"The Black Man Talking Emotions Podcast" Starring Dom L'Amour
"The Black Man Talking Emotions Podcast" Starring Dom L'Amour
Here To Entertain Vol. 2 Narrated by Dom L'Amour
!!! LISTEN TO "HERE TO ENTERTAIN VOL.2" ON ALL STREAMING PLATFORMS !!!
Have you ever wondered how personal experiences shape an artist’s music? In this heartfelt episode celebrating my 35th birthday, join me, Dom L'Amour, as I give you an exclusive glimpse into my latest project, "Here to Entertain, Vol 2." This live EP features rejuvenated versions of songs from my earlier albums and fresh tracks from my upcoming work, "Domie" Through personal stories and raw emotion, you'll learn about the profound inspiration behind songs like "Free" and "You Are Mine to Lose," and how these melodies serve as an emotional escape and a deep connection with my audience.
Tune in as I unfold the touching backstory of "Janet's Song," a tribute to my grandmother, and how this piece fits into my new album, "Domie" Alongside, you'll hear about a unique effort to fill the musical void around Thanksgiving with a genuine, heartfelt tune. This episode captures not just the creation but the essence of family, love, and the simple, everyday moments that turn into timeless music. Listen as I discuss my journey, from working at bars to celebrating holidays with loved ones, all while crafting music that resonates with real, lived experiences.
Finally, step into my world of intimate songwriting and discover the emotional conclusion of a Valentine's Day performance that left listeners in awe. I'll share the stories of personal growth, the challenges faced in producing music, and the joy of creating authentic art without compromising its integrity. As we toast to another year filled with exploration and love, follow my musical journey and find out what’s next. Be sure to check out my music on streaming platforms and stay connected on Instagram at @dom_lamour. Cheers to another incredible year!
ladies and gentlemen, and anyone else who is here, my name is tom lamore and thank you once again for coming and listening to the black man talking Emotions podcast. Today's episode is, of course, a little different. I'm going to be chilling out a little bit because it's my birthday, so shout out to me for being 35. Doing what I do in these streets I'm more than likely running around doing something very mediocre drinking a beer, not doing much. So today I just wanted to go through a project that I released today as well. It's going to be my here to Entertain, volume 2.
Speaker 1:This is something that I like to do in between all of my albums, where I put together a live EP of tunes from my original you know couple of albums. So this is going to have tunes that I've never put out, live versions of the original tunes from the second album. I did the first here to entertain was the same situation had a couple of tunes from my first album and then sampled a new song from the new album, and that's the same format. On this one, we're gonna have multiple songs from the first two albums. Actually, I got a tune from the first album and I got multiple tunes from the second album, and then I have two new songs from the newer album called Dami that's going to be coming out next year. So I just wanted to get everybody in the you know, in the mood, get ready for some new stuff and show off a little bit something.
Speaker 1:Today's episode is really going to be us listening to the album, me giving you backstories about the performances, the reasons why I wrote the song and just how I got to where I was for presenting it, because a lot goes into what I do on stage and how I look forward to these performances. So I want to make sure that I give you more of a visual into that side of me. I talk about my emotions a lot, but the one thing I'm most passionate about, other than my family, is the music that I sing, and I just wanted to kind of talk music today. So for my birthday, we're going to listen to my album and you're going to listen, you're going to like it.
Speaker 1:No, no, no. It's all all good, but I'm really excited to talk through these songs and listen to these songs again and experience these moments again, and I hope that you vibe with it. If you have any questions, shoot me information, of course, at d-o-m underscore l-a-m-o-u-r on instagram, and I'll make sure everything is cool and breezy for you. But with no further ado here to entertain volume two, I kept on trying to picture not only life as a performer, but also just life outside of, but also just life outside of being an inch.
Speaker 2:Every day. I felt like I had a different encounter with someone, angry that they got black beans instead of pinto beans, or the salsa didn't have enough salt, or the beer was not carbonated, but it was, the soda wasn't. It didn't take. This isn't Sprite. You gave me Sierra Mist. No, I gave you Sprite. So I wrote this tune on the way to work.
Speaker 1:And while I was opening up the bar and you can kind of hear in the lyrics just me in this phase of trying to imagine something. It was a different challenge. Here we go, you ready.
Speaker 2:Waking up in our house Laying down with my spouse. Her beauty is everything to me. There's no bad that I can't see. I kiss her twice, say goodbye. She gets me lunch, fix my tie. Ooh, I want her there every time I leave. So I know I'm coming home, so I can be free. I'm coming home so I can be free, free to love you, girl. There's no place I'd rather be Than free with you. You lift me up, lift me high. I hold you down. Silly lies Can't get enough. Never thought I'd be. Settle down. It's so happy. I'm making plans for you and I Live endless. We'll fly past the sky. I never, ever, will ever, let you down. Every time you come around, girl, I feel so free. I'm coming home so I can be free, free to love you. Girl, girl, girl, girl. There's no reason.
Speaker 3:I'd rather be free with you. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh oh, give it up for the band.
