The Charleston Marketing Podcast
Welcome to The Charleston Marketing Podcast, the podcast that dives deep into the world of marketing, with a specific focus on the vibrant city of Charleston. Join us as we explore the strategies, trends, and success stories that shape the marketing landscape in this historic and captivating coastal city.
Each episode of The Charleston Marketing Podcast brings you exclusive interviews with local marketing experts, industry thought leaders and Charleston entrepreneurs who have harnessed the power of effective marketing in the Lowcountry and beyond. From strategic communication, social media, PR, digital strategy and everything in between, we uncover valuable insights and actionable tips for our listeners.
The Charleston Marketing Podcast
The Gift of Music: Ada Pasternak on Finding Purpose Through Art
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Meet Ada Pasternak, a musical force whose extraordinary journey defies conventional paths. Born in Moscow to musician parents and raised on the East Coast, Ada's early life as a violin prodigy took an unexpected turn when debilitating tendonitis threatened to end her musical career entirely. What followed wasn't defeat but a remarkable reinvention.
During our conversation, Ada reveals the pivotal moment when—encouraged by her mother's intuition—she applied to Berklee College of Music minutes before the deadline and earned a full scholarship despite not having played violin for years. This turning point opened a world beyond classical music, as Ada discovered her voice as a singer-songwriter and expanded her repertoire to include folk, pop, jazz, and country influences. Her collaborations with Postmodern Jukebox launched her Los Angeles career before Nashville beckoned with its rich songwriting community.
What truly sets Ada apart isn't just her versatility across musical genres or her mastery of violin, voice, and songwriting—it's her profound commitment to using music as a vehicle for connection and healing. Her newly established nonprofit, "Ada's Gift of Music," brings musical experiences to children in hospitals and underserved communities, reflecting her belief that music's true power lies in its ability to transform lives. During her first visit to Charleston, she immediately sought opportunities to perform at the children's hospital and historic synagogue rather than typical tourist activities.
Ada's hit song "Perfectly Imperfect" has struck a chord with listeners seeking authenticity in a world obsessed with curated perfection, inspiring her upcoming children's book of the same name. Between performing from her vast catalogue of hundreds of original songs, designing merchandise, and planning collaborations, Ada exemplifies the modern independent artist—one who refuses categorization and creates on her own terms.
Subscribe to follow Ada's musical journey and discover how sometimes our greatest challenges—like being forced to put down the violin—lead to gifts we never imagined possible. Visit AdaPasternak.com to explore her music and support her philanthropic efforts bringing music to those who need it most.
Presenting Sponsor: Charleston Media Solutions
Title Sponsor: Charleston American Marketing Association
Cohosts: Stephanie Barrow, Mike Compton,
Produced and edited: RMBO Advertising
Photographer | Co-host: Kelli Morse
Art Director: Taylor Ion
CAMA President: Margaret Stypa
Score by: The Strawberry Entrée; Jerry Feels Good, CURRYSAUCE, DBLCRWN, DJ DollaMenu
Studio Engineer: Brian Cleary and Mathew Chase
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Welcome to the Charleston Marketing Podcast, powered by the Charleston American Marketing Association and broadcasting from our home at Charleston Radio Group. Thanks to CRG, we're able to talk with the movers and shakers of Charleston, from economy to art, from hospitality to tech and everything in between. These leaders have made a home here in the Lowcountry. They live here, they work here, they make change here.
Speaker 2:Why let's talk about it. Hello and welcome to the charleston marketing podcast. Compton here, co-founder and president of rumble advertising and your incoming president of the charleston american marketing association. I am going to talk loudly now to match my partner, step Stephanie over there. Yeah, let's bring it.
Speaker 3:What's up, guys. I'm Stephanie Barrow, founder of Stephanie Barrow Consulting, a digital marketing strategy agency here in Charleston, and your Kima Pass president. Yay, I'm excited and I'm always excited.
Speaker 4:Well, you should be excited.
Speaker 3:I'm specifically excited to have a musician in the house, someone I got to know last night. So for all you music lovers and listeners, you got a treat in store for us today. We have the legendary legendary legendary incomparable Ada Pasternak.
Speaker 2:Ada like Prada.
Speaker 3:Ada like Prada in the studio, say hello to our listeners. Hello listeners.
Speaker 2:Awesome. So you're coming from Nashville this week, yeah, and you're doing a little tour of Charleston.
Speaker 5:Yeah, it's my first time actually in Charleston.
Speaker 2:So what are your thoughts so far? Well, you landed what One o'clock yesterday.
Speaker 5:I landed a couple days ago. Everyone seems to be really nice and friendly and easygoing.
Speaker 3:Which is nice. It is which I really love. It's like a laid back city Lay back city.
Speaker 2:Has anybody said to bless your heart?
Speaker 3:Not yet. Okay, you're in good time, you're in the clear. I sincerely try to avoid.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I haven't gotten one of those yet.
Speaker 2:I'm sure I will. Everybody knows what I'm talking about, right?
Speaker 5:But yeah, it's been a good two days Good, busy, but I'm really happy to be here. You did something really cool yesterday. What did you do? I don't remember what did I do. Oh, I did a few things.
Speaker 3:Yesterday I visited a beautiful synagogue here in Charleston, which is I forgot the name. I saw your photos on Instagram Stunning.
Speaker 5:It's like the oldest synagogue in the country. Right.
Speaker 3:Like 1700.
