Kris LeDonne 0:38

I have a very special treat for you today. This podcast, episode of picture love is featuring somebody who I've really been admiring from afar. And when I say from afar, I'm talking from one coast of the us to the other. Her name is sonnet Simmons, and she is a singer and songwriter. And currently releasing singles off her new empowerment EP called" speak". It's a record for recovering people, pleasers and anyone who's lost their voice along the way. Sonnet's heart opening voice has been heard by millions around the world. Sonnet was of the top contestants on ABC rising star with Josh Groban. She was with Kesha ludicrous and Brad Paisley Her. Original music has landed placements with major brands like Coca-Cola GoDaddy Nike T-Mobile and Microsoft and TV shows like younger Riverdale, Katy Keene, and many more have featured her music. Sonnet hopes to show her two little girls what it means to use your voice, take up space and be unapologetically yours. I hope you will find it very easy to identify the resonance and the connection between sonnets work, her heart and what we are creating here at picture love. Sonnet, thank you so much for being here with me on Picture Love today. I've really been looking forward to this conversation. Welcome. Thank you so much. Me too. I really look forward to chatting with you. You're a sweetheart. So I first discovered you through, Cathy Heller, you and your beautiful music. And now I follow you on Spotify and I love to follow you on social. And the reason I've reached out to you is I love how your art reflects your stories and your life experience. And from my perspective. That's how I see you picturing love in your life. So thank you for not only, um, the open heart, but the willingness to share your heart through your music. That's so beautiful. Thank you. Thanks for that reflection. That's such a gift. Yeah. Oh, I'm glad that that's received that way. That is my intention. And so we're both moms. Um, I'm on the East coast and you on the West of the U S and tell us a little bit about your family. Who are you raising and growing up with right now? I'm raising and growing up. That is so right on. I have two little girls, three and five, and truly are raising and growing up because you're reflecting on like, Oh, I didn't even realize I had a trigger there. I did not even realize that, like, I responded when I was annoyed. In this way, because I've never been, you know, like the stakes have never been so high. I've never cared so much and, you know, across the board. So, yeah, you are raising yourself in looking at where the. What skills you just didn't learn that you really want to teach your children and you need to figure out how to model So that they can learn how to do it and that is the daily process over here I bet there's a lot of singing in your home. Oh, yeah, there is a lot of singing and dancing and dance parties dance parties Yeah Yeah, I mean it really is like they can be like mom. We need a dance party. I'm like Yes, we do. Yeah. Oh, I love that. I wish I had somebody telling me that, um, I'm a little bit ahead of you in, in the mom stages. I have a teenager and a young adult right now and, and both girls and I love those ages. They're just so busy. And so. Just authentic and still remember who they are before the world interrupts, right? /Yes. And I hope to preserve that as much as I can. And also just like surrender to like, I can't protect them from, you know, just, I could just only arm them with the skill sets that allow them to love themselves through all the things that happen in life. I imagine you have a picture or two of them and video. Sure. Too. I've never had so many pictures on my phone in my life. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that's so much adorable. So how long have you been a recording artist? I mean, you've always been making music, music, I would imagine, but can you give us a little bit of the backstory, like growing up, how you came into music and, and then connect the dots to where you are right now? Sure. I mean, there was never a time I wasn't doing music. I was born singing like that. You know, if you would talk to me at three, I'd be like, I'm going to be a famous singer. And that's just it. Like I would tell everybody I was like, so believed that was. The path that was it. That was my dream. Um, I was born in a, in a religious cult and my mom took me out when I was young and we moved around a lot growing up. It was a single mom and two girls and music was the thing that like a new school I would just get in with friends right away. I like found my spot, you know, with music and it was just always. That helped me, like, stay connected to myself and to, um, whatever community we were moving into and moving out of. What an amazing story. Yeah. So, uh, you know, I, I spent my twenties, I went to, I went to college for music. I studied opera and then I started songwriting, I got into sync and I was on one of those reality TV shows and, um. I, you know, at some point the dream that I thought I was going to have was like, Oh, it didn't, it didn't, it doesn't look like what it was supposed to look like. And I'm not okay with that. And here I am like getting older. I mean, when I turned 30, I was like the depths of despair, like it was done. There was nothing, you know, I, I had worked so hard my whole life for this dream and it didn't come true. Um, or at least I thought that, you