Today we’d like to introduce you to Becky Baby.
Hi Becky, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Thank you so much! It’s great to be here! Well, since I was a little girl, I’ve wanted to be a performer. When I was 7 years old, I tried out for our school’s choir, but didn’t get in. I was crushed. I assumed it meant I wasn’t good enough. I still loved to sing, but I did it behind closed doors. I had a natural ability to hear melodies and harmonies and match them with my voice. I could feel it so easily. I felt that I was a good singer, but I was afraid of what other people thought.
In middle school, I started playing my daddy’s guitar. He taught me my first songs, and shortly after, I found the band Nirvana. I studied MTV’s Nirvana Unplugged, watched Kurt’s fingers, and tried to mimic him. I started buying guitar player magazines and taught myself how to read tablature. I started learning popular tunes of the day and found that I was a good rhythm guitar player. I started writing songs. I was getting good. I eventually started playing in bands in high school. I got my first taste of being on stage. I started gaining more confidence. Again, I felt that this was what I was born to do. I wanted to be a performer.
When you are a teenager and declare, “I don’t want to go to college. I want to be a rock star,” it doesn’t go over well with the adults in your life. People I loved and looked up to said, “you need a real job to pay the bills. You can always play your music on the weekends.” So, that’s what I did my entire adult life. I let other peoples’ fear of failure hold me back. I knew I had a gift and still had to keep performing, but I didn’t have the confidence to make a real go of it and try to make a living. I kept my music on the side.
Finally, only 2 years ago, I had a wonderful job at a company I loved but wasn’t really thriving in the position. My bosses were very supportive of me and my music.
I had been with the company for over a year when I got sick with covid and simultaneously experienced the loss of a best friend. I missed nearly 4 weeks of work and I just couldn’t get caught up. I believe I was suffering from post covid “brain fog”. I dropped the ball on some major projects. My employers told me I could go on a 90-day probationary period and try to turn things around, or they would give me a 2 weeks severance pay, and I could try to make a living with what I was born to do. My boss, Donna. said something to me I will never forget, “We love you, and we don’t want to let you go, but you are not serving humanity with your gifts behind this desk” that sentence resonated with me so deeply. I knew that was true. I was scared, but I chose the severance. I’m so glad I did. I don’t know that I would’ve ever taken the leap of faith on my own.
Since then, I have built my own small business and brand. I am a professional musician. I get to bring joy and happiness to people. I make them dance and sing along. I provide the soundtrack to their special moments. My dream has finally come true. It is now my mission to tell every aspiring child I meet to never to give up. I tell them to “always believe in yourself, believe in your dream, and do whatever you can to get closer to that dream. Take the classes in school that will prepare you for your dream. If you believe you can make it, you will. It doesn’t matter what other people might say to you.”
In July this year, 2022, I volunteered for Gainesville Girls Rock Camp and taught a workshop on positive affirmations and self-love as a performer. I got to be the person I wish I had growing up. A strong, empowered woman telling me to believe in myself and my abilities. Never give up on yourself, even when it seems outlandish to others.
Can you talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
My biggest struggle was self-doubt. Like many artists, I struggled with low self-esteem. I didn’t start to overcome it until I learned the concept of self-love. Through therapy, positive affirmations, and meditation, I learned that everyone is just operating from their own ideas about themselves. People with negative things to say come from a place of rejection and fear. As a young woman and guitar player, I experienced a lot of rejection from my guitar-playing male peers. I now realize they probably had self-esteem issues that made them feel threatened by a guitar-playing girl.
At 19, I lost my father to brain cancer. Before he passed, I promised him that I would be famous one day. I struggled with guilt about that. I felt I wasn’t fulfilling my promise to him. Now that I have the chance to live my dream, I feel I have come through on my promise on a local level. I feel he would be so proud and so excited for me to have so many fans and people who know and love what I do.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I sing and play guitar with my solo act. I have written and recorded songs but specialize in golden oldies and vintage music. When I first started out, I performed as Becky Sinn. She was an alter ego for me. I used my beautiful voice to deliver dark and edgy lyrics. I would do acoustic covers of metal and punk songs. I even started performing in a bawdy vaudevillian-style show called Dr. Sinn’s Freak Island Musical Sideshow.
I am now known as Becky Baby: Central Florida’s Retro Queen. I play music from many genres that spans 100 years, but I perform them all with my unique style. I love to perform classic songs that bring back memories for people. I play songs they might’ve forgotten about. I play songs that young people have never heard. I feel that I am a steward of these amazing songs.
I also perform as Becky Baby with my band Swing Theory. We are primarily a swing band that plays Sinatra-style big band music, but we also perform jazz, blues, rock, and pop songs. Much like my solo act, we play a little bit of everything, and our repertoire spans a century’s worth of music. We’ve played weddings and benefit shows and provide music for The Florida Swing Dancing Club in Gainesville at least once a month.
Alright, before we go, can you talk to us a bit about how people can work, collaborate, or support you?
I love using my music to support charitable causes. I have collaborated with other artists to support PACE Marion county, the Boys and Girls Club of Marion County, Gainesville Girls Rock Camp, and our local Ocala chapter of United Way.
I am always open to collaboration, just reach out to me through social media, and we can discuss! If you would like to support me, come to shows, book me for shows and share my social media posts and events. Also, keep an eye on my website for news and my show schedule.
Contact Info:
- Website: BeckyBaby.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beckybaby.music/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BeckyBabyMusic
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfRKFztPzZxF95Sh-tNX1rg
- Other: https://linktr.ee/BeckyBabyMusic
Image Credits
Lisa Anderson, Josh Jacobs, Mark Anderson, Myself
