An Inspired Chat with Tone Swing of Atlanta

Tone Swing shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.

Tone, we’re thrilled to have you with us today. Before we jump into your intro and the heart of the interview, let’s start with a bit of an ice breaker: What’s more important to you—intelligence, energy, or integrity?
Integrity, integrity, integrity. A thousand times integrity. I value integrity in everything I do. Integrity comes first because no matter what I do, I need to be able to own it when it’s over. I spent the majority of my life so far vying for approval, that’s not a life of integrity. Sadly, the same people whose approval I want so badly will never be there for me when things don’t go as planned. I’m grateful that I figured this out before 30. I live for myself. Everything I do from here on out is 100% me and I take accountability for it every time. Integrity will always be most important to me.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m Tone Swing. I’m a recording artist, a songwriter, an actor, a writer and I’m always down to learn a new skill to fulfill my vision.

I’m a lifelong music lover. I have a special interest in singing, producing and songwriting despite having no musical training until my mid 20’s. I have written and recorded my own music since 2015. I have produced, engineered and released my own music since 2017. I have been a guitarist since 2024. I’m self taught in every facet except voice thanks to some lessons over the past couple of years.

I love the distorted sounds of the electric guitar, so much of my instrumentation leans towards rock. I also love smooth, clean vocals, so my singing is often inspired by r&b. I released an EP called See You Soon which offers listeners two tracks of each genre for a quick 15 minute exhibition of my own style.

Though my personal songwriting taste sticks to the pop formula, I blend r&b and rock in my own special way.

Great, so let’s dive into your journey a bit more. What relationship most shaped how you see yourself?
My relationship with my younger sister absolutely transformed how I see myself. I grew up with several limiting beliefs and resulting bad habits that would’ve held me back if I didn’t work on myself. However, seeing someone look up to me so much and love me unconditionally motivated me to do better. I carry myself differently now than I did years ago because I know she’s watching and I want to be the best example possible. She’s my best friend and the most important person in my life. I would not be who I am right now without her.

What did suffering teach you that success never could?
Oh yeah, I could write a book about this but I’ll do my best to keep it short. Suffering has taught me many valuable lessons but not the ones you’d expect.

Firstly, probably the lesson you’re expecting suffering taught me is that I’m always stronger than I think. I started acting in 2021 and I landed my very first lead role in a huge stage play—The Power of Forgiveness directed by Tawan Sanders. I thought I was off to the Hollywood hills after that role but that wasn’t the case. I lost my spirit after that role was over and it took me until mid 2025 to recover. I had to overcome my fear of failure and get back into acting. It wasn’t even “failure” as opposed to me putting too much pressure on myself. I love acting and that’s where my focus needed to be instead of setting unrealistic expectations for an outcome. Now I know to never back down from my dream ever again.

Second, suffering taught me that there is life after trauma. This might not make any sense to those who can’t relate but I had to give myself permission to live again. I couldn’t imagine facing the reality of my personal struggles because they were so painful to accept. It was scary and it wasn’t overnight but slowly overtime I became comfortable with the fact that I’m still here. Bad things happened to me but despite that I’m a good guy. I’m allowed to be happy. To this day I’m still recovering and processing my pain but I’m starting to think that’s the point of life. Take everything one day at a time and have faith that you’ll make it through.

Lastly, suffering taught me that it’s not always necessary to suffer. Actually I’m hard pressed to think of a time when suffering really is necessary. I’m very hard on myself but I’m learning to take it easy and give myself grace. It’s a challenge treating myself with compassion because I want to protect myself from becoming complacent but that’s where faith comes in. I would never speak to my close friends in a harsh or critical way so why should I ever treat myself that way? I’m still practicing this way of being even now and I can proudly say it’s paying off.

So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. What would your closest friends say really matters to you?
Kindness, connection and improvement.

Okay, so let’s keep going with one more question that means a lot to us: What is the story you hope people tell about you when you’re gone?
I hope people say “Tone Swing taught us that we’re stronger together.”

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