Speaker 1:Something that has stuck with me since I was just starting to really try to build a brand or understand what I wanted to do with my music career, was something that a girl who was helping me with my website so I actually will say her name, jasmine Evans she asked me what is my elevator pitch? And I was confused. I was like what are you talking about? And she was just like, yeah, you got to be able to tell me who you are, seven words or in just one sentence or one easy way. How can you easily say who you are as a performer, as a person, as a brand, as in like an elevator pitch? And I just I remember that, like it was yesterday being like I don't know, but that would be so convenient if I could just say, hey, this is me. And so when I was writing the song Free, I remember I was in this place where, like I said, I was, you know, working in a bar and people were horrible and I couldn't stand the atmosphere around me and I just wanted to be able to go home to someone that I loved and that was my relief and I didn't have to think about people just being so negative every day. I felt like people were so negative and that song was just like my inner being, like me just being like I want to feel happy with someone that I love and that'd be my escape from everything else. And so when I wrote the song, that was the intention. But now when I listen to the song, now when I listen to this recording specifically, I feel like this is my elevator pitch. That's why I wanted to use it as my first song for this project. It's the first song on my second album. I feel like it's the way to introduce people to me. If anyone is like what kind of music does he write, or what is his style Like, whenever I'm with an artist and they're like I want to listen to someone new, I always have a certain song. I'm like all right, listen to this song, If you like this song, then you'll love them. And so for me, my second album, I felt like, was so much. It was so different. I did a lot of stuff that I normally wouldn't do on it. I sounded a lot different on there. I had some more, some more production on there that I normally didn't do.
Speaker 1:My first album was very much live instrumentation. It was very much jazzy. It was very standard traditional pop sound. The second album I had a little more solo R&B in there, which I enjoy. It isn't what I always like to do. I kind of was doing it because I needed to do something different because of the pandemic and I was at home and I was creating music. I couldn't get a band together and do it the way I would like to. I love doing it live and do it the way I would like to. I love doing it live. So to do all of that stuff on that album but then to still create this song on that album just kind of shows that the music that I love, the music that I really want to put out there, still can come through.
Speaker 1:And, like I said, it's the elevator pitch. It's the stuff I want to sing about. I want to sing about my wife. I want to sing about life, being happy and enjoying the people around me and my own energy being first priority. I want to talk about those type of things. I want to be someone that you go to when you want to be happy. I don't want to be a person that you sit in dark listening to and you're sad and you're crying. I don't want that. I've never enjoyed that and if a song comes to me like that, I'll write it. I've done it before. But when I put my albums out, I want people to smile because I'm smiling the whole time I'm performing, because I'm smiling the whole time I'm performing.
Speaker 1:And this song in particular, and this recording of this song, I feel like if you listen to the original version of it with the horns and with the full band and you get all the energy, it's great, it's fun. I love that tune, it's really good. But when you hear this version of it with Ryan Reed on piano and Patrick Arthur on guitar, just to shout them out and Zach Smith and everybody was great on this track, but it felt intimate it reminded me of college. You know I'm a theater major and in college my teacher would always tell me Dominique, speak the words. You know, when you're doing the script, say it as if it's the first time. I don't want you to get up there and just say the words and it be blank. I want it to feel like you're actually discovering the words. I want you to feel like you're actually creating. I don't want you to put on an act, I want, I want you to actually do it.
Speaker 1:And so, with my music, whenever I was singing, to make it original, to make it feel new, to keep myself interested, because every week I sing the same 40 songs. Every week I do the same 40 songs in my wedding band. How do you make it fun? How do you do it every night? How do you enjoy it? How do you continue to enjoy it? How do you enjoy those moments? And that's about getting up there and instead of just singing it the same way, how am I feeling that day? I'm going to sing it the way I feel. Maybe I'm a little tired, you're going to get a little tired out of there, but there's going to be some energy trying to fight through.
Speaker 1:And with this performance it was August 20th, no-transcript, and it was just talking about all of the stuff that I did when I was bartending and how I wrote my music and how I was still working and performing and trying to make it all work. And it was just so hard. It was a hard time, but a lot of good came from it, including this song, and every tune that I sang was a song that I wrote, like on the way to work or when I was at work or when I was thinking about singing instead of working at a bar or selling tickets at a theater, and this show was just so special to me in this performance of the song. Like I said, it was a way for me to bring something new to the song, and I prefer this version more than the actual one I put in the studio, and that's because in the one in the studio it was me at home and you do it over and over and you don't just do one take, you do like four takes and it just didn't feel right. It felt like I was trying to make it sound good. But with this version, this is how it came out, this is how it was supposed to be that day, at that moment, during that time, and I just love sharing these types of moments with people, because I don't think people get to experience this a lot when it comes to the artists that we love.
