speaker
And the melody poured out really effortless effortlessly. But in the back of my head, my critical mind, which... if we Maybe we'll get into this in this in this it's conversation, but in the songwriting process, there's this dance that happens between the muse, which is like you know energy pouring through, and then the critical mind, which is like, no, no, no, no no no and shutting it down.
00:14:54
Speaker
um Monk's mind, whatever you want to call it. i Sure, yeah. And so the critical mind was saying, Laura didn't say you could do it this way, you know, or like, you're you're not supposed to put a melody. This is against the rules. and And so in that moment, I was like, well, maybe I'll write her one day and I'll look through her website or through Instagram or something and I'll like write her one day and ask her what she thinks about this.
00:15:19
Speaker
And um that I didn't get around to doing that for two months. And you, I couldn't believe that you wrote back. And then I extra, extra couldn't believe that you were like, I'm curious to hear the melody. i was like, what?
00:15:36
Speaker
So I left it for you yeah and the DMs. And then that kind of like opened up more conversation that you were alluding to. It was just, yeah, it was it was like, I couldn't believe that it was happening and that you were there. Then two days later at the show, it blew my mind.
00:15:52
Speaker
Right. I mean, it's stuff like this that, again, I used to just um kind of move past and say, like, oh, my God, that's so crazy. And then not care. Right. Yeah. I see it as the guideposts of my life um that it's a yes. Like, OK, there's something here. I got myself into tons of trouble because I started to say, yes, and it must mean something back to the mind, right? Like the mind hooks onto it and says, oh, then this is going to be this or that. And you try to put context in when it hasn't played out yet. um So i do find that navigation between the muse that you're talking about being the vessel and allowing the muse to come through and the monkey mind... plays out in the spiritual world, at the philosophical world all the time, right, as well. It's it's um what I teach with the Akashic Records. How do we like lessen the grip of the mind so we can allow the information to flow through? What I taught with authenticity, how do you get to your truth? How do you know what's true in your body?
00:16:51
Speaker
You have to release the mind a little bit, right? ah meditation, there's so many practices that that require it. um And then, you know, omens happened and serendipitous things happened. And then it's like, here we are again, putting the mind back on it and trying to put a container as to what it should be or how it's going to play out. And of course, we don't know, right? So um I love that we lovingly just kind of flowed with it. That was what was really alive for me was kind of these micro yeses. It just kept sort of unfolding into um these beautiful next things. um
00:17:31
Speaker
So thank you for sharing that. And um putting music to the key, I just want to make sure the listeners understood, um you know, there's this set of sentences that opens up the Akashic record, and she had um written it down in to keep it in your mind so you could use it without having to pull it up. You created a bit of a melody so it's easier to keep in your mind. And so, of course, I wanted to hear that. And I love that you're like, oh, my God, maybe this is against the rules.
Spirituality and Performances
00:17:58
Speaker
you know So it's super cute.
00:18:02
Speaker
And i out and the I think the funniest part was that in that podcast you didn't mention the closing like how to close the records sentence like that we had in the that's in the document that you get when you download it off your website but i was on the road and everything just happened in that order so i was i had ah between when I first listened to that podcast and when I met you in Evanston months later, I had left it flapping open for that entire time. It was just open.
00:18:34
Speaker
I love it. I love it. And you're still alive and and nothing happened. You didn't break. And I still barely ever close it.
00:18:44
Speaker
so So I came to Evanston um and you graciously asked me to come backstage. And if it's okay, I'd love to share. Absolutely. Yeah. um I mean, I thought that was just such a fun idea to come backstage and say hi a performing artist and, you know, fun. Well, it was selfish because I don't like to go. out before I perform there's like so many different energies and sometimes I'll see people that I didn't know were there or um I just get like really sucked in and I like to stay super focused and insular but I knew from listening to hours of your um voice on line that your energy would feel very welcome so i was like obviously come back
00:19:29
Speaker
yes So sweet. And so um so I did. And i the thing I wanted to share with the audience that was sort of part two, and I just want to bring invite everybody into this conversation of how, I don't know, when you don't try, what actually magically happens and how much of life can happen without needing to put that effort in, in a sense, if you're just like willing to like let go of the little egoic moments over and over and over. So I came and um came backstage and you said, do you know, do you have a meditation that you think would be helpful before i go on? And I remember just this feeling of yes, like instant clarity.
