Meet Carly Howard | Transformational Vocal Coach

We had the good fortune of connecting with Carly Howard and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Carly, every day, we about how much execution matters, but we think ideas matter as well. How did you come up with the idea for your business?
I talk to many adults that are convinced that they can’t sing. They were usually told at some point in their early life by a parent or music teacher or friend something negative about their voice that made them ashamed and embarrassed. When I hear people say, “I can’t sing,” I tell them “you just haven’t found your voice yet.”

I was at a workshop last November reclaiming the feminine arts through play, song, dance, and many other modalities. I was most nervous about the dance part but when I talked to pretty much every woman there, they were most nervous about the singing part. I realized since my gift is singing, that it would be very cool to just do a workshop solely about reclaiming and celebrating the voice through song.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I recently closed down my business, Enigma Bazaar, a bar and venue I co-owned with two others. So in a lot of ways, I am starting back at the beginning, creating an entirely new brand. I was a voice teacher and theatre director before I started Enigma Bazaar, and as I dip my toes back into teaching, I am realizing I want to take it to a larger place with a wider reach. I am experimenting with this name currently: Voice Playground: Celebrating the Voice Through Singing in Community. I also continue to write and play music with my band, Unnamed Moons. We are releasing a new album this year. My first album (Overgrown) can be found under my name (Carly Howard) on Spotify, Bandcamp, and Soundcloud.

I am currently interested in the concept of Ikigai. Ikigai is a Japanese term to describe how the following intersect: what you love, what you’re good at, what the world needs, and what you can be paid for.

This Shoutout interview literally has come at a pivotal point in time for me, as I say goodbye to one business and hello to another. Nothing about this process can be described as “easy” but one thing I have learned along the way (after living through many goodbyes) is that I am more comfortable being in the unknown. When I have encountered the unknown before in my life, it has been quite terrifying at times. But now it’s actually starting to seem like an old, familiar friend, extending a hand saying “you’ve been here before, but it’s not forever.”

What I want the world to know about my new brand and new business is: your unique, beautiful voice is underneath all of the shame and embarrassment you feel and it’s literally waiting for you to let it out. You can move through the most uncomfortable, hardest times in your life, purely by moving energy through your body in the form of singing. You don’t need to get drunk at karaoke to hear it! (Although I am definitely not knocking that…because let’s face it, that’s pretty fun too!).

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Well I would have said come to my art bar — Enigma Bazaar! But since that is closed now, I would say walk around Sloan’s Lake, go to ecstatic dance at Rhythm Sanctuary, hit up the sauna literally anywhere there’s a sauna, hike around Red Rocks, soak at Hot Sulphur Springs or Valley View, and grab a drink at Mercury Cafe. I have two little kids at home so I am not well-versed in the bar and restaurant arena currently, but I do love getting sushi at Sushi Den on Pearl St. and my fave Mexican restaurant of all time is La Loma.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I absolutely love the work Kelly Brogan is doing right now. I just finished an entrepreneurship class of hers and it really kicked my butt in getting this Vocal Reclamation program off the ground. This quote of hers is everything to me right now: “As we grow our own capacity to self-husband and contain, we understand that feelings don’t need soothing. They need and want to simply exist, move, and transform.” I. believe singing is a catalyst for this by helping us move energies through our body that are longing to be transformed.

Website: www.unnamedmoons.com

Instagram: @unnamedmoons

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carlymusic/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@CarlyQBear

Image Credits
Chad Howard, Carly Howard