Speaker 1:You get some live performances, you get some different intimate settings yes, but in the age of streaming, it's hard to really get those moments unless you're a dedicated fan who's willing to go to the concerts and you have the money to spend and you actually take that extra effort to keep up with these people and see how they're doing and hear the song more than once live. You don't get those different experiences when you just hear it once, and maybe they get up there and they're doing it on Jimmy Fallon but it sounds just like the recording, because they have to make it sound like the recording. They're on Jimmy Fallon, you know. So I wanted to do this and it was so great and I just wanted to share it with the with the EP, and I wanted it to be the first song on the EP because it is indeed the elevator pitch for Dom L'Amour. You never take my love for granted.
Speaker 2:You always treat me right. It's me who earns from this advantage, and for that I hold you through the night.
Speaker 2:I'm through with all that silly flirting. I put you on display all of the time. I make sure that you're. Every need is standard too. I don't wanna lose what's mine. Let me hear a little Gitter, gitter. Oh man, you never forget me, like I'm crazy. You always make sure to call me baby. I love your hair, your smile, your cheeks, babe, everything about you is alright. Yeah, girl, you change my every habit, like how I talk and how I drive. I make sure that you're acknowledged. Baby, you're the reason I'm alive. Ooh, ooh, you're the reason I'm alive. You are mine to lose. You are mine to lose. You are mine to lose, and that's why I choose to love you baby. Just love you, baby. With all my heart, I will love you. You are mine to lose.
Speaker 3:You are mine to lose, you are mine to lose, and that's why I choose to love you. You are mine to lose, you are mine to lose.
Speaker 2:You are mine to lose and that's why I choose to love you Baby, just love you Baby, just hold my hand. I will love you. Over here we got my guy Patrick on guitar. Give it up for Patrick though guitar solo, bass solo. You were mine to lose and that's why I choose to Love you baby. Love you, baby, with all my heart. Choose to love you baby. Love you, baby with all my heart. I will love you. You are mine to lose, mine to lose. You are mine to lose and that's why I choose to love you baby, just love you, baby, with all my heart.
Speaker 1:I will love you, usually when I write my songs I always want to feature a certain instrument on songs. Even when I perform, it's always the same way where it's like I know this song will specifically have drums starting off or drums as the big solo or a bass solo will bring everything down. I usually know that when I'm putting a song together. So with this song I remember writing it and just being like I want a guitar. I want it to feel like you're just laying in the bed and a guitar player's playing and you're just like vibing. So the original recording had the incredible Christopher Jones from St Louis playing on it and he is incredible. And the bigger surprise is I didn't even know he played electric guitar until he played on that track. I hired him to play bass, so he was playing bass on the whole album the first album I did and out of nowhere he was like I was like I need to get a guitar player. He was like well, I can play it. He was like I was like oh, you're a bass player and just so happens he's one of the most incredible performers I've ever worked with. He played the bass with the guitar line in mind so he knew where he could play a little bit more bass, but then he held back on certain areas and then when he went in for the guitar, he played secondary guitar first. So he came in and he played a little background guitar here and there and added a little flair here and there, but it was very reserved and I'm just like what is going on. And then he played lead in all those areas that I was like why didn't he do anything? He did stuff there in the lead and it was just phenomenal to see him put this together and everyone in the room knew he was incredible, except for me. I didn't know he played guitar because every time I've seen him he's done bass, so he just took it away. And so when I perform this song I always want to make sure my guitar player is strong, and Patrick Andrew is just a monster. He truly came in the studio and blew me away in rehearsal and when we put it on the stage for this show I just knew he was going to murder it. And you can hear this as the live version, differently as the original again, where I love to explore different ways to sing this song and do this song. I've sung this same song at a friend's wedding before Shout out to Rachel and Tony Tony's been on the pod. I love this tune.
Speaker 1:This was the first song that I fell in love with that I wrote. It was the first song that when I recorded it I couldn't believe I actually did it. I was just beyond myself. I was so proud of myself and when I perform it, it's the song that I don't know. I just fall into my happy place because I can't believe. I get to continue to share this song and to discover new things about the song within myself.
Speaker 1:And the older I get, and now that I'm with my wife, the song evolves into a different person, of course, because originally I wrote it with multiple people in mind. It wasn't just about one girl, it actually was every relationship I'd been in up to that point. So there are lines in the song where I have heard those lines from people. Actual people said certain things to me where I was kind of blown away and it was people that I was with that that changed the way I drove and complained about the way I would talk certain times. So now I don't say certain words anymore because they kind of beat it out of me like hey, you're not supposed to say it that way, say it this way kind of thing. And so how I talk and how I drive was from real people, just helping me grow as a person.
Speaker 1:And in this performance specifically, the second verse was actually a different verse. I added it during the show to give it a little something different, to continue to add to it, because my vows that I gave to my wife at my wedding was I wanted to continue to make vows to her, to continue to grow with her and not to just settle for something. I said One point I want to continue to add stuff and say more things and do better. So with this song it's fun to kind of think about her and be like you never looking at me like I'm crazy. Always make sure to call me baby. I love your hair, your smile, your cheeks, babe, everything about you is all right.
