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Someone once said “Don’t let people who are too weak to follow their dreams discourage you from pursuing yours”. It is important to be determined and focused to accomplish your dreams. This is true in many ways. Some end up regretting not following through with their dreams, because they are afraid of failing. Call it a lack of passion and determination. In this modern day of social media and online forums, all you see are posts and articles that are negative.
Most of the time, they are baseless claims. Unfortunately, they criticize and discourage without caring who they discredit. Misleading and false news is everywhere. Yes, there are legitimate claims. There are also opinions that are biased. However, the point of this interview is to continue moving forward regardless of what others say. Afterall, whose passion is it anyway? It is yours, and no one should discourage you from accomplishing your dreams. Your success as an artist is affected by your level of passion. How passionate are you? Have you let discouragement hold you back from succeeding as an artist? Will you be determined to, with passion, commit to success?
I believe the rate of failure is so high, not because of lack of talent. It is due to discouragement. Unfortunately, the source of discouragement can be from anyone, including friends and family. When that source is from someone you love, it tends to reduce our desire, or passion. This topic is intriguing, and will require a candid discussion with someone from the music industry. However, not just a random artist: one that has experienced temporary failure, and also long term success. I couldn’t help but make this a topic for our discussion with Rose Cora Perry & The Truth Untold.
Rose Cora Perry has been performing with The Truth Untold in the music industry for years. She makes an excellent source for this topic “Maintain your passion for music, despite discouragement. How? ” I was very interested in knowing how she is able to maintain passion for music, while experiencing discouragement.
Performer since age four. Writer since age seven. CEO of Record Label & Publicity Firm at 15.
Rose Cora Perry is the former front woman of major label signed act Anti-Hero and has performed at some of the world’s most renowned music festivals including: Summer NAMM, Canadian Music Week, NorthbyNortheast, Pittsburgh’s Three Rivers Regatta, Warped Tour, and MEANYFest NYC.
Bringing audiences of over 500,000 to tears with her emotional sound and sincere performances, Rose has been crowned a well-respected industry pro and has been named one of the Top #10 talents in Canada. In line with her efforts, in 2011, she was invited to attend the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles as a honourary special guest artist.
She's performed at Budweiser Gardens, graced the covers of magazines, achieved “Top 30” radio singles, conducted numerous guest lectures, served as a Voting Committee Member for the Jack Richardson Music Awards and was elected to represent the “voice of the independent musician” in a three-month expose for Canadian Musician.
While most recognized for her contributions to the Great White North's indie rock scene, as a classically trained performer with over 20 years on stage, Perry is skilled at singing in any genre and compelling audiences of all ages - a fact that was proved when she landed a starring role as Vivienne Kensington (Elle Wood's adversary) in Simply Theatre's production of Legally Blonde and was credited as playing the character with "the right amount of feline fastidiousness and overweening self-possession."
In 2010, Perry launched her critically acclaimed debut solo album, "Off Of the Pages" and its associated non-for-profit foundation, MusicSaves, which aims to impart onto troubled youth the healing capacity of music. In association with her foundation, Perry has volunteered her time as a Guest Speaker and Editorialist for a variety of Mental Health events and publications.
Beyond her music-making, Perry has worked as a Photography Model, Graphic/Web Designer, Social Media Manager/Publicist and is the brainchild of four successful column series. In 2012, she finally got to fulfilling a longstanding shelved dream of hers: to make the transition from Print Journalism to Broadcast.
Perry hosted two popular programs on RogersTV: London's Driven, a community-produced bimonthly pilot series which featured young entrepreneurs striving to make a difference in the Forest City and Mosaic, a regularly scheduled “live-to-taped” weekly program which profiled members of London’s multi-cultural community and the organizations that serve them.
Rose continues to regularly lend her talents toward various non-for-profit and community events acting as an Emcee, including London Defeat Depression.
2016 marked the triumphant return of Perry's musical efforts with the critically acclaimed worldwide release of her sophomore solo album, "Onto the Floor". In conjunction with the album's release, Perry formed high energy powerhouse duo, The Truth Untold, featuring the exceptional talent of Tyler Randall on Drums (Blind Mag/Swerve); Perry handles Vocals, Guitar and Songwriting. GTA Bassist Carmen North joins the band live on tour.
Within a mere six months of coming together as a live performance act for Rose Cora Perry's latest release, The Truth Untold conquered audiences of 25,000+ , performing at notable festivals and winning over crowds of 20-somethings and babyboomers alike.
Rose Cora Perry has been in the music industry for more than just a couple of years. As I mentioned earlier, she is well aware of the pitfalls of discouragement. However, there are many reasons to maintain your courage, and to focus on success with passion.
GT: Hi Rose. This is our first time interviewing you. So, we welcome you to our platform. Thank you for joining us.
GT: The topic is very “hopeful” as some artists will quit at the first sight of negative feedback, or signs of failure. While negative comments about your efforts in the music industry can rattle your confidence, it should never be reason to quit. Can you recall a specific time, where you felt like giving up? If so, how did you overcome it?
Rose: Like other indie bands, I’m sure, there have been many moments where it’s felt like we were finally “breaking through” the proverbial glass ceiling only to have the rug pulled out from under us. Perhaps the most striking example of this for us was Roxodus: the Canadian equivalent of Fyre Festival.
