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May 25, 2005, 11:59AM Eileen Faxas takes to the stageBy SARA CRESSCopyright 2005 Houston Chronicle
You're not likely to abandon a steady income to follow a dream. The romance of the idea fades when you consider reality and the possibility you just might be a really awful painter.
Eileen Faxas was, until March, a consumer reporter on KHOU (Channel 11). She confronted the crooked and defended the little guy with a hard voice and serious brow. And, just like no one knows that you're a painter, few people knew that Faxas is a talented singer. "My mom says I sang before I spoke," she says with a charm that might surprise those accustomed to her reporter persona. "I liked to imitate Doris Day and Nat King Cole." And, as the daughter of Cuban exiles growing up in Miami, she was surrounded by Cuban music. The confluence of Cuban culture and Spanish, her first language, with American culture and music continues to inspire her bilingual, mixed-genre repertoire. "I went to a performing-arts high school in Miami, and then went to the University of Miami. This is where the saga begins," Faxas says. "I double-majored in music and in broadcast journalism. The crucial moment came when I graduated. I chose journalism because, as the first American born in my family, I felt an obligation to make something of myself. There was a plan I could follow and a job I could apply for. With music, it doesn't matter if you have a degree, you don't know where to start. I didn't want to do that to everybody, with all of the student loans and the dreams invested in me, so I went into journalism. I loved it. I did it well." Faxas tried to juggle both parts of herself. She wrote, recorded and released a CD last year, Dance Cry Swing, while working. It's an eclectic mix of salsa (So Lo Que Soy), English ballads (Eclipse of the Moon), jazz (You Light) and, just to make her music completely undefinable, an a cappella Christmas song befitting a Broadway diva. The album is a fun ride, buoyed by talent and passion. In August 2004, six years into her high-profile job, the nagging internal voices that told Faxas to focus on her music became too loud. She decided it was time to leave her security and salary behind to pursue her dreams. "A part of me felt like it was dying because music wasn't a part of my life. My piano was right there, and I'd stopped playing it. I wasn't writing, I wasn't singing, not even in the shower. I disconnected from this essential part of my soul. I could no longer reconcile why I had the gift of writing songs and singing and not using it. "Journalism asked everything of me and left me with very little at the end of the day. I was exhausted from fighting other people's fights. I found that I really couldn't do both; the music was falling by the wayside." Though Faxas beams with confidence, she wasn't entirely sure of herself. Was she too egotistical? What would everyone think? "Watch an episode of American Idol, and you see how delusional people can be. I didn't want people to think that was me. But everybody was so supportive. I'd say, 'Look, I know it's crazy,' and they would say, 'It's not crazy.' I think there was some surprise and concern, but no opposition." Leaving her job also allows her to spend more time with her family in Miami, where, she says, it's easier to promote her music. Faxas now spends much of her time auditioning band members, sending out CDs and speaking to venue owners to let her sing on their stages. As she gears up for a new career, her goals are big: performing at the White House, singing on the Grammys, having a European leg of her big tour. There's no time for small-time goals. "I have gigantic dreams," Faxas says. "If I quit my job for this, why would I dream little? I did it because I want to go all the way."
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