Dom L'Amour speaks with Artist Bovell AKA Kaylan Royston (@kaylan.bovellroyston) about life as an Artist, why we preform, people you surround yourself with and so much more
Ever wonder about the heartbeat behind the music, the stories etched into an artist's soul? Join me, Dom L'Amour, as I sit down with the remarkably gifted Bovell, also known as Kaylan Royston, to explore the emotional landscape of an artist's life. In our candid conversation, we pull back the curtain on the struggles that shape us—like wrestling insecurities and resisting the urge to simply mirror the latest trends. We delve into how transitioning from a conservatory to a college can shape or shake one's artistic journey, and why staying true to oneself is the cornerstone of creativity.
As if sitting in on a private jam session, you'll hear us recount the sacrifices and synchronicities that mark the life of a performer, from the pangs of missed university traditions to the raw education of the stage. We share tales of summer theater and how it molds us, the gravity of auditioning, and the juggling act of following our passion versus ticking off traditional education boxes. Bovell's insights from his time at Berklee reveal just how valuable authenticity is in an industry that's all too easy to lose oneself in.
In the crescendo of our dialogue, we illuminate the intricate dance of balancing life's many roles, and the joy found in the simplicity of everyday experiences that inform our art. We ponder the alchemy of songwriting, where personal narratives and unfiltered emotions entwine to birth music that resonates with the soul. I'll even give you a glimpse into my own artistic revelations and how the mundane—like married life—can be a muse in disguise. So tune in and let's celebrate the rhythm of life, the symphony of self-authenticity, and the harmony that comes from embracing the full spectrum of who we are, both on and off the stage.
Opening quote: Rick Rubin
Opening and Closing Theme song: Produced by Dom L'Amour
Transition Music from Mad Chops Vol. 1 and Mad Chops Vol. 2 by Mad Keys
and
from Piano Soul Vol.1(Loop Pack) by The Modern Producers Team
Featured songs: "Yellow Moon" Preformed by Bovell & "Deed I Do" Covered by Dom L'Amour
Cover art by Studio Mania: Custom Art @studiomania99
Please subscribe to the podcast, and give us a good rating. 5 stars please and thank you. Follow me on @doml_amour on Instagram. Or at
Dom L'Amour speaks with Artist Bovell AKA Kaylan Royston (@kaylan.bovellroyston) about life as an Artist, why we preform, people you surround yourself with and so much more
Ever wonder about the heartbeat behind the music, the stories etched into an artist's soul? Join me, Dom L'Amour, as I sit down with the remarkably gifted Bovell, also known as Kaylan Royston, to explore the emotional landscape of an artist's life. In our candid conversation, we pull back the curtain on the struggles that shape us—like wrestling insecurities and resisting the urge to simply mirror the latest trends. We delve into how transitioning from a conservatory to a college can shape or shake one's artistic journey, and why staying true to oneself is the cornerstone of creativity.
As if sitting in on a private jam session, you'll hear us recount the sacrifices and synchronicities that mark the life of a performer, from the pangs of missed university traditions to the raw education of the stage. We share tales of summer theater and how it molds us, the gravity of auditioning, and the juggling act of following our passion versus ticking off traditional education boxes. Bovell's insights from his time at Berklee reveal just how valuable authenticity is in an industry that's all too easy to lose oneself in.
In the crescendo of our dialogue, we illuminate the intricate dance of balancing life's many roles, and the joy found in the simplicity of everyday experiences that inform our art. We ponder the alchemy of songwriting, where personal narratives and unfiltered emotions entwine to birth music that resonates with the soul. I'll even give you a glimpse into my own artistic revelations and how the mundane—like married life—can be a muse in disguise. So tune in and let's celebrate the rhythm of life, the symphony of self-authenticity, and the harmony that comes from embracing the full spectrum of who we are, both on and off the stage.
Opening quote: Rick Rubin
Opening and Closing Theme song: Produced by Dom L'Amour
Transition Music from Mad Chops Vol. 1 and Mad Chops Vol. 2 by Mad Keys
and
from Piano Soul Vol.1(Loop Pack) by The Modern Producers Team
Featured songs: "Yellow Moon" Preformed by Bovell & "Deed I Do" Covered by Dom L'Amour
Cover art by Studio Mania: Custom Art @studiomania99
Please subscribe to the podcast, and give us a good rating. 5 stars please and thank you. Follow me on @doml_amour on Instagram. Or at
It's like if you feel like you can't have a conversation with someone in the way that you want to, that's a problem. If you feel like you have to make your voice sound a certain way, not because it's how you sound, but it's because how you want people to think you sound from a manipulative standpoint, from a standpoint where you don't feel secure, where you don't feel confident, and it's not like oh, I'm making this choice because this is a definitive choice and I feel confident in my choices and artist for doing these things to make my music sound like XYZ versus. I'm doing this because this is the wave and this is like the only way that people will bother with me. It breaks my heart.
Speaker 2:Ladies and gentlemen, and anyone else who is here, my name is Dom Lamour and you are listening to the Black man Talking Emotions podcast. On today's episode, I speak with Bovel, aka Kaelin Royston, about life as an artist, why we perform, people you surround yourself with and so much more. No matter what tools you use to create, the true instrument is you. You are doing something that I actually wish I did. I wish I had actually gone to either an HBCU or a true art school. My university is now a conservatory, but when I was there, the process was beginning and it wasn't known for the arts. You're at Berkeley, of course. Tell me about that experience. How is it working up there for you?
