Forever to the Moon

Hi, first things first, my name's Violet. I started releasing music by the age of 15, by the name of Forever to the Moon.

The reason behind the project name is because I've always had such huge dreams, and it's like they say, "The sky is the limit."

I also always had people tell me I was daydreaming beyond the moon if I really believed I could make music a professional career, so that was when I realized my dreams were really "forever to the moon" and the name sounded great to me. That's basically how the name was born. I don't release music by my name itself the reason is if I get any help with my albums, or any promoting, or videos, I like to say they are now part of the "Forever to the Moon" family. Everybody deserves credit no matter how small their work was. Let's take it farther back to how I came to be and how my music process began. I have been singing my entire life. When I say my entire life, I mean it. My mom tells me stories about how I'd hum songs when I didn't speak yet, and how when I finally learned to speak, I never stopped singing and to be fair, it's been 18 years and I'm still singing every chance I get. It wasn't until I was about three years old, my mom said she had left me watching The Lizzie McGuire Movie in the living room and she went to go cook when out of nowhere, I started yelling for her. She said she came running because she thought something had happened, but when she got to the living room, she saw I was sitting in front of the TV star-struck.

She asked what happened and I told her, "Mommy, I want to be like that. I want to be just like her when I grow up. I want to sing."

She tells me the movie was on the scene where Lizzie is performing in the Colosseum of Rome. To this day, I still have the dream of performing venues and I am, and I will continue to follow that dream. At the age of seven, in 2008, I told my mom I wanted to try acting. She has always been supportive, so she found a school for me to learn everything I had to know about acting. The cool thing was, this school not only taught me how to act, but they taught me how to model as well. They taught me runway and print modeling. By 2009, I was finished and the school got me into an agency and helped me start my career as a model and an actress. Either way, I still continued to sing, it was just nothing official at this point. When I was in sixth grade, I finally sang in front of a crowd. It was for my school's talent show, maybe it doesn't seem like a lot but, none of my friends knew I sang before-hand. I sang Sk8ter Boi by Avril Lavigne, now that I think about it, I find it really funny because I tried so hard to look like her. I had a fake highlight in my hair and everything. I was super excited and nervous at the same time.

When I finally started singing on that stage, I realized, "This is what I want."

I was extremely brought down when I finished performing though. When the show was finally over, I got together with a close friend at the time, who, she herself, was a singer and sang at the show. I remember walking with her and a small group of her friends came up to her and told her she sounded amazing. They then turned to me and told me to quit singing because she was the true singer. I always like to admit I'm not the best and I don't think I am, but I do think I have tried too hard and have gotten too far to let people tell me I'm the worst, but at the time, that was my first time performing and having people hear me live. I thought to myself, maybe they were right. My mom saw how upset I was, so she showed everybody she could the video of my performance. She then showed my acting and modeling coaches. I remember them telling me I sounded really good and I had a powerful voice, they even shared the video on their page!

By eighth grade, I got into choir and nothing really great happened there, so let's move onto high school. When I started high school, I made sure to get into the choir. My freshman year was honestly great. I made really good friends which I still talk to. This one friend, in particular, was a senior in my choir class, we had never really talked before until it was time for the school's annual talent show. Our choir class was over and I saw him practicing for the auditions. He asked a friend of his to do the song as a duet, but she said she was already auditioning herself, that was when he saw me standing on the side and asked me to sing with him. I had no idea when the auditions were but in my head, I was extremely happy. I agreed and that's when he told me auditions were that night and the song he was singing was Stay With Me by Sam Smith. I had no idea who Sam Smith was at the time, so I spent my next couple of classes listening to the song on repeat, I don't even think I paid attention in my classes that day. When it was finally time for the audition, I was extremely nervous, but it went well and we actually got in. The day of the show, I remember being extremely nervous, but happy at the same time, for I had actually made a new friend. After we performed, it felt good to hear people saying we did well. After that, it was my sophomore year and once again, it was time for the annual talent show. I knew for a fact, that I wanted to perform again. I told a friend of mine who's amazing at playing the piano, to play for me while I sang. We had practiced so hard. We eventually turned it into a duet. The day of the show, I had the worst luck ever. I had gotten extremely sick, I couldn't even talk, but my mom came to the rescue with a lot of medicine and tea. Tea is definitely a lifesaver. It all went well and people told us we did great.

The next day, I remember getting to one of my classes and one of the guys there told me, "I never knew you could sing."

I just smiled because it felt so good to hear things like that. Eventually, things went downhill from there. Apart from everything else, I noticed people started to not care for my singing anymore, they just pushed me aside and would say indirect comments stating that my singing was not good. A lot of things happened that drove me to get depressed, and eventually, both my anxiety and depression were over my head. I eventually left public school and got homeschooled for plenty of reasons. In 2016, I started writing music, well, I wrote poems as a way to cope with the way I was feeling. I eventually turned them into actual songs. That's when I realized music was my true escape. When I officially had enough written songs to complete an album, I went into the process of creating my very first EP and that album was nonetheless, When It's Time. I got rights to all my music and officially started releasing music by of course, Forever to the Moon.