know, that was my story. Um, I just, after that show, after I got off the reality show, I just stopped music for a while. I did, I did sync. I got into sync. I started writing for TV film ads and have done really well in that, which has been a blessing and that's awesome. But, um, in terms of releasing my own music and putting myself out there as an artist, I just really, it was painful. It was just, oh, I felt so, Was just like this loud look. See, you failed. You failed. You failed. You didn't get what, you know, and, um, at some point through a lot of inner work and having children and doing the work that comes with having children, if you're up for it, and you can keep putting one foot in front of the other, um, I have come to a healing place with that and really have allowed myself to sing again, which is so crazy that I would have even gone through something other than that, um, and share my gift and share my voice and share my music from a, from a very personal space and do it in a way that's like. I don't know. Like, I don't know who's going to listen. I don't know who it's going to change or who it's going to affect or if they're going to like it. But this is my gift to give. And this is also like where I feel most connected to who I am and how I have to process life. And, um, it's really not my business to consider what everybody else is doing. And you know, I, I, I really was stuck on, oh, they are all failing me. Like it didn't work out for me and I have only, you know, it was really me. I didn't. I didn't know how to show up for myself. I didn't know how to show up for what I really wanted and to get those beliefs to align with like the dreams part. And that's been, you know, the big work for me. /Wow. That's okay. There's so much to unpack. With what you just shared. And first of all, thank you for the vulnerability that you allowed us to observe. And, um, I felt like I went on a journey with you for just a moment there and I have resonance with many parts there, but first of all, yay, you for always remembering what you wanted to be as a little girl and yay you for holding onto it as long as you did. Because even though we have time out, you know, times of like detours away from what we thought we were doing, the fact that you did return to your music, um, or maybe you didn't ever really depart. Um, I just, I admire that because, um. I, uh, relate to the music being the safe place for me in school, growing up, um, music's class was the only place I felt safe and I felt real and authentic and accepted. And, um, those were the only A's I knew. So, um, there's safety in just marinating and being in what is truly meant for us, you know, and I'm getting choked up because I'm relating to the healing journey that you're referring to, even though nobody knows what it's like to walk in your shoes. But. I'm curious to know because I am sure that the right people find you because they resonate and you know this because we have resonance. And if we show up as who we truly are, those who resonate come and those who don't move on. Right. But I'm curious to know what, mindset things. Or events happened that allowed you to choose to start healing, or was it something that you didn't choose that just started to happen for you? Can you tell me a little bit about that? I mean, I think the most clear is just children. You know, you don't get a reflection brighter than having two little children looking at you like emulating you. And it's just like it starts to unravel because you do a little bit of work and you're like, Oh, that's interesting. I never considered that. That's like, I might be dissociating. I had no idea. I did not even have a word for that, that I've spent most of my life, like in this state of dissociation for a lot of, you know, like the hard stuff rather than kind of like staying present and digging in. Rather, you know, I would kind of like dissociate and, and I understand why there was a lot of trauma growing up and we learned these mechanisms to keep us as children, but then as a grownups, they don't work as well. They don't work at all. And it's certainly, I don't want to, you know, like there's just so many things and I feel like the first step is just, I started to peek under. And I kind of had seen it, but I, you know, there was nothing pressing, like, no real reason why I had to keep looking at it. But when you have children, you're like, I, I really, I want them to start at the, like, give them all the advantages so that they are not doing my healing work. Let me not pass this on to them. /Yeah. I wish I had that thought earlier in parenthood, but I have it now, you know, we, it's never too late to have that, you know, we can only do what we can do and all of it is important. Not just parents, but those who work with and spend any significant amount of time with young children have varying degrees of understanding that they see you. They are watching, they are listening when you don't know they are, and they're cataloging things, good and bad, or maybe I need to stop labeling, but it is what it is, right? Yeah, yeah. It's information. They are figuring out how the world is by watching you. Yeah. And they still remember who they are. Yeah. And, and so that's what I meant by growing up alongside of, and I know you caught that early. We were talking earlier, uh, we, you know, and I think the hardest part for me with parenthood and I'm sure you'll have your own, um, view of