Speaker 1:I come from not just a music background but obviously having like a concentration in music performance or musical theater performance. So that's initially what I was in Boston for. I was at the Boston Conservatory, which is like kind of a sister school to Berkeley it depends on who you ask but it's a sister school to Berkeley. I was there majoring for a BFA in musical theater. I was there for two years. I love performing and I love creating.
Speaker 1:I think because I graduated high school the year of 2020, I had a very different experience with higher education and college as a whole. I grew burned out very quickly and it got to a point where I physically could not keep up with the demand of what I was being asked to do at the conservatory, which I think is you know. It's interesting that you bring up that your school is now a conservatory program, because it's like basically structured like a boot camp, whereas now I'm at a college institution. I had 15 classes a week when I was at the conservatory. Now I have like nine at most and it's lovely and wonderful, but I think now I'm at a point in my life where I just really want to focus on music and making that transfer was probably like one of the best decisions I've ever made in my life, because I've met so many incredible, hardworking, diligent, talented people who are everywhere.
Speaker 1:You know I love to go to the Hyart Museum in Atlanta for their jazz nights every third Friday of the month, and there's people that I've been seeing there for years. Well, I didn't know. They see in my bio. They're like oh, you go to Berkeley, I'm an alumni there, and I'm like that's crazy. So while I'm basically opening up this new chapter in my life and realizing it's a chapter I've already read before, I just forgot or I just never really paid attention. So I'm going back and like seeing these characters that have played these integral roles in my life in terms of being huge inspirations for me as well.
Speaker 1:I mean, one of my coaches this was recent semester was Lettucey, and I saw her at the Atlanta Jazz Festival and then she became my private coach and professor for one of my classes that I took this last fall, and that was like something that I wasn't expecting, like I remember seeing her Atlanta Jazz Fest and being like, oh my God, like I can only imagine just you know, even getting to have a conversation with her about her passions, and you know why she does this and how she perseveres, and now I've gotten to have those conversations with her at a school that is very diligent about that networking side. I think it's definitely a valid reflection on your part to be like, well shit, I wish I went to, you know. I do think it's important, though, to like acknowledge going to a true quote. Unquote art school, or performing art school in general, does not definitively make you a great musician.
Speaker 2:And that's not the reason why I wanted to go. I wanted to go because of what you just said. I didn't understand that college wasn't truly for the education. Yes, you get better and you perform and you get more skilled at what you're supposed to do. That is true. You know you network, you meet networking If you go to your school. Next thing, you know you're talking to people that's passionate about the same things you're passionate about and you can build your career together and actually branch out into areas where you're at a studio and you're just talking, small talking. You're like, oh, I want to Berkeley and they're like I want to Berkeley. Next thing, you know that's your engineer for your album, because they like, hey, I want to help out somebody that went to Berkeley too. I don't have that.
Speaker 2:At Southeast Missouri State University I have a couple of friends who just started a theater company, which is great. I have a couple of friends who are working as producers and PAs in LA. I have friends who's directors in the Pacific Northeast. I have people who are in New York working at bars and auditioning. I have that. But me as an artist, a performer who produced my own shows, who writes my own music, I don't have anyone really like that and the most of the people I became friends with were musicians. So if I go to Nashville, I got a saxophone player for sure. If I go to Dallas, I got a drummer for sure.
Speaker 2:Like that aspect of life is great, but I feel like if I would have understood the importance of going to a bigger, more recognized college for the arts and high school, if I would have been able to go to a high school arts, it'd be incredible. Going back to what you said earlier, where you said you were taking this many classes, now you're down to nine, like that was me in college. My first year I had 21 hours and that's crazy. And same 21 hours because I had to do Gen Ed classes. I had to do all of this other stuff that had nothing to do with what I wanted to do and it was taking up a lot of time. It took up places where I could have been taking other classes that were better for my profession. And then, on top of that, the next year I'll taken about 17.
Speaker 2:And I have friends who literally are like how many hours are you taking? And I'm like 21. And they're like I have 12. I have 12 hours and I'm going to get a degree that's just like your degree, but the difference is they put so much on us and you push like you you're almost getting two degrees for the price of one. That's crazy, for I didn't go to any of my homecoming Any, because I was always rehearsing. That doesn't even count as an hour, so think about that. I'm like in 21 hours. On top of that, I'm having three hour rehearsals most of the time if I'm in the show, so my hours were stupid. In college I never got to truly have that university experience where I'm just at the UC kicking it Like I remember for finals they had midnight breakfast and they would do that the week before finals. Like I only went to one of those.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would truly feel like I was a Southeast Missouri state kid. Granted, I feel like I could have gone to more basketball games, but their teams made me so angry. I stopped going but I didn't get the experience to football games that often I went to three games in all of my four years in college. So that was really it. I truly believe the best teacher for a performer is working.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, period, period. If you're going to do it, if you're good enough to get out there, go work. Yes, I always educate students. If I ever do masterclass ever in my life. Are you ready to perform? Yes, are you? Yes, why are you in school? Then Get out of here. There's no reason to stay here if you are good at what you do, because, no matter what, if you make it and you're getting consistent money as a performer, school is always there. If you need to go back but you don't need to go back you can learn on the job in our profession and I did one summer at a theater and that summer, one month, those four weeks affected me so much.
