Meet James Dapper

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to James Dapper. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi James, so excited to have you with us today, particularly to get your insight on a topic that comes up constantly in the community – overcoming creativity blocks. Any thoughts you can share with us?

First and foremost I think words are powerful. I do still call it writers block, however If you think of it as a block, a block is something you can’t get through. If you think of it as an obstacle, we deal with obstacles every day and we learn to get over them. Now personally how I’ve taught myself to be able to stay inspired was to consume things that made me feel creative. I will sometimes go to a spot in the city where I feel closer to God and that helps too. There’s a feeling we get after we watch a good movie, listen to a good song or even eat a good meal it’s like an elevated feeling. I try my best to do things that replicate that feeling. Lastly I mostly tell stories in my music so a big piece for me is finding something I wanna talk about and building a narrative around whatever that subject is. This is a good question I made a tiktok about this a few months ago

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

In December of this year it’ll be 16 years I’ve been writing music which is half my life. I didn’t become really good at what I do until about 2019. I had a ton of good ideas but not this skill and experience to execute those ideas. Towards the end of 2018 I wrote this song that changed my life. I had a story to tell and for whatever reason everything clicked in a way it never had before. And ever since then I’ve been writing the best songs. I am a storyteller and often times my songs have to do with distance. A lot of my life I’ve felt like I’ve been waiting for something that I can’t really explain and I think that’s the distance I constantly am writing about. And not to mention how distant I feel from everyone else. I will eventually become a full time musician and once I’m able to make enough money I’d like to figure out some way I can help stray cats. My late boy Dante was a stray and he passed away in January of this year from FELV. He got it from fighting on the streets. I’ve always been fond of cats but his death really inspired me to help other strays. I recently formed a duo with an artist by the name of Sammie Beckham Jr. she’s the reason I found Dante. We are working on an album together to honor him. He was a sweet guy

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?

This is a tough question. I think you need to figure out what it is you value and never let anyone change that for you. If you want to make music only for money I’m not saying you won’t go far, but unless if you already have money or money being invested in you I’d say you have an incredibly tough journey ahead of you. I also don’t think you should chase reverence this is something I’ve learned recently. I wanted to prove myself so badly and everytime I’d make something I was in love with there were a lot of people looking at me like what I accomplished wasn’t that special and at first I used this as fuel and kept going harder and harder for every song. After years went by I noticed that people were still relatively unimpressed with what I was doing and I had to look inward and know that I was happy with myself. After talking with some people who were way more successful and had much more reverence than me I noticed they had felt the same way. This was comforting honestly and now I know that I have to be proud of myself and what I’ve done. And good bad or indifferent I cannot be swayed by other people’s opinions. Lastly, I think people should study. If you have bands and singers you like, you should know what gear they used, what chords they used, and who they looked up to. You should know a healthy amount about your influences and at first we replicate them and then we spin off and become our own thing. I didn’t give 3 qualities specifically but this is the advice I would give to young musicians.

Who has been most helpful in helping you overcome challenges or build and develop the essential skills, qualities or knowledge you needed to be successful?

Eric Tuffendsam, he’s my engineer, my co producer and co songwriter as well. I started going to his studio in 2012 and we have developed and amazing working relationship as well as friendship. He’s a great guy, a great father/family man, and a great musician.

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