this is, is not controlling. Everything and giving them space to be who they are, because, you know, it comes from a place of love where we want to protect our kids from any of pains that we endured. We want to avoid them having to do that, but they have to learn their own lessons too. And my baby got her driver's license and is driving herself to school now. And it's like. And I want that for her. I want that for her. But I also want like a bubble on her. An unbreakable bubble. I can't even, I, you know, my scale is so small and it's still like, you know, I'm just like, Oh, I gotta let you do this. You know, I think it grows with us as we go, you know, I'm starting to sound like Ben Platt grow as we go. Sonnet. Tell me what big projects have you been working on most recently, because I love following you on Spotify. I love seeing your storytelling on your socials when you really let us peek behind the curtains, some of your projects, but let's put some on record in this conversation. What are some of the recent ones? And if you want to drop a teaser or two of things to come, I leave that open. Thanks. Yeah. I, I guess it was probably a year ago now I was recording for some with somebody else in the studio with Billy Leffler, who's this amazing producer and, um, was recording something for somebody else. And he took me aside and was like, what about your music? Like You know, you need to do your record, um, because I, I have a company where I help coach a lot of other artists on how to make music in sync and have success in sync and all of this and, uh, music licensing. And I have been doing that, but I haven't been releasing it publicly. And so I was like, Oh, well, it's been on the back of my mind. It's been in the back burner there. I happen to have the song. And so he was like, okay, well, this is going to be the investment. This is going to be the time. This is you need to be here every week. Like, I really need you to show up for this. And here's all the ways you need to invest to make it happen. And I was like, all right, I'm doing it. And that was about a year ago. And. Um, so I showed up every week and, you know, we, we made these songs, we made this record and I wanted to make a record that wasn't, Oh, this is going to place in a bunch of different stuff. Like this is just the record I needed to make and hopefully it does really well in sync as well. But you know, we don't know. And yeah. It's documents kind of the journey, the self growth journey that I've been on and that I am on and recovering people pleaser and how to be set boundaries and hold boundaries and also just waking up to like, I don't know, like where you are the person that's been holding you back and. How it's all here for you. If you're, if you're able to sit in that discomfort, which I still, you know, really have to kind of coach myself through. I'm like, Oh, this is uncomfortable right now. You can just sit here in this discomfort spotted rather than. What can I do to make it go away, which has been my MO for life. Like, Ooh, that feels like a little too much. What can I do to make that not feel so much? /If you don't mind my observing your self awareness is what's allowing you that movement forward because the ego is created to keep us safe. Right. And the ego is, is, you know, even if you're in pain, it's something familiar and there's safety in the familiar, but stepping out and doing something new. You know, there's so many stories that we have to rewrite in our minds when the ego starts saying, no, that's not safe. What if people don't like it? What if that's not on trend? What if that's not successful? What is, you know, what is your compare? Look how successful they are. And these are, these are excuses that the ego gives us to not take a chance, but, but your self awareness is evident because otherwise you wouldn't be taking these strides. I mean, they're slow strides. I mean, you know. Aw, I, I appreciate that. And also, like, I still, I mean, to keep it real, like, you know, every time I post I, it's like that's still there. And I'm just pushing through it knowing like, okay, thanks for sharing, but like, that's not what I'm gonna believe today. Like, that's not what I'm going to Right. Spend my energy on. And I, and, um. And allowing it, I mean, it's very different story now, I guess, true, but also it's still, it's still a work in progress. So how far along is the album now? And what's the name? Does it have one? Uh, it's called Speak, and I've released two, um, two of the five songs so far. Um, the first one was called Bang Bang, and it was about people pleasing. Second one was What If The World Goes Black, which your daughter danced this beautiful dance to. Oh my gosh, when you reached out, I was like, can my daughter dance to that? Yes. Bring it on. She's gorgeously. Thank you. Just amazing. Um, and the song speak is what really was the impetus of this all, um, You, you know, speaking up for yourself. And then what I've learned since speaking up for myself, it's, it's like, then you said what you need to say, and now you need to hold what you need to say, because then it gets discomfort because somebody else is going to have their emotions about that and their feelings about that. You're like, Oh, there's another level. Um, but so speak, um, is the title track and it will be released in spring 2024. And the next song is set the world on fire, which is out at the end of January., That song is