When It's Time has so much emotion put into it, and although this album can possibly be terrible, I am extremely proud of it. It was my very first album recorded and mastered completely by myself. The instrumentals were done by a friend, we don't talk much anymore, but I will always be sure to give him the credit he deserves. I honestly had no idea what I was doing with the mastering and recording. If you listen closely to each and every song, there are so many flaws, that going back to them now, makes me cringe. I was extremely nervous and insecure when releasing it, so the fact that I even released it and took that very first step into releasing my music makes me proud. Each song has an individual story. I always make sure songs I create have a story line.

The first song in the album is "Harmony." "Harmony" is a song about being in love and finding the person you can actually connect to. The one you can always be there for and you know they'll be there for you. The end to the chorus of the song is "Sing along to this catchy tune, and let's create our harmony," the meaning behind this specific line is, when you're with someone you truly love, you never want to leave their side and you just want to listen to them speak. When you hear a catchy tune to a song, what do you do? You keep singing it over and over again. It's as if you never get tired of it because of how catchy it is. That's exactly how being around someone you love is like, you never want them to leave your side, you just never get tired of them, and of course, you want to create harmony with your significant other. You never want there to be any fights or arguments. "Harmony" was actually a wedding present for a cousin of mine, I asked him basic questions behind the story of him, and his now, wife. That is how "Harmony" was born.

"Black Cat" is about a girl who is extremely depressed and to escape her reality, every night in the summer, she would go to a river located somewhat deep into the forest away from everybody. In a particular night, she realizes a cat, a black cat to be exact, staring at her and mimicking her every move. She starts a conversation with the cat, but it's as if all she's doing is talking to herself, for the cat does nothing in response but of course, the same thing she does. She notices the cat seems depressed and questions if it feels ashamed of itself as she does, and questions along the lines of being depressed. She then realizes the cat is shaking, but she doesn't understand why, if it's a warm summer night. She eventually gets frustrated due to the cat's lack of response and she feels a sort of connection to this cat so she reaches out to touch it when she falls into the water, that is when she realizes, what she was staring at all along, was her reflection in the water, and she was the one who truly wished to be free. She simply desired someone to relate to her or have someone she can connect to. The inspiration behind "Black Cat" is about a dream I had when I was depressed. I wished all the pain was just over. I just wanted freedom. I would attempt to talk to old friends of mine in hopes they'd understand, but in the end, nobody really understood and I was afraid.

"My Soul to Keep" was also written during the time I was extremely depressed. It talks about having conversations with death all the time and not being able to escape it. It claims death will say how it will never get better, and the only way to get rid of the pain and be free is to commit suicide. A part in the chorus says "Shut your lips, don't let out a cry. Just say goodbye," the meaning behind that is, "Don't ask for help, it's not going to do anything. People don't care, just do it already," basically, commit suicide. That's exactly how I felt. I felt that, if I asked for help people would just think I'm crazy, or simply, not care. The song ends with, "Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray to God my soul to keep" that is basically the breaking point and have officially given in. I was fortunate enough that I never got as far as attempted suicide, but there are thousands of people in the world that do, and unfortunately, a lot of attempted suicides, turn into suicidal deaths. I just want people around me to know there are people around that care and understand, and although these voices in our heads tell us otherwise, there will always be someone that cares.

I wrote "When It's Time" when a close friend of mine, who was my best friend since third grade, passed away. She was my neighbor and we eventually became best friends. In between sixth grade, my mom had bought a house an hour away from where we originally lived. It became a lot harder to visit her. I eventually didn't see her anymore but we did talk every now and then, and although we drifted apart, I still saw her as my best friend. She was the only one that never judged me. We never had any problems and we honestly got along like sisters. She was not only close to me, but my mom as well. When I first heard the news of her passing, I remember feeling my heart drop, I burst into tears. I was at school when I was told so when I arrived home, I told my mom the news. She just sat down and looked at me with the saddest look in her eyes. That's when I started to write "When It's Time," the song itself is something I hoped she could hear from the afterlife, if there is one, that's where the line, "Wherever you are, I hope you could hear this song. Wherever you are, I hope you'll sing along" comes in. The next line is, "Both so young, both so dumb. Who would have thought that this would happen" and that is because she was only 15. It was something that nobody thought would happen and obviously didn't want to think of it happening. It was also an apology for not visiting as much as I possibly could have. Either way, I just wanted and continue to want her to know she's always going be one of my best friends. I'm always going to remember her for the fun and loving soul she was. In forms of the listeners, I wrote it so they know to not take people for granted, to show loved ones, how much you truly love them every chance you get, because you never know when they'll be taken away from you.