Speaker 2:I learned so much. I have lifetime friendships. My big brother, who's an accomplished writer, broadway artist, performer. He and I are still close because of those four weeks and that relationship was worth at least two years of college. My thing he was also very just audition get out. If you get an audition for a tour, you should take that over school any day. Oh yeah, but in my head I'm the oldest kid, I got to graduate, so my little brother says he's going to graduate.
Speaker 2:I got to just do this. I got to do that. I'm not saying I was prepped to go pro early, but I was making money performing while I was in school. That was something that I really felt if I was at Juilliard or Michigan or anywhere. Even Webster University in St Louis is a great art school.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:I would have met those people. That would have helped me get there. I'm still kind of trying to create relationships out of thin air now because I didn't go to those schools. I'm not in those circles, I don't have those friends. Most of my friends are people at home with kids or people that's working on their businesses here and there, like those are my friends because that's who I went to school with, including the people in the theater department.
Speaker 2:You know, remember a guy? He got four straight lead characters, four straight four semesters, four leads. We're in college, you're supposed to spread the wealth. They were like no, we giving this dude four lead characters in a row. And he dropped out of college and we were like, damn man, I guess he's just gonna go in and audition and work. He owns a food business now. He doesn't even do theater, he doesn't perform. Oh God, think about that. We're in school and I'm grinding, trying my best to prove that I'm good enough and I wanna do this. And I only went up against him once for a role in Lil Shop.
Speaker 2:But this dude was so brilliant, they were just like. I mean, he's undeniable. We're gonna give it to him. That wasn't what he was passionate about. He was just good at it, right, and I'm sure that people at art schools they're just good and they go to those schools and they don't perform as well as they should or they don't put the inspiration in as they should, but I feel like there's a less amount of number of them at an art school than they are at the school that I want to, and you are just incredible Working with you. No, I want people to hear that Come on, well, working with you in the productions that work with you and just seeing you go through your normal process, you see that you're supposed to do this.
Speaker 2:You see the inspiration, you see the light you know, and those are the people that you wanna be around as a performer and I'm assuming you get to be around people like that all the time.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, it's funny.
Speaker 1:This is what I need to hear, then yes, it's funny you say that and it's like no Tino shade, because everyone already knows this, especially like at the school that I go to. And like people can be upset, I do not give a fuck because it's the truth. The biggest thing I think about a true art school like Berkley, you know, or like a Juliard or NYU or Webster or like you know it's funny that you say, oh, you know, I'm sure you meet people who are well versed in that performance aspect. I know so many talented and very just, intuitively brilliant musicians who don't know how to perform, who don't know how to go on a stage and sell a song because they're never asked about the narrative aspect of why it is they're doing what they're doing. That is what separates you from being someone who's just, you know, doing a gig, from someone who's an artist. If you are creating an experience for people and there's evidence to support that because you have people coming up to you being like you know, wherever you were at, I was with you Like you know, you are doing the thing that artists do, which is create that experience for people. And I think you know in a similar way, in high school I was just like what you were saying, I was just kind of like working. You know, I was like making money as a performer.
Speaker 1:In high school I went to one homecoming in high school. I think I went to two football games and it was only after I was forced to step away from performing because I was burning myself out and I was doing too much. I was going to those rehearsals after school and rehearsing three to four hours a night and then also personally rehearsing on my own accord two to three hours after rehearsal. I'm currently picking up bass. I'm rehearsing like maybe four to six hours a day because I have a gig coming up in February and I'm not trying to like mess around and look stupid.
Speaker 1:You know, and I think that's the mentality of a lot of students in an arts school is it's very competitive and we're all very much so. Like you know, I have to understand this amount of theory and I have to know, you know, this amount of songs. I have to be able to sing this and I have to be able to sing and it starts to desensitize people from the humanistic nature of being a singer or a musician, like just being an instrumentalist, just being someone who is making something. That's one of the most intimate art forms that you can make, like music is very intimate. I meet a lot of people who are great singers. You know I am not the best singer in the world.
Speaker 2:What? Wait, wait, wait, wait, no, no, I'm not even gonna let you say that I will cut that out if you keep talking this way. Talk about something, keep going on what you were saying. But I'm not gonna let you say you're not the great, you're one of the best singers I've ever met. Keep going.
Speaker 1:I can be one of the best, I can be one of the best singers, I can be one of the best singers, but there's always gonna be someone that's better. That's the thing you know. There's always like there's plenty of singers at, you know, my school that are like better than me. Of course, absolutely. But when I have conversations with them and I ask them, you know, hey, like, what's your process for like performance? Because I see them perform and I have a lot of questions because I'm seeing nothing in their face. Yes, yes, although they're singing, I'm seeing nothing, and I think that's, you know, what has also been exhausting as someone who's going to the school that is known for having like a lot of hype because of TikTok people, or because of.
Speaker 1:Instagram Because it becomes about a 15 second performance. That sounds great, but they don't know how to translate that to a one hour set.
Speaker 2:I can have a conversation with you all day about that. I was just talking to someone about Louis Armstrong and they were like, oh, he couldn't sing, he was horrible. And I was like what are you seeing? Like he would get up there and he would transform a song and he would do it so different than another person that you had to listen.