really a kind of a, you know, a call to arms, like coming together as for me, the story is women, but it can be anybody's story, you know, but for me, it's just like taking the power back and. Not in terms of putting any other group down, but in terms of just like holding our power and owning that power and lighting up the world with that power, um, and really coming together to support ourselves in that, um, in that piece. So that's what the song is about. /That's amazing. What if anything we spoke today is just going to happen? What would you speak into that album? Hmm. I didn't warn you about that question. It just came to me. So you can let it marinate if you want, but, okay. So I'm going to give you some more time to think about the answer to that. While I explain where that question came from. Um, I'm a former music teacher, married a drummer, daughters, a composer. Daughter's a dancer, well, actually composer, musician, performer, dancer, choreographer or extraordinaire. We like to not just do the art, but create it like you, right? Um, and there was a pivotal moment when we were in the movie theater, uh, me and my older daughter watching Mary Poppins Returns on the big screen. And we're in the reclining seats, kind of close to the front, but just like in awe, you know, jaws dropped and just saying, do you hear? That music. I was like, Andy, that's so beautiful. And I was like, you could write music like that. And, and they do. Now, my daughter writes music and the dream is to be a film score composer. So your music has been used in ads and it's been used commercially, um, and I'm sure you have a bright future as long as you want it in more of that work. But if we're thinking bigger and we're breaking down. You know, walls and barriers that we don't see that we don't realize it's there. What could be some extraordinary things that your album goes through or albums after? Yeah. It's interesting you say that because I, I've been trying to get myself to visualize what that is because I like, I literally stopped that, put the music out there, you know, and then it's like so uncomfortable past that place where when I was younger, I could dream up like, let me tell you about the dream of what's going to happen. And I believe it. Um, and so really, I think what that is, what I have been. If I'm, if I'm really honest and vulnerable and tell the whole world in this moment, it's like, um, it's like an Adele concert. I would be the Adele and that would be the, you know, a big theater like that with real instruments playing and a gown and like, you know, it's not like a pop princess performance. I would love to just like do a residence and people can come to me. I mean, I'd love to be on the road with my girls too. So I'm up for that too. That'd be fun, but it just kind of depends on, on what kind of the road that means. Yeah. As long as it, I, I trust that whatever resonates is what's going to happen, but as long as we can just hold on to the joy of the creating and the growing and the expanding and the healing and, and, um, I hear the leader in you and everything that you share, because those who learn and share their experience, give permission to other people to look within and to grow and, um, so you're influencing others that automatically makes you a leader, you know, whether you're Adele or, or mommy, you know, sonnet is a leader. And I love the leadership that, um, I, I feel it, the resonance, not just hearing it in your voice, in your words, in your music. And, um, so that's exciting. And I, I see that for you. I see that. Thank you. Thanks. The gown. The audience. The electricity. Yeah. /And somebody said to me when I was in my 20s, and he was like a mentor of mine for a while, and he, he was like, the problem is, is that you're trying to sell apple juice when what you have to sell is a refined red wine. And I like, I couldn't, I was like, but I want to sell apple juice. Like that's what sells. Like, I want to be this pop girl, you know, like. And it's never been. The fit, like it's just not that I, you know, I do create pop music, but I'm not like, Britney Spears, you know, and I always thought that that was my goal. And so I've kind of been off center and to, to really claim like, no, it's more like. An Adele version is, um, it feels a lot more aligned and a lot more honest. Well, while we're speaking, um, things to call in and just potential for all the delicious and yummy, exciting ways to grow, um, and abandoning all of the negative talk that gets in the way. So who would be on your. The top at the top of your list, you can name more than one for collaborations, for concerts, for duets, for who are artists that just light you up that maybe you'd want to partner with or be invited to do something with. Let's go speak it. Yeah. I mean, Joni Mitchell. I love her. And I will always love her. What does she mean to you? What's her, her art mean to you? Huh? I mean, I feel like it's the texture and the fabric of my making. Like she was the first cassette I got as a little girl and I just, um, like Joey Mitchell was the only artist I knew for so long as a kid. I don't know. I mean, I'm like, Oh, I don't think I could like, hold that up again. Like Ani DeFranco is, is probably, you know, my number two, majority control Ani DeFranco are my two like big female influences in my life. I just listen to music for research. Yeah. No. Yeah. What I'm listening to for fun anymore. Yeah. You are