ICYMI: #WomanCrushWednesday IG Live featuring Rime Salmi

BY LAURA HARPER/WWR Staff Writer

While some musicians know from childhood that they want to pursue music in their career, that is not always the case, such as with the talented musician Rime Salmi.

Salmi was born and raised in Montreal, Canada, and while she says she started rewriting songs on the radio at the age of six, she never really considered the possibility of pursuing music as a career.

“Writing was my first love,” Salmi said.

When Salmi was in high school, one of her teachers noticed that she had a powerful singing voice. This eventually led to her being part of a televised talent show in Morocco, and while she says it was not necessarily a great experience, she did learn a lot to help her grow as an artist.

“I learned that I wasn’t living authentically,” Salmi said.

Salmi says she used to focus on perfectionism, but her experience on the talent show helped her realize that most people don’t care much for fabricated music. Instead, they would rather hear music that relates to their own experiences to help them feel less alone.

Now, Salmi writes music based on what she is currently going through. For example, her song “Gaslight” was inspired by trying to help her friend through an abusive relationship, and the lyrics are meant to reflect what she wishes she could say to her friend’s partner. By writing about experiences like this, she finds that she is better equipped to work through the issues she faces.

“It helps me process things,” Salmi said.

Salmi also really enjoys collaborating with other artists, which is something she takes full advantage of living in Los Angeles, California. She also loves how accepting people are of music as a career in LA; in Montreal, she often encountered people who did not consider being a musician to be a “real job.”

“Everybody here is a creator,” Salmi said.

While living in LA does have its challenges, Salmi says she considers herself lucky to have not encountered too many instances of people looking down on her as a woman in the music industry. Aside from one experience of dealing with a man who acted as a gatekeeper, she tries to have a positive outlook for the progress that women have made in the last few years.

“It’s a good time to be a woman in the music industry,” Salmi said. “You don’t need to rely on the industry anymore. You can go directly to your fans.”

Salmi enjoys being able to reach a broad audience through social media by creating videos, and says she intends to focus most of her energy on creating online content as opposed to playing live shows.

During the interview, Salmi performed a currently unreleased song called “Sexual Attraction” which will be officially released on August 6. After that, she intends to release another new song every three weeks.

For more on Rime Salmi, you can check out the entire interview on the @OfficialWomenWhoRock IGTV channel on Instagram.