Speaker 5:Amazing so that was really cool and I played my violin and I played a song in there. Oh wow, but the acoustics were it was really it was really special. It's really amazing to be like in a synagogue or a church, just like a house, like a house of worship, like that you just feel that and the spiritual.
Speaker 3:I have to ask you later on if you played at the ryman not yet, but I will bucket list.
Speaker 5:Yes, yes, all right and then after that I went to visit the children's hospital and I played some some Disney songs for the kids.
Speaker 2:Were you a princess, did you bring the princess outfit?
Speaker 5:I didn't bring the princess outfit On Instagram. Did you order the princess outfit?
Speaker 3:for it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she was Snow White on Instagram. Yeah, Snow White, you look just like Snow White she does?
Speaker 5:She does look just like Snow White.
Speaker 4:Am I wrong.
Speaker 5:I wish I had the chance to audition for that role.
Speaker 2:I would have you had crushed it for sure. Well, nice. Well, thank you for doing that.
Speaker 3:I saw that movie. You would have done really well.
Speaker 2:I saw it over the weekend it was awesome musc says it's got such a soft spot in my heart and our engineer's heart and a lot of people here in charlotte, well, in musc specifically the sean jenkins hospital that you were doing such great things with. I mean, um, yeah, yeah, I don't have to talk how much I love it, but also the Charleston Media Solutions loves it. There too, they have a telethon there and they raised $355,000 for MUSC.
Speaker 3:Sean Jenkins, that's amazing, that's truly amazing.
Speaker 2:That's pretty awesome right.
Speaker 5:That's everything.
Speaker 2:Anyhow, what kind of music would you call the music that you are playing Singer songwriter folk? Well, the music that you are playing, I singer songwriter folk like well, like just to brag on her for a minute.
Speaker 3:She's country like. She's a super talented musician yeah she's a violinist yeah songwriter, vocalist, activist and a thrift a you can say it.
Speaker 2:You can say I can do it, yeah I wrote that so she does.
Speaker 3:She is doing all the things and I I did a deep dive last night. So we met yesterday and I was really excited about this for months, but I did a real deep dive. I had a glass of wine, I was sitting around my husband on the couch and we were just listening to your music and I feel like it was like a cool musical journey for me because you did a lot of cool covers like really like old school stuff that I love, um, like from Oscars, the movies and that kind of thing. And then you have this song out right now. That's like I think your recent singer saw a single which is like a banger for me.
Speaker 3:It's awesome. Uh, rose. I listened to it on repeat and I was like, okay, this is the kind of hype song I would like listen to on the car on the way out, or like you could hear it mixed like at a club with like beats behind it. And then she's got these like really telling songs that she'd like a singer-songwriter vibe, kind of like Colby Calais, where she's talking about her life and her journeys. You are extremely talented thank you no, I mean it.
Speaker 3:Like you are extremely talented and then if you follow her on Instagram, you seeing her like playing the violin and like killing it and playing all these instruments, like you have a huge career in front of you. Like it's really exciting to meet you and to get to know you and I'm really, really thrilled for all you've got going on.
Speaker 5:Thank you, that's so nice. I'm so happy you listened last night.
Speaker 3:No, it was just. It was all different genres of music in a sense. So when, happy you listened last night, no, um, it was just, it was all different genres of music in a sense. So when you ask her, like, what kind of I'm?
Speaker 5:curious to get your answer on that, right? Yeah, I get asked that a lot because people always try to box you in, you know yeah, like no I get that question all the time and I understand the question, um, but yeah, it's tough to say because, um, I like so many different kinds of music as a listener, I'll listen to different kinds of music depending on like mood or what I need. Sometimes you need to hear some jazz.
Speaker 3:Yeah, she was going Moon River and then to cussing. I was dancing, I was like this is awesome.
Speaker 5:We have different moods. We're human. We're not just one thing, we're lots of things.
Speaker 3:I love it.
Speaker 5:Sometimes I'm sad and I need to rock out to some 90s rock or some Metallica or something. It just depends, yeah, and I'm a big Beatles fan, I love John Mayer, I like old school jazz, like Ella Fitzgerald, all this stuff. So I just like a good song, and there's good songs in every genre and every era. But, yeah, my songwriting I write about my experiences in life. So I've written about everything from, like you know, drug addiction and suicide, awareness, mental health breakups, leaving my family and then starting over and moving to California and then, you know, buying a one way ticket to Nashville. I mean, I've written about everything I've gone through it, cutting off her hair.
Speaker 5:Yeah, so yeah. I've been through a lot and I'm just expressing myself through music and hoping to help other people in the meantime. I love it.
Speaker 2:I even like the music. I didn't recognize the language too, so what language were you singing?
Speaker 5:I forget what song I was listening to, but it was yes, I know what you're talking about because, um, I usually sing in english, but, um, my first language is actually russian yeah, I was born in moscow and I recorded an album with my parents. That's where I I'm headed. They're really talented musicians.
Speaker 2:That's what I'm asking, yeah.
Speaker 5:Yeah, so when I lived in LA, they flew out to LA and we went into the studio for an afternoon and just recorded an album together.
Speaker 6:That's amazing.
Speaker 3:We just jammed With your mom and dad. It was really fun.
Speaker 2:Yeah it was really fun.
Speaker 3:Are they still in Moscow?
Speaker 5:questions yeah, how many questions we get so excited, we're all excited it's good to be excited. Yeah, it's good to be excited um waking you up at least. Um, yeah, I do have an older brother. He's also super talented. He's not on the album because he was preoccupied with other things at the time flicking your ear the whole time.