After several years of touring and achieving notable success, we thought we had been blessed with our so-called “big break” – the opportunity to be a support act at a major event wherein we’d be opening for Aerosmith and sharing the bill with the likes of Lynyrd Skynyrd, Nickelback, Alice Cooper etc...only for the event to be cancelled last minute and the coordinators to claim bankruptcy and go into hiding. True story. You should look it up. As far as how I overcame it? Admittedly, I’m still bitter. Man that would’ve been sweet to open for Aerosmith – I basically know the lyrics to all of their songs. Steven Tyler – I’m totally cool to sing your backups k?
I am hopeful another opportunity (a real one) will come our way. It’s unfortunate when scam artists take advantage of hopeful bands and excited audiences alike. In light of the cancellation, we were able to get added to a local festival that same weekend and we invited a group of disgruntled fans to come see us perform which made their day.
GT: To be successful, an artist has to have more than passion. The other component is talent. However, there has got to be more of a formula to keep artists motivated, despite trials and challenges in the music industry. What components would you suggest to an artist facing difficult times?
Rose: Remember why you’re doing this in the first place: it’s about the music. Try not to get caught up in the social media “popularity contest” and certainly don’t ever become disingenuous about yourself or your art. Your real fans will appreciate you for your uniqueness, your talent and what you’re all about. Stay true to yourself.
GT: Baseless claims are never going away. There will always be negative reviews, or opinions, no matter how talented a person may be. A reputation as a music critic doesn’t give you the end all, be all when it comes to music. It just doesn’t. Everyone is going to hear music differently. How serious do you take critics of your music?
Rose: Most artists (myself included) are sensitive souls and so when we receive criticism about our art which is very personal to us, it’s hard not to let it affect you. However, I learned a valuable lesson about music critics early on in my career and that’s to take everything they say with a grain of salt.
I literally had the SAME music critic completely decimate my music when reviewing my band’s album, only to sing my praises on how amazing my songwriting was when she reviewed a live performance. Hard to believe that somehow the SAME songs, in her eyes, “sucked” on record but were “radio-worthy” in person.
Maybe she was just having a bad day when she did the album review or maybe she was pushed to write negative “clickbait” material to sell more magazines. We’ll never know.
GT: The topic for this interview revolves around passion. Having passion for your job, or anything that you undergo is instrumental to success. What is one key takeaway for maintaining passion despite being discouraged?
Rose: Cut out the noise and focus on what’s (and who is) important to you. There will always be more work. There will always be more obligations. There will always be bad days and good days. A full life is one wherein you make time for the things in your heart and soul.
GT: Excellent. I really appreciate your honest feedback. I want to talk to you about your achievements. You were in a band called Anti-Hero. Tell us about the band, and why did you decided to leave? Especially, when they were experiencing success?
Rose: Anti-Hero was one of my most successful projects to date. We were the top selling independent artist for our label, we were signed to a major label, we were heavily touring North America, we had a licensing deal with MTV…the list goes on.
I didn’t so much leave as the band imploded. Unfortunately, as is too often a story in rock’n’roll, my bandmates were more interested in the sex and drugs lifestyle than the music itself. For me it always has been and always will be about the music.
GT: All bands go through challenges. Are there challenges with the new band you are with? If so, do you have a plan of action to resolve conflict?
Rose: My current band consists of myself, my spouse Tyler Randall (drums/co-founder) and our touring bassist/backing vocalist Carmen North. I’m very fortunate that both Tyler and Carmen are incredibly gifted musicians and we all have a fantastic working relationship.
Our biggest conflict is likely scheduling as Carmen – being a fantastic frontwoman herself – has other projects that she invests her energy into. We are grateful for the times we get to work together.
As far as managing that conflict, we try to book events as far in advance as possible so that everyone has adequate time to figure out scheduling.
GT: Nice. Tell us if you could a little bit about your band. Who are they, and how did you meet them?
Rose: I met Tyler, my drummer/co-founder through a local Facebook musicians group. We set up an audition for him to be considered as the drummer for my new project and the moment I heard him play, I knew I didn’t have to audition anyone else. He understood my music in a way no one else ever has. The same can be said about him understanding me, in general, which is why we fell in love. Carmen, we met when our respective bands were booked together for a gig in Toronto. We bonded over having to carry a full drumkit up a terribly steep staircase. She and her bandmates were gracious enough to lend their assistance.
Carmen then asked if she could borrow my amp for her band’s set. I said “sure, no problem” and asked what level of distortion she wanted it set at. When she told me to “crank it”, I knew she was my soul sister. We’ve been friends ever since, supporting each other’s careers.
GT: I believe that you have a great thing going. I love your sound, and you are very authentic which is one of the things we look for in bands we want to interview. What kind of projects are you working on?
Rose: After a forced unintended hiatus due to the pandemic, we have just released our covid-themed anthem, “Not My Time” to both radio and video airwaves. Written directly following my own triumphant battle against the virus, the song strongly exclaims in no uncertain terms, it’s “not” my “time” to die. I am hopeful the song will resonate with anyone who has experienced psychological or physical challenges on account of the pandemic, giving them a sense of hope to not give up.
I hope you’ll check out the video on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSo7_hlFrMA
GT: That is awesome. We will be keeping tabs on your progress. Like I said, you’re an excellent band, and will make a huge impact on North America and other countries as well. You always have a home at Guitar Thrills Magazine which is stoked to feature Rose Cora Perry and The Truth Untold in the December issue. Please do not hesitate to reach out to us as you continue performing in the music industry.
Rose: Thanks so much! We’re truly grateful for your support and thanks for this fantastic interview! Great questions.
