Pop Music Mom Tamara Silvera

West LA. Tamara Silvera casually laughs, sips tea, and discusses what it takes to be a female Pop Indie Musician, a Mom, and what the Industry means to her. “I’m an Independent artist…I don’t have a manager, pr person, a label, or a publishing company, I’m Indie baby, I do everything myself, I pay for everything myself and it takes as long as it takes…I feel more energized and focused now that I’ve gotten this on the planet.”

Her 2nd CD “Departures” took 8/9 years to complete because of the death of her bass player, Wess Wehmiller (Duran Duran, Missing Persons), and the tragedy of her home burning down 2 years later. “Wes was my bass player that has moved on to another channel…he was a serious bass player…he was a big deal, and he was my friend…and it was really hard to finish {Departures}, but I had to because that was the last stuff he ever did…which is an honor, it blows my mind.” She adds ““That’s my primary objective, to be honest and just put {my music} out there and if people dig it, that’s just icing on the cake.”
Playing and learning music in the Toronto scene, Tamara played in various bands every week as a keyboardist or singer. “I wasn’t writing…I played other’s people’s music, I was in a country music band and a funk white fusion band…it was really broad.” Which turned out to be good training for her writing career. “I realized in making Sink of Swim, that by being in everybody’s band, I was basically in songwriting school, I didn’t realize at the time, I was just a skinny musician making rent, getting by, but I was really in school. I was getting a huge, diverse exposure to things (musically), so I hear all the different styles in my music..”

Her first release “Sink of Swim” came out of necessity. Silvera chose to raise her child over playing music. “When my son was 2 or 3, I really started to feel crazy, because I was always an artist and (now) I was the major caregiver, which I don’t regret, but it was very intense for me because I had none of my safety valves for processing emotions, and I thought “am I cracking up?”. I started writing…cause it was something I could do by myself. I had my piano in my kitchen, so I could literally make dinner or feed Graeme while I wrote my songs…within a 3-month period I wrote my first album. I had my little tape deck there and I was making my own demos, and I really just thought “ok, I’m doing this for my mental health.”’

“When I finished “Sink or Swim” shopped it to everybody and everyone said “this is amazing, too bad your not 17 and I already have a white girl with brown hair. She took it in stride “They weren’t being mean, that was their thinking…I could be John Lennon and they wouldn’t sign me right now…and I’m not taking it personally, but that’s not a good model, if you found something of value, wouldn’t you value it?”
Tenaciously pursuing her passion, Tamara finds her audience “doing the live solo gigs, these older fans come up to me “I didn’t think you could’ve lived all this” and {I realized that} some people want to just be shown something pretty…I tend to attract people who want (truth)…”

Tamara discusses her musical influences, stage fright, and art verses commercialism in Part 2.

Tamara plays at the Culver Hotel, Mondays 7.30-9.30pm

www.tamarasilvera.com

http://www.myspace.com/tamarasilvera