We recently connected with Simeon Aston Covell Walker and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Simeon Aston Covell , thank you so much for making time for us today. Let’s jump right into a question so many in our community are looking for answers to – how to overcome creativity blocks, writer’s block, etc. We’d love to hear your thoughts or any advice you might have.
Creativity blocks are inevitable. For me it usually occurs after a good flow of ideas and then just one day the ideas stop flowing. It feels like you’re scraping the sides of the peanut butter jar trying to gather up enough for a sandwich. Sometimes this feeling lasts for months. These moments are a good time to go back to look and listen to your old works. Maybe the works you started but never got around to making complete. I have thousands of verses in my phone and a lot of handwritten verses in various journals. Just because you write something down doesn’t make it useful. There are songs I’ve created that contain verses from yesterday and a year ago just because it seamed together well. Every time you put your hand to work you are creating a piece of the puzzle. The surrounding pieces may not manifest until months later and often times not in a way you expected. For example, I enjoy writing to J Dilla instrumentals. I will record a rough demo over it in order to get the string of lyrics into my memory. Then I could be sitting in my car listening instrumentals by The Alchemist and then I will naturally start reciting the verse I initially wrote to the Dilla beat. Then I can take that original verse and continue to write a verse two. Then after that I can strip certain elements from either beat and add new sounds and instruments to make something I haven’t even heard before. It’s not a linear process or a short process. Jewels take time to form.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
My name is Simeon Aston Covell Walker. Aka DeuceFroze. The Vello in VELLOVISION. I’m an artist based out of the DFW area. If I could I would create everything. But if I created everything I wouldn’t have the opportunity to collaborate. Collaboration requires a level of trust and vulnerability. As a producer you want the beats that you make to be instrumental to a good song. I’m very selective in regards to who I send beats to. My guy up in Arkansas, TYGA2REAL, has blessed some of my best beats with his voice. Hopefully you will be hearing some of them soon. Most of that process is done on Bandlab making it easy for both of us to share and edit without the need to meet at a studio or even send files back and forth. Bandlab has been an integral part of my music-making process since I started and is a useful tool for collaboration as well.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
The three qualities that have been the most impactful in my journey have been listening more than speaking, quality over quantity, and integrity.
I’m not an always talkative person. If I feel I don’t have anything important to say I won’t say it. This has given me the best opportunity to listen and learn in any situation. I’m confident that I don’t have all the answers, so that keeps me humble and if I have an answer I can keep it until it’s useful. This also helped me realize quality over quantity applies with your words just as much as your relationships. Less is more if the “less” is worth more than the “more”. Choice words are like choice gold. Choice gold is like choice friends. The people around you should add value to your life. The words that you choose should add value you to your life.
Do you think it’s better to go all in on our strengths or to try to be more well-rounded by investing effort on improving areas you aren’t as strong in?
I think it is a good idea to go all in on your strengths as long as you know when to outsource your weaknesses. Many artists have the tendency to practice unsustainable business practices. I think it is the main obstacle that prevent artists in succeeding. Myself included. Artists not taking the time to educate themselves on the nature of the business. Not many people can say that they signed a record deal. And from that handful of people that received a deal even less would say that they got a good deal. On the other hand being an indie artists and not having the financial backing or networking resources as a record label you have to build your own team. At first you may be your own team. You could be the graphic designer, the marketing department, and the video editor, while still being the artist. And that is tiring. A quote that I’ve heard several times in regards to ownership is “would you rather have 100 percent of nothing or 1 percent of everything?”. We’re not made to do it all by ourself. I’ve had to change my frame of thinking when me as an artist have to pay for a service. I’m creating jobs for people. And that job I provide them helps me focus more on the next steps of where I want to go.
Contact Info:
- Website: Solo.to/deucefroze
- Instagram: Instagram.com/deucefroze
- Twitter: Twitter.com/deucefroze
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@vellovision
- SoundCloud: https://on.soundcloud.com/xkaGu
Image Credits
Simeon Aston Covell Walker