Speaker 2:you were doing it like a brother would, or was he poking you? No, he's not like a brother, like that. He was poking, poking something. Oh dear, oh, there you go, okay.
Speaker 6:No.
Speaker 5:Yeah, no, that's cool.
Speaker 2:So he was preoccupied so he wasn't able to make the session, but it's really neat.
Speaker 5:But it was really special to record the album with my parents and I would like to do another one now that my brother is sober and doing music. Oh, copy that I was here to say, if you haven't listened to her song.
Speaker 3:She has premonitions.
Speaker 5:Oh, wow. But now that he's playing music and stuff like that, it's just amazing to have him back in my life. I'm trying to get my family to play more together, because there's nothing more special than that.
Speaker 2:So you grew up in a household that played music. And what about your parents' parents? Did they also raise musicians?
Speaker 5:My parents' parents were music lovers, but they weren't.
Speaker 2:In Moscow, I'm assuming.
Speaker 5:My dad is from Moscow, my mom is not. My mom was born in Kyrgyzstan, central Asia.
Speaker 2:As you were. As one does, I've never been there, but have you.
Speaker 5:I've never been to Kyrgyzstan. I would love to take a trip there with my mom. I would love to take her there one day. And then she grew up. She lost her dad when she was four and then she ended up in Ukraine that's where she grew up, sure and then she went to visit Moscow for some music program. She was studying, and she met my dad at a theater in Moscow.
Speaker 1:And they fell in love.
Speaker 5:And he, like, walked her to the train and whispered poetry in her ears Stop it.
Speaker 3:Oh, I love it. Yeah, that is very romantic. Yeah, it was very romantic.
Speaker 2:Steph loves romance. I do, yeah, yeah, yeah, I love it.
Speaker 5:She's that type and they fell in love and had two children.
Speaker 4:Aw.
Speaker 5:And so yeah, I was born in Moscow and we immigrated to America when I was six, Grew up on the East Coast.
Speaker 2:East Coast, which part?
Speaker 5:of the East Coast. We lived in New York City for three years. Then we moved to Fairfield, connecticut Okay, right by the water, which was nice growing up by the beach.
Speaker 2:Heck yeah, musicians. The whole time your parents making, oh, yeah, yeah, my parents Bands.
Speaker 5:What are we doing here? Not so much More classical vibes, cool More like classical and world music. What you heard on my family album called Sweet Dreams, so not so much. I do more of the contemporary band thing.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 5:But my family's yeah.
Speaker 2:Got that background. That's really neat.
Speaker 5:Yeah, definitely born and raised into music.
Speaker 2:So how many instruments can you play?
Speaker 5:I can play one instrument well.
Speaker 2:Yes, I've heard that.
Speaker 5:Yes, that's the violin listeners.
Speaker 2:It's the violin and the guitar. That's the violin, listeners and the guitar.
Speaker 3:You play the guitar I've seen photos.
Speaker 5:I play a little guitar, a little piano, a little mandolin.
Speaker 3:Yes, I heard piano on some of your stuff too, that's amazing. So when you were out in LA, were you playing like Hotel Cafe, Troubadour, all those?
Speaker 5:spots. Yes, Hotel Cafe was a spot. That's a spot for singer-songwriters. That is still my favorite music venue.
Speaker 3:It is a hole in the wall right in the Hollywood area. It's like $10, $15 to get in. I saw John Mayer there. I've seen some of the best people in my life at Hotel Cafe. Actually, a good friend of mine started off doing her sets there and now she's like billionaire with the B multi.
Speaker 1:Nice.
Speaker 3:Like famous, famous, famous, nice, it's a cool spot, very cool If you haven't been to Hotel Cafe like really talented people. I can just like. I don't know if you this is going to age me, probably but there's a singer-songwriter that I used to love in LA called Miko, and I would go hear her at Hotel Cafe. Hotel Cafe, and you give me a little bit of her vibes.
Speaker 5:She's got good vibes. I'll have to check out her music. Yeah, she's great.
Speaker 2:Listeners know this Stephanie spent some time in LA, but Ada doesn't know this. How long did you spend in?
Speaker 3:LA Almost 10 years.
Speaker 2:Did you live in LA Ada?
Speaker 5:That's where I was before I just moved to Nashville. Oh okay, how long were you there for LA? About six years.
Speaker 3:That seems like a transition to go from LA to Nashville.
Speaker 2:That's what I did, too Crazy.
Speaker 4:Same. Thing.
Speaker 2:You're just not as talented as she is. You have other talents. I enjoy marketing.
Speaker 3:I have appreciation for music and musicians, but no, I cannot play or sing, I need marketing.
Speaker 5:There we go. I love it, I love it. I'm impressed by what you do. Oh, thank you.
Speaker 2:Aw, see, that's so nice. I'm glad I made fun of you just now so you can have that little Now Nashville has some really cool venues too, to do singer-songwriter nights at oh I can bet.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there's a lot of them Listening room, the listening room.
Speaker 5:It was an all-female lineup, which was nice.
Speaker 3:Oh, that's great. I love women. I do too.
Speaker 5:Yeah, it's just nice to be around other women so how has the Nashville community been embracing you since you? Moved to.
Speaker 6:LA. Is that what I did too? He's always surrounded by women.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 3:Has it been embracing you? It really has.
