MUSICandMODELING.com: Can you describe a typical day for you? You say you have a kick ass day every day, so can you describe what a kick ass day is like?
Digit: Oh man, well, the first thing I do is I wake up to His excellence and after that, I basically just thank the creator for life and get my day started. I own a few businesses and so my first company is a marketing and branding company so I check my emails, see if I have any orders in.
See if I have any clients that need any help with anything and then if nothings there I move on to my next. My next business is a travel agency and so, I basically just see if I have anything that I need to do with that and then about that time it’s normally around 9:30. I’ve either gone for a jog or I may have gone to work out for about 45 minutes to an hour.
And then once 10:00 rolls around and if I don’t have any orders or anything like that, then I get into the business for Digit Man Music. I recently hired an assistant, so I’ll be training her for the next few weeks and by 1:00 I am getting ready for lunch. I each lunch every day at a restaurant named Strip in Atlantic Station. I eat there every single day Monday through Friday.
I leave there. I may come back and relax for a little while. May have a song writing session or may have a studio session and I’ll take that until about 7:00, 8:00 if I’m not in a session. If I am, I’ll keep recording till I’m done. By 10:00 I’m getting ready for the nights event if I have an appearance somewhere or if I’m performing somewhere. I’m getting ready for that.
I’m normally back in the house by maybe 2 or 3 in the morning. Check some emails. Might just listen to some music, mediate a little bit and then I’m off to sleep and then get up and do it all over again the next day.
MUSICandMODELING.com: Okay. And so, you’re sleeping about 2 or 3 in the morning and then you’re up by 7 or 8? What time are you normally up?
Digit: Well, on average, I’m normally in the bed by 3:30, 4:00 and then I’m up 8:30.
MUSICandMODELING.com: Wow.
Digit: But on the weekends, my weekends I sleep all weekend. I drink and chill and mix it up with the family and just kind of hang out. All weekend I relax. I don’t do anything unless I have a show.
MUSICandMODELING.com: Okay, so definitely a busy work week and then you relax on the weekend. So, a good balance.
Digit: Absolutely.
MUSICandMODELING.com: You mentioned Digit Man Music. Now, let me ask you, how do you get in the mood to write or perform?
Digit: Um, well, I might just vibrate for a little while, mediate, get my mind right, elevate and then I’m ready. I’m ready to write, pretty much at any time. When I’m getting ready to perform though, I throw the iPod on. I’ll listen to some music, you know, by the time I make it to the club, I’m having a cranberry and vodka and I’m just kind of relaxing mingling with folks until time to perform.
MUSICandMODELING.com: Do you have a most memorable performance?
Digit: Actually, yeah, I think so. I think my most memorable performance, I was hired to do a show for a guy and all his family was there and everything and it was packed. I mean it was a packed house and the DJ, I guess, knew me from a prior management team that I was with and I guess he didn’t really approve of me.
And so he decided to sabotage my show by cutting the music off. I performed the rest of the show a capella and got a standing ovation.
MUSICandMODELING.com: I’m interested to know the background of that. What happened after the performance?
Digit: After the performance I signed some autographs, sold some CD’s and went home.
MUSICandMODELING.com: Wow.
Digit: I don’t participate in that kind of thing. You know? I come to do a job and I get paid and then I go home. If they got a beef, they can take it up with the security or the management.
MUSICandMODELING.com: That’s a lesson that a lot of artists can take. Just move on.
Digit: I’m trying to make money. I don’t have time to go to jail tonight.
MUSICandMODELING.com: That’s a good way to put it.
Digit: You know what I’m saying, those colors don’t look good on me.
MUSICandMODELING.com: Right. Now, talk a little bit about your debut album, Life of a Number.
Digit: Life of a Number, well, my real name is Seven. I go by Digit, so it’s basically just a little introduction of who I am. You know, my philosophy on a few things, my experiences with others. My music is real. If you knew me you would probably be able to just identify with every song. I don’t make shit up.