Speaker 2:Yes, his voice was grasping and this and that, but that doesn't mean he's a bad singer. He is the most musical person you can listen to. He knows exactly what he's doing. Each note oh my goodness, how dare you. But once again, like you said, a lot of people don't think that way. They think immediately. A good singer is someone can hit the highest note and they can sing these notes that they can never imagine singing. That's a good singer. I'm like there's a reason why the temptations needed blue, the bass. That voice was phenomenal and it added clarity to what they were doing. You need those lower notes just as much as you need those higher notes and, on top of all of that, you need the expression, you need the phrasing, you need to be able to perform period. There are some people who can just get in there and sing and they'll find ways to make them look cool on camera and the singing is great.
Speaker 1:But I'm gonna do like a shit, right.
Speaker 2:But you're not gonna convince me a performer or someone who truly cares about every aspect of it, who loves passion in performance, you're not gonna convince me that someone who just sounds good to your creed is better than everyone else just because that's not how it works. You gotta have the full package, you gotta work on it and on top of that, it isn't about hidden notes, this and that. John Legend is my favorite singer in the world. His first album. All they talked about was how he cracked on this song and he cracked on that song and he was not able to truly hit these notes, but he was still trying and he was so raspy and this and that and it's like that's his character, that's his performance, that's what he represents on those tracks and that expression adds to the lore of John Legend.
Speaker 2:It's not about being better. One of my favorite quotes in the world competition is for horses, not for artists. Yeah, period, when I get on stage and I do what I do, right, if you look me in the eyes as someone who's trying to sell me like, why should I hire you? Because I'm me. That's why.
Speaker 1:Period Right.
Speaker 2:I hate those interviews. I hate talking to people. I hate when people ask you to try to explain this or try to pitch this, or your social media presence needs to be this it's like I'm gonna do what I do, because it's what I do. When I sing a song and you sing a song, the way I sing it is always gonna be different than the way you sing it, period, unless you listen to me and you try to mimic me. That's the only way you're gonna sound like me, because I never sing the song the same way. Right? Because I'm an artist and I was told that when you're saying these words, the best way to express them is to say them as if they're the first time you're saying them. Right?
Speaker 2:I did a show in Mariettawood and I was with you and I remember this guy came up to me and he was like did you write this show? I was like, oh no, I didn't write this so that some random person put these songs together. He was like, oh man, you were just so passionate. I just assumed this was your show, you wrote it or something. I was like I'm gonna take that as a compliment. I appreciate it. And then he walked away and I thought about that for a couple of days. I was like imagine that, coming to see a show and just being kind of taken back by someone being so passionate on stage. Right, isn't that what?
Speaker 1:we're supposed to do. Yeah, yeah, thank you for that.
Speaker 2:Aren't we supposed to pour our heart into what we do? Yeah, aren't we supposed to express ourselves to the fullest ability?
Speaker 1:People are just growing numb to the organic nature of a lot of artists because of things like social media. I will never put tuning on my vocals. Any of my music that's out. None of my vocals are tuned, other than my BGVs because, like God help, but other than that, my lead vocal will always be my lead vocal because I emulate my artistry after these musicians, after these vocalists who are known for the raw, intense, buttery nature of their voice. Ella Fitzgerald is one of my favorite singers in the world. You know, Greatest.
Speaker 1:Erica Badoo is one of my favorite artists in the world. You know I love Joni Mitchell. Like these, these are like. That's my core of who I am and why I am what I am. And if you have to tune it, that's okay for an artist, for an artistic choice.
Speaker 2:Do we? Oh yeah, t-pain putting it on his voice just for the effect. That's dope.
Speaker 1:And he can't sing his ass off.
Speaker 2:Like he, and he did it because it was the wave that he got famous for, and every time he put a song out it was hot. It wasn't because he needed it, he just did it because that was the voice effect that he had got famous for and pushed it forward. I totally agree with him.
Speaker 1:It's like if you feel like you can't have a conversation with someone in the way that you want to, that's a problem. If you feel like you have to make your voice sound a certain way, not because it's how you sound, but it's because how you want people to think you sound from a manipulative standpoint, from a standpoint where you don't feel secure, where you don't feel confident, and it's not like, oh, I'm making this choice because this is a definitive choice and I feel confident in my choices and artists for doing these things to make my music sound like XYZ versus. I'm doing this because this is the wave and this is like the only way that people will bother with me. It breaks my heart to have conversations with songwriters right now because it's like you know, I want to like release the song, but I don't think anyone would listen to it because it's not this and it's not this.
Speaker 1:And that's always, you know, especially been a conversation for a lot of songwriters from you know, the beginning of time, I'm sure, but it's like I think, especially now, there's so much of a push for certain aesthetics. It's like I completely shied away from even writing music for years because I felt that so deeply to my core that it ruined my relationship with music and I'm now in a point where I'm rekindling that relationship and I'm learning to not be apologetic for how I sound or what I write or why I write, because I know that my intent is clear and if you can't see it, then your intent isn't clear as a listener and that's a personal problem for you and not for me as a song, you know.
Speaker 2:Yes, Haley and I met while doing a BG's ABBA review show in Marietta in 2022. True story. She is a powerhouse and I love her drive. I invited her on a gig with my wedding band last year and I just hope to continue to work with her forever. She's incredible. I wanted to focus on how dope she is, so this is her song Yellow Moon. Please support her, save the tune and follow her under her artist name BoVell.