Speaker 1:That line, that whole area, that was improv. I really said that on the spot, thinking about Adrian, because I thought it was. It was so cool to be able to go through this song with a new perspective for my wife instead of some girlfriend or somebody that I was interested in. This was about someone that I committed myself to for life, so I love this performance of it. I've done this song more than the others because this is off my first album, but I wanted to share it because it was just a damn good time You're a cute thing, smart thing, sweet thing, just for me.
Speaker 2:Never, ever thought you'd be like this, never, ever thought this world would exist. I was young baby, scary baby, no idea what to do, but you just walked, that walking talked. That talking crossed my heart and you said to me you said I love you boy. And you said and I'm what you need and I'm what you need, and I'm what you need and I'm what you need. You said I love you boy. You said and I'm what you need and I'm what you need. Oh, it's a fun day, scary day, open flame in the breeze. Lucky, lucky God to be with you and lucky, lucky God to wear these shoes. Time for baby, space, baby, every day's an open book that she can write that script and paint that picture of you and me. So, heavenly, baby, I love you boy. You said I'm what you need, I'm what you need and I'm what you need. You said I love you boy. You said I'm watching me and I'm watching me. Oh, let me get something else. Never wanna part baby. You came from the start.
Speaker 3:I never wanna part girl, I knew right from the start.
Speaker 2:You said I love you, boy, I'm what you need, and I'm what you need, and I'm what you need. You said I'm what you need and I'm what you need.
Speaker 1:Oh man, so when I sat down to write, you Said I actually sent a bunch of songs to my friend, andrew William Andrew is his name on Instagram and stuff and we played together in my high school band. I had done my first album and I didn't include him. It was a different feel, it was jazzy. I didn't include him. It was a different feel, it was jazzy. I didn't think that he was interested in doing that. But on this album I was doing so many different styles. I was like yo, I'm doing something different for this one. So, like, any vibe is welcome. So I played a couple songs, but you said was the one that he gravitated towards like I want to do this one. I want this to be the best song on your album. And he was so passionate and excited so it made me excited and when I wrote it I wanted to make sure that it felt very inclusive.
Speaker 1:I didn't want it to be another love song about a girl that I specifically was talking about. I wanted it to be something that anyone listening to it could sing it. That's kind of the way I approached it. So instead of me being like I love you girl, or she said, or anything, I made sure I said. You said I was like you said, because if a guy is singing this to another guy or a girl is singing this to another girl, they could emplace themselves. Now I say I love you, boy, because it's specifically talking about me in this scenario, because I'm the one singing it. But if someone else is singing, they could easily be like I love you, girl, and I'm what you need, kind of thing. And you said this these are coming from your mouth and I appreciate you and I never went apart. I knew that from the start because of you. You said you loved me and showed me your confidence and showed me that you loved me and that was all that mattered. So that was my initial feeling and when we wrote it it kind of just developed and continued. So that was my overall goal to make a love song that anyone can sing. And I just love this tune. I think it's very different. It doesn't sound like anything I've ever written before. The music doesn't feel like anything I wrote before. It sounds fresh, it sounds unique.
Speaker 1:And when I listened to the recording and I watched the video because it's my favorite music video I've ever done, because I did it myself and I actually had fun with it. I didn't stress, I didn't have to pay thousands of dollars for it, I didn't feel like I had to do anything differently. I could just be myself, and I was. I had COVID when I filmed that video too, so it was like I was sick, but I still was having fun making something unique and I had a bunch of artists making art. Everything I love happened with that song and I hope nothing but more good things come from stuff like that.
Speaker 1:So I performed this song a couple of times live. I've done it with William. I've done it with this band that I perform with. This is from the bartender show I did in August. I believe the first couple of songs are from that show, just to kind of keep it smooth, feel Nothing feels too different until we move on later in the show. But this night doing the song, I remember rehearsing it and we rehearsed it completely differently. So when we started to sing it this way, I was like oh, I like this. It's a different vibe. Instead of it being high energy and sounding poppy, it kind of was mellow and I was able to really sit in the song. That was just so dope to do. Every time I sing this song. I try my best to emphasize that there's no gender in love and I hope that comes across. Booktrip is getting a lot of advertising today. I just realized that they're not paying me.
Speaker 2:They're not paying me at all. Screenshot the place and I will take you there Anywhere in the whole wide world. Just tell me where. Screenshot the location and we gonna take your cups. Mommy, I wanna take you around the world and find some nice wine to sip. I said it worked, worked, worked so much. You've given up your time. Well, I think it's time to break some commitments and get on the plane and charge the globe. So, screenshot the place and we gonna take a trip Anywhere in the whole wide world. Just tell me where. I said Screenshot the location and we gonna take a trip. Cause, mommy, I wanna take you around the world Find some nice wine to sip. Hey, I hear it, I hear it, I hear it. Ah, you've worked and worked and worked some more, giving up your time. I said I think it's time to break some commitments and jump on the plane and shot the globe. Screenshot the place. I will take you there Any place in the whole wide world, just tell me where.