00:20:13
Speaker
It's not like really like me. I didn't have to like pause. I didn't have to reflect. I didn't have to like think through all the meditations. I have so many of them. I just said, yep, this is the one. And i I remember this calm in my body. It was like um an absolute stillness.
00:20:26
Speaker
I guess I could equate it to a moment of awe. When you see a beautiful sunrise and you just pause, you have to like take it in. you know And and and you you seem to quiet everything to allow for that. Or um I don't know, going out to the beach and just letting the air blow on you and that feeling of ease that happens. But there was something where everything in me just went completely still. And I thought, yep, I do. And I didn't even know what I meant.
00:20:54
Speaker
And I started to talk and you closed your eyes and the words were just flowing without me seemingly thinking about it And I saw little tears coming down your face. And afterwards, you said, that's the meditation that my mother used to use when we were on tour.
00:21:15
Speaker
And I thought, what the hell? Like, what the hell, you know, i mean, and i I don't know what to make of the moment. And I mean, obviously, as the ego comes back online, I could say, Oh, well, maybe it was this. And maybe, you know, that or, or, wow, crazy again. But forgetting all that,
00:21:33
Speaker
I just want to honor the beauty of that moment and how special that is that when I release the need to control situations, how much more is available to flow through us as those instruments that are receiving when the mind is a little quieter.
00:21:55
Speaker
I'm glad you brought up this part of the story because it really was the icing and the cherry. um So there's there's so many little pieces around this. um I don't think I told you till the next day because it was just like too much in that moment. I was like, I bowed.
00:22:14
Speaker
to go on stage to sing and I just like oh my god and um the first piece is that this was at the very end of a season of touring a record where all of the songs were written through the process of me grieving her loss and we had a very um complex relationship as everyone does with their mother with their parents and um And the last time that I was with her for an extended period of time was um when I was 10 years old, 10, 11 years old, and we were on tour um performing The Secret Garden.
00:22:58
Speaker
was an off-Broadway national tour, and we did this for a year. It rehearsed for three months in Chicago. and um And her two best friends from that production were in the audience that night in Evanston. And I've only seen them twice since this whole thing happened. So it was like, they know me as like a 10-year-old kid and they were there that night.
00:23:23
Speaker
and um And this meditation that you channeled, if i'm if I can say that, was It was exactly the meditation that was our ritual before we went on stage every night in order to like, because I'd be all excited and nervous. And then we'd bring the energy down through my feet and only let positive energy in. And there's the, you know, bubble of light or whatever. Um, maybe, maybe people want to know you can put it in the, in the, in the notes of your podcast. Um, and also, um, she used to call me at 11, 11 every Sunday because her father had a stroke when I, around that same time, when I was around 11 or 12 years old, he had a stroke and lost his ability to tell
00:24:15
Speaker
a lot of things, including time. And he retrained that part of his brain by every time it was 1111 on the clock, he asked the nurses to come in and tell him so he could like relearn numbers starting with one.
00:24:28
Speaker
um And the day of that show was 1111. Right. i There were so many things like that. I just got goosebumps. Yeah, I forgot that part. Yeah. So it really felt like I would be crazy not to think that. Oh, and also I smelled her perfume when we started.
00:24:46
Speaker
I don't know what that was about. I don't know. And that kind of stuff never happens to me. Yeah. that so That's sensory. I'm more i'm more um emo when it comes to intuition, like music and emotion. But sensory, like smelling something, that has never that kind of thing never happens to me.
00:25:09
Speaker
Yeah. So we'll leave it there for the audience. Right. Like take just take it in, guys, like the the the the beauty of that. Right. So so here we are sitting with all of these things happening.
