Novo Dé’s Stories, Lessons & Insights

Novo Dé shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.

Novo , so good to connect and we’re excited to share your story and insights with our audience. There’s a ton to learn from your story, but let’s start with a warm up before we get into the heart of the interview. What are you being called to do now, that you may have been afraid of before?
Probably getting in front of the camera more. It used to be that I’d only push the art to the front, and though that still is very much the aim, a number of outlets are now starting to ask a bit more about the person behind the work, and I find myself coming out of the shadows a little more each year.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
Absolutely. I’m an American Artist that goes by moniker Novo Dé, a play on Latin phrase de novo, which means “from the beginning” or “anew,” CEO of Novo Dé Productions, a multimedia company that focuses on what we call the holy trinity of popular culture in the arts – literature, music, and film – so instead of just focusing on one thing, we focus on many, though we still incorporate traditional forms of art in our pieces as well. We’re currently finishing up our literature era and will soon be moving on to music. You can check out our catalog on novodeproductions.com or stay up to date with the conversation with our podcast talk show “Art of the Beholder,” available on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.

Thanks for sharing that. Would love to go back in time and hear about how your past might have impacted who you are today. What did you believe about yourself as a child that you no longer believe?
The idea of “well, it’s not a popularity contest,” that, your merit and performance alone will earn you success, when in reality that’s just not the case. I believe in the core of the idea: that success and making the right choices are more important than being liked by everyone; that you should focus on your own principles and integrity, even if it means not pleasing everyone. It’s great on paper, but in practice, almost everything, at least partly, is a popularity contest. You have to make compromises, sometimes sacrifices, and I think a lot of us have learned that the hard way. You can live the straight and narrow, and still, somehow fail. So at the end of the day the only real failure, especially when going after your dreams, is just…not trying…

Was there ever a time you almost gave up?
Oh for sure – this last year in fact as been a serious year of transition for us, for me, because at the end of 2024, I gave some serious thought to shutting it all down. Because a life in the arts is a constant grind, a lot of doors shutting in your face, what feels like endless “no’s” or just a sense of feeling ignored or that nobody cares, isolation, and just this steep, almost impossible climb of a mountain that has no end. Sounds daunting I know. And to top it off, my father got seriously sick (but has since recovered), my dog got cancer and had to be put to sleep, and a member of the NDP family died unexpectedly at the young age of 40 from sepsis. Sounds even more daunting now doesn’t it? But, I took a bit of a step back, found ways to “breathe” again, and made some real changes on my approach to things, and more importantly, my attitude, and found that something inside me still wanted to do this more than anything – that there was still this burning passion to make more and never stop – so I decided to venture forward. And here I am, still venturing forward.

Alright, so if you are open to it, let’s explore some philosophical questions that touch on your values and worldview. What are the biggest lies your industry tells itself?
That there is some sort of recipe for success, that if you do all the “right” things, it’ll all work out and relatively fast; also, that you don’t have to listen to the audience, that it “doesn’t matter.” Depends on what you’re doing of course, what your expectations are, and what you want out of it, but I don’t think anyone truly knows what’s going to “land” sometimes, at least on certain levels. Macro-economically, sure, you can make things more palatable or digestible for general audiences, from tried and true models, or from historical perspectives. Bubble-gum pop music is always going to sell better than avant-garde jazz. Right? But within those lanes, it’s so hard to differentiate yourself, especially when you’re trying to do your “own thing.” You can always follow the exact same model as the heavy-hitters and you’ll probably find some success along the way, but after a while, you have to ask yourself: are you still doing what you want? Is it still worth it? Are you still…you anymore?

Thank you so much for all of your openness so far. Maybe we can close with a future oriented question. What are you doing today that won’t pay off for 7–10 years?
I think what we’re doing with NDP right now actually. In fact, I think a lot of projects in the arts take a decade or more to even begin to carve out even a little bit of an audience – to my point earlier, there’s no real recipe for these things and are never really fast to take off – so make sure you’re in it for the long haul.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://novodeproductions.com
• Instagram: @_novo_de, @aotbpodcast, @aotb.podcast
• Twitter: @_novo_de, @aotbpodcast, @aotb.podcast
• Youtube: @novodeproductions