Speaker 5:Yes, yes, more so. Than LA and other places, and probably for a lot of reasons, nashville is also smaller, so it's easier to meet people and make friends and introduce yourself. But also I'm a better artist and songwriter now than I was four, five, six years ago. So that's another part of it the confidence and the experience and just being a better artist.
Speaker 3:That's amazing. I know there's so many wonderful publishing houses right there, like in the row where you can go and meet with people, and it's almost like an open door policy. It's been. It's such a cool place to live if you haven't spent much time in nashville and you're, you know, into the music industry not saying that it's like an all-for-all club, but kind of it's. People do really look out for one another which is nice, I bet.
Speaker 2:So that kind of leads us into the marketing and branding side of things. So you're going into these recording studios as Ada, your brand you. How did you build that? Where did you begin to build your personal brand as a musician?
Speaker 5:I would say when I was six.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 5:And the violin was placed into my hands.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 5:I mean my whole childhood was steeped in classical music so I was like a child prodigy violin virtuoso, like growing up, that's all I ever thought I would be or do. Never thought I would write a song or sing or live in Nashville or anything.
Speaker 2:So, with that said, your track was to be like in an orchestra.
Speaker 5:When I was 13, I was soloing with with professional orchestras. I was already amazing, better than the people in the orchestra in the us now too, because you said you came over. Yeah, yeah, I didn't yeah, um, yeah, I was very good at a young age, um, but um, all that came to a halt. I developed um like overuse syndrome and tendoninitis, which is unfortunately pretty common with classical musicians and athletes.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I physically couldn't play violin and so I was like, well, that sucks, because this is what I'm really good at and I've worked at for many hours, many years, and it all came to like the peak of my career. I was like standing ovations, 2,000 people, like signing autographs. I went backstage and cried, I was in so much pain and I couldn't play violin. It got to the point where I couldn't play violin.
Speaker 2:Come on.
Speaker 5:Yep, and I put it in the case and just was a normal teenager for a couple years, which was great. I hung out with my friends.
Speaker 1:I love it.
Speaker 5:No regrets there, but I didn't know if I'd ever do music again. You know, it was like obviously God has other plans for me and I don't know. Like I love music, but if I can't play without, being in pain. What's the point? You know?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's in front of you, right? You were surrounded by music with your family. You couldn't get away from music, so I bet that was tough.
Speaker 5:The story is yeah, it was tough, but I kind of just got used to it and I was like, whatever Story is, all my friends were applying to colleges. I already knew where they were going to college and I was like, oh, my parents don't have money, I probably won't go to any college. But then my guidance counselor called me in to talk about college plans. She was like what are you thinking? I was like I don't know. I don't know. Like I don't have any other talents. I was good at violin but I haven't played in three years. My parents don't have money. Like I have no idea. I can work with animals or children, maybe be a therapist, like I don't know. And she was like, oh, you're so good at the violin. I was like I know and I just can't.
Speaker 5:And my mom at the time was taking a music therapy course at New School and she would come home and tell me that she just went to the hospital or the nursing home and sang songs and played songs for people who were sick or maybe had dementia, and how the music would just transform them. It would transform the room. They suddenly remembered the names of their family members because the lyric of the song or the melody triggered a memory.
Speaker 3:That's amazing to have that talent.
Speaker 5:Yeah, she would tell me all these powerful stories and I was like music therapy, music therapy Wow, Because I want to help people and I love music. So my guidance counselor and I Googled, like she saw that Berkeley College of Music was offering a music therapy.
Speaker 3:Which is an incredible music school.
Speaker 5:Yeah, she typed in on her computer like music therapy college programs and there were like two or three colleges that offered that. So I was super curious about music therapy. So I applied to a couple like small, more affordable colleges that had music therapy, which I just remembered. I forgot that until now. And then I wasn't going to apply to Berkeley, even though I wanted to, because it was just so expensive and I was like it's impossible. But one night I'm in the kitchen drinking tea with my mom and she goes Ada, I have this feeling you should apply for Berkeley. Just fill out the application. You never know, maybe you'll get a scholarship, just apply.
Speaker 5:Intuition, I love it, mom, intuition, mom intuition. And I'm so glad I listened to her because I went down to the basement where we had the computer at the time and I was like, okay, so I went on their website and everything. It was like 11 pm, the application was due at midnight. This was like a movie. I swear yeah. And I'm like I have to fill out all these questions and all this stuff about what you want. So I was like, okay, I'm going to try you know I'm a slow typer.
Speaker 5:So I was like oh my God, I somehow submitted it at 11.59 or 12. And then they email you back and invite you to do an in-person audition. Okay, but I hadn't.
Speaker 5:You had played three years I hadn't played it like three years or almost three years, okay okay and never sang or wrote a song or anything. So all I knew how to do was play violin and I was like, oh, I guess I have to pick it up. So I took it out of the case, started the playing scales and prepared a piece. My dad drove me to boston, accompanied me on the piano and I got a full scholarship.
Speaker 4:Shut up.
Speaker 5:That's impressive, it was really really fun.
Speaker 6:It was life-changing.
Speaker 5:Berkeley was life-changing in so many different ways. That's where I fell in love for the first time. I started writing songs, I started playing jazz, I started singing. So much happened.
Speaker 2:College is great. College campus is just Were your family in New York.
Speaker 3:You moved. It's a college campus, it is. It's just you can't so were your family in New York.
Speaker 5:So you moved from New York to Boston. We were right outside New.
