If you watch FOX 26 KRIV reporter/fill-in anchor Ivory Hecker's Instagram, then you'll know she is developing into quite the singer/songwriter.
I asked Hecker about her guitar and singing journey.
Mike McGuff: How long have you been playing guitar?
Ivory Hecker: I’ve been playing guitar off and on since I was about 14. My dad bought me a classical guitar for Christmas that year.
How many songs have you written?
I’ve written ten songs in the past two months. I couldn’t write before that. I was hit with a lot of inspiration in 2019, and the songs came effortlessly and unexpectedly. I grabbed my guitar one day in November to play the covers of my favorite songs, like I often do when I want to zen out. This time an original song flowed right out of my soul and caught me by surprise. I was delighted. I wrote it down. The songs have kept coming to me ever since. Some of them have come in my sleep. It’s been fascinating. I started meditating in 2019, and I think that has something to do with it—detaching from my thoughts a bit and allowing my soul to speak.
Has a story you reported on touched you so much, that it became the basis of a song?
Not at this point. Nine of the songs are about my personal life—love songs. One song was inspired by something someone said to me at a press conference—unrelated to the story I was covering. That one is still being written.
When did you feel comfortable enough to perform live for a crowd? Where have you played publicly?
I call myself a hermit musician because I’ve been playing for so many years, but only alone in my room—never for an audience. I was asked to play publicly for the first time at a charity event last October. I was surprised by the invite, but I decided to say yes since the event was benefiting a mental health charity (NAMI), and I know first-hand how beneficial guitar is for mental health. It was out of my comfort zone, but it was a lot of fun. After that I got a lot of invites to play elsewhere.
Have you ever performed in the FOX 26 newsroom?
Yes, CoCo Dominguez invited me to bring my guitar into the newsroom last month and jam out live on her Fox 26 Facebook Live show “Cup of CoCo.” We had a fun conversation about music, and I played the latest song I had written that week.
Anything else you want to add?
If you follow your heart, you’ll get to experience life’s magic. I couldn’t write a single song until I detached from the rat race in my head enough to hear what my heart was asking for. That’s when life became really beautiful and rich and the songs started to flow. Meditation was key. I started meditating with the Headspace App—highly recommend it!