Speaker 3:Change that to location.
Speaker 2:We gonna take a trip. Cause mommy I to take you around the world and find a nice wine to sing yeah.
Speaker 1:Cameron that's filming, right, that's for you, Mommy.
Speaker 1:This is the first original new song for the next album, dami. The next album is going to be a personal album, as you can hear by the name of it. That's my childhood nickname of my grandma and my grandpa and my mother and my little sister and just certain people in my family call me I mean, even uncles still call me Dami to this day, and that's one of those things when I know I'm around family, I know I'm around people I trust and that know me. You know, it's interesting Like I've only had a couple of people outside of my family who heard about that, who tried to start calling me that, and I've only accepted really one or two of them to let them keep doing it because they're good friends. But I feel like if you know me by Dami, you know me, and so that's kind of the idea of the album is let's get to know me more, let's talk about the things in my head, let's talk about the people that's around me. And someone I never really wrote a song about was my grandma, mommy, and so I wanted to write her a song. The name of the song is Janet's Song and that's kind of the goal.
Speaker 1:I was sitting at a bar in Marietta, the third door. It's around the corner from the Strad Theater where I was performing at the time in a show. I had a stressful rehearsal, so I went to this bar, sat down. There was a band playing but they weren't the best of bands. So I put my headphones in and put the noise cancellation on and grabbed my glass of wine, the mary tyler dordle and it's a beautiful, delicious blend. It was the best glass of wine and it was the best atmosphere. And I was just in my head and I wrote this song. And the glass of wine made me think of my grandma, because we always drink wine together and I always want to see her enjoy life, because she worked so hard when I was younger to make sure I was okay. She was 30 when I was born, so she was a child. I'm 35 now and I still don't have kids. So the idea that my grandma had me and four kids at 30 still blows my mind. And she wasn't perfect. But I love her so much and she put so much love into my life and she's so great to my wife and I. I miss her. I wish I was at home more to see her. I always tell myself. I need to message her more. Yeah, you know how it is with grandmas and stuff. So mommy is someone I wanted to focus on. I feel like I've written so much about my mama and I feature my mother so much. I put her on the podcast and I talked about my great grandmother in music before and I've talked about my grandpa in music and I've done all of this stuff about all these people around me, but I never did anything for mommy and I wanted to do a song that felt like mommy.
Speaker 1:This song feels like mommy. It talks about her sacrifice. It talks about the things that she enjoys. It talks about seeing the world and doing new things and exploring. That's. That's all the stuff I want for my grandma and all the stuff I want to do with my grandmother. So this song is kind of a visual into my dream.
Speaker 1:A lot of people talk about how they dream to be rich and famous. I just want to be able to take my grandma anywhere in the world so that she can experience things that she wasn't able to because she had to take care of me. And this song is a tribute to her, a visual inside of my feelings for her and the desires, and that's kind of a great way to look in to this album. It's a great entry point because if you're wondering what this album is about, it's about learning about me. If you love my music. It's about mixing my music with the people that I love, the content that I enjoy me.
Speaker 1:Being a boring married person, you know, I feel like I am told over and over. I've been told by at least three people I should do stuff for single folks too. Or you should do music about, you know, parties and clubbing and all that jazz. And I just want to talk about making curry with my wife, going to Italy with my grandma and learning from the mistakes of my great-grandfather. So that's what the album is going to be. It's going to be that it's going to be jazzy. It's going to have some complex music. It's going to have some solos. It's going to be it's going to be that it's going to be jazzy, it's going to have some complex music, it's going to have some solos. It's going to be fun, and the song is part of that fun. So hopefully you enjoyed it. I'm thankful for today.
Speaker 2:Thankful for my wife. My life is wonderful. I can't believe it's true. Leaves of falling friends are calling fools from wall to wall. It's all so good and overdue. I have to say happy Thanksgiving to you, from me to you, from me to you. I hope you all are safe and living good. I have to say happy Thanksgiving to you.
Speaker 1:We have made it to the holiday part of the EP, so let's start with Thanksgiving. I wrote this tune a couple of years ago. I was putting stuff together for my Instagram and for you know content and I was always thinking I never heard of a Thanksgiving song. What do you sing for Thanksgiving? And I was always thinking I never heard of a Thanksgiving song. What do you sing for Thanksgiving? And I learned I believe Deck the Halls is actually a Thanksgiving song or something like that. But I was like it's not really a Thanksgiving song. So I was like let me make a song that's like legit for Thanksgiving and it doesn't have to be too complex, it can be something simple. And I just grabbed the ukulele and put this together and it was a lot of fun.