Speaker 2:York in it Yep, yep Cool.
Speaker 5:So, yeah, it was really amazing you get to find your people.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, just explore it was so fun yeah. So after college you decided I'm, that was the plan. You just graduated and then moved to LA.
Speaker 5:I had no plan, I was just going with the flow. I still have no plan. I'm just going with the flow. Every day it's different.
Speaker 4:But yeah, I was hanging around Connecticut, new York, for a while because I thought that was the place to be a featured artist, yeah, and that went really viral.
Speaker 5:And then they invited me to do another one and I was like, all right, I'm just going to stay in LA.
Speaker 2:Nice.
Speaker 3:LA is a special place. You know he hates when I talk about it.
Speaker 2:I don't hate it.
Speaker 1:I just get real passionate about it.
Speaker 5:I love LA. Yeah, la is a special place, yeah, so I was supposed to go for six days, but I stayed for six years.
Speaker 3:Yep, that's what happens. Don't go, mike.
Speaker 2:What was that YouTube thing you did?
Speaker 5:Well, a few things, but Postmodern Jukebox.
Speaker 2:Postmodern Jukebox.
Speaker 5:Yeah, they're pretty famous. So it started out with this guy, this pianist named Scott Bradley. He started playing cover songs in like a jazzy way on his YouTube in his basement he in like a jazzy way, right on his youtube in his basement. He was a baroque musician in new york and then, um, he started to get more views. Right, he was being consistent with it. He would you would do like famous pop songs that everyone knows, yeah, and play them in his own style, you know, yeah oh yeah, the sound engineer okay they sell out arena.
Speaker 5:They're huge um sell out arenas. I haven't heard.
Speaker 2:Okay, I'm just old, and yeah, no, no, apparently I haven't heard of them. Okay, I'm just old and stale, apparently.
Speaker 5:Well, not everyone's heard of them, but a lot of people have yeah, anyway. So then he was like, how can I grow this thing? So then he started inviting singers from the Voice. Okay, America's. Got Talent or just up-and-coming artists that are doing well or whatever. And then he started collaborating with like singers and every week he would post the new video. And then it started to grow and they started doing shows and selling out here and they get like millions of views and all their stuff.
Speaker 5:And so I did two videos with them and, yeah, that's what really brought me out to LA. I never planned on living there, but I ended up living there for six years, yeah.
Speaker 3:It's neat. I love how the music industry like kind of adopt some of the online you know. They have like the different concepts and stuff where you can submit your stuff to go viral, and what's the one I'm trying to think of? Not thinking of something coffee shop, but that's not it. Do you know what I'm talking about? Where you submit your videos and it's like a very intimate setting. Oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5:Coffeehouse, the radio station, yeah, yeah, yeah, I would love to get my music on there.
Speaker 3:Yeah yeah, yeah, there's so many ways you can kind of just do it online and then hope you get found out which is so great about marketing now and being able to digital yourself online. You get to do all these things that before it was like old school submissions.
Speaker 2:Now you can just put something up on TikTok or YouTube and, if you're lucky, be discovered, which is wonderful, and so does that tend to be your story. Has that happened so far? Like it's? I mean, your story's not over yet.
Speaker 5:Yeah, yeah, I love that, but yeah, it's such a weird time, just like piggybacking off of what you just said. It's a weird time in the industry because, on one hand, it's easier to get your music out there and it's accessible to the masses because of all the TikToks on the other hand it's harder because it's so easy now for any anyone right out music you can go to. We can record a song right now in 10 minutes we'll have a song.
Speaker 5:Yeah, might not be good but we could put it up on spotify. In 10 minutes it'll be up. Yeah, there's so many new artists, musicians I say this because you know everyone's, everyone's good, right, um, but there's so many new songs coming out every day, so that's, that's what makes it hard. That is hard.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but some of your songs, I feel like, are all very women-empowering, so I can see them coming like a mantra for International Women's Day or certain things like that.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I love that. I put out Rosé for International Women's Day.
Speaker 3:Oh, you did yeah.
Speaker 5:It's become like a movement for women.
Speaker 3:So I work with a nonprofit in Boston that's based off a woman who passed because she got murdered because she was running, and so now the non-profit is all about like empowering women to live boldly and fearlessly. And I want to use some of your songs for like all their videos and stuff that they do, because it's just so fitting to be like the strong woman and like you go through these seasons in life. So it's it's very, very cool.
Speaker 3:I'm sure you can download it and please do, yeah, I will, oh, I will absolutely price, I'm sure no problem. Yeah, luckily for me and a lot of marketers. She does have her stuff on like spotify or on instagram to to be used, so people should use it.
Speaker 5:Yeah, you should come up with a hashtag and like definitely, yeah, just tag me, I'll repost it of course yeah, and I also like write custom songs. I do jingles. If anybody needs like a jingle or like oh, that's fun, I do that. I did a couple, a couple of custom songs for fans too. Like I had this woman, she paid me to write a song for her best friend who helped her get through cancer like I wrote her.
Speaker 4:I wrote her a song and she, yeah, she emailed me.
Speaker 5:She was like oh my god, I'm in tears. She was happy. But yeah, I love, I love doing that.
Speaker 3:I mean music is do you enjoy like collaborating with other artists are you, oh yeah who like. If you could pick one person John Mayer oh.
Speaker 2:Dang, that was quick, that was a hard, hard, quick.
Speaker 3:John Mayer. I like John Mayer. Oh me too Same.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I wouldn't want to date him or anything like that, but I like his music.
