How did you get started doing music?
I started playing Piano when I was seventeen and everything just seemed to take off from there. I started writing music and fell in love with it. Music helps me express myself and it feels like it comes naturally for me. Last year I got an opportunity to write a song, Gonna Make A Change, for a Lionsgate movie Hell On The Border. It was an unbelievable experience to get to have my first professionally recorded song in a movie.
What was it like recording your first song?
It felt surreal! I usually play and sing on my piano at home in a private setting. I was a “closet singer-songwriter” so to have someone interested in my music led to an incredible journey I never dreamed would happen. I wrote Gonna Make A Change after reading the Hell On The Border screenplay. I only had about four weeks total to write and record the song. Wes Miller is an outstanding Writer and Director and I instantly fell in love with the true story of Bass Reeves once I read the screenplay. Bass Reeves was not only the first African American US Marshal but he also overcame so many obstacles due to racism. Wes Miller made it much easier to write a song about Hell On The Border because he was able to express Bass Reeve’s life story so well. I wrote Gonna Make A Change in about 10 days and professionally recorded the song in less than two weeks. It was amazing to see my song come to life with my vocals, music and lyrics on the Big Screen. It was an experience of a lifetime I am so grateful for and one that I will never forget.
What’s your process for developing creative for music videos?
I just filmed my first music video that is now on You Tube! I wanted the music video Every Step Of The Way to show different sides of who I am since one of the lyrics in my song says, “you can’t figure me out but you can read everyone else.”
Any advice you’d give to somebody who wants to make music?
Practice! Sometimes the first song might not be a hit or turn out the way you want it to, but the more you write the better you will get. Writing is like a muscle. You just have to keep writing in order to strengthen your writing skills. Also, nothing you write is wrong! There are endless things to write about when it comes to music. That’s why I love it so much. There aren’t really any “rules.”