Latest / The Scene Projects / From Memphis to LA: Dominique Jackson on Career, Community, and Creativity

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From Memphis to LA: Dominique Jackson on Career, Community, and Creativity · The Scene Projects

0:02
Welcome in to a very exciting episode of the scene.
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I'm your host, Bubba Starts, and with me today is billboard charting recording artist,
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Dominique Jackson.
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Welcome to the show, Dominique.
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Hi, Bubba.
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Thank you for welcoming me.
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Oh my goodness.
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It's my pleasure.
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We're just getting to know each other off camera a little bit.
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I said, screw it.
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Let's record this.
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Okay.
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I'm ready.
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I'm ready.
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I'm ready.
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Let's go.
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Well, we we know the highlight there, but tell us a little bit more about you, and we'll we