Today we’d like to introduce you to Alana Dixon.
Hi Alana, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers?
Growing up in a Samoan family, everyone sings or at least everyone can sing on key. So, I have been singing for as long as I can remember. My parents got me into a few different instruments during my adolescent years and that took me to a whole other place with music. I really found a passion for singing and playing guitar. From then, I joined my church’s youth worship team. It was the thing that introduced me to actually rehearsing and learning more about my craft. After leaving the church, I had to find another outlet for myself and that is when I began writing my own songs. It has been four years now and I have been putting out my own music for the last two years or so.
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?
To be honest, I do think it has been a smooth road for me. I do try my best to always have the “glass half full” type of mentality because I know that everything thus far has had its purpose in my life and I don’t take anything for granted. If anything, I have definitely had identity issues. After I came out publicly and stopped going to church, I really started to doubt who I was. I was spending most of my time at church and with people from my church so I pretty much lost all I had known. That is what started theholyrainbowclub. I had allowed other people to make me feel worthless; essentially “unholy” and I took the power back by coming up with that moniker. Of course, I have the same struggles as other creatives like the struggles of not feeling good enough to put music out or not being inspired enough to create. I get over those two things pretty quickly when those doubts come around because I now know exactly who I am and who I am trying to be.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I currently make music under the moniker “theholyrainbowclub” and also have a hand in making music with Kai S. of Topeka Clementine. I wouldn’t say I have a particular sound; I just make the music I want to hear at the time so it varies. Right now, I would say I am most proud of my debut EP, HOLYHEARTBREAK. The younger version of myself never imagined I would step foot into a recording studio, let alone be able to put together a group of songs that are cohesive and actually sound good. I really feel like I can do anything now that I have gotten that out of the way. I just want to make the music that I needed to hear when I was a kid. I am trying to be the most real version of myself in every song that I put out and I think that is what attracts people to my music. I am not trying to be anyone but I and people can relate to that. The music I create is authentic and I think that is rare in a lot of the mainstream music we hear today.
Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
I have learned that I can really do anything I want to if I want it bad enough. After putting out my first single on a whim, I had no intention of doing anything with it but a week later, a stranger at the time hit me up to shoot a video for it, Dean Aguirre of Deans Dead. We met up that weekend and shot the video a week later. It was kind of crazy. He put together an entire camera crew and I paid to shoot at the Disco House in San Diego. At the time, everything was moving so quickly and before I knew it, I had just shot my first music video and wrapped an 8-hour session. My mind was blown and I was ready for more. During that time, I had people like Dean Aguirre and Obed Padilla, another successful music artist from Oceanside, believing in me more than I believed in myself. After that day, I really started to believe in myself and realized that there is no ceiling. I am the ceiling and as long as I can get past the self-doubt, anything is possible.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theholyrainbowclub/?hl=en
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/holyrainbowclub
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCI0yZI5faEZZAShf8tUnz8A?app=desktop
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-304245359