00:25:21
Speaker
I've ah only been in contact with you for a matter of a couple days. And so again, My philosophy, people ask me all the time, how do I live an authentic
Living Authentically and Creativity
00:25:31
Speaker
life, Laura? What does it look like? da-da-dadada And I just want to share this story because I think it's an example of that process, right? Of just saying yes repeatedly, consistently, and letting it play out the way it needs to, in a sense. And um I think we both kept showing up and that's why it worked. Obviously, if one of the two doesn't, it it won't. and I guess that's free will. In a different way. Yeah. Something else will happen. Yeah. um so um So all of that's happening in a couple days. And we then start sending these text messages back and forth. um In part, you were curious about the records and had some questions about how to continuously get the information, bring it down, use it potentially for for music. And
00:26:18
Speaker
and I offered to give you a reading, which doesn't seem as important to share from my perspective, but this question of
00:26:30
Speaker
creativity and spirituality and this line, in my opinion, was what started to intrigue me as we were going further and further into this conversation, which ultimately led to you so graciously and lovingly offering to create music for this relaunch of The Art of Authenticity, which guys, if you're wondering what that lovely music is at the beginning of the outro, it's her and it's just stunning. And and we'll talk about that.
00:26:59
Speaker
but And Becca, I'd love to hear your thoughts on as a lifelong creative, as somebody who wakes up every day and your job is to allow this creative aspect of your life to um make it into the world in various ways. And as you said, there's the monkey mind, there's anxieties, there's all these different things. We are human.
00:27:23
Speaker
um I want to talk about it from the spiritual perspective, but maybe you could begin with when you said um you're a vessel and allowing this to come through, what does that mean to you outside of spirituality as a musician? People are always thinking about authenticity, allowing the truth, the authentic self to come forward. In this case, bringing the authentic with the music within you. What does your process look like? How do you do that on a regular basis?
00:27:54
Speaker
What are the struggles that get in the way of that? Yes. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. What a great and massive question. I do this to people. We can start with. No, it's a good. It's really good. It's my favorite place to be.
00:28:09
Speaker
um I will start with a quote from David Crosby, um who wrote, was a dear friend of mine. i could call him family. We were in his lighthouse like light house band together. And he um is at the very top of my list of of folks that I've written the most with.
00:28:32
Speaker
um He always used to say, and like one of his introductions to to one of the songs that we wrote together is that um the muse is always there. And you can sort of, you can swap out the word muse with inspiration inspiration.
00:28:55
Speaker
connectedness if you're thinking about um meditation like that sort of buzzing kind of being in the flow right so that's that's like this the goddess the muse of that of inspiration and creativity she's always there she never leaves she's She's there, she's she's space, she's light, she doesn't go anywhere.
00:29:18
Speaker
We think sometimes as artists, mistakenly, that you know songs only come to me when i'm when I have a broken heart or when I'm um down and out. And then during the happier parts of my life, I don't think to write a song or, or oh, I'm having a i'm having a five years long writer's block or something.
00:29:41
Speaker
that is not her fault. The muse is always there. It's our job to remember to stop and open the door and let in whatever she's trying to tell you.
00:29:55
Speaker
um And so and another thing that um he always said, and now I always say, it was serve the song.
00:30:06
Speaker
And so I'm going to bring these two things together with an exercise, which then I'm sure will be very easy to apply to your work because it seems that our work is intrinsically connected, um which is that oftentimes when the muse seems like it's not there, it's because you've gotten in the way with your own experience.
00:30:28
Speaker
neuroses or doubts or fill in the blank. And that tends to come from the critical mind. So that's the part of the mind that's afraid, that thinks there's no difference between you finishing this song or walking in front of traffic because either one is um the unknown and it thinks if you finish this song and share it in front of other human beings you'll die that yeah because it's like it can't tell the difference yeah um so that part of the brain is blocking you and it's your job to figure out how to
00:31:10
Speaker
wrangle that part in a loving way and to reset from the me me me me me me like what is this person gonna think of me am am i doing a good job am i doing a bad job me me ney me me me to reset that um self-centered kind of neurotic um and negative uh badgering and to reset it into, wait a second, oh, I remember, my job is to serve the song.
00:31:40
Speaker
I'm just a body that the energy that the muse is delivering is coming through me, and how can i shape it just with my being me and and then send it out in the most authentic way that I can?
00:31:56
Speaker
And then sometimes I could go on on and on. Maybe I should pause. No, it's beautiful. It's beautiful. I love that. And do you have like a practical, um like, it's okay, so there's somebody out there who is in that struggle, right? And whether it's music or anything, right? We do this to ourselves. I remember sending my first blog out and i had switched from healthcare care entrepreneur to doing this work and, know,
00:32:22
Speaker
I was looking at this. There was a big red button and MailChimp, the mail server, and a little monkey's hand was going to push down on this red button and the monkey would sweat. And it was like, this is how the image they chose descended. I'm like, that's just evil as a company. But anyways, what um I had to hit send and i went to hit send and my entire body was...
