Meet Damani Lawes

We recently connected with Damani Lawes and have shared our conversation below.

Damani, so happy to have you with us today. You are such a creative person, but have you ever had any sort of creativity block along the way? If so, can you talk to us about how you overcame or beat it?

It took years of struggle for me come to this conclusion, but I believe any type of creativity block is a sign to allow yourself to live freely- to experience without the underlying intent of utilizing said experiences as fuel for your creative medium. I used to believe that being an artist is my identity and that everything I do should relate to my art somehow. But this is not the case, i’m still a person going through the journey of life. I am allowed to pursue things and to feel outside of my artform. After letting go of the guilt I would experience from spending my time doing activities outside of music, it became easier to garner inspiration-without even intending to. Everything around you is inspiration, but I wasn’t able to see that because I was so focused on finding it. It’s important to not view these periods of creative drought as a negative thing, but rather as a part of one’s creative and life journey. One of my favorite artists, “Q,” said something along the lines of, ‘We should think of our creative journey similar to how we look at trees. In the spring, everyone is in awe of the beauty of the flowering petals and the abundance of life and brightness. Yet in the winter, when trees are barren and leafless, we still see beauty in them-in their resilience and knowing that they will ultimately bounce back into the radiant beauty that we know and love.’ That was absolutely a rough paraphrase, but that helped me retrain my internalization of the periods of creative drought. It’s just for right now, so go and enjoy something else in life in the meantime.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I am a singer-songwriter and multi instrumentalist from the island of Jamaica. I moved to the US in 2011 and recently relocated to NYC. I have had many fleeting interests throughout life, but making music has stuck with me since 2019. I didn’t have a concrete goal when I began making music, I really just started doing it because there were certain songs I wanted to hear, but no one had released them yet. But throughout my journey I realized that I love giving people the space to feel. It’s a tough world out there, many of us wear masks and trudge through our days without acknowledging our emotions. I want my music to be that third place for the ones who are struggling to be with themselves. Creating an intimate atmosphere is key to making one comfortable with emotional acknowledgement. Whether it be suppressed romantic feelings, positive or negative, or more intrapersonal matters, I want my audience to just be able to feel. There is always the limit of budget when it comes to assets for promoting a song, but I decided that for this upcoming summer, I would release a song a month for the ones who will listen without any extra marketing. I know I have made an impact on a few people who have been streaming certain songs for years now. I don’t know these individuals but I just hope that my recounting of experiences can be of assistance in whatever they’re going through and that I can reach more people in need of a space to feel.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

I think that three qualities of mine that have been the most impactful in my journey are definitely my resilience, my sensitivity, and just the way I personally experience the world. I have ADHD and it has absolutely shaped how I process and perceive my life and this translates to how I express myself through music. I often struggle to communicate, but I never struggle to feel. So I figured out a way to communicate without necessarily conversing with a person. My music certainly speaks for me. This ties into my sensitivity as well; I’ve struggled with emotional regulation so I oftentimes feel a bit too much. How do I get this out? I write, I listen to music to help bring me to a space where I can acknowledge how and why I’m feeling the way I do, and I write some more.
My resilience has tied it together because I inherently am horrible at focusing. But no matter how many times I try and fail and try and fail again, I keep trying. I don’t let my failures demoralize me (too much). My first album, “Tired But Still Trying” is really a reflection of me. It’s certainly tiring trying your best but not achieving the results you desire, but I never fully give up. When I started learning guitar, I ‘quit’ about 8 times. It was too difficult and I also couldn’t practice long enough to get better because I would get distracted by absolutely anything. But, I kept going and now here I am. I’ve learned many things through being resilient and I think it’s a great quality to have,

My only advice is really just to not give up. I absolutely hate regretting not trying because I essentially steal a possible future from myself by giving up/ not trying just because of some difficulties. If something resonates with your soul, you must persist, otherwise you’ll be doing yourself a disservice.

What do you do when you feel overwhelmed? Any advice or strategies?

When I am overwhelmed I do one (or all) of four things: breathing exercises, go outside and touch grass (or any other grounding nature based activity), exercise, and go to sleep.

Breathing helps me slow down my mind and body.

Appreciating nature helps to bring me back to a state where I can look at things with a wider perspective. We often over complicate life-we don’t have to.

Exercising is just great all around. It’s good for you and it’s a way to get a free and natural pick me up,

As for sleeping? Sometimes you really just need a reset and the only built in reset we have is going to sleep. 10/10 I would recommend daily.

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