X. Ari on Turning Pain Into Power as an Indie Artist (Episode 152)

Everything you do is an audition.

X. Ari is a queer alt-pop singer, songwriter and mental health advocate from Toronto, and the founder of WisdoManiaFest and the WisdoMania Foundation. Her life motto is turning "Pain into Power" through art and self-care. Episode 152 aired during Mental Health Awareness Month, and her conversation with Nomad covers both halves of her life: an independent artist's career built like a business, and the mental health journey that became her mission.

A head start, and a hard lesson

X. Ari started singing lessons at seven because her older sister did, lived for theater roles, and recorded her first song at ten. By eleven she was in a girl group that became a real band. Her mom believed in them enough to start an indie label, land distribution and sign them with a major agency. Ari did part of high school with tutors on the road.

It wasn't all good. As the youngest in the group, she was handed drinks and drugs in clubs at a very young age. When the band broke up, at the same time as her parents' divorce, she was depressed and decided the industry was dirty. Years later, she fell back into music anyway. Nomad pointed out what that early run gave her: a development stage, something the industry rarely offers artists anymore.

Find a mentor for the craft

In 2015, X. Ari won a $20,000 Canadian government grant to make an album. With a real budget, she wanted better songs than what she called her "mediocre" writing, so she found a songwriting mentor. He taught her that a song is lyrics, melody, delivery and production, and that a great one needs at least three of the four. He taught her song analysis and, almost like a therapist, how to turn her own story into art.

She now uses that approach as a professional songwriter, co-writing with emerging artists and teaching songwriting workshops. On grants, her advice is to learn to write them or find a great grant writer, and to keep applying. Canada has several funders, including FACTOR. She got one on her first tries and hasn't since, and she keeps trying.

For international artists, she also explained her US visa: an O-1 for outstanding ability, which took a big stack of credits, deal memos and contracts to prove.

Run your releases like a business

From her first EP in 2015 to her sixth in the works, X. Ari releases about one EP a year. Her process: write freely, often up to 30 songs, and only then pick the finals and set a release schedule, timed around her producer's availability. She drops singles from the EP as she goes, puts a song that doesn't fit out as a standalone single, and times releases to be topical, like a song for Suicide Prevention Month and the EP near World Mental Health Day.

Nomad gave her an A-plus. It is exactly what his book describes: run yourself like a corporation, with your own C-suite. Make Music Your Business.

Turning stigma into advocacy

X. Ari shared her story openly. Severe anxiety from age eight, an eating disorder, depression in high school, sleep paralysis and a bad reaction to medication in university. Years later came a hospitalization and a bipolar diagnosis she first refused to accept. After her recovery in 2017, she decided to stop hiding.

"I'm going to flip this and do the opposite. I'm going to tell everyone. I'm going to talk about it and be proud of my experiences."

X. Ari, 20:55

She didn't see anyone talking about bipolar and psychosis the way she needed to hear it, so she became that voice. She cited a statistic that one in five people deal with mental illness, and that it takes the average person 11 years to get help. Her song "Break Point" is about her last major episode. Today, she says, she is learning to bend rather than break.

"We all have mental health. You don't need mental illness to take care of your mental health."

X. Ari, 31:20

Her version of proactive care: sleep well, eat well, exercise, get in nature, meditate, spend time with friends, do acts of kindness. WisdoManiaFest grew from a 30-day online self-care series she planned in three weeks into an in-person mental health and arts festival, with self-care sessions, creative workshops, music, comedy and LGBTQ+ performers. She also taught a songwriting-for-wellness workshop with Save the Music and MTV.

Make content people can't click away from

For the "Break Point" video, her question was simple: with so much content out there, how do you keep people from clicking exit? Her answer was a string of escalating, strange moments that build on each other. Think a drained egg filled with glitter glue cracked over her head, and brushing her teeth with Nutella. Nomad called it awe-inspiring. That is Savvy from the ETHOS code: know your audience's attention span and design for it.

Multiple streams of income

X. Ari doesn't fund her whole life through music yet, and she is honest about it. Her income comes from paid songwriting sessions, workshops, festival work and performances, plus a flexible part-time job as a mortgage agent and some private lending. Her advice for anyone who wants to live off music: learn to produce, and be a good producer. Producers are the ones who get paid. She learned to record her own vocals at home during the pandemic and now uses some home takes as finals.

"If you want to make money, be a producer, and a good one."

X. Ari, 37:59

Nomad called multiple income streams the secret of the career musician. Diversify or Die.

The takeaway

Get a mentor for your craft. Plan your releases like a business. Build more than one stream of income. And take care of your mental health every day, not only when it breaks. If you are stuck for ideas, X. Ari says, go live a little, and the songs will come. When you are ready to map out your next year, start with the free plan of attack (POA) worksheet.

If you are struggling, you are not alone. Talk to someone you trust or a professional. In the US, you can call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.

Get the gig. Keep the gig. Build the career.

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