Speaker 3:I still think of you sometimes, even if I can't see A tight away approach. There's no other way to be. It's been a few years that I wouldn't confess the way that I'd wait to see the day you were gone. I tried to hate you but I couldn't solve that. I couldn't solve it the way that I wanted you to show you who you came. But there was a love here. There was a time and space. There was a trust there there wasn't time to waste.
Speaker 3:I'm moving from crashes from my head to my feet. I whisper in the part of that makes me go. Please, I still think of you sometimes, even if I can't see A tight away approach. There's no other way to be. But I still think of you sometimes, even if I can't see I still think of you sometimes, even if I can't see.
Speaker 4:You couldn't hold me the way that they could. You could never know the way that you should, but I am. You're just a yellow, just a yellow. You're just a yellow, just a yellow, you're just a yellow just a yellow.
Speaker 1:I want to read it so bad.
Speaker 2:It was fantastic. Last year I did my book of the month and did a bracket and posted it. It was the number two, it was everything. He's very much like this hippie guy just talking music, can't get it in the right place. I'm ready and push his stomach to deflate his ego, just taking in and with my songwriting. It's the same thing. I was on a cold streak for a long time. Cold streak in the sense that I just wasn't writing and it was because life caught up with me. I wasn't consistent. I wasn't focused and efficient on things I need to take care of. I was kind of scattered in mind.
Speaker 2:I was really taking in the world and letting it adjust me instead of me doing what I want to do and being free and understanding that I can control. What I can control, I would preach it, I would tell people that, but I started to really practice what I preached. And now I'm in this place now where I'm starting to understand once again. Songwriting is a muscle. You really got to do it and continue to do it and it flows out of you eventually when you do it consistently and you force yourself to just write and to be you. And now my songs are really starting to sound like me. I have a song called Curry, and it's not about Steph Curry. It is about me and my wife not working overtime, not being consumed with social media or people. It's about us taking our time to be with each other and making curry over dinner. I saw that song and I was like, oh, I'm never going to put that on anything. That was how, when I first wrote it. I'm not going to put that on a project. But now that I'm putting my album together for this year, I actually was like no, no, that's a for sure song on this album. I don't care if it's not the, if it's not the best out of my two, I don't care that one's going on, because if you're like Dominique, tell me about your day to day. That song is my day to day. That's really what my life is about.
Speaker 2:J Cole said this on one of his tracks. He said he wants somebody to just rap about being a broke rapper. He can respect that because that's real. That's what people are really going through and I could see broke rappers out here living. Everybody is in flashing chains. Everybody isn't out here flashing money. Everybody is not on this level that is looking down on others. We're working, we're grinding and there's some people that just are broke. And for me, I'm in a place where I'm blessed. I'm in my office right now. I'm looking at all my stuff around. I put it the way I want it. No one's telling me, hey, I have to take this off the wall. No one's telling me, dominique, you need to cut your hair. No one's telling me I need to do anything that I don't want to do. I'm doing what I want to do and living how I want to live. I'm a boring married gentleman who lives in Georgia. That is my life and I'm okay with that.
Speaker 2:Now, granted, I don't think I'm as boring as most people, but a lot of people hear me talk about my wife and they'll be like, oh, so you just be at home on Fridays, you just be at home with your wife, and I'm like, yeah, that's life, baby, I'm okay with that. And so my songwriting is starting to reflect that. It's starting to reflect how much I'm excited about those small moments, how excited I am to be in a place where I truly can just be myself.
Speaker 2:I truly can see what I'm doing and be happy for it. And, most of all, I see the people that are putting their loving to me. I see the people who are there for me. I see the people who are truly making an effort to be a part of my life, and I appreciate them 20 times more than ever in my life before. That's what my songwriting is about and what you're saying is so true.
Speaker 2:So many people are allowing social media to control them. They're seeing these people get millions of views for just singing in the closet and it sounds amazing and they're like oh my God, should I do that?
Speaker 2:And there's like that's not you. I mean, they got it and it's cool. Like maybe that video got hyped because of the vocals being so great, or maybe also on that thing, they have a picture of them in their butt. It's literally out. Or maybe they make really, really good food recipes and they smoke weed and you see that. And then next thing you know they're singing and they're like oh wow, I didn't know they sang too. Like you never know what's the reason why. Right, you just got to continue to do you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, period.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that strikes such a chord with me, especially in a songwriting sense, because I've written music longer than I've done anything else on this earth, which is like it's funny because I have two separate groups of people people who know me as like an actor, slash dancer or whatever, and then people who know me as like a singer, and then, like my friends who know me as an actor, they're like it's crazy that you sing the way you do it, right?
Speaker 1:People that know me as a singer or songwriter they, you know, see me do a show and they're like it's crazy the way that you kick your face and you act that monologue. I'm like, yeah, because I think for me, music has always been a mode of coping. I don't know why, well, I know why, but there's a lot of I come to reflect on as traumatic experiences as a child that I coped with by writing and like coming up with cute little melodies in my head and I didn't know that was songwriting. You know, at the time I have poetry that I've written from like 2007. Yeah, and I was like literally not even in school yet.
Speaker 2:Hold on, If you don't mind me asking how were you in 2007 again?
