Today we’d like to introduce you to Carolyne AKA NOVI Liberty.
Hi Carolyne AKA NOVI, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Hi, I’m Novi! Singer, songwriter, artist, and creative. I grew up in Ashland, Oregon. From a young age, I discovered my love for performing—on stage, singing, acting, and finding any excuse I could to make people smile. I always knew that somehow, I wanted to build a life around it!
At 17, I took a huge leap and moved to Los Angeles to pursue improv comedy. I had no idea how to navigate the industry but stayed open and interested in everything! I ended up meeting a music producer (because my dad was buying a watch from him off Craigslist, lol. Thanks, Dad!). I shared with him a journal of song ideas I’d written over the years, and we hit it off in a way that felt purely sublime! So I shifted my focus to music, recording, performing, and finding my voice as an artist.
Eventually, my music found its way into television, film, commercials, and major brand campaigns. I could actually do this, I thought! I could build a career as an independent artist and songwriter. It was awesome and exciting, and also filled with challenges, which I’m still navigating 16 years later.
The best part was that I met my now-husband, Max Liberty, in 2015 through that very same music producer. Kismet at its finest. Max is a super talented musician and became my absolute rock in all things music and life!
In 2020, as we prepared for a tour, COVID hit. And everything got canceled. So we decided to jump in our van and cruise to Oregon to get some space and perspective and see my amazing parents, who continued to build a beautiful life in Ashland. After so many years in Los Angeles, coming home felt like the beginning of an entirely different chapter. We decided to stay, buy a house, and welcome my favorite human into the world, my son, Maverick.
Motherhood changed my life. That first year was truly wild; I felt like I went through a portal! It continues to challenge and change me, all in the name of unconditional love. All in ways that make me expand! And it didn’t take away the part of me that needs to create. If anything, it gave me more to say.
These days, creativity looks a little different. I’m still writing and making music, but I’m also creating on social media, sharing pieces of my life, motherhood, wellness, music, and all the things I’m curious about along the way.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The creative path has never been a straight line for me. There have been years of hard work with very little to show for it on paper. Record deals that almost happened and then fell apart. Opportunities I was sure would change everything that didn’t. And more “no’s” than I could ever count.
I’ve been told I’m too old. I’ve wondered if moving away from Los Angeles meant moving away from my chance at making it. There have been periods when the music wasn’t making money at all, and I’ve had to wrestle with the question so many artists face: How long do you keep going when the thing you love isn’t necessarily giving you anything back?
Then I became a mom, and suddenly pursuing a creative career had to exist alongside raising a child. My time wasn’t entirely my own anymore. There were new responsibilities, new priorities, and a whole new version of myself to figure out.
But through failed deals, rejection, financial uncertainty, leaving LA, getting older in an industry obsessed with youth, and becoming a mother, I’ve never really been able to stop creating.
I’m learning that maybe success isn’t one big moment where somebody finally chooses you. Maybe it’s continuing to choose yourself. It’s adapting, finding new ways to make things, putting yourself out there even after hearing no, and refusing to believe there’s an expiration date on creativity.
I’m still here. I’m still making music. I’m still creating. And I think there’s something powerful about that.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I write music for TV, film, and ads, and somehow turned all my years of music-industry trial and error into content too. I share indie artist tips, gate-kept info on sync, and behind-the-scenes music stuff on TikTok and Instagram—mixed in with motherhood, wellness rabbit holes, things I’m obsessed with, and whatever else is happening in my life that week. Basically, I make songs, make videos, raise a tiny human, and keep myself open to whats calling creatively.
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
The music industry is always changing. It can be exhausting trying to keep up. Just when you think you’ve figured out the rules, someone changes the game, invents a new platform, or decides we’re all supposed to be doing something completely different now!
For me, I’ve learned that the answer isn’t to ridge up and fight every change. It’s to stay curious, go with the energy, and figure out how to make whatever is inevitably coming work for you. New technology, AI, social media, streaming—none of it has to take away from being an artist, and its coming whether we like it or not.
You can’t always control where the industry is going, but you can decide what you make out of it. I’d rather evolve, experiment, and keep finding new ways to be creative than spend my energy wishing things would go back to the way they were. My advice, just keep doing your art 🙂
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.iamnovi.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/besonovi/