00:32:44
Speaker
You're going to die. You're going to die. It literally, and ah there's just no more truth that you can know about the world than to hear those words you just said. it it equates, but I mean, I am safe. I'm in my house. I'm perfectly fine. I'm not going to die. But my body's like, you will die. This is going to happen. So um i have a bunch of tips I've shared. do you have anything that you do um to help bring you back, wrangle it in?
00:33:11
Speaker
Yeah, ah depending on um maybe the maybe the most obvious place that I practice it is on the stage because that's kind of the most terrifying where you're like, if I mess this up, life ends now, you know, um and your hands are shaking and there's no way to be perfect. So um something that I...
00:33:35
Speaker
do, I'll give you three things for that moment. One is to look, open your eyes, because oftentimes when you're nervous on stage, your instinct is to like, not make eye contact, not look up, maybe not even open your eyes. So open your eyes, look and see that they're, it's just a bunch of human beings that used to be babies.
00:33:54
Speaker
They like started out as babies and they're not that different than they were when they were little kids. Everybody's still just a little kid in an adult body. So looking out and seeing people just as these human beings that, um,
00:34:10
Speaker
used to be babies and aren't that different. And they are there because mostly they want you to succeed because they, they either knew you and came to see you do your best or they've never heard of you before. And truth be told, only 20% of them probably in that moment are even paying attention to what's happening.
00:34:36
Speaker
Like, Like even even in this conversation, i'm i had adore you. And I am like about as present as I could be as a human. But even in our conversation, there have been little moments where my brain went,
00:34:54
Speaker
oh, what do I have to do at 5 p.m. today? Like, this is just how our brains work, you know? So imagine if you're going to a show, you're at the end of a long work day and somebody's performing. You're not taking in like every second of everything that they're doing. And so that's an important thing to remember, too, as a performer, that nobody is hearing you at the level that you're expecting yourself to perform.
00:35:14
Speaker
No one. And it would be crazy to think that somebody would be catching all the little things that I'm worried about.
00:35:24
Speaker
I love that. I love it. It's really funny. Somebody just said to me this week, i feel like we're all just little kids. um Everybody is just little kids. Like ah literally the way you just said it was just spoken to me um a couple of days ago. I'm like, what the odds of hearing that twice?
00:35:42
Speaker
um Well, thank you for sharing that. And and I do think it is the, um
00:35:50
Speaker
how do I say this? The opportunity to bring information through us and then managing The complexity of the mind is the challenge of life. And enlightenment is only when we are able to do that more and more effectively until we really can quiet it most of the time or have at least enough tools and practices to keep coming back or to really know it's not true, right? that's It's not a deep thing to be enlightened other than to just um let the mind go, right? um
00:36:23
Speaker
So... So you're bringing music through, you find the Akashic record. How do you see this system or ecosystem in relation or why is this important to you?
Spirituality in Music Creation
00:36:39
Speaker
What is it that you're um considering when you think of um that vehicle in the creative work?
00:36:49
Speaker
Yeah. I was first and foremost, I was ready for it, hungry for, um you know, my, my, artistic process feels like an onion that keeps peeling back and peeling back.
00:37:06
Speaker
There's no center. It just keeps going and going and going and going. Like there's no, um, Oh, I found my approach and it's going to be like this for the rest of my life. Um, and coming out of the last record where everything was like, I'm going in I'm going like spelunking in my grief and,
00:37:27
Speaker
just without shame, I'm going to hit this honestly. um And the sort of like the fear around that, that it's too much or too honest or too personal or too me, you know, and then accepting the fact that that is a pathway into authenticity.
00:37:45
Speaker
And through that on the other side, there's a new chapter that I could see even before I was there. Then got to the point where playing these songs about my mom, didn't hurt anymore and I could see other people crying but I wasn't crying anymore and then on the other side of that was this thing that I could like taste and feel but was very hard to put to words and that was where I was looking for you from if that makes sense I'm like there is another to where I
00:38:21
Speaker
to create where i I'm not muscling and like, uh, there's, it's like not blood, sweat, and tears, but it's like letting through that same, um voice of authenticity without, um,
00:38:41
Speaker
without feeling like I'm carrying it alone, you know? yeah And um and and in that search, I was definitely getting a sense that it was um more of a um spiritual process.
