Rising Stars: Meet Monica Guardado

Today we’d like to introduce you to Monica Guardado.

Monica, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
As a kid, I truly believed that songs existed outside of time. My favorite songs sounded so complete and perfect to me, that I assumed they just came to earth fully formed, straight from heaven. I also thought that’s how babies were made, too, so clearly I was still a little clueless.

But fantastical 5-year-old imaginations aside, one day it dawned on me that people, in fact, did write songs. What sealed my fate was a gift from my brother: his “Diary of Alicia Keys” CD. I learned every song on that CD until I could sing it by heart, all I wanted to do was to be able to play and sing like Alicia.

I asked my parents to get me piano lessons, and they signed me up. I struggled through classical piano exercises, and admittedly, I wasn’t the best student in the world.

Sitting still for 15 minutes while reading sheet music felt like torture for an ADD child like myself. But still, I am grateful for those years of piano lessons because they gave me the foundation I needed to be able to write songs.

I was 15 when I actually started writing my own material. I remember fumbling through chord progressions, feeling frustrated because I didn’t really know what made a song “good”, but I was trying desperately to figure it out. And that’s when I began to really deeply listen to music from a variety of genres, though I gravitated the most towards alternative artists such as Fiona Apple, Coldplay, The Killers, and Regina Spektor.

I started performing my songs live when I was 22 while living in San Francisco. I’m incredibly thankful to the folks of the Bay Area music scene for nurturing up-and-coming artists such as myself. I got to encounter artists from all walks of life, and everyone was so supportive of each other’s music I consider myself lucky to have taken my first steps as a musician there.

That was a defining period in my life because after I performed my couple of sets in town (shout out to Hotel Utah and Neck of The Woods!) it gave me the confidence to give my songwriting career an honest shot and move to Nashville, after never having set foot in that city. So, I applied for a healthcare job in Midtown and got it, so there was no turning back.

I’ve been here in Nashville since June 2019, and have since released three songs. My most recent song “Virginia”, even has a music video! I am currently in the process of recording my first EP, titled Night School, which I hope to have released by the late summer of this year.

I played my first ever full-band show at The East Room just a couple of weeks ago, and I’ve been humbled by the generosity of the artist community here and feel super honored to have the love and support of so many talented people in music city.

I am looking forward to the year ahead and am excited to continue growing alongside my peers.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I grappled with a lot of anxiety around performing in front of people, but I had reached a point where facing my fear was the only option. When I was 22, and new to San Francisco, I was working a full-time job then which left me drained and depressed, and I felt like I had no real purpose.

Something in me knew that the only way to bring myself back to life was to take a risk and perform my songs. I started out by playing local open mics and had terrible stage fright. I recall asking a fellow performer how he avoided getting nervous before a gig, and his reply was “I have only one goal when I perform: And that’s to bomb as hard as I possibly can.”

While I don’t take his advice completely to heart, it was liberating seeing someone else give themselves permission to surrender and make mistakes, and that gave me the courage to keep on getting on stage.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am an indie-pop artist: I play piano, write my own songs and perform them. I think what I am most proud of at this point in my career is the ability to write lyrics that draw people into a world of my own making.

It’s something I studied really closely in one of my idols, Regina Spektor’s work. When I craft a song, and it captures my audience’s attention and draws them into an experience, it feels like an absolute triumph.

What sets me apart from other artists is perhaps my thematic style of storytelling in my songs. I craft my songs a lot around the gritty truths you learn through life, and that’s the theme that ties my upcoming EP “Night School” altogether.

Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
What I like most about Nashville is the abundance of resources available to artists.

There’s no shortage of open mics, writer’s rounds, and venues to play, not to mention co-writes, and songwriting workshops. The artist community here is really supportive of one another in my experience, and we all want to see each other succeed.

What I like least about Nashville is the increasing traffic and cost of living.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.monicaguardado.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/monicamoment/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/monicagmusic/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLeeBcQZ3JbbcHZJZCw4yQg
• SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/monica-guardado-2

Image Credits
Ray Patton, Oceanna Colgan, Gerard Longo, and Riley McNeil Johnson