Why you should try something new

I read an article about the director of the hugely successful Wonder Woman film. The article indicated that the director didn’t have a lot of experience directing big-budget films like Wonder Woman. I also got a sense from the article that the author was surprised that the movie studio hired the director .

After I read the article, I began to wonder to myself, “if a big movie studio can hire a director who didn’t have a lot of experience directing big films, why shouldn’t I attempt to do something new? Why shouldn’t I take on a challenge that I don’t have a lot of experience in? Read More

3 insights I gained from Lewis Howe’s interview with Wyclef Jean

The record is not over yet. The record is not over yet – that’s one of my favourite lines from Wyclef Jean’s Anything Can Happen from his amazing Carnival album. Oops I digress! J I just wanted to throw that line in this blog! On the other hand, I’m sure you’ll figure out the connection with “the record isn’t over yet lyric” and the rest of this blog. Anyway, back to the essence of this blog! 🙂 Read More

Reflections of a novice pianist composer

I recently created my first ever piano composition YAY! 🙂 If you’ve ever made something new, or you’re currently working on a new endeavour, you’ll probably know the joy that emerges with the feeling of creating something fresh or new. If you’re currently creating something or planning to soon – hopefully the insights I gained from creating my recent piano composition could help you with your creations. Read More

Story behind my cover song artwork

If you’ve listened to my renditions of WHAM’s Club Tropicana and Shirley Bassey’s Diamonds are forever on my YouTube Channel, you’ve probably noticed the graphic designs and font styles that I used for the videos. If you’re looking for ideas for your creative and artistic endeavours, here are the steps that I used to generate artistic and graphic design ideas for my cover song artwork. Read More

4 lessons I learned from my recent public performance

April 23, 2017. I’ll never forget that date. It was the day that I had the wonderful opportunity to perform as a singer at the 2017 Vancouver Sun Run.  You can watch a clip from my performance here. Could you imagine the excitement and nervousness that bubbled in my soul? Read More

How Oprah’s book redefined my understanding of love songs

 

I have a confession to make. I’m not a fan of mushy love songs. I love singing and dancing to up tempo songs. (That’s what happens when you’re from the Caribbean! 😊). I couldn’t understand why people would pine over lovers who left them or mistreated them. I couldn’t imagine why someone would beg his or her former lover to stay. What’s up with these love songs about begging and pleading? I always wondered. Read More

What I learned from my cruise ship singing audition

I’m singing on a cruise ship. I’m dancing on a cruise ship. Ahh… If only…That dancing and singing was what I envisioned when I auditioned to be a singer on a cruise ship in February 2017. Although I didn’t get a chance to entertain the passengers with my singing and dancing, I’m nonetheless grateful that I experienced that audition, as well as what I learned from the process.

I thought that the preparation process reified the significance of creating original music. For the audition, we had to be prepared to perform 16-32 bars of a song by Whitney Houston, Donna Summer and Celine Dion – female singers that I love and listened to constantly as a child in in my teenage years.

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While I sang these songs to the best of my ability, I kept thinking that, when I sing these songs, I will always be compared to the original singer. I myself started to compare myself with Whitney, Celine and Donna. Then it dawned on me – how will I be able to have my own singing identity if I continuously sing other singer’s songs? It was at that point that I really understood and appreciated the value of creating original music, original work and original art.

We can bring a lot of beauty and interest to the world when we create original, fresh and new art, music and stories. I made a promise to myself to create new music and new songs. I made a promise to myself to bring some new life, some new perspectives into the world and into the music, song and lyric universes. This, dear reader, is what I intend to do. Strive, my dear readers to share and create your original and unique perspectives.

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