working when you're listening to music too, but, but thank God it's work you love. Totally. Totally. Yeah. Here's to work we love what if somebody said, um, Oh, what if we, what if you got an offer to do something on a stage that somebody else's show and you were asked to fill in, would that ever be, would there be a show that you would be willing to step in for a season you mean like take over the spot? The lead? Yeah. Oh, I mean like Adele's show, I would take over. Oh yes. Oh yes. I could take her show. Sure. I mean, I don't know. I couldn't sing her songs, but. But I could sing mine. Um. Curse. Yeah, but probably, um, I don't know, you're really pushing my belief system here. Let's see. Am I making you squirm? I don't know. It's good. It's good. I'm excited for you. Good. No, literally, I was just having this conversation, like right, right before this at nine, um, with this woman who is like my accountability manager coach, like, Without her, I just don't do the things I need to do. And she's like, okay, we're making a fan base for you and we're going to put this out and like, it's time to start talking about what you do with your fans. And I was like, who the heck wants to listen to, you know, like in my mind, I'm like, you know, I'm having and also like, of course, I actually have proof of concept. Like I do have fans. I have people that email me. I have families that are like, Oh my gosh. And at the same time, I'm like, I can't do that. Nobody's gonna want to join my fan club. Like both of those things can be at the same time. I mean, one, you know, now I can identify that that's happening rather than allow that to get involved in the action. But I was like, wow, this is, there's still so much, um, work in the stickiness here for me of really seeing what is allowing for being able to, um. You know, be what it is that attracts what I want. I think that's what make draws people to you is because other artists, um, show the polish more than the. Then their bellies, and you're willing to show your belly a little bit, so to speak. Um, so that's, that's awesome and, and yay, uh, for always having a coach, somebody who is not just offering accountability, but the perspective, you know, it's so much easier to look at somebody from the outside and give them what you think that they need, right? Uh, that's why we have to be so careful about whose advice we're actually receiving because you become who you surround yourselves with, right? And so really, um, you know, I talk about curating collections of photos that represent the best in life. That's part of the work that I do, but, um, curating the relationships that bring out the best in you or give you space to discover what your best is. Um, that's a life skill. That's not just a So, um, so I, I really like that and, you know, opening up to mentors and accountability buddies has been probably the miracle grow on, on my adult life for sure. And, having more grown up conversations with your kids that you'll, there'll be parts like that you want to explain to them, but you know, they're not ready to receive yet. So I have to turn around and talk to myself and say, okay, Chris, they're not ready to know that conversation. Have that way. If you, they're not where you are, just enjoy it and let them benefit from you being wiser. Totally. I know. I try. I know. And I'm like, my daughter this morning as we're driving to school, I was like, you know what I'm grateful for right now? And then I was like, trying to talk about it. And my daughter's like, I don't want to talk about this anymore. Like, she's like, I don't want to like, can we just either listen to a song or whatever? And I'm like, always trying to Fill in the space with a lesson or a thing and like, they just want to be and like, yeah, me is the best lesson, but I totally get what you're saying. Yeah. Heck offs on it. Come on. I'm also learning and maybe, you know, a song, but I'm looking for the song that speaks to me. Maybe I'm giving you an idea. I don't know. I have no idea. Quite the action oriented type of individual, you know, and, and I think that that comes from the people pleasing. I've been well conditioned and my teacher education always, they train you to multitask and make yourself irreplaceable because as a music teacher, you know, the arts always get cut first. And so. I have decades of layers and layers and layers of overworking myself. And so a lot of the peeling back the layers and the personal growth has taken place and brought me to a layer where I just recently discovered, Oh, being is doing, maybe I need to put that on my to do list, be, are you a meditator? Do you meditate? It's on it. Yeah. Yeah. I think not consistently enough. I go through my things, but I know that's always the thing when that's not an alignment at all. Right. I know taking a walk is not the same thing and yoga is not the same thing, but these are all ways that we can create space in our minds and slow down the chatter and all that and just create space to. Be. It's so true. And it's like through our, I love that. I mean, it's also the, like, I try to be, tell my children all these things, but like the only thing that really matters is how am I being, because that's what they're learning. They're not learning. Like we say we're grateful and we say this and we notice this and it's. Yeah. And training them to say please and thank you doesn't mean they're actually feeling gratitude. Mm hmm. It just