I don’t, I might embellish maybe a little bit, but not really. I might change a few names here and there, but it was a testament to the hard work that it took for me to release that album. You know the odds that I had to defy and the time that I did it and so it was a tribute to that.
MUSICandMODELING.com: Okay. Do you mind talking a little bit about how you arrived at where you are? You mentioned that you had a few odds to overcome. Can you talk a little bit about, your background and your experience in getting to where you are?
Digit: Sure. Well, I’ll take it from even after high school. I joined the military and I spent some years in the Marine Corps and then I moved to Atlanta. You know, I’ve been a business owner since I was 11, so my funds were looking pretty good when I moved here, but you know, partying and things like that, you know, you go through your money.
And so, to make a long story short, got involved with a partner where things didn’t work out and I was homeless for a year. I was homeless for about 11 months, 11 ½ months. I ate two Wendy’s burgers a day, 99 cents each. I would go at 12:00 and then I go again at 6. I grinded on my own and I made it. You know what I’m saying? I haven’t made it yet, but I’m making it. I live a comfortable lifestyle. And so with the music, the music was a situation where I’ve been around it all my life. My first job was with South Carolina Record Pool, AJ Savage, Paul Davis, my second job was while I was still working for South Carolina Record Pool, which was with A&M Perspective records. You know, I was breaking records in high school.
I was doing music since I was baby. So the album cover is actually the picture of me as a child with my head phones on. So as I have been here in Atlanta, if I’ve had seven offices, five of them have has studios in them. It was just, I couldn’t get way from entertainment. I couldn’t get away from the music and so, I have top notch production.
My production team is U&R productions and Young Juvie. I mean, these guys are signed producers out in Florida and some of my other guys, you know, and it just things just started falling together. It just all came together when it was supposed too.
MUSICandMODELING.com: That’s a great story to tell and to kind of let people know that it is, it is hard. It’s hard for a good many people to break into the entertainment industry.
Digit: Well, I actually want to dispel that myth. It’s not hard. It’s a challenge indeed, but I think that if you can figure out a lane. I mean, I was on three magazine covers before I dropped my first album, you know, so I think that if you can find a lane and get a good lane and just do something that’s not being done, I think that that would help with a few things. And it wont be as difficult.
I don’t have a deal yet and I get paid to do shows. I get paid to do appearances, you know what I’m saying. I don’t have three year old music so I wouldn’t say that it’s hard. I would say that it’s just like anything else a challenge, but it’s a map that can be drawn out and followed.
MUSICandMODELING.com: And now, what advice would you give those who are actually trying to, not necessarily just break into the music industry, just trying to make it in life. It seems like you kind of surrounded yourself with the knowledge, you have a marketing and branding company which is important in any business that you have. You kind of know how to market and you know how to brand yourself and separate yourself from others that are out there.
Because it’s a competive world. So, what advice would you give those that are trying to, set their goals and reach their dreams.
Digit: Well, the first thing that I would say is to speak it. You know what I am saying? I am a thorough believer that thoughts become feelings and your words are powerful enough to create the reality that you want. I mean, I wake up every day and say what I want to happen.
I wake up every day and I expect a miracle. I wake up every day and expect a miracle, you know what I’m saying? If I haven’t receive a miracle by the time it’s time for me to go to sleep, I’m not going to sleep. You know, I command the day to give me what I want and I think that with that attitude you can only help but to get what you want because it’s going to force you to think outside the box.
It’s going to force you to work a little bit harder than everybody else around you. So I think the first thing would be to speak it. The second thing would be to apply action to it and then as far as opportunity, you may look at somebody and say, oh man, you know, they just on like that, wow.
But you don’t know what it took to get to a space for them to get that opportunity to get on. You feel me, so I would say, stay in your lane, do what you do best. Don’t look to the left, don’t look to the right, work on your craft. Put money behind what you believe in. I mean, you not just going to the studio, a $25 studio, you know what I’m saying? Or just by some $25 football pads or some $25 cleats or take one basketball lesson or one acting part and make it.
