Last month, after slaving away for so long at my dream, I finally have it all realized. It’s funny when you work so hard at a gift – and you meet with refusal after refusal after refusal …. defeat makes you think so differently about it all. The Tuesday after Labor Day this year will always hold such significance in my life – because the beginning of the rest of my life started. All I ever needed was a chance, a crack, a person to take a chance on me. Now? That has happened in the form of Tate Music Group.
The game plan, for now, is to get the 30 best songs for me to record. Since I’m serving as a co-executive producer of my LP? I have to also place the business cap on top of my bald dome and plunge forward. Although the title of this blog entry would serve as a great album title – I must name it something that says, ‘Who am I?’
JIll Scott’s first LP was entitled, “Who Is Jill Scott?” As an artist, she totally gets it. I’ve always deduced with career recording artists that a first album should answer the perpetual question, ‘Who am I?’ An artist’s second album should perpetually answer the question, ‘What am I about?’ The third – should always answer the question, ‘Where am I headed?’ So the question posed to me – ‘who I am’ – would get answered by the statement, “Patiene Is Strength.”
My parents decided to name me something that, in Swahili, means ‘patience is strength.’ I shy away from wanting to name any of my art my own name. So you won’t see me title any of my projects, ‘Sabs Johnson.’ Under this name, you all will get a musical understanding of an autobiography. Believe me. I’m going to put a lot of work into this project – because my life truly depends upon it.
My next order of business is getting these 30 songs ready and prepared for vocal production. It’s quite possible I may have to still tweak some musical production with some of my songs I’m going to eventually submit to my record label. As daunting as that may be – and as tiring as it truly can be – it is just that much more thrilling to prepare something so personal for the world to hear.
For the first time in my adult life – I am so happy!
