It is with great honor and pleasure to present to you an exclusive interview with Vivek Shraya. She has well established her name in the world of literature having thus far received several awards and recognition for her work such as God Loves Hair, She of the Mountains, and Even this Page is White to name a few. Most recently, she has been a three time finalist for the Lambda Literary Award as well as the winner for the 2015 Toronto Arts Foundation Emerging Artist Award. Her most current book, The Boy and the Bindi has just been released as her first children's book. On top of this, she has broaden her talents as a public speaker, an essayist and has worked in film and music having made several records such as Breathe Again: A Tribute to Babyface, Girl It's your Time, I Could be Good for You. She is currently touring with her most recent project Too Attached as a duo with her brother Shamik on the #LY2D tour with Shura and Tegan and Sara. She currently resides in Toronto.
MQ: This might come
off as sort of a broad question, but how would you define yourself as a writer,
artist, and musician? Is there one motive, or do you wear several hats when
jumping between music, literature, and art?
VS: I like the broadness, the limitlessness of ‘artist’.
Artist encapsulates the many hats I wear and the art forms I have not yet
explored.
MQ: I remember one of
your posts a while back on how you would have anxiety over the ‘what if’
moments as in what if you didn’t finish your book (She of the Mountains, at the time). I guess with that said, how did
you push through the ‘creator’s dark moment’? And with that, what drives you as
a writer and has it developed into something different versus how you wrote in
the past?
VS: I think I am largely driven by the pain of an unrealized
idea – I am unburdened by the actualization of the idea.
MQ: What contributes
to your success?
VS: I think there are a lot of factors that contribute to
success in general but in my case, I would say the elements that seemed to have
been most essential are a strong work ethic, persistence, taking risks and good
old fashioned luck.
MQ: How do you stay
fresh with projects?
VS: This is challenging because like most artists, I am drawn
to similar themes. My way to counter this is to always ensure that I am
approaching any idea, including a reoccurring theme, with a fresh or different
perspective.
MQ: What would you
like your readers to get out of your books?
VS: At the core of a lot of my art and books is self-love
and my hope is this inspires readers to be able to do so as well.
MQ: Being so involved
with ongoing projects, touring, creating your music, writing, and
collaborations…how do you find the time? Or better yet, what do you do to
balance it all along with family, friends, relationships, and personal time?
VS: Art is a discipline. Making art involves making the time
to make art. This sometimes means making sacrifices – blocking off time to make
art as opposed to seeing the new Jason Statham movie. But I do also work hard
to prioritize my relationships. I think balance is found by understanding that
art benefits from breaks and from leaving the house. And that relationships are
just as important as making art.
MQ: With Too
Attached, how do you and your brother Shamik work together? Do you collaborate
together or separately?
VS: Shamik is the producer, so often he will send me a beat
or sample he has been working on. I will ask him what inspired him or what he was
thinking about when he composed it. Then I will try to build lyrics and melody
on top of the sounds. Because we live in different cities, a lot of our
collaboration happens over email. Too Attached is very millennial.
MQ: What has been
your favorite experience thus far while out on tour?
VS: The opening night of the #LY2D tour was surreal. It was
the first night of the tour, which always has a certain magic quality, and even
though my brother and I have been playing music separately for years, I haven’t
played a lot of giant theatre spaces like TCU Place in Saskatoon.
MQ: Congratulations
on your latest book The Boy & the
Bindi that just came out. Tell me a little about it. What was your inspiration
in writing it? What were some challenges and rewards?
VS: While a lot of my day job and art work explores gender,
I wanted to create a project that would explore gender at a younger age and in
an innocuous manner. The biggest challenge was not knowing if a publisher would
pick up the book especially as my publisher was not accepting children’s
picture book manuscripts at the time. It was rewarding to have them take a
chance on this project, their first children’s picture book!
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