Larisa Bryski leads a double life.
By day: Public relations hub for Sierra Adoption Center.
By night: Singer songwriter with her group, The Larisa Bryski Band, who recently landed a recording contract with an upstart label, DMI.
But somewhere between am and pm these two seemingly disparate aspects to her life seem to cross over effortlessly.
“I have two different lives. The music part of it is just something that has always been in me, and the passion for the job I have is something that’s come since I’ve been in the non-profit world as an adult going into a career, something that pays the bills.”
But clearly it’s really not just about paying the bills. She has a genuine passion for philanthropy and seems to have found a niche that feeds her soul almost as well as the music does. Bryski says that after working at Sierra Adoption Center for awhile she fell in love with the mission. “I’m happy with what I’m doing. I’m the only person who does PR for the angency. I aspire to do more with my job, create more buzz for the agency, get more recognition, place more children. I see myself being happy here for a long time, unless I get the big record deal.” A smile spreads across her face and she lets out a delighted laugh. “What’s cool about when I first got hired here, one of the women in administration knew who I was because she had heard my name on the radio or something and she says, ‘Well, you’re a musician. What happens if you get rich and famous? Are you just gonna leave? That was part of my interview and it was this big panel and she was one of them. I said Well, probably but I would donate a big chunk of money to the agency!” I would too, they all know that that’s who I am but they also know that while I’m here I make a very conscious effort to separate the two. I dress like this (see attractive conservative outfit photo) and I really try not to conduct band business while I’m at work. There’s a mutual respect. They know things might happen, I hope things happen, but if they don’t that’s ok too.”
Bryski says that one cool correlation between working for a charity and doing music is that she can sometimes perform for charity, and not just for Sierra. “I’m really into philanthropy anyway, animal issues, children issues, breast cancer, girl scouts (she used to be one). It enables me to do something other than just write a check.”
Although she gets an emotional charge from both sides of her life she says the emotional end is quite different for each. “When I’m interviewing a family for the newsletter we produce I cry a lot. Because the kids we place most of the time come from situations of neglect from their birth family and then they are saved by these people who come forward to adopt them and take them into their homes forever. It’s crazy, just the most amazing thing so many children who need families and have families that adopt them. You ask them ‘is there any diference between having a biological child and having an adopted child and they say no, no difference. I love this child just as much.’ It’s awesome when that happens.”
But from the music side of things when somebody comes up to me and says I love your song… when I write a song that really connects with someobody… that’s like woah, I made something that somebody else relates to and made them emotional and that makes me emotional.
