Rising Stars: Meet Ilana Held

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ilana Held. 

Hi Ilana, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself
I started playing guitar at the age of six and ever since there was no turning back. My passion for music led me to study songwriting in Cardiff, Wales. 

Living in the Welsh capitol was where I truly came into my own as a songwriter, collaborating with many talented musicians across the UK and honing my craft. In 2016, I formed my band, Glass Jackets, which garnered attention from the BBC and international radio stations, performed at nearly every venue in Cardiff, and signed deals with JUKO Records and Speegra Publishing. Everything was going better than I could have dreamed, until the day after we released our first single. I got a call from the university sponsoring my visa, telling me that I was breaching its terms by playing music, the one thing I came to the UK to do! After that, it was a long six months of working towards a new visa that the university practically promised me, of hiding myself away and no longer performing, only to learn that the visa never actually existed. 

I ended up moving back to Boston, where I was born, for nine excruciating months of waiting on the record label to secure a sponsor license so they could bring me home. In the end, they were able to get me a visa that allowed me to play music but not do anything else. It was tough living under those terms, but I knew it would all be worth it when my band got to set out on the tour that we’d had to cancel over and over. Fast forward to the week of the tour and we’ve kicked things off with a sold-out show at Cardiff’s iconic Clwb iFor Bach. The very next day, lockdown was announced. I thought my entire dream was over for good. 

Living in lockdown with my then-boyfriend and songwriting partner was very tough. We were navigating challenges from all directions, from the pandemic to our relationship to our careers being shut down indefinitely. Through the devastation, we decided to start a duo, which became Wyllows. That duo saved both of us during that time. We were getting thousands of streams on Spotify and radio play from the BBC. We were even played on the radio station I grew up listening to in Boston! 

Eventually, after lockdown dragged on past the six-month mark, we decided it was best for me to return to Boston. I moved back reluctantly, but with hope for the future. The plan was for my duo partner to move with me once he was able to. We had big plans for our future together, but if covid has taught me anything it’s that plans are never set in stone. 

My life in Boston was tough. I had no inspiration to create music and I hardly knew anyone my own age in the city. It wasn’t until I started going to the skate park that I discovered a part of myself that has always been missing, a part that wants to take big risks and do things that scare me. Roller skating truly saved me in those months. I met an entire community of people whose identities and values aligned with mine. I also met several Berklee students who became my temporary backing band. In October 2021, I decided it was time to release music again. I had broken up with my boyfriend and lost my band and duo, so I decided to step out on my own as a solo artist. I now play under the stage name, Mystee. 

My first two singles, “Hurricane Martin” and “Cold Coffee”, are reflections of the dreams I have had that led me to really reconsider aspects of my waking life. I released them with a skate park show and they have been shared and streamed more times than I ever could have imagined. This release taught me an important lesson: I can do this alone, even if I don’t always want to. 

In January of 2022, I moved to my new home, Fort Collins. Since living here, I’ve lost count of how many people have asked me why I chose Fort Collins, and the answer is simple: I moved here for the music scene. Towards the end of 2021, I spent months scouring this country for the city that reminded me most of Cardiff, the city that felt the most like home. Fort Collins was that city. 

I am excited to start this new chapter of my life and my career. I’ve been working as a writer and music resident at a publishing house, interning at an events organization, clueing games at an escape room, and playing every open mic I can find. I’m set to release my next single, “Deep End”, in the coming months, so keep an eye out! 

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
I would say it’s been far from a smooth road. In fact, I sometimes joke that the title of my autobiography would be “The Path of Most Resistance”. I touched on it in my last answer, but between visa issues, relationship troubles, getting kicked out of the country, cancelled tours, covid lockdown, and countless more ridiculous, insurmountable obstacles, I’ve definitely had a rough few years. 

One of the toughest things that unexpectedly crept up on me during my time in Boston was the way covid has made me reexamine my own identity and what I want from the future. I had this life plan all laid out on a silver platter for me. I was going to get married, live in a nice apartment in Boston, and tour the country in Wyllows. I could have had everything I once thought I wanted. But with the emptiness that lockdown created, I was forced, for the first time in my life, to really look inward and ask myself why I wasn’t as happy as I should be. I have always known I was bisexual, but I never really took the time to consider what it meant. I knew I liked more than one gender, but I was dating a man so, I thought, that was that. But the longer I lived through my 2020 waking nightmare, the more I felt pulled to be my most authentic self. I surrounded myself with people who understood, branching out from the skatepark to weekly meetings of LGBTQ+ roller skaters, and I realized I belonged more in these communities than I had previously thought. Embracing my bisexual identity has truly opened doors and left me stronger in the end, but going through it was harder and lonelier than I thought it would be. 