00:38:55
Speaker
And it was in um experimenting with opening up the records and then um conversations with in messages with you and then especially um writing the theme music for you, um where you so generously gave me the permission to experiment with what it would be like to open your records and then write from that place. And I was like, this is life-changing because all these little instincts that I had had, I mean, it's not it's not that it's so different from what I was doing before, but it was like um ah so much more specific and clear and validating that I'm like opening something up and then trusting and getting these very clear signals rather than just being like,
00:39:50
Speaker
more of ah effervescent like the muse is here it was more like oh I'm hearing something very clearly and then I'm like sending an idea to you and you're validating that it was like having having you there to like validate this triangle of energy it was like life-changing for me i don't know if I'm doing a very good job describing that A beautiful job. It's very hard to describe, right? And and I, yeah, no, you're doing a beautiful job. And I mean, I wrote my first book without the records and it was The Struggle Bus. It's back to what you were saying.
00:40:23
Speaker
That piece you were said so funny, you were like, me, me, me, me. me me me me I just was in constant... ah I don't know, um conversation with, in and conflict with this like persona of self that would just drive me crazy. It's like sitting down to write and it's like, oh, there it is again, like being critical. And like, I know, and I'm aware, but here it is nonetheless. And I have to contend with it and back and forth and back and forth. And then you let it through, you let the creativity through, i wrote the book or whatever.
00:40:56
Speaker
But then I started to write with the records and this thing happened. And it's hard to describe. um It's hard to put words. Yeah. But there's a way in which energetically validating is how you put it. I can i can feel that. I think it's something people need to try for themselves. I don't know that you can explain it perfectly. It's the reason that I suggest people open the records. I have that free program because I think it's like saying...
00:41:23
Speaker
you know, really tell me what chocolate ice cream is like if you've never had ice cream or chocolate. It's like, I can't go past a point. i have You have to go try it yourself, right? But it as a songwriter, I want to try. Yeah. um So I'll give you one anecdote for anyone that's like, what are they talking about? once you...
00:41:39
Speaker
so once you you know I'm right here. Picture me right here doing takes, doing 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 takes. Takes is like when you have the music there and then you try a vocal idea over the top and then you try another one, and another one, another one, another And in in my mind, I'm just like, okay, do another one, do another one, do another one.
00:41:59
Speaker
And then, ah whatever, 30 minutes later, I sit down and I'm editing and I'm listening to the takes to see which one feels right. So already it's...
00:42:11
Speaker
instinct intuition right but you can really get into your head in that process and be like i don't know should it be this kind of vibe or this kind of you know and so i was like well what would it be like if i edit from the records and it was like night and day like what normally i would get obsessed with being right or wrong i was just like i'm gonna open up the records and then just kind of listen to what um happens in my body and then i had a little journal and had a rating system and without overthinking anything i would just get like a really clear thin light or a really clear red light just listening i knew from being from listening from your records i knew like this resonates with the right energy this is not the correct energy yep the help
00:43:02
Speaker
And I mean, so what I teach at the Little Soul School is the mind is all about being right or
Embracing Creative Flow and Teaching
00:43:08
Speaker
wrong. And you need to do deep listening, right? And we listen to somewhere deep within us, but we have to do it by pausing the mind, right? By dropping in somewhere. And that's exactly the process. But that is really, really, really hard. It's really hard. And so you can meditate and do yoga and chant and all these different things. And they're wonderful. They really really are.
00:43:27
Speaker
But the reason I got hooked on the records was because it was just so much easier and so much faster to drop to that place of pure listening. We all do it. We we go on a walk, you're stuck on an idea. It's like...
00:43:42
Speaker
I don't know, go for a walk and you go, oh my God, it just came to me. I just got it, right? I just had that moment or somebody says something or you read a book or you talk to a therapist or something and you have that moment of, oh, oh, there it is.
00:43:56
Speaker
I feel like this is the system that exponentially has increased my ability to find that opportunity Oh, yes. Without grappling so much with the mind coming back online going, are you sure? Maybe? i don't know. Is that right? yeah Do other people disagree? that would but but So what I love, Becca, about what you're saying is through the musical um creative process.
