Confidence and Self-Care with Donna Missal
Interviewed by: Hillary Bosy; Photos provided by: Donna Missal
>> The powerful soul, rock, and hip-hop singer-songwriter, Donna Missal, has recently released a beautiful new album called, 'This Time'. Since then she performed alongside Bishop Briggs and will be joining the Slywave tour this upcoming month with our friends in Joywave and Sir Sly! Check out our interview with her below where we talked about confidence, self-care, and influences!
Your new album, 'This Time', is emotion driven and people tend to relate emotions with color; If you could relate each song on the album with a color, and describe why each color goes with each song?
Oh wow! When I started thinking about cover art I'd come up with a concept of how I wanted it to look, I imagined….starting from the golden hour, amazing super intense red, orange, and yellows...going straight through the color spectrum. It's meant to take you through that emotional cycle of the way that the colors that make you feel.
What do you do in your own routine for self-care? And do you have a saying or mantra that you say to increase your confidence and embrace who you are?
Interesting, I think about confidence as a very complex thing, and it helps me kind of process it and apply it better. Like, understanding that it's not going to be the same every day and that there are going to be different things that will make you confident, and that won't always remain the same... you need to work on it, and it's not just saying, "oh I'm confident now". You have to make a daily decision to remind yourself to be confident. Personally, I apply that every day and it helps me be a little easier on myself, understanding that it is complex and it does take work. I guess as a personal mantra goes, if something is happening and I'm not feeling it, I just try to remind myself that that's normal, and that doesn't make me less than, and that gets my confidence going. Very rarely has it been about how I look. It's always coming from somewhere internal, which is helpful. But I'm like a super, self-care activist. I love any and all self-care. I went on tour early last year, whenever I was looking for something to do, I would go spend a couple of hours at the beach by myself, or read, or listen to podcasts or music or something, and it helps me get out of my own heart and out of my own head. Remember that confidence is kind of this made up thing and that there's is nothing physically that you could grab on to and say, "oh, that's confidence". I love bubble baths, I do all kinds of stuff whenever I'm not feeling it, just remember that it's in there, we just need to cultivate it sometimes.
You credit your natural musicality to your father; What artists that he listened to when you were a child influenced you?
He was always listening to soul music. In our house or in the car. He was always playing Etta James and Billy Holiday, but he really just loved a lot of classic pop songs, like The Beatles and Fleetwood Mac. He introduced me to Stevie Wonder, Janis Joplin, just incredible musicians, vocalists, and amazing songwriters. So I was influenced by all the most iconic music out there, he had everything to do with that because he would be there to tell me a little something about it, like when it was recorded or something about the band or artist. I was always paying close attention because this was so important to me. He was also responsible for taking me to different cd stores and bought me a few albums of my own, which was really special to me. His influence on my music now is undeniable.
You had some shows with Bishop Briggs, what was the most exciting part of that experience?
I think. Just playing shows with another young woman in music who is out there promoting self-love, confidence, her message is all about being true to herself and that really resonates with me. I think that's really important that there are artists out there putting out that kind of art. So I was just really excited to be a part of that and to be able to meet her fans.
If you could name some female artists that have influenced you and your favorite song from each of them?
Woah. First would be Sharon Van Etten, wow I love so many of her songs...I don't think I could pick just one. Lauryn Hill - Ex-Factor. This is fun! Aretha Franklin - Land of Dreams, Patty Griffin - Be Careful.
What would you like to say to your fans?
Wow! I'd like to say that its worth it to take your time to figure out who you are, what you're about, and what's most important to you. And once you figure that out, just go out and do that, and be that! <<
Listen to Donna Missal HERE!
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North American Tour Dates w/ Sir Sly & Joywave
11/6 - Englewood, CO - Gothic Theater
11/7 - Salt Lake City, UT - Soundwell
11/9 - Seattle, WA - Neptune
11/10 - Portland, OR - Roseland Theater
11/12 - San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore
11/13 - San Luis Obispo, CA - SLO Brew Rock
11/16 - Sanata Ana, CA - The Observatory
11/17 - Los Angeles, CA - The Fonda Theater
11/18 - San Diego, CA - The Observatory North Park