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I think of myself as a songwriter, first and foremost. I have a background in guitar, singing, and performance as well, and have spent the past five or so years playing shows across the UK and the US, in a variety of projects. 

I specialize in lyric writing and have been working on co-writing songs for other artists recently. I write lyrics for the Welsh band, KEYS, as well as for several other artists working with a Welsh launchpad. 

I am also a solo artist. I perform under the stage name, Mystee, and have two singles out on all streaming platforms, as well as a third on the way. I have started performing around Fort Collins and plan to tour in the next year or so. 

What sets me apart from other songwriters is the combination of my education and life experience. I have a master’s in songwriting, which means that I have studied and closely examined my craft and how I approach it. I can co-write with anyone and write music in any genre. I also have a wealth of bizarre life experiences from which I can draw lyrical inspiration. I pride myself on my ability to mold my personal experiences into lyrics that are broadly relatable. 

Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
I have so many people to thank for how far I’ve gotten–I don’t even know if I’ll be able to list them all. First off, my parents have been HUGELY supportive and I’m lucky to have a family that values music the way they do. I’d be completely amiss if I didn’t thank my first guitar teacher, Jay, and his wife, Donna, for really amplifying my love of guitar and teaching me how to play in the first place. I want to thank all of my music professors at Columbia College Chicago for taking my music to the next level and teaching me about the industry. 

Big thanks to Matt Evans at USW for taking an interest in my writing and bringing me in as a collaborator in his band. Of course, I have to thank Elliot Oakley for everything he’s done for me, for being my support system the whole time I was in Wales, for being the best cowriter I could have asked for, and the kind of bandmate that makes you grow and become better at your instrument. Thank you also to Lucas Eldridge and James Sarson for being irreplaceable bandmates and becoming my UK family. Thank you to all my friends and supporters in Wales–sorry if I missed anyone. My undying gratitude to Julia Crocker of JUKO. We didn’t get to live the dream for long, but you bought us a little time and I can never thank you enough. Thank you to Keith who helped me with my futile attempts at a new visa. Thank you to everyone at Porters for all the support and for giving me somewhere that truly felt like home. Thank you to Charlie Francis, the most creative producer I’ve worked with, who really helped craft the sound of our EP, even if it never got to come out, and also provided me with many exciting writing opportunities. I could go on all day just about people in Wales. 

I also want to thank everyone in Boston who helped me through my many identity and existential crises over the past few years. Thank you to everyone I worked with at Escape the Room Boston, to Jaimee, and everyone at Girls Rock Boston. Thank you to Alex and everyone at Lynch Family Skate Park and Skate Hags, who helped pulled me out of my nightmare by giving me something new to be excited about. Thank you to Chris Donelan who recorded my first three singles as Mystee and to Emily Keefe who helped with the promotion. Thank you to Madeleine from Zumix and Steve Snyder for getting me connected in my neighborhood and giving me performance and teaching opportunities. Thank you to Kate from Blackstrap BBQ for letting me host your open mic. Thank you to everyone (except the over-entitled men) who came to the open mic every week, especially Natalie. Thank you to Syd and Charlotte and Nick for being the perfect backing band for my skate park release show. Thank you to Abha for being the most supportive roommate and always listening to me vent. Thank you to Max for being my best friend for life and sharing musical ideas back and forth with me. Thank you to Hannah for being my first songwriting partner. Thank you to Olga for being the world’s best sister-in-law and Jacob for being such a supportive brother and being there when I needed someone to talk to. Thank you to Alhassan and the rest of the high school crew for making friends with the weird, musical kid way back when. Thank you to Jefferson from Witchwood Music and to Sam for getting us in touch. Thank you, thank you, thank you. 

If you’ve helped me in any way along my complicated journey, thank you! 

Contact Info:

• Email: mysteemusic@gmail.com
• Website: https://mysteemusic.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mysteemusic/?hl=en
  • @stonegarlandband
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mysteemusic
• SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/mystee-music-710439089
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2mxKTLfGVQiy2TdhDOLO4Q?si=Naf6quUCQGOCWRuh7qh-zg

Image Credits
Adam Parshall