Speaker 3:No, no, no.
Speaker 5:But yes, he's fantastic only because he's older and I don't know how much time he has left.
Speaker 3:Sure, oh yeah, sure.
Speaker 5:Because, like I love the Beatles, oh yeah, Same.
Speaker 3:Love the Beatles.
Speaker 2:Matthew, Matthew, Matthew, nobody can hear you. You're the sound engineer. Nobody can hear you.
Speaker 3:We can hear him, you count.
Speaker 2:Matthew, I know you do buddy Everyone's important and I like you, I like it we need to get him a microphone?
Speaker 6:Yeah, we should, we should.
Speaker 2:There's one right there. It doesn't work.
Speaker 6:So yeah, that would be cool.
Speaker 5:It would be cool to write a song with him, sing a song with him.
Speaker 3:So when you sit down with your notebook, do you just write from the heart, and then how does it form into like a song for you?
Speaker 5:Yeah. I just hear music in my head most of the time Crazy. Yeah, like that for me. Um, I just hear music like I'll be in the middle of anything and I'll just take out my voice notes on my phone and be like I'll be right back voice notes.
Speaker 2:That's what I was gonna ask you.
Speaker 5:Just yeah, yeah yeah, yeah, you're filming because this is cool. I've actually I don't know if I've ever showed anyone in an interview what I'm about to do, but, um, everyone on their iphone, I think, has like a voice app okay, I need that.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah where?
Speaker 5:Oh yeah, I use it for voiceovers a lot for my reels it's voice memos, yeah, so I use this app more than I do anything else in my life.
Speaker 2:Voice memos. Got it Voice memos?
Speaker 5:I have, oh wow, thousands.
Speaker 2:Oh wait.
Speaker 5:Thousands, thousands of song ideas.
Speaker 4:That's amazing.
Speaker 5:That's of songs. I'll just like hear the chorus how many songs have you written? Hundreds.
Speaker 2:That's amazing do you, do you have like, hold on? I want to see. What does this say? This is just a random one right now. Listeners, this is a random recording on my phone dated back april 2nd 2024.
Speaker 3:This sounds like a butt dial sounds like a fart I, I know right, I know it's very dangerous.
Speaker 4:He's like I'm regretting this already. Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's like when someone's going through your photos and you're like, oh gosh, my kid's making farting noises.
Speaker 5:Oh, that's horrible. This is a lot. We can make a song out of this.
Speaker 2:This is a lot.
Speaker 5:This is a lot.
Speaker 2:Fart oh see, I got her inspired boom. Look at that. That's how it works if I ever run out of material, so I'm gonna use the voice memos for now, on, good call. I love that. I love that. Um so. So, going back to marketing and branding, though, so are you still formulating your brand like who created your logo, who created this sticker that you're doing? Like? How are you doing on that end?
Speaker 5:yeah, I'm just. I'm just doing my best. Yeah, I've been an independent artist for the majority of my life, so I've, yeah, up until this point, pretty much just done everything alone. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Are you designing things?
Speaker 5:I had actually one of my fans Stop yeah, I did like an Instagram story. I was like, hey, does anybody want to help me make a design for my new song? What a smart engagement opportunity.
Speaker 2:That's a marketing engagement right there.
Speaker 5:He did a good job. This is my new single called One Way Ticket, which is a great song, by the way. Thank you so much. He did the design. That's my autograph.
Speaker 2:My autograph. She's just naturally marketing. She's just a marketing walking marketer.
Speaker 3:I feel like musicians have such a good ear and eye for things, they're also very good at marketing walking marketer. I feel like musicians have such a good ear and eye for things and they just they're.
Speaker 5:And they're also very good at executing, because they're so used to just hustling, you know, in a sense and speaking of this and design and everything, um, I just launched a brand new merch store on my website. Okay, okay, all right, yeah, if you guys want to get wait, wait the website.
Speaker 4:I want merch. Well, we'll pick.
Speaker 5:Have one way to get merch and Perfectly Imperfect merch and Rosé. I love Rosé.
Speaker 2:It's Adapasternak A-D-A-P-A-S-T-E-R-N-A-Kcom.
Speaker 5:Yep Adapasternakcom.
Speaker 2:Not only can you get, some music On the nose branding is the, but you also are a philanthropist. Talk about your fundraising efforts.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I just created my nonprofit organization where I want to be able to just share the gift of music with children not only children, but mainly children. It's the biggest honor of my life to go to hospitals or schools, maybe to play for underprivileged kids who might not otherwise see live music, or get to hear someone play violin or whatever. So it's just really meaningful to do stuff like that and obviously I love performing at like theaters and venues and doing my thing and getting attention. But it's not really about that. You know what I mean. It's about doing the things that matter and making a difference in people's lives.
Speaker 2:Like giving.
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Exactly Multiple clients. It's about doing the things that matter and making a difference in people's lives, like giving.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, yeah, so multiple clients I want to hook her up with obviously. Oh good, he knows. Well, that's what it's all about.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I work with this conference every year, called the dream girls conference, which is for at-risk youth, and they have musicians perform and it's just awesome. It's an all-day event, um, in march, so I will talk to you about this afterwards, but yes, it's all all about giving back and like sharing gifts and inspiring the younger generation.
Speaker 5:Exactly yeah, and my foundation is called Ada's Gift of Music Come on. Oh, I love it.
Speaker 3:My gift. That is awesome.