means we're teaching them words and vocabulary and like, you know, behaviors, so to speak. Um, so I guess it's, it's hard. I just got to turn around every time I want to teach a lesson and just practice the lesson. Right. Right. It is such a thing so, SONNET, for people who want more of your work, how do we get to be in your universe? So if you wanted to go to Instagram, I'm SONNET MUSIC on Instagram and all my links and you know, you get to feel for who I am on there, um, SONNET MUSIC. And then. My music on Spotify is Sonnet Simmons. That's my name, Sonnet Simmons. And, you know, following for independent artists, a really great way to support them is to follow them on Spotify, to add their songs to your playlist. So if you've got empowerment playlists or. When, you know, whatever, um, add the songs to those playlists, that's really helpful for independent artists to have somebody who's taken that interest in their music to add it to their playlist and follow along. Um, and those are, you know, the best ways to support and to listen to the music and to follow the journey. Sonnet, you just gave me homework. I'm going to make my first picture love playlist. Your songs will be the first to go on there. Oh, nice. Perfect. We will use your music to picture love in our lives. And thank you./ So if you could just give me one more golden nugget, is there something you wanted to share yeah. This morning I just happened to find this, um, it was like my eight minute drive home from dropping my girls off and was looking, okay, I want like a little eight minute jolt of inspiration for my day. And I found a Wayne Dyer. podcast, which I've never listened to. And it was eight minutes. And I was like, all right, that's the one, that's the one I'm supposed to listen to today. And this woman, uh, it was a recording of a woman calling in and asking, saying I have so much anger about these two, these people who are, I've cut out of my life, but I'm so angry of what they've done to me. And I'm so angry about this. And I'm so angry about that. And, and he was like, you know, you know, When somebody's anger, angry, or vengeful, or just has this resentment towards other people, um, you really are digging two graves, that one for them and the one for you, because you are poisoning yourself. And he said this quote about how the best way to free ourselves from that person, like taking up that energy and is to, is to love, is to forgive, is to love. And I don't think of myself as a very resentful person, but I sometimes catch myself spending energy in places where it's like, that doesn't really serve me. Like it's a low vibration. And so when we can really like send love, forgive and the growth that comes from that space. Um, so I don't know, like for me really looking, I started sharing my story this year when a police that I've haven't shared my story, not because I didn't want to share it, but because it's so vulnerable. It's just like really vulnerable to have people have their pain around your pain and then you have to make them feel better. I spent a lifetime just avoiding that so I didn't have to make everybody else feel better for me and owning it from a place of, you know, I can look at this past and I can dig up with the things and I can say, I'll wish that somebody had. You know, protected me, or I wish that that hadn't, you know, and also like send love to all those people and to myself as this little girl. And that has been one of the things that, and it's a very roundabout way of trying to piece those pieces together. I was like, it just kind of struck me as like, yeah. And, and even people I have in my life now where I spend, it's like the energy we get to choose where we put our energy and love is for the people who we adore and the people who we feel, you know, slighted by and so I don't know how that all makes sense, but I feel like me listening to the podcast and your question had to be shared, put the piece together somehow that was meant to be said. And I really appreciate you sharing that because, um, you know, forgiveness isn't just for the person who you're angry at. It's really for yourself first and foremost. And when we can, um, allow ourselves to forgive, uh, sometimes we have to play, we have to go through steps to do that, right? Like realize that I don't have to like it, but they did the best they could in the moment with what they knew. And, and I can give myself the love and reparent myself where the love was missing and, um, and forgiving and letting go, just make space. For more love to come in, I mean, that's the magic. I noticed that like in any of my relationships when I can view that person with love and compassion, they also respond with love and compassion and when I'm always mad at them, they are always like reflecting the picture of them that I, I give them. So yeah, that is definitely. That old cliche that the world is a mirror is we get to learn that over and over and over again. Don't we? But that's part of the process and the journey/ Thank you for having me. This was such a beautiful conversation. You are such a gift to this world. I love your work.

36:48

After that loving conversation, I have a treat for you. Sonnets latest song, the dropped called set the world on fire from her album. Speak. Be sure to check the show notes so that you can get the links to all of her goodies to following her on socials, to following her on Spotify and pre saving the album speak. Enjoy.