The Little Voices In Your Head

 The Little Voices In Your Head

Hasti Amiri

Who’s the best idol in your opinion? 1, 2,3, go. Yes, that person. Could you think of the journey they had? How did they get to the point to get started, how did they feel when they did, and what made them decide that? So many questions to be answered. I don’t know about you but I thought of such questions so many times over and over again. And frankly, I never truly got an answer. Because at last, I thought maybe none of those mattered. Only the prize matters, and I think that kept them doing everything. 

Perhaps it’s a cliché about musicians, but I always knew I wanted to become one. Even as a kid when you change your mind about who you want to become every hour, the one I came back to the most was an artist. And all the Barbie movies of the early 2000s absolutely helped with that dream. Memorizing and performing them in my bedroom with my best friend at the time. We lost touch years ago. I don’t know how she is but I don’t think she committed to that dream. What dream are you committing to?

Fast forward to when I was 12, I got the best gift I ever received: my first acoustic black guitar plus a teacher. Things couldn’t get better. Not many people know this about me but I changed my genre 3 times. The first genre I played was flamenco, the most suitable for this kind of guitar, then I changed to classical. The little Hasti in me only saw an instrument just as a bonus given the fact that my goal was to be a singer-songwriter, so all of these experiences felt exciting. But the one thing I didn’t come to terms with was the biggest flaw a musician could have: shyness.

I would say that’s probably the first big challenge I had to overcome. In an industry where you’re seen and analyzed from every possible situation these days you can’t be shy and be good at it. Unfortunately because of that trait I had, I have no documented proof of all the songs I made and played back then. Only 1 video of playing Hotel California by The Eagles, 1 audio of playing Asturias by Isaac Albéniz, and 1 video of playing “I’m Alright” by Jersey Green. But I knew I had to get over this. Why? Because of the bigger vision.

And the practice paid off. A little later in 2019, I started recording myself covering other people's songs. There were so many little voices in my head saying “You could do better. That “it’s too early”. That “it’s too late”. What if it’s not perfect? Well, you don’t need to be perfect. You just have to do it. 

Fortunately, I didn’t stop. In fact, it got better. Later on, in 2022 I started releasing my OWN original songs. Written, sung, played, and produced by me. Now I’d like to do it more. Do bigger things. And I’m not planning to stop. 

Neither should you. It’s so easy to stay stuck behind something. Now I could come up with a more sappy story about all those years but being sappy doesn’t help you. New thoughts would. Those little voices in your head are just little fears from everything else you’ve heard. They’re there from your past. Not the future. They’re not the real you. They can be very helpful once you train them. Think of them as the little new cute puppy you got (or whatever else that resonates with you). You just have to realize your own bigger vision. What is it?