You’ve got actually invest in yourself, and think of yourself as a brand. Don’t think of yourself as a song. Don’t think of yourself as a rapper, don’t think of yourself as an actor. You know what I mean? I just did an off Broadway play last, I think August or sometime. I did an international commercial last year. I’m an artist so I don’t limit myself.
And that’s another thing, don’t limit yourself. My goal is to make a living and a descent one, a good one, a great one, doing what I love to do and that’s create so I don’t limit the universe to what it brings me. Some people just want to sing, they might play the piano well and that opportunity brings them some more.
So be open minded and explore your craft, spend time with that craft and hone it, you know what I’m saying?
MUSICandMODELING.com: Great words of wisdom and just talking about that leads me to my next question. Can you talk a little bit about your campaign for art? Because you had a good bit of PR around it and your belief system is embedded in it, can you talk a little bit about the purpose and what your hopes are for your campaign?
Digit: Absolutely. I noticed that over the last few years there were a lot of schools and institutions that were shutting down their art programs due to funding and then when Obama was running for president he actually spoke on it a little bit and name a president for the arts. But you know, in the hood and where I’m from we don’t see that, we don’t see anything happening and you know, it’s a new thing so I can’t expect anything to happen right now anyway.
So I was taught, if you see something, pick it up. If you see something that need to be done, fix it. So the vision came. It was given to me to help save the arts. I didn’t know how I was going to do that and with the Lisa Lopes foundation, with me being on the board for that foundation, it being a celebrity foundation gave me a bigger platform, a larger platform for me to speak from.
So, I hired a publicist and side by side and got the logo done and the campaign started and we went from door to door in the community and within about three weeks we had over $170,000 worth of sponsorship and assistance from different firms and organizations, law firms and what not, photographers, producers, I mean, you name it.
You know, and the first school that came to us was the Harvard Conservatory for the Performing Arts in Harlem and Nina Olson, she contacted me. And said that they had needed some help with saving one of their programs and so we approved them and since then, we have been on this campaign to raise over $10,000 for this school and it’s something that’s needed.
It’s something that will be around for quit sometime and we’re just growing. We are brand new and we are just trying to see what the community needs and how we can help save these art programs.
MUSICandMODELING.com: Wow, wow. I’m loving it. And I think that’s one of my favorite part of doing my research for this interview tonight is just seeing that, I mean, it’s definitely needed in the school systems everywhere because the first thing that will be cut or is being cut are the arts or the extracurricular activities and of course, we don’t have that and then we might have more kids that may end up in jail or may end up somewhere else.
And one of your articles, you mentioned that without arts you wouldn’t know music. You wouldn’t be where you are right now. So it seems like it’s imperative for you to do this. And that is a passion.
Digit: Well, I mean, you can look at the album cover for Life of a Number and see where that passion comes from. You know, as a kid, before going, I mean, we went to sleep with the radio on. I’ve been writing since I was nine, poetry and free thoughts and things like that. My father was writing poetry and so it’s in my blood. I’ve been performing since I was three. I played the drums at five.
I was modeling at four, acting by nine or ten. I was in martial arts. I mean, all these things are the arts. And so I think without any of those things being present in my life, oh my god, what would I have done with that built up anger, frustration, and rage that I had? You know, for things not really going the way I thought they should go as a kid, you know what I mean?
So if it wasn’t for the arts, we wouldn’t have anything . If it wasn’t for writers, we wouldn’t have commercials. We wouldn’t have music. We wouldn’t have melodies. If it wasn’t for actors, we wouldn’t have commercials, we wouldn’t have movies. We can go on and on, but you get the point.
MUSICandMODELING.com: Right, but I know you’re working for your raising funds for a school right now in Harlem. Now, there is a school or someone that is seeking assistance is there a way they can contact you?