Speaker 1:I love doing small, cool, little intimate songs like that, and this is one of those where I once again try to create a visual for people. When you're thinking about Thanksgiving, what's the first thing that you do? My house, my mother, or when I'm doing it, we try to go around the room and ask everyone what they're thankful for. So I was like, okay, well, I'm thankful for my wife, thankful for my life, and that's kind of like where it started and I like, damn, things are kind of good right now, I'm really enjoying things, and that's usually how it is on Thanksgiving. You're around everybody and you say I, I'm thankful for this, I'm thankful for this, wow, life is good, and so that's kind of the feel that it's a simple ditty, something small, but I want to just feature that on the EP. It's not going to be on the album, maybe a bonus track, you never know. I might do a little extended version of it and add a little bit to it, or I might just keep it where it is and and that'll be that.
Speaker 1:But Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays that I don't celebrate every year. Last year I fried a turkey for the first time and got to enjoy people at my house for Thanksgiving, which was very, really, really big for me, and I enjoyed that. But growing up know, like, when I lived in Chicago, I worked on Thanksgiving. When I lived in LA, I worked on Thanksgiving. These people love spaghetti at Maggiano's for some reason on Thanksgiving, so I was very busy.
Speaker 1:I missed a lot of Thanksgiving's. In Kirkwood, missouri, where I'm from, our homecoming is Thanksgiving, so it was really hard to miss that, because it's not just Thanksgiving, it's homecoming, it's Turkey Day, it's the football game. It's a big deal. We got to beat Webster and I really love the holiday, love the family that I was fortunate to grow up with. I love my adopted family now that I'm married, because they're just as amazing as mine, where they care about each other and they want to be with each other on the holidays, and I just love that, you know. So, yeah, this could possibly go on the album, because it's me, it's very much me. We still have time to get it on there, so we'll see what happens, but that is happy Thanksgiving.
Speaker 2:Here we go now. Every night, before we sleep, I pull you next to me and I tell you how much I love you, babe. You how much I love you, baby. We smile and spoon away. This is every week. I kiss you on your cheek and you beam. Oh, how I love it, babe. I wouldn't have it any other way. This is every day. I hope this will remain the same.
Speaker 2:Growing up, I was always told that love was just a silly game. You play to win, but lose sometimes and the cycle starts again. But now I know that love's a career. You must always do your best. If you feel good and they feel good, then ha, you've passed the test. Oh, every day I check in with you to see what's new. I listen and tell you all the things I can do to help you. Our love is the best way. This is every day.
Speaker 2:Who needs Valentine's Day Cheers to y'all now? Oh, yeah, man, I said. I said. Oh, I said that love Was said to be a game. You always play to win. You play to win, but then you lose sometimes. Then the cycle starts again. Now I know that love's a career. You must always do your best. If you feel good and they feel good. Then ha, you've passed the test. Oh, every day I check in with you just to see what is new. I listen and I tell you all the things I can do to help you. Our love is the best way. Love is the best way. This is every day. Who needs? Who needs Valentine's? Who needs Valentine's Day?
Speaker 1:valentine's is the last holiday that I'm going to be tackling on this ep. Uh, this is also another original song for the next album. I wrote this song for that date, uh, that I performed this. This is on Valentine's Day of this year 2024, in Chicago, at Lemon Bar. I can't even begin to even understand how important that day was to me. You know, it was just such a big day.
Speaker 1:I used to live with these guys in Chicago. It was one of the weirdest moments of my life where I was in a relationship. I was working at the university, I just graduated, at a job with a salary. They were offering me another salary and they were going to give me more money and they were going to have this whole thing set up for me. And I remember asking my boss should I do this? And he was like what do you want to do? Like what should you do with your career? And I was like I don't want to be in Cape Girardeau anymore. I don't know where I want to be. I want to go somewhere. And he was like then, do that? And my friend Alex hit me up, was like yo, we're moving to Chicago, we're just looking for one more person. And I was like, dope, I'm moving with you, didn't think about it, didn't plan it, didn't put money down, didn't tell my girlfriend. It was reckless, it was stupid, it was great, it was cool, it was weird, it was everything. And we would be in that apartment, you know, drunk or playing in 64. And they used to always talk about how we're going to open a bar someday, dominique's going to sing at the bar and I'm a bartender and there's people going to. Everyone had a role at the bar and it was just this joke and fun. And, of course, 2024, a whole decade after I left Chicago, they opened that bar they were talking about and I'm the first person that they invite to come perform there. They've had, they had somebody open up the bar once to see if it would work out. I think it was one of the employees just kind of put a show together real quick. But I was the first person they invited.
Speaker 1:I came from Atlanta and I did a show there. And but I was the first person they invited. I came from Atlanta and I did a show there and it meant everything to me. I got to just do some swinging jazz tunes. I got to put on a suit. I wore pretty much my suit I wore to my wedding. That's how important this was. I dusted off the old wedding suit and wore it there. You could see the Sears tower from the stage. It was everything. It was the coolest night as a performer that I've had a long time, because it was one of those moments where here's some guys I grew up with. We literally grew up. We played around in college and played around in Chicago and paid our bills and worked and lost jobs and were broke together.