Speaker 1:See, I was born in 202. Oh, okay, that's the five. Yes, that's why we sit for the school, yeah.
Speaker 2:Just for the folks listening. I graduated high school in 2007.
Speaker 1:Okay. So listen, I'm just graduating to you, I'm getting older too. It's fine. I have been writing music for so long and then that started to like transcend into me, wanting to share, you know, oh, like I have this way of talking with people and I want to do it, and then that turned into acting, and then acting turned into dance and all these other things, but the consistent factor has always been songwriting and music. I think it's so important for anyone who's a songwriter to read books first of all.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:If you do not set aside time to read like a physical book. You know, I think it's like totally fine to indulge in things online, but there's something so valuable and something so special about physically holding a piece of paper, reading it. I even like to just read short plays when I have the time, because I think there's so much value to that and learning about the ways that you can manipulate language in a way that it brings you peace and it brings you comfort. And that's when you know, it became a coping thing for me.
Speaker 1:I love to read as a kid so I was like oh yeah, like I want to be able to write this way. I want to be able to write that way. But it's also to your point, I don't want to write exactly like any other songwriter, because the way that I write is fine and that's me. And I think for a long time, you know, I would look at other songwriters' lyrics and be like damn, I wish I could write that, like one of my favorite songwriters. You know, beyond the obvious, like I previously mentioned, like Eric Abadou or Joni Mitchell I love, like Stevie Nicks, for instance.
Speaker 1:She writes great lyrics and even like someone in a more contemporary lens who I also love, like Hozier, writes great poetry.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, yes. And for me, I had this moment with Stevie Wonder's ass where I just was like, did you know that true love asks for nothing? That line just sticks out because it's something that of course you would know that. But it's like, how did he think of it to write it and sing it, and ah, anyway, I'm right there with you.
Speaker 1:No, but those are the things that stand out. It feels so much bigger than it is when you just let your walls down. But when you're feeling guarded and you're feeling like you're pushed up against a wall and you have to fit your narrative within a narrative, that becomes a problem. And then that's really when my writer's block started kicking out. I was like I don't know what to write, I don't know how to feel. You know, it's like Joni Mitchell she is this great quote where she said something along the lines of I don't really believe in writer's block, I just write what comes to my mind and if it works within the rhythm, it works. If it doesn't, then I'll think of something else and I'll write that down Like that's great, because I think it's easy to try to pursue this idea of being a poetic, very romantic type of lyricist.
Speaker 1:I think it's also an easy way to make people feel like you're unattainable or your music is not meant for them and it's exclusive. I think it's hard sometimes for people to reflect on certain lyrics when they're not able to just sit and read them for what they are and they are having to unpack things, not because it's like a brilliant metaphor, but because you're trying to morph it into something that it doesn't need to be. It doesn't have to have all of this dressing, it doesn't have to have all this glitter, it doesn't have to put your lyrics in a costume and I think so often songwriters feel forced to put their lyrics in a costume. I just like to think of it as like luggage lyrics. Write things that if you were to open a piece of luggage, you would find neat pieces within them. Don't write a lyric for the sake of making it this thing. That's bigger than what you're actually trying to say, or bigger than what you could even try to say, and at that point you're not even writing within your own experience, which can be, I think, a cool writing exercise to write about things that you may not personally have connections to.
Speaker 1:But then at that point it's like how much of yourself are you really tapping into? As much as you're trying to tap into what is expected of you? You know, especially being this person that presents as I am, I think people see me and they hear me sing and they're like I did not expect, like I did not expect that tone out of you, like I have this very silky, soft, buttery voice, but then I can be very explosive as a vocalist as well and people are like you're so tiny. Where is that sound coming from?
Speaker 1:For me for a really long time, that explosive sound, it feels primal, almost, it feels like instinctive, whereas I used to feel guilty for that sound before because I thought that I wasn't a good singer for growling sometimes when I'm belting, or I thought I wasn't a good singer for, you know, sometimes flunking out of notes, like we were talking about earlier. It's all a matter of what is instinctive to you as an artist. So now it's like I'm at a point where I wrote 20 songs last year and I wasn't doing that with a certain goal in mind. That's just what happened when I let the walls down and I was like screw it, I'm going to write a song about peaches. And I wrote a song about peaches and now it's one of my favorite songs I've written.
Speaker 2:That's what it's all about. That's what it's all about.
Speaker 1:I watched this documentary about Salvador Dali because he and my grandfather met each other at one point in time and he's also one of my favorite artists. I was just thinking of my grandfather and I was like you know, I don't know much about this man, I just want to write a documentary about him and it was so interesting because in the documentary they talk about how he's named after his late older sibling, whose name was also Salvador Dali, and his mother took him as a three-year-old to his late brother's grave and was like you're your brother reincarnated. This is important for you to know. And just like how someone would process that and thought to myself ah, you ever seen your name written in stone?
Speaker 1:That's such a good song, seed. I'm going to write that down and save it for later. I didn't even need it for later. I wrote a song like 30 minutes later called Dali Lama, because the Dali Lama is like this reincarnation into the next Dali Lama, and then Dali thinking that he's reincarnation of his brother and I wrote a song about that which is so sweet and like complicated and convoluted, but I don't care, you know.