Speaker 2:What can we do to help that? What do we need? What do we do?
Speaker 5:You could make a tax-deductible donation yourself. There you go. You could make a tax-deductible donation yourself. There you go. Everything is helpful. Right there on your website Everything is super helpful or if you know anyone who might want to make a tax-deductible donation. Yeah, I just want to be able to travel to the hospitals or the schools. I want to bring them instruments too.
Speaker 2:There we go.
Speaker 5:I just can't afford to do that myself. So that's why, are you familiar with Music Cares? In Nashville with music cares in nashville.
Speaker 3:Yes, I am, yeah, I feel like you'd be an excellent candidate for helping out for some of that, definitely yeah, I just spoke to somebody there.
Speaker 5:I'm trying to get connected, uh, so with that, perfect. I want to do more of that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2:That's amazing what we're all about is connecting here.
Speaker 3:Yeah, connecting sharing yeah I can't wait to see where your career goes. So, trajectory wise, like what is the end goal? Like, do you want to be like a solo singer, songwriter, or do do you want to have a band? What's the goal?
Speaker 5:Both.
Speaker 2:She says all of it, she wants all of it, all of it.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I also do, acting and modeling Come on. It's all kind of the same thing, it is.
Speaker 2:So talk about acting then.
Speaker 5:Like if I play Snow White, for example, which I wish I had the chance to audition for I would have been acting and singing.
Speaker 3:I feel like they're going to bring that musical adaptation to Broadway potentially at some point. So like you should audition if it comes to Broadway.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 5:Yes, I know, I had that thought because I was watching it Like um did you did?
Speaker 3:you watch the movie too? No, but if you haven't, I haven't seen the movie.
Speaker 5:Well, I saw the movie that counts. Yeah, yeah, yeah, growing up it was my favorite movie, the OG one, snow White.
Speaker 3:Yes, yes, the original was so good. And Aladdin I like that one too.
Speaker 4:Yes.
Speaker 3:Aladdin's currently on Broadway. But yes, I feel like you should definitely audition for Snow White. If it comes to 100%, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5:Yeah, 100% I. I also really want to star in the remake of Breakfast at Tiffany's which I'm manifesting. I don't think they're working on one right now.
Speaker 6:I love that.
Speaker 5:I'm saying it's the universe, she can just send them her Moon River song.
Speaker 6:I need to audition for that.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I actually recreated the scene for when she's up in the fire escape singing.
Speaker 3:Moon River. Okay, it's on YouTube. Yep, I watched it last night.
Speaker 2:It, it last night.
Speaker 3:It's fantastic thank you thank you, no, I'll check it out.
Speaker 2:Oh, me too.
Speaker 5:She's the best we're talking about your children's book, yeah, so what do you mean? The children's book yeah, I'm doing a lot of things so I don't know when she sleeps that's why she's retired. Yeah, you're probably yeah, um yeah, so I wrote a song called perfectly imperfect. I wrote it like six years ago and put it out and it went viral, which is great song thank you so much yep, it's just cool.
Speaker 5:It's really. It's more than cool. It's amazing that people, so many people, have been able to relate and connect to just the idea of being perfectly imperfect yes like we're imperfect, like you don't have to look like someone else or have as much money as them or have the perfect face or the perfect body, or like it's not.
Speaker 2:That's not a gender. Yeah, that's. That's a human thing, yeah it's a human thing.
Speaker 5:We all make mistakes. Storytelling you don't need to apologize for being human.
Speaker 2:Singer song. It's amazing.
Speaker 3:Especially in this day and age of constant bullying, and these young kids have to deal with so much stuff Awful.
Speaker 5:I have an anti-bully song too, actually called You're Beautiful.
Speaker 3:Oh, see of it, she's going to take her everywhere.
Speaker 2:I would love that. That's all I want to do. You met PTO over here, oh yeah.
Speaker 3:I'm all the things. I'm there. You're all the things. It's great. So, yeah, so.
Speaker 5:I'm writing a children's book that's going to be inspired by the song as well. Perfectly, Imperfect yeah so. You, do you have a publisher?
Speaker 3:Not yet. We know people in publishing too.
Speaker 6:There we go, amazing.
Speaker 3:Look at that. Forbes Books is great. Keep an eye out for it. This is news before it launches.
Speaker 2:You're getting inside scoop here listeners. I love it Monetization and business side of music. How are you making any money? Are you making any?
Speaker 3:money. Spotify is a joke kind of of. In a sense, spotify is tough like, is it? Yeah, because you stream your music and not for the ceo of spotify no, not doing well for the artists.
Speaker 2:They don't make very much, but you're not only doing spotify, though you're, you're on every none of those pay nothing else pays pennies yeah, it's really.
Speaker 3:It's brutal. The people artists basically make their money on ticket sales. Merch more than merch number one. Yes, buy my merch please.
Speaker 5:Ticket sales lower.
Speaker 3:And then you know partnerships.
Speaker 5:Yeah, getting sponsored, yeah, just private events, yeah, sponsorship, yeah, that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2:Okay, so private events. Charleston loves private events.
Speaker 5:I love performing at private events. Yeah, so please yeah please bring me out, don't, for sure a transformation table dinner.
Speaker 2:Yep, I don't know how much budget there is there, but something like that, or right the pops oh yeah, the north austin pops.