00:44:21
Speaker
In your own journey, you're looking at this and it literally matches the exact same system I use to teach people how to access the records. um They come in, me me me, me, me, how do I know? How do I not know? Am I in the records? am I not in the records? Is this the records? I don't know if this is the records. thatdada da And I say one thing to them.
00:44:41
Speaker
drop in. When you're dropped in, you'll find it like let go, let go of the mind, stop trying to be right, stop trying to be wrong. It's okay. That's what the mind does. But then there is this moment where they systematically can go there repeatedly with way less noise, way less. same thing.
00:44:58
Speaker
Like I've been, i have been teaching this for five years without knowing that it connected to this other work. Like I've been teaching this, you know, everybody wants a clear answer of how to get through writer's block, ah how to write this song of like, what, what do I do to make, get better at harmony or rhythm? itdada It all comes back to Well, what is the intention of your song in this moment? And how do you better serve this song? How do you drop into the song? How do you drop into the phrase? How do you drop into the project and serve it?
00:45:35
Speaker
It's so simple and it feels so complicated in the moment because our minds desire to control everything. is everything and it's important like as the um i don't know how this relates to you and i'm curious if if it if it uh lights something up but as an artist the the artist's voice is kind of in the edit like the the artist's persona the like um Janice Joplin's, I'm thinking of her because you mentioned her in one of our conversations. Like her, her artistry is fluid and inspired, but her artistry comes through in how she shapes things and how her entity shapes things. And it's similar, like when you're writing, that critical mind is the one that's editing and that's where your voice comes through. So it's, it's such an important part, but it can't drive the bus or you lose everything.
00:46:33
Speaker
That's right. And that's the point, right? It's like, we do need the mind. We don't want to be without it. It's just putting it in the right relation, right? It works for me. And the me it works for is, i believe what you're saying to be true of of every minute of every life. There's an energy of... of Muse, whatever you want to call it, you put it so beautifully. So we'll use that creativity, flow, inspiration, God, however you think of it.
00:46:58
Speaker
But the authentic self, it wants to come through and flow through. And the mind is there to put it into the world effectively. It needs to work for that, though, not the other way around. And when the mind is the one in control, it reduces the energetic flow until it's it's still there to your point earlier it's just not apparent because your attention isn't focused on allowing that energy to flow your attention is focused to the mind right so we think thoughts we're aware of them and we bring our attention to it so that attention is either to this arising energy of i think i should go on instagram and
00:47:44
Speaker
check my direct messages or my attention is somewhere else. And in this right and wrong thinking mind, which it's helpful if I need to make a plane ticket reservation, that's lovely. But if I'm trying to allow life to happen, it's terrible. It's the worst. It's the worst thing to to to help you organize life and and everything around it.
00:48:04
Speaker
Half a million people in the past, present and future are pressing the rewind button right now to re-listen to what you just said, because it was so profound.
00:48:15
Speaker
Oh yeah. Including me. um can't wait to listen to that again. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. um I heard somebody say to me that, that um Michael Jackson used to run to the studio and say, I've got to grab this because if I don't, Prince is going to, yeah but but and he'd run to the studio because the greatest artists, are aware that the creative stuff is out there. Rick Rubin wrote that book on it. And and it's just, it wants to come into existence and it'll come through you or or somebody else. And this thing you've said over and over, though, I don't want to push past.
00:48:57
Speaker
um Each of us are an instrument and when it comes through the instrument of Laura, it will come through in one way, through Becca, another. You might use a guitar and I might use a pen. I might use my voice to speak it. I might use the written word. um But you may use music to deliver it and somebody else might do it in in a fifth way.
00:49:17
Speaker
But it wants to make its way into the world. And I think that part is just not to be underestimated. um It's there. It's always there. People say, Laura, how do how do I connect to the Akashic field? It's there. It's there. Creativity, it's available.
00:49:35
Speaker
systematically learning how to let go and not need. I used to think when I write, oh, my God, I need to be at the perfect table in the right mood with the right scene. Look at the right things like being there that's absolute bullshit. It's not true. It's always there. i can always write. um I just have to um give myself ah the space to disconnect from the mind and, and trust. Becca, wouldn't you say it's trust that it's going to flow, instead of making it happen that it's, I think it is.