Digit: Absolutely, absolutely. They can find us on Facebook. They can search Campaign for the Arts. They can also email us at campaignforthearts@gmail.com. We have a website campaignforthearts.com. It is down and wont be backup for another two weeks. We are remodeling and things like that, adding some new content, photos and what have you. There is donations page if they want to give to the foundation. So, definitely there are many ways to find us.
MUSICandMODELING.com: Okay, great. Now for you, we know that your album recently dropped so now what other upcoming projects can we look out for?
Digit: Well, I am releasing a project in July called The Alter Ego, The Summer of Sum. It’s a play off, of course, the Summer of Sam and that whole rage and disastrous event. You know, my alter ego, Digit has fully immerged and he’s breaking free and so the first album as an introduction to me as an artist and things like that and this album is more of an introduction to the alter ego.
So this summer is going to be hot. We have three tracks already that we’re using. One for radio single, one for street single, and the one for my anthem. Young Juvie has produced one called, The Good Life. We using that for the single. I want to give him a shout out definitely.
And then my dude Phantom out here in Georgia he did one called Gone, with my dude, Eli Almighty on that track, we are doing 100 remixes for that song, so anybody out there go to digitmanmusic.com, check out the track gone and if you want to submit a remix you know what I’m saying? We’ll send a track out to you with the open verse and I mean, you drop the high 16 and we’ll put it up on the site. So we’re dong 100 remixes for that.
That’s going to be like the summer anthem for getting Gone. And then Anxious is my anthem for this album, so you know, it’s going to be hot. We keep it moving.
MUSICandMODELING.com: Okay, wow, so busy, once again. So I’m figuring that you’ll probably have, with a new album coming out you’ll be, your music will move a little more into the day time as well.
Digit: Oh, I mean, absolutely, absolutely. The music is more from, I don’t know if you have had a chance to check out any of the new tracks, but digitmanmusic.com is where you can find some of the new tracks and if you listen to the first three songs and then listen back to the Life of a Number, you’ll hear, you’ll hear a difference. I’m talking so much more shit on this album and just letting it all hang out.
MUSICandMODELING.com: Cool, okay. And now do you have any final thoughts or shout outs?
Digit: I do. I want to give Charles Martin a shout out for hooking me up with this interview and definitely a shout out to you as well. I definitely appreciate the opportunity for doing this interview. I want to give a shout out to Simone Burke which is my VP of Digit Man Music. I want to give a shout out to PR Queen. That’s my management PR Queen Entertainment. That’s my management company, I recently was picked up with this management firm and she is going just, she has turned it all the way up for me.
I couldn’t even expect what I’m getting right now from her. So I definitely want to give her a shout out. My label mates, Naomi Banks, I want to give a shout out to Madison Kelly with Don Diva. I want to give out a shout out to U&R Productions. I always give a shout out to them guys, man, ‘cause they got me where I needed to be so people would want to hear what I had to say. A lot of times people just want to hear the track and so they gave me some crazy tracks and it was my job to finish the rest, so I definitely want to give a shout out to them. My dude, Joe Gus, who did a track called Find A Pick.
My ladies seemed to really like that a lot. My dude, Enter down in Tampa, I want to give a shout out to him. I definitely want to give a shout out to Phantom. I want to give a shout out to Young Juvie. I want to give a shout out to my new assistant Jovanie man, she’s really come on board and she’s taking ownership in this thing and I just really appreciate that, so to the fans, to my family, you know what I mean, to everybody that is supporting the Digit Man movement, to everybody who is supporting the campaign for the arts.
My VP for the Campaign, Phoenix Ray who is out in Sacramento who is holding it down out there, she’s putting on a monstrous tour coming up, so, be on the look out for that, and just the rest of my team, the rest of my team, my back up singer, Miranda McGill. I don’t want to keep going because I know I’m going to forget somebody so just to all my fans and to all the people that help me take this happen.
|
|
|
|