Q: Can you tell us a bit about yourself and how your childhood impacted your musical direction?
A: When I was a toddler my German grandma loved yodeling music, I still remember dancing around with a fancy purple scarf she had listening to yodeling music she’d blast at her house in Orange County, she was the nicest person I ever met in my entire life as well, and her uncle was in a band in Germany in Bad Beyersoin, which I was able to visit in my early 20’s a beautiful place with crystal clear lakes and Lederhosen wearing folks. I did a song called You Omi, which I released recently which features her voice at the end, she always encouraged me to do entertainment and sales.
Q: How are you planning on growing your fan base and sharing your music with the world? What message do you have for anyone who is about to discover “E Lion”?
A: In Hawaii, I’ve already done all that you could do, from performing at local churches to the bigger venues in chance situations, like getting on stage at the Waikīkī Shell during Audio Adrenaline’s farewell concert they handed me the mic expecting me to sing some of the lyrics of the song they were playing but I took the opportunity to freestyle a bit and was noticed by my AP English teacher Mr Lane who spoke to me about it the next day in class, where he encouraged me to pursue music and to learn even more vocabulary and to master my craft to one night at the Blaisedale Stadium during the Hottest Model Import nights, surrounded by fancy exotic cars I still remember talking my way on stage and hooking my music up from my song Fame, I got some great pictures from some photographers who caught the moment that night, though no video, I still remember the guy telling the tech if he does anything weird cut off the mic but if he’s good let him do it, I crushed it that night! Other open mics and nightclubs I got to perform all the time in my early and late 20’s. I traveled the USA, Israel, Hollywood, ended up in Hip Hop Heaven Studio with Tommy Daugherty, Nightbird Studios at the Sunset Marquis, honestly God just gave me favor, and now back in Hawaii, after winning Family Feud, I’ve just been focused on pouring my heart out, making the best possible music I can, and expect that when the right person hears what I’ve been putting together, they’ll sign me to a nice record label, til then word of mouth, I did put some Google ads on my latest music video E Lion I was pretty happy with, and I submitted my stuff to a bunch of sites from Rapzilla to Amazing Radio, got my own knowledge panel on Google and just hope the streams increase.
Q: Who is the most inspiring artist for you right now? And where do you find inspiration for making music?
A: Toby Mac was always an inspiration to me, and seeing Justin Bieber use his platform to praise God is always nice though I cringe sometimes when he gets wasted, I haven’t drank in about 7 years and am very happy with the results, other than that various worship artists have always been in my radar, I was suppose to meet Eminem and Logic one night in Hawaii and ended up getting set up and left in jail instead, my main focus is just being the best artist I can be and be able to be picky about who I work with.
Q: Can you tell us about the story or message behind the track, “Lightclub.”?
A: I wanted to put out something that could be played in the night clubs but was something positive I always enjoyed that Swedish house mafia song Heaven’s got a plan for you, so I made a similar vibed album, and talked about some important things to me and mentioned a couple wild stories like when I got robbed in Waikīkī for my Versace sunglasses and chased the guys who ended up in a headlock from a stranger and the cops were called, I never got those sunglasses back they disappeared during the chase somehow but I did get interviewed outside of the courthouse by the local radio station disc jockeys, and I put that article with that audio up on my website and just recently spoke with DJ Jimmy Taco about it reminiscing. Waikīkī has always been a crazy place, if I put everything that happened into songs I’d have more songs than any artist to ever live.
Q: How would you describe your sound in one word for potential listeners?
A: Fire
Q: Did you face any challenges while making or recording “Lightclub”?
A: Not much other than the first time I released it there were two tracks with the same lyrics I hadn’t caught so I took it down and added two more tracks to replace that one putting it up to 10 songs.
Q: What is the message of your music? And what are your goals as an artist?
A: That following God is cool, He’s my big homie who’s always had my back no matter where I ended up.
Q: Who is your dream artist to collaborate with? (dead or alive)
A: I always felt like Bieber and I would do a song, the track I always wanted to do a remix of that he did was his song Pray, and I did do a freestyle at a show one to his instrumental ‘I could be your boyfriend song’ for a bunch of girls that were in the crowd when I was a little more on the wild side.
Q: What is your advice for people interested in pursuing music as a career or for those trying to enter the industry?
A: Create good content, sell mixtapes with what you can do at your current level, use those funds to go to a nice studio, get people who believe in you to help you for free and always be prepared to hit a paywall, so many times i didn’t have enough for a certain situation so either have good credit or friends that can help you out.
Q: If you could go back in time and give a younger you some words of wisdom, what would they be?
A: Don’t waste time with girls that aren’t equally yoked and are ungodly, trying to impress the wrong girls is what always threw me off my grind, I talk about that in my song Icarus I did with Red Rokka who I just randomly saw at a grocery store and reconnected with, he wants to give me a usb stick with a bunch of beats so we can make some more songs.
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