We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Damar Aaron a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Damar, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?
I was born into a family of working musicians and entertainers, with my dad being in an a capella group popular across Japan and my uncle who is a longtime member of the band Earth, Wind & Fire. So from early on, I knew I had a gift and I was blessed to have people in my life who recognized that and who were able to properly nurture that and help provide direction. I went to music school beginning at 4th grade all the way through college so I was always technically good at music, but when I really started to connect my gift with my purpose was in 2000 when I met my mentor. As mentioned, I already knew I had a gift of performance and musicianship, but I didn’t fully have a direction or complete idea of what I wanted to do with that gift. I was a part of a well known youth ministry and choir that allowed me to travel the world leading youth conferences and workshops revolving around my gift of music and my faith. It was then that I started to discover my purpose of changing lives through music, my passion for outreach and mentorship through music.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
My background is rooted in performance, I am an entertainer at the core. However, once I discovered the role of a music producer, I immediately fell in love with music production, songwriting and artist development. This led to me moving from my hometown, East Orange, NJ to Los Angeles to further pursue my career as a producer.
After accomplishing a fair amount of success as a producer and songwriter, included a Grammy nomination and a number of RIAA certified songs, I decided I wanted to take on developing my own artists. I began to invest my time into the lost art of artist development. My philosophy is artist development is what helps create longevity in the music industry. I went on to develop numerous artists, using my extensive technical knowledge of music and experience to teach voice lessons, performance coaching, music production and recording techniques and music business.
Presently, I have dived back into my roots of vocal performance and being an artist myself. While releasing music myself, I have been simultaneously developing a music production/songwriting workshop curriculum to develop and present across the country to those aspiring to work in the music industry in any capacity.
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?
The main things I have found that were most impactful on my journey have been less specific to the actual craft but more so values that help you become a better person in life and career.
1) Remain teachable and look for the lesson in everything. The moment you think you know it all, is the moment you start to put yourself in a position to lose. Things are rapidly ever-changing and there is no one, correct way to do things. Always be open to learning new things, new techniques and ways to improve your productivity.
2) Never gauge your success off of someone else’s success because you never know what they had to sacrifice, good or bad, to be in the position they’re in.
3) Do things based on your love and passion for them rather than aesthetics. If you genuinely pursue something with the right intentions, it’s only a matter of time that you will see the results of the good seeds you’ve sewn into the universe. Move with love, sincerity, put out good energy and that is what you will get back.
What’s been one of your main areas of growth this year?
My biggest area of growth has been self-sustainability and self-reliance. It is always great and very important to collaborate and want to include people in your vision. The problem is not everyone has the same vision, passion or intentions as you. So in the past when I wanted people to be a part of what I was doing I would always try to be very inclusive, sometimes depending on and trying to include people who I knew clearly didn’t have the same passion, drive or fortitude as myself. This would always end in disappointment. I’ve learned that not everyone is meant to go on the journey to success with you, including family, close friends, and I had to learn to be content with that.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.damaraaron.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/damaraaron/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/damaraaron
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/SuperProducerdb
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCe_VKTOoe_ux1eTm9t8buuA
Image Credits
@jamesromantwo