Speaker 2:One of my favorite things Herbie Hancock brought up was when he was performing with Miles Davis. He hit a wrong note during a concert once and Miles took a breath and then played a melody or a line that made that note work with the song yes, and kind of taught him that there are no wrong notes. Right, and that is such an important way to look at art, because there are no rules. No one can tell you how to be an artist, no one can tell you what it takes. Hey, you can be an athlete and you can play basketball, you play football, and they can tell you, if you do these steps, this will get you to a place where you're a better athlete, or at least you're prepped to be better. And it's on you after that, when it comes to music or art drawing, writing, singing, anything if you're up there and you do something and it affects the way people think and feel you're doing your job, and that can be good or bad if you want to do whatever you want to do. There's another video that's been very famous recently on the Reels, and my friends in the band that we work with they always bring this up and it's just funny where Chuck Berry was performing with John Lennon when Yoko was on stage and she didn't have a microphone to sing into and she took the instrument microphone and just started screaming. People were like what the fuck is going on, but that's still her doing her. It might not be good and it wasn't good. Let's just make sure that's clear. But that's what it's all about. You get up there. She was inspired, she did what she wanted. Those are the things that separated Frank Sinatra. He felt it was important to study every word in every song and know how he's gonna sing each word so that when he sang it it was his song, the way he wanted it, and he did it that way, period. It's incredible to have this gift for me.
Speaker 2:Wake up, every day, I'm thinking about music. I go to sleep, I'm thinking about music. Right now we're talking and we say something in music, more than likely as wet's popping my head or reminding me of these things. It's all about performance music, and I can't explain to people how it works. I can't explain to people why I need to just stand on the stage or live in the space before I say I can't explain, I don't know, I don't understand what happens to me when I'm on stage and I do things.
Speaker 2:There's a recording that I did in LA. I used to perform in this place called Idol Hour and it wasn't like a place where it was normally performances. If you ever go to North Hollywood, there's this big barrel in the middle of North Hollywood and there's a bar called Idol Hour and I used to perform at that place because I was really close friends with the owner well, the manager, the main guy, nick is my guy. Shout out to Nick and I did this song called Did I Do, and my favorite version of Did I Do is by Rosemary Clooney and I remember hearing her version. I think I'm gonna do something like that. I'm gonna do something like that. So we got there, I started off by saying we're gonna start with this guy over here and someone in the audience was like why don't you do a drum solo? And I was like God, let's start with a fucking drum solo. I was so stressed and the song just starts with him hitting the drums and moving, moving, moving, and then the bass comes in do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do.
Speaker 2:I had no idea how I was gonna sing the song because that wasn't the way Rosemary Clooney's song started, but then I did it and I sang it three different ways. Each time I went through the chorus and verse three different ways and each time it was different. Because in school my teacher taught me if you say something the same each time you say it, you should say it differently. So when Hamlet, when he says words, words, right Words, like they have to be different. You don't repeat the same word over and over the same way, Unless it's supposed to be. It has to be a reason for you to say those three words and you gotta just take it somewhere else.
Speaker 2:So, within the music aspect, I was like I'm gonna sing this this way, I wanna be cool the first time I sing it. Then the second time I was like oh, what's next? What's next? I'm not gonna be cool this time, I'm gonna move a little bit. I wanna have a little fun. Then the last time, I was like it's time to celebrate, we're almost at the end of the song. I need this to be higher, I need this to be different. That's art, that's what we do, that's what it's all about, and if you don't like it, go to the next one period. I love swinging crazy Always a good time. I wanna get a drink. So out of this, I want a whole bunch of you. I want you to, oh my God, starting with a fucking drum solo dude.
Speaker 4:Yes, yes.
Speaker 2:All the facts, dude.
Speaker 4:Yes, yes, yes, yes, All right, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, nice nice, how's it going, starrallah? I'm Sterla.
Speaker 2:Let's start at the top, do I love you? Oh, my, do I, honey Did.
Speaker 4:I do. Do I need you? Oh my, do I baby? Did I do? Yeah, I'm glad that I'm the one who found you. That's why I'm always hanging around with you. Do I love you? Oh my, do I honey, did I do? I'm glad that I'm the one who found you. Oh my, do I honey, did I do? Do I need you? Oh my, do I honey, did I do? I'm so glad that I'm the one who found you. I've been waiting to be your love baby. Do I love you? Oh my, do I honey, did I do? That's for them. Do I love you? Hey, I said do I love you? Oh my, do I honey, did I do? Do I need you? Oh my, do I honey, did I do? I'm so glad that I'm the one who found you. Can't wait to be around you. Baby, do I love you? Oh my, do I honey, did I do? Did I do? I said honey, honey, honey, did I do, did.
Speaker 2:I do, did I do, did I do, did I do. I want to talk about something you said before and this is the last thing I ask you about, because I think it's very fascinating and it's something that I relate to.
Speaker 2:I feel like there's so many times where in my friend group, starting in elementary school all the way to middle school, high school, college, now life, I feel like there were like five dominiques. There was the musical theater dominique, there was the black, there was the black friend dominique, there was the football friend or basketball friend, dominique, there was the music dominique, which is different than the musical theater dominique, and then there was the Show choir Dominique. Like there's all these different people within this person. There's the comic friend Dominique, there's the guy who would go and drink at the whiskey bar, there's the guy who goes to the cigar lounge, there's this guy who are in so many different circles.
