“My personal definition of success is happiness. It is also trying and knowing that failing feels better than regretting.” @LucidOptics

Listen to the interview: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/avaliveradio/2015/09/17/episode-257-ava-live-radio-behind-the-music-with-jacqueline-jax

GETTING TO KNOW LUCID OPTICS
by Jacqueline Jax host of A.V.A Live Radio

My personal definition of success is…
Happiness. It is also trying and knowing that failing feels better than regretting.

I always continue to challenge myself…
I am never comfortable for a very long time, whether it is because I am new to touring or because my personal life is running rampant. Family and friends moving away, relationships starting and ending, it all gears me to stay fresh and try new things. I also play guitar, bass, keys and a slew of other instruments so I am always improving on them and finding ways to incorporate new elements into music and performing.

I am most afraid of…
Politicians since they are the highest demographic of sociopath. It scares me that more likely than not people making our decisions are insane and they are funded by monsters like Wall Street.

I got into music…
when I started playing guitar, which was the first step. I started playing around 8 years old, but I did not start producing and rapping until I was 16.

I live in San Jose, CA…
There is potential for great things here, but I am not a big fan of most of the venues and promoters. My favorite venue nearby is the Honey Hive Gallery in San Francisco and that is about an hour away. Besides music, there is great food all around, the beach is a 30-minute drive and there are hills and forests surrounding the Bay Area. It is definitely a great place to be. It is expensive for good reasons.

“The Fox Brings No News” is…
a song that relates to a part of my life where I was becoming more unstable and I knew that trend would continue if I pursued music. When I wrote this song, I was in a new home and already had to find another one, my family was trying to get my uncle out of jail for a crime he did not commit, I was trying too hard to make it work with someone who let me put in all the effort in and on top of it all, I was just starting to put together my first tour. It was a rough year, but I convinced myself to keep pushing.

This fall, you can expect…
to see a group called Modern Language that is comprised of myself on the raps and my friend Museum on the beats. We have got about 8 tracks that we are calling Consume With Caution at the moment. The main goal is always giving people something priceless in return for their support. I had to approach this differently because the feeling was already laid down before I started writing, but we got into a really smooth process pretty quickly. He sent me beats and I would usually have something ready in a couple days. Then, I sat on it all for about a year to nitpick the way I said it. I am used to producing my own stuff, so it was nice being able to focus all on one aspect. We will probably be releasing this with our own label, Inkiscape Records, unless we get offered something really wonderful. I like building with my own bricks.

It was really difficult to start seeing music as an industry…
I was and still am ruffled by how wealth here is distributed, but that is just how America greedily thinks right now. It physically hurt me when Walmart was the #1 music retailer in the country. I am glad that it is over.
It took me 8 years of trudging to be able to make enough money to travel the country playing music and I still occasionally sleep in a car or do not make enough to eat. However, I meet people and make friends along the way and that is the important part. The music industry is heavily barter-based in the early stages. I did not worry about money because giving someone meaningful music got me great conversation, food and a couch to sleep on. Show culture is really supportive like that.

I highly prefer releasing albums…
but I do need to drop more singles in between projects. I like the creative process behind albums since we come up with themes and gather the feels of that year or however long it takes and think of an artwork that really brands that period. A single feels more like a marketing ploy. And if it is not a marketing ploy, I wonder where the other seven amazing songs are. That does seem effective though. Time to drop some singles!

Music marketing for an artist is great because…
It is important to know who is listening and what interests you have in common outside of music. I am still in the process of branding myself, so the strategy is always getting revised and improved. Getting people to shows has been the most effective method so far. Just taking time to hit people up on a personal level and letting them know if they come out is worth it.

I definitely found a balance between…
being myself and being trendy. I think the general guideline for me is if it feels contrived, I do not release it.

Social media is great…
because it is easy to keep in touch with people and see what is going on. It is frustrating to see how convoluted these websites are. However, the toughest part is getting people to click play.

I would love to have 5 minutes alone with…
Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Bill Nye, Aesop Rock, MF DOOM, Sarah Silverman and basically anybody who is motivated enough to do what they love. That is too tough of a question for me to narrow it down to one person. For the sake of music, I will hold back on the sexual answer for this question.

https://twitter.com/Modern_Language
https://modernlanguage.bandcamp.com