00:50:12
Speaker
I think we are creative flow in motion. You just said the word. You took the word right out of my mouth. I was just saying yesterday in my telephone therapy call, was like walking in the woods and talking to my therapist about how connecting
00:50:38
Speaker
intuition with my art feels both like it's always been connected it's never been different and it also feels like this leap of faith and that the only um the only way to uh to like bridge the gap of fear is to focus on the word trust trust leap of faith and to trust that the word trust is the right thing to do. Like there's just like trust, untrust, untrust.
00:51:10
Speaker
just Because you're like, what am I doing? and Right. Why would I relinquish control? That goes against everything that I've been taught to do with my human body.
00:51:22
Speaker
But the I that says, why would I release control is the I that's ruining the creative flow, right? So that I is the mind. And it's a disaster. So the true I doesn't ask that question. The one that's dropped in doesn't need to let go because it's always in a state of complete relinquishing of control. Right. It's available. And and it's that recursive discussion of I that I think is is the tragedy of all creative flow.
00:51:51
Speaker
um Becca, do you feel like with the community that that you run in, the the artists, that this is the the consistent challenge that they're facing of how to find that next creative moment to release those fears? um Do some just have a lighter energy around it and that's where so much of it comes from? Like what's the intersection of hard work, um ah discipline and letting go?
00:52:24
Speaker
This conversation about trust and
00:52:33
Speaker
not resisting the flow of inspiration from the muse, etc. All the stuff we've been talking about is not common, particularly in the, like, um...
00:52:52
Speaker
music school adjacent music world, like um like pedagogy and people who went to a music institution and and now they're out in the world sharing their music and they're getting stuck and they don't know why they're getting stuck and their brain's instinct is, oh I'm getting stuck because I learned something wrong or I'm doing something wrong or I'm um not working hard enough.
00:53:19
Speaker
Yes. Me, me, me. And so i have, um, all kinds of different online teaching courses that I offer where I'll, I'll, you know, any, any level, any age, any genre, whatever people can come through and we spend five weeks and write songs and then share them with each other. And, um,
00:53:45
Speaker
The idea of um getting out of the way of the muse and having fun and being playful and curious and being in flow, it's like, it's foreign.
00:54:01
Speaker
You know, it's like even even to somebody who has practiced it already, like there's this constant reminder. It's sort of like, you know how to meditate and then you, you know, have a bad day. It feels like you have to remind yourself every 10 seconds or five seconds or two seconds to meditate.
00:54:21
Speaker
shut up and listened, you know? um It's the same kind of thing where it's just like, it feels like, um it feels like we're all like, oh yeah.
00:54:32
Speaker
Like we've all taken mushrooms together or something. And we're like, oh yeah, this is how you find a song. Why did I forget again? um and and ah yes so I would say that,
00:54:49
Speaker
Yeah, to answer your question, it's like, it's not normal to come at it this way. And it feels like, um it feels that, I feel that the direction that I'm headed in right now is is to be a mascot for that, for myself and for other people.
00:55:05
Speaker
I love it. I love it. I love it. Well... Thank you so much for sending that DM, for following up, for creating this absolutely like stunning music for the show. I'm obsessed. I love it She sent it over. i was like, oh my God, that's a hell yes for me. So I appreciate it. The listeners, if you're listening and you're just, you know maybe you need a little like vibe, just listen to the beginning and end and check that out. um Thank you for sharing your story, your perspective. If people want to connect to you, i know youre you have a website and Spotify, but is there somewhere specific that people can find you?
00:55:43
Speaker
Website is great. im i if If any social thing I use the most is Instagram, probably I'm on there once a week or something. um But yeah, website has ah email addresses that you can reach me through as well.
00:55:58
Speaker
BeccaStevens.com. Yeah. Yeah. Perfect. Perfect. All right. Well, thank you so much, you guys. Check out her music. It's gorgeous. um She tours um and has these classes you can take. Everything's on her site. Thank you so much for coming on the show. I really appreciate it I appreciate it more than you know. Thank you so much for sharing me with your um with your folks. I appreciate it so much.
00:56:25
Speaker
Thank you. Hey, you, you, you,