Speaker 2:And as a performer, especially a multi-talented performer where you have to do different things, and I don't want people to look at me like I'm stuck up with someone. I am a BFA musical theater graduate, music, dance, acting. That's what we're supposed to do. I'm saying I'm multi-talented because I was trained to be multi-talented. Get off my back, let that be a tad In that world. You go out into the world and in LA I have a crew that is in TV and I'm cool with them and those are my TV friends. But then in LA I had my open mic scene friends that I would see at all the open mics and I would go perform with them. And then I would have the people that I would do musical theater with, and then I would have the people I would do cabaret with, like it was all different groups within performance. I just always felt like I was being yanked or forced, or not even forced. I had to kind of jump into these different pools Because as a performer, you can't truly just get what you need in one space, unless you really do focus in on just songwriting.
Speaker 2:I'm just songwriting, these are my songwriting friends and I'm just going to stay with them. How do you maintain that? Because I still think I struggle with that. There's real world, dominique, my married life, where we're innovating the bathroom in our house right now. People see us and we go to family events and have game nights and we do real world stuff, real people stuff, during normal business hours. And then there's Dominique who gigs with the wedding band, and that's artist Dominique. That's the guy who's constantly out here grinding every weekend trying to make someone's wedding the best day of their life. And then there's songwriter Dominique who goes to the open mics, who performs his own music, who produces his own shows.
Speaker 2:And there's podcast Dom I'm doing. This podcast has developed a whole different group of people who hold different friend group, a whole different fan base, a whole different life. How do you operate all of those different groups? How do you keep yourself on the straight and narrow to do the things that you love? Is it a struggle or is it something that you're passionate about and excited about?
Speaker 1:I think it's always something if you don't feel like you don't have something to work on, you need to, like, step back and reevaluate. There should always be something to work on, especially not even just as an artist, but as like a partner, you know, in terms of my relationship as a friend, to those other relationships, to those platonic relationships as a employee, to my boss or anyone that I'm working for or working under, to my colleagues, to my collaborators. If you are, you know, able to set aside time to reevaluate those relationships but also reevaluate your relationship with yourself. I think that makes it easier to make them all, if not coincide, then at least coexist, which I think can be the hardest thing, because it's it's like, you know, just like someone could be listening to you, like someone could be listening to this and they could have never done a show, they could have never, you know, sung a song in their life or danced in their life. And if you take two of your friend groups and you have a party and those two friend groups are at that party, it's weird, it feels weird, the energy is very like. I don't know if this was a good idea, because it's like. I think it's something that's also sometimes shunned, but it shouldn't be. It's very human of us to act a certain way with certain groups of people and act differently with other people. It's like you know, you're not going to have the same type of back and forth with me as you would like your parents, or as you would your wife, or as you would, you know, with like a literal child, like it's very different.
Speaker 1:Our relationships are always, ever changing and I think, in terms of me balancing those relationships to the people that know me from those circles, but also those versions of myself that I think in some ways have passed and in some ways are emerging, like, I think, a lot of my musical theater friends and my musical theater side is still an active part of my life, but it is most definitely secondary as it relates to like my songwriting or like my music. You know I would say, like music, kaelin is like here, and then like MT, kaelin is like here. You know there's also a part of me that wants to know if those things can all exist simultaneously, which is why I perform. You know, I will always credit myself, because I've worked hard to make it possible and to make it happen, as being a great performer and I'm not a badass on stage, because I not only am singing my face off most of the time, that doesn't mean singing high. I'm singing with intent and performing with intent because that's what feels good and I think when you are intentional with yourself, around people that make you feel good, that makes them feel good, being really invested in that authenticity, even if it's five different versions of your authenticity, that's also what helps you, like, maintain that balance with people.
Speaker 1:I think also, we outgrow people, especially as artists, because if you are someone who is constantly shooting to be better or wanting to be better or wanting to grow, there are some people I know who peaked five years ago. I don't talk to those people anymore. Yeah, I don't fuck around with being with people who don't challenge me. I like being with people who make me want to be better and make me want to actively work harder at being not just a better artist but being a better human, because I think some of the best people that you can meet are some of the best artists that you can meet as well. Yeah, and those people will follow as well.
Speaker 2:At the end of the show. I always do the same thing. We've made it there. I appreciate you so much for taking the time out to talk to me, for being so honest. I always ask the same question.
Speaker 3:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:How do you feel I?
Speaker 1:feel great, I feel great, I feel seen.
Speaker 2:Cheers to you.
Speaker 1:Cheers, oh shit, cheers.
Speaker 2:I want to thank you for listening to the Black man Talking Emotions podcast. The opening quote. Credit goes to Rick Rubin and Ovel. Thank you for being on the pod. Follow Ovel at k-a-y-l-a-n dot b-o-v-e-l-l-r-o-y-s-t-o-n on Instagram. You can find our music on all streaming platforms. Support and stream her music, folks, please. And also please subscribe to the podcast. Share the podcast and give us a good rating. Five stars, please, and thank you. You can support the show by clicking the link at the bottom of the episode description. Also, tell me your plans for the coming year. We should collab. Follow me at doml underscore a-m-o-u-r. On Instagram or at domlaemorecom. I'm Domlaemore. Much love. Thanks for watching. I hope you enjoyed this video. I'll see you next time. Bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye.