Power of Perception music with Heather Van Gaalen

I was born and raised in Florida, my parents both in the medical field.  My brother and I were expected to do great things; whether or not I have achieved them depends on who you ask.  I remember around age nine writing my first song, after learning to play by ear on a small keyboard in my bedroom.  Ever since I have felt as though I belong in music, but as the industry is bombarded and unfair, I didn’t get much support.

I earned my A.S. in Psychology just to say I was going to school while I recorded my songs.  They are of an amateur production as I am not familiar with how to make a song sound like it does in my head.  I still dream of hearing at least one of my songs done in a studio, but for now I record on my own, with nothing but a digital piano and computer software.  Songs come to me randomly; they have my whole life, out of the blue, and I will have to stop and write them down – in my own language – if I can.

I have over 200 songs in notebooks waiting to be recorded and the task feels daunting.  I wish I had tried harder earlier in my life but I was so scared of criticism I never let anyone hear me in person.  My parents split when I was 10, then I became terrified of people as a home-schooled high school student who developed anorexia because I knew singers had to be thin.  However, doing so destroyed me, and I no longer had the strength to try.  But no matter what happens, no matter what anyone thinks, I still strive to do ‘great things’ and perhaps, in some people’s eyes, I already have.