Jeremy Davis shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.
Hi Jeremy, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day to share your story, experiences and insights with our readers. Let’s jump right in with an interesting one: What is a normal day like for you right now?
On a normal day I’m working from home in my studio/office space, mostly doing admin stuff like booking, responding to emails, etc. I’m also a freelance audio engineer so I have remote work I’m always doing as an engineer alongside my music. I just finished working on a single with a younger artist who reached out to me last week, so recently I’ve been working on that project.
I might take my dog for a walk or go for a bike ride at some point to a coffee shop when it’s nice out. Most days I try to split up the admin work with writing or practicing something I’m working on in my current set.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is Jeremy, and I’m a singer-songwriter performing as Elonzo Wesley. I perform and tour independently as much as I can. My music is a blend of all the things I grew up listening to but mostly just my thoughts on life funneled through the sound of a string band. I love folk and Americana music as well as more esoteric indie sounds, and try to incorporate all of that into what I do.
Alongside my music I’m an audio engineer and a freelance creative, so I work on a lot of other content and music.
Basically, I really enjoy making things (and riding bikes)!
Great, so let’s dive into your journey a bit more. Who saw you clearly before you could see yourself?
I met this man at a bar one time before I was about to play a gig.
The band had setup the stage and done soundcheck, and were kind of just waiting to play. As I was standing in line at the bar, we started chatting and he asked me what I “did.” This was at a time in my life when I was working a 9-5 and was not really playing music professionally yet.
He hadn’t seen me setting up the gear on stage. This was a place near uptown Charlotte, and he was one of the many professionals there after work grabbing a drink.
Anyhow, I told him about my job at the time unexcitedly and how I was kind of figuring out my career, but didn’t mention music at all. Our conversation ended at some point. We played our first set of the night and then took a break.
During the break, the guy from the bar walks up and says “When people ask you what you do, say you’re a musician. Why would you not say that?” He was confused as to why I didn’t say that, because he thought the music was good.
I realized he was right and that I didn’t have to be afraid to say I’m a musician even though at the time I didn’t have it all figured out.
Was there ever a time you almost gave up?
Yes, every Tuesday morning!
I’m kidding of course. Pursuing a creative life is not without it’s challenges, and there are times for sure when it seems like it would be easier to just do something more straight forward. To have more security would be nice, but also showing up every day at a traditional job, and building a career that way has it’s challenges as well. Also, the state of the world is totally out of our hands, and anything can happen at any time, so I always remind myself of that and try to trust my instincts when I’m feeling down. Usually, when I’m feeling this way it’s because I’m burned out or need to take better care of myself.
I think our readers would appreciate hearing more about your values and what you think matters in life and career, etc. So our next question is along those lines. How do you differentiate between fads and real foundational shifts?
At least in music, there so many fads with sound and recording that come and go as well as stylistic trends. Bands being influenced by someone and then sounding very similar. I mean we’re all influenced by those we grew up idolizing. My main strategy to avoid fads in my creative process is to focus on the song itself. To me that has to be the central thing. If that is weak but you have a bunch of studio glitter on it, that can pass for a while, but it won’t stand the test of time. I will also say that making music using a lot of studio tools is of course not inherently bad, but the song needs to stand on it’s own. As long as that is there the other stuff matters less in terms of long term success.
I think this is true in making “content” (or anything in general). Create something that has inherent value by being true to the process, inserting your humanity, and not just using flashy trendy things to try to trick people into liking something.
I work on a lot of stuff unrelated to music as a freelance creative, and I will have clients that want to do things that are trendy. Usually it doesn’t end up working that well or connecting with folks. People connect to things that are genuine and they can smell fake a mile away. I think we are going to see with AI while it can be helpful, it’s not going to replace humanity and what makes us unique. I think that is going to challenge a lot of business peoples thoughts on how useful it will be. Specific to content creation, while it may create things more easily, things it creates will inherently be lacking humanity and therefore have less connection. I have already seen this happening with clients where; because it’s easier to make a lot more content using AI, clients assume this is a positive and simply flooding the market so to speak with content will create a positive net gain. I have seen this strategy fall flat more than once recently.
Okay, so before we go, let’s tackle one more area. If you knew you had 10 years left, what would you stop doing immediately?
I would stop working immediately and travel the world by bicycle. No question on that one.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://elonzowesley.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/elonzowesley
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremyldavis81/
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/elonzowesley
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@elonzowesleymusic
Image Credits
All three photo credits go to Brian Twitty Photography
