Today we’d like to introduce you to Cera Gibson.
Hi Cera, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.
I have been interested in music ever since I could talk. As a child, I participated in every musical, talent show, and voice recital available. However, it wasn’t until I was closer to twelve years old that I started writing my own music. In those early days, my music was incredibly angsty. I took most of my inspiration from Metallica, The Pretty Reckless, Paramore, and Led Zeppelin. As time went on, I developed a more blues-inspired rock style. By the age of 17, my parents took note of the progress I’d made and decided to help me get something recorded. Through pure luck, my dad ran into a producer at Costco. He was demoing the pianos and he and my father got to talking. When my dad realized he was a producer, he scheduled a meeting. That first meeting was incredibly validating because it was the first time someone in the industry affirmed my skill. In fact, he was so impressed by my work that he flew me out to Nashville to record in RCA Studio A.
This experience was equal parts magical and miserable. I had the opportunity to record with world renowned, Grammy award winning studio musicians. I had the president of ASCAP telling me I wrote ‘good shit’. I performed for the Nashville Songwriters association and had everyone stopped in the lobby listening to me sing. However, I also learned what it is to be a woman in the industry. Especially a young woman, with little experience, surrounded by men. This producer, who at first was my biggest ally, became my biggest enemy. At every turn, he was telling me why I was wrong, why I needed to change myself, my sound, and my writing to fit a Taylor Swift-like mold. I had never planned on being a Country artist, but as the days went by, I witnessed my songs being turned into something so outside of myself, that I didn’t want much to do with them anymore. When I would speak up, he would immediately shut me down, citing my lack of experience. I wasn’t under the impression that I knew more in terms of actual musical skill, but I did know what was authentic to me and what was not. I’ll tell you, it’s something else when a 40-year-old man is saying your song about being heartbroken at 16 isn’t relatable to teenage girls because it isn’t empowering enough. I’m sorry, but which one of us is the teenage girl here?
This did not let up after Nashville and only worsened over four grueling years. Four years of me working two jobs to pay off this project that I wasn’t even proud enough of to release. Four years of a contract I didn’t sign because I was a minor when I first entered into it. My family was under so much collective stress that I was almost ready to hang up my musical hat for good. But 2016 rolled around, I was 21, we were finally finished and I decided to take another path.
At this point, I knew it was in my best interest to start from scratch. I wanted to learn production for myself, so I enlisted the help of a friend that produced hip-hop music locally. In 2017, we started on what was meant to be an acoustic album, but turned into so much more. Over the next two years my friend, Jay Kaye taught me the ins and outs of production, and assisted me in producing my first EP “Crushed Velvet.” This EP was quite the departure from the Nashville songs. I never envisioned myself making pop, but as we were working, I found myself gravitating more and more toward darker, synthetic wave sounds. What was supposed to be an acoustic album, turned into a dark pop EP. Every track is co-produced by me.
In January 2019, I dropped my first single from this Ep ‘Blood Diamond’. By July 2019, I had released the whole work to much local acclaim. I was performing larger and larger shows, opening for RuPaul Drag Race winners. I had updated my look, I was interviewing on radio shows, local TV and Podcasts. Things were headed in an incredible trajectory, but everything fell apart in October of the same year.
In October 2019 my home flooded, I lost almost everything I owned and my partner of four years broke up with me. For a month, I lived in a hotel, went to therapy, and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. This was one of the most challenging periods of my life, but having so little certainty only fueled me more. While I was in the hotel I was connected, through a friend, to a local filmmaker, Alex Vaughn. I sent her one of the songs I’d been working on over the summer, ‘Sad Bitch’, and she offered to assist me in directing a music video. This music video turned into a red velvet, Bond girl burlesque piece and I adore it. I released the music video, with the song in early 2020. This release went on to be my most successful release to date. This was to be the fuel for my first tour in Spring 2020. Well, it’s no surprise what happened. COVID stopped the world and I, like many other people, was left waiting for my life to start again.
At first, I was grateful for the pause. I started working through my breakup, which inspired a whole new body of work. I learned a new language, I planned what was to be my biggest music video yet, centered around Vikings. As the months rolled by, it became clear this wasn’t going away anytime soon and I realized, I needed to regroup. I didn’t expect it to and denied it at first, but I became incredibly depressed. By the end of 2020, I wasn’t working on much of anything. I was trying to get my new songs recorded and produced, but my recent producer was overseas and communication was tricky. I decided to let go and whenever it was the right time, it would be the right time. Turned out it wasn’t the right time for 6 months.
During this period away, I started posting on TikTok. Not music. Shit posts, satirical, character skits. At first, they didn’t get much attention, but in May of 2021, I blew up overnight. I went from 3000 followers to 30,000 in almost a day and as the summer went on, that number just kept rising. 100,000, 200,000. This uptick in engagement was incredibly motivating, and I went back, full steam ahead to finish my EP.
In February of 2022, I released this EP, titled “Uninspired,” and with the help of 300,000 TikTok followers, I sold out my release show and two stops on my first tour in May.
The last few years have been surreal. Since the release of my Ep, I have begun work on a project that I can’t presently talk about (on the record) but is going to be a massive step up in my journey. I can’t wait to share it with the world, go back on tour and start putting out a new body of work.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
It has been far from a smooth road. I grew up incredibly poor, so finding the funding to pursue music was a challenge. In high school, I was working two jobs just to fund this dream. I nearly didn’t graduate because I was under so much stress. My mental health has also been a consistent challenge. From OCD, ADHD, Depression, and Bipolar, I have received a lot of diagnoses, but it wasn’t until my house flooded that I actually started the process of getting the help I needed. I was only ever able to work in bursts. I would work like a mad man for 4-6 months and then fall into a depression for the rest of the year, using those 4-6 months to coast until I felt okay again. That’s really no way to live.
The pandemic was far from ideal, but it forced me to slow down, assess myself and determine what the best course of treatment was for me. Therapy and medication worked great for awhile, but I have since found that therapy, journaling, and meditation are magical. Giving myself permission to do what I’m capable of on a daily basis, has changed everything. I don’t rip the knob off until I can’t function anymore. I work when I can, rest when I need to and have learned the elusive skill of discipline.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
At this point, I would call myself a musician, comedian, and voice actor. Under the musician umbrella I produce, write, mentor, and perform. I am known for making “Sad Bitch Music,” coined after my single Sad Bitch. Most of my performances are in Queer spaces with drag queens.
Outside of music, comedy really found me out of nowhere, The pandemic gave me the space to dive into all my other interests, and through TikTok, it’s thrived. I am most known for my Linguistic Bro series, “It’s not because I’m bisexual, it’s because I’m a wh*re” and “If you’re gonna call me a b*tch, at least put stupid in front of it.” I’d be happy to provide links.
Voice acting is another avenue that presented itself through TikTok. I’ve had the opportunity to record audio books, and podcast erotica and have even received a few auditions for live-action acting.
Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
I was a very odd, dramatic child. I loved playing pretend, exploring the woods, writing, and putting on plays for the neighborhood. I could equally enjoy myself inside drawing and outside building a fort. My family was very encouraging of me being exactly who I was, and though I often failed to be as lady-like as my mother would have appreciated, I never felt like I couldn’t be a grubby little, troubadour.
Despite this performance streak, off the stage, I was painfully shy. I had difficulty making friends. Due to being homeschooled for a time, I wasn’t great at socializing with children. I didn’t have any form of popularity during school, but in 8th grade, I did find a little family in the theater and choir kids. Until I left the Mormon church in high school, these were my people.
Unfortunately, many of these kids were Mormon and when I left, I lost nearly all of them. This is when I found friendships with the freshman and punk kids. I shaved the side of my head and dyed my hair red. At the time I felt that was truly me, but it was just am middle finger to everyone else. If they wanted to single me out, I would do it myself.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.ceragibson.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/ceragibson
- Twitter: www.twitter.com/ceragibson
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwtt8gA6nYKMqp3SP4P66Yg
- Other: www.tiktok.com/ceragibson
Image Credits
Emma Pearl, Shane McCormick, and Ryan DeKorver