Speaker 3:I'm gonna connect them. Um, oh yeah, that'd be amazing, especially because, in a little little preview here, uh, we've already planned the 2025-2026 season and our first one, which is november 1st, is going to be Night at the Oscars. So when I heard Moon River last night Because they have the full orchestra behind you, oh my God, that would be awesome.
Speaker 2:It would be awesome.
Speaker 4:So, I called.
Speaker 3:Maestro Nick last night on the way home.
Speaker 2:Maestro Nick.
Speaker 3:Yes, nick Palmer.
Speaker 2:That sounds so cool.
Speaker 3:Nick Palmer, the conductor of the North Charleston Pops, and we're going to have a talk about next week.
Speaker 5:Oh, my gosh, I'm already seeing it. I'm wearing a beautiful gown. Oh, I'm already seeing it. Yeah, no, I'm wearing a beautiful gown and I'm singing Moon River with an orchestra. Yeah, with my violin too. Oh, that's so cool. Yeah, no, it's.
Speaker 2:There we go.
Speaker 3:It's great.
Speaker 2:What about Halo Holy City Opera? Do you sing opera?
Speaker 3:Leah Edwards, I don't sing opera. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but you can play, oh dear.
Speaker 3:No, that'd be great too. I thought maybe I became an opera singer overnight. But I didn't.
Speaker 4:But, I, but I can sing pop and jazz and country yeah right, oh good, but not opera awesome well you know this has been so much fun so much fun.
Speaker 5:I love just hanging with you. Now are we?
Speaker 3:gonna get a preview of hearing you play? I think so. Is that okay?
Speaker 2:is that too big of an?
Speaker 5:ask. I think it's the right move what's her name?
Speaker 2:Barbie?
Speaker 5:so one of the girls from the hospital yesterday gave me, I gave her one of my stickers and she gave me a sticker. She gave me the barbie sticker so we did a little sticker exchange. It was so sweet, that is awesome. Yeah, and I had her put it on. I said you want to put it where? So she yeah, so that's gonna be there forever we're talking about her violin right now.
Speaker 2:Listeners, um, yes, did you want to break that thing out and do a little little something for us?
Speaker 3:just kind of like I might do a little something, yeah, and then it'll be us ending the show, yeah, she is awesome, you need to follow her on Instagram and obviously her Facebook, and check out her new nonprofit and hopefully I'd love to hear you play at, like Charleston Music Hall, the Poor House. It's a really cool venue. There's a lot of great venues here in Charleston outside of hopefully the North Coast Windjammer, that's right. The Windjammer. Oh yeah, Windjammer's got vibes. That's a good spot.
Speaker 2:My backyard, my backyard. Yeah Well, that's the whole private. You can do the private shows here. I think that's where our money is.
Speaker 3:I have a pool in my backyard. There you go, come over.
Speaker 2:She's doing a little. Oh, I'm already excited.
Speaker 3:Oh, I know.
Speaker 2:Huh, I'm always pretty silent. That's what I do. That was cool already. I'm super impressed. Come on over here when you're done, and then we'll just say goodbye to our listeners, and then we'll just have you play us out.
Speaker 5:Is that cool, is that a good idea? I was thinking, yes, yes, whatever you want, would you like?
Speaker 3:my seat. Would that be easier for you?
Speaker 2:and your equipment I'll move. Oh yeah, you need some space.
Speaker 3:I'm going to say goodbye.
Speaker 2:I'm going to say thanks for our sponsors, yep. And then I'm going to say, before we leave, we're going to have Ada do a little song for us. I'm super excited about this.
Speaker 4:Same.
Speaker 2:I'd like to thank the Charleston Media Solutions for sponsoring our studio time. Jerry feels good with the beats and the American Marketing Association, steph. Who do you want to thank?
Speaker 3:I want to thank everybody for being here and if you want to be a sponsor or guest on our show, please reach out to us at podcastcharlestonamaorg.
Speaker 2:Excited to have our new friend in the house yeah, thanks, I'm looking forward to working with her in the future. Thank you very much for bringing here.
Speaker 3:Thank you for being here fabiana, our new intern.
Speaker 2:What's up um listeners? Oh, and let's not forget matthew. Thank you for being the sound engineer matthew, we'll get you a microphone. We'll get you a microphone. We'll get you a microphone. We'll get you a microphone. We'll get you a microphone. We'll get you a microphone. I ought to say goodbye.
Speaker 6:Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye. I'll miss you, baby. Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye. I'll miss you, darling. Thanks for the good times, and I learned from the bad times. Isn't that life? Thanks for the good times, may we learn from the bad times. So so goodbye, goodbye, my friend. I'll always have you in my heart. Goodbye, goodbye, my friend.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow, and the crowd goes wild. 100% right made that up on the spot.
Speaker 5:I completely made that up. Yeah, I was gonna. That was freestyle, I was gonna start with that, but I mean, I completely made that up, yeah.
Speaker 2:I was going to. That was freestyle.
Speaker 5:I was going to start with that.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, I did a freestyle, but Whatever you want here, we'll keep rolling, keep rolling.
Speaker 5:I thought it was a good ending, but I thought it was great. That was amazing. Yeah, I kind of like you got that on camera, because I usually forget, like what I do. So that's why I'm like, okay, so, okay, I already freestyled so I could do like Well, you like Moon Reverse, I want to do that for you. I do, yeah.
Speaker 4:Cool ©. Transcript Emily Beynon. ¶¶ so good, so good.
Speaker 5:Thank you, so talented. Thank you. It's such a pleasure being here and sharing some magical moments.
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