Speaker 1:And we used to eat each other's food and get angry with each other because we didn't have money to get any other food. But none of us had money, so we were eating each other's food and I was singing an original song that I wrote for that night. At their bar that they opened with a band, the Andrews all three of the guys name were Andrew just incredible guys to play with and they were all top-notch performers and we didn't rehearse or anything. This is the first gig we had done together and we just knocked it out of the park and this song.
Speaker 1:I was sitting down trying to think of how I was going to write a song about Valentine's Day and me and my wife. We don't really do anything on Valentine's. We have our anniversary that we met on the 6th of February and my parents' anniversary is on the 13th of February, so like we'll do something if we can. But this year, as you clearly see, I wasn't home for Valentine's Day. It was like I'm performing. We always try our best to do things for each other. We always look out for each other. We always try to be that light for each other throughout the year, and so the first thing I thought was like, who needs it? Who cares about Valentine's Day? And I was like, oh, that might be a dope way to write the song, the love song.
Speaker 1:How do you love your partner, how do you enjoy your partner, how do you live with your partner? And you do these little things every day and and that's kind of the thing, it's like, this is every day. I do this every day. I don't need Valentine's Day. Who needs it? Just love your partner the way you're supposed to. And that angle really drove home the idea that I really don't look at Valentine's as this big day anymore. I used to love Valentine's as a kid because I used to always think you know, this is the time when one of my biggest crushes are going to reveal themselves to me.
Speaker 1:Never happened Never, truly happened. I never got a bunch of cards. I remember the only time I got to a place where I was really feeling like, ooh, people actually might like me was senior year of high school, and that was because we did you buy a sun kiss or you buy a crush, an orange crush for your crush, kind of thing. And the only reason why I got so many was because I was one of the people in student government who organized it, so I didn't pay for half of the ones I sent out. I sent all these out and said, hey, I'll get you one if you give me one. So these people were buying me crushes and I was like just putting their names in the bucket because I was on there, so it was.
Speaker 1:It wasn't even the right way, I wasn't even getting the proper love and I was just so dumb. So to actually meet someone that I love and truly, both of us are on the same page. We don't look at Valentine's Day as this day to put these grand gestures on Facebook or Instagram. We don't really care about that. I have so many friends who put this image out to the world and I weirdly found the one girl who could care less about that and that was really dope. And so this song is kind of a reflection of that and it's on the album because it's another reflection of me in my life with my wife and the way that we look at the world. We try to be there for each other and take each other on dates and give each other flowers and make each other dinner and play games. I beat my wife in dominoes the other night, you know that's kind of the goal, and who needs Valentine's Day?
Speaker 2:I'm not perfect, I'm not worth it. I sit back sometimes and I realize I'm the luckiest man. Understand I do all I can. We've been through this. It's conclusive. You're the only one, brighter than the sun. Nothing's changing. That's a fact. And I react by loving you through the thick and thin. I hold you close, won't ever let you go away. Yes, every day I'll be this way. Just love me like you've never loved someone before. It's soft and pure. Your heart's the cure to everyone who's hurt my core. I'll love you more and more. I'm so goofy, I'm not cool beats. You're the picture prints in my dreams. I swear I'm the luckiest man.
Speaker 2:Never planned this sweet romance. We've been through this. You're smitten to it. Just a lucky draw that we've crossed our hearts and no one, no one, can erase our love. I'm loving you through the thick and thin. I hold you close, won't ever let you go away. Yes, every day I'll be this way. Just love me like you've never loved someone before. It's soft and pure. Your heart's the cure to everyone who's hurt my core. I'll love you more. That chorus one more time. Loving you through the thick and thin. I'll hold you close, won't ever let you go away. Yes, every day I'll be this way. Just love me like you've never loved someone before. It's soft and pure. Your heart's the cure to everyone who's hurt my core. I'll love you more and more and more.
Speaker 1:Happy Valentine's Day. Thank you so much for hanging out with me tonight.
Speaker 2:Y'all be safe tonight, thank y'all, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:That was incredible. Dom Amor and the Andros here at Lemon. That's how we do it. Happy Valentine's Day everybody. What a wonderful evening.
Speaker 1:Thank you and that's the final song of the ep. If you are a fan of the music and you you follow all of my projects you would know. On the first volume here to entertain, I entered it the same way but I used the original demo, the original live, the first time I ever tried the song out on that one and I wanted to use the last time I've sang it on this one, just because it's a more full band. It's a whole different perspective and it's how I ended the show in February for that Valentine's Day show and I just love this song. It's the same as with Free, where I wrote those for the second album and those two songs. I worked with Ryan Bentham on both of those for the original recordings and they just had this feel. I really was proud of the work I did on the lyrics and the storytelling and they weren't too complex, they were very honest and every time I sing them it's just like that's how I really feel in love. That's really how I felt when I was writing it. I was like this is exactly what's in my head. I wasn't adding any flowers, I wasn't adding any brushes of color or anything. I was saying exactly what I felt. And when I sing them it's easier for me to discover new things while I'm singing them, because they're so honest. It's not really me singing some complex song, it's really me just singing words that anyone can relate to. I'm not perfect, I'm not worth it. I sit back sometimes and I realize I'm the luckiest guy in the world and I am. I do, I feel that way and I just love this tune. I felt like the guys really brought it home. You can kind of hear my Uncle William and my Aunt Sheba in the audience in Chicago and that's just so important to me. So it's another element of bringing me and that family and that that different feel to this project that I'm working on now.
Speaker 1:I don't have a date set just for when Dami's gonna come out, just because I wanted to do this album differently than the last few.
Speaker 1:The first one, I had a deadline, and the reason why I had a deadline was because I know so many people who don't go through with what they're saying they're going to do musically, so they just never do it and I'm like just make a date, just do it. And then I did it and I got it done and I was excited, but I was pressured and I was taken advantage of on that first project because I rushed, I had to get it done by a certain date and I needed people to get it done. So they half-assed it and got it to me late and I just had to settle. So there was a lot of songs in there where I'm like this could have sounded 20 times better if someone would have put a little more care into it or if I wouldn't have rushed myself. If I have been like, okay, I need an extra month to get someone to remix this or to remaster this or to really put the proper love into it.
Speaker 1:So and I just didn't have the money, I put my, I went into credit card debt on that album that first album I was very irresponsible spending it just was me trying to be passionate and saying people will hear it and know that it's great. And now that I'm older I know that I was just an immature way to look at it. Because people heard it, a lot of people did think it was great, but that didn't mean that it was going to make the money that it needed to make to, you know, recoup everything that I put into it. I didn't. I still haven't recouped that money back.
Speaker 1:For next album was kind of the same thing. I made a date. I had a plan. I wanted to put a song out this day and then a video out this day, and then another song out this day and another video out this day. I put out two singles and I was like I wanted to all the flow this way and this is how I'm going to promote each song. And the date came and I was taken advantage of again. On the first music video the guy upped the price triple the amount the day before shoot and I was like, well, I need this video because I have a deadline. And he almost screwed me again where he gave me the video and it was half of the song. It wasn't the full song and I was like this is a music video. He's like, yeah, but it only feels good with this part of the song and I was like but it's a music video, it's supposed to be the full song and I just was taken advantage of in that scenario.
Speaker 1:And when it came to the mastering, mixing, it was another thing of I was depending on others in other states. The pandemic was different for everyone, so I couldn't be pushy, I couldn't be angry with people. They were still working with me and they were doing it when they could and I had to really accept a lot of stuff. And since I wanted it to be a specific date, that really hurt a lot of the process. There's songs on that album where I'm like one day I really hope that I can do a remixed album where I take songs from my first to my second album and I'm able to give them a makeover and properly have them funded, have someone really go through and help me get them to where I wanted them. And there's something new and I'm able to truly, you know, really illustrate what I wanted to and I don't have to worry about the pressures of a time limit and the finances and all that jazz. So this album, I'm not going to force myself to do one date. The closer I get to finished, I will know when that date is and I will accept that as it and I won't I won't force myself into a corner.
Speaker 1:I want this to be the best project I ever put out. I want people to hear it and to know that every element of my artistry is put into this album, everything that I look forward to whenever I say I like my songs to sound this way, you're going to get exactly the way I like my songs to sound and it's because I didn't limit myself. So this EP hopefully gives you kind of a picture into what's to come and also what I've been through and how much has gone into it. And that's why this pod is so special to me as well, because I wanted to really talk through every song and each performance and every influence. And why? Because people for some reason get this idea that we performers just kind of get up there and just sing and it's just natural and it's so fun. But really, like, I put a lot of work into these, a lot of energy, a lot of time, a lot of stuff that I didn't even talk about on this podcast went into. Each one of these songs. Each one of these performances and all of the instrumentalists that I worked with on these projects were phenomenal and truly elevated the music and helped me, as an artist, continue to strive for greatness and to do more.
Speaker 1:So much love to everyone involved with these performances, much love to everyone involved with these albums, much love to the people I look forward to working with on this new album and much love to you for supporting and listening and just giving me the time of the day If you listen to this. Thank you very much. This is my birthday gift If you listened all the way to this moment, and I can't appreciate this more than anything. This is better than sending me $20, because you actually cared enough to hear what I thought, hear what I did, understand what I worked on and believe in what I worked on.
Speaker 1:So thank you, much love to you and everybody who listens to anything that I do and hope everybody is having a good year. I hope everybody is taking time for themselves. I hope everybody is staying clear of the madness that is this world that we live in and finding your own peace and much love to you all. At this point, I am still drinking a beer somewhere in the world because it is my birthday. 35 is going to be a big one, hopefully, just like every year has been a big one. My thirties have been the best decade I've had, so I look forward to the surprises, the trips, the adventures that I get to go on, and I'm grateful that I got another year. So much love to you all.
Speaker 1:And if you want to listen to anything down the more you can go listen to me on any streaming platform. You can follow me for more at down the morecom. Follow me at d? Om. Underscore l a m o u r on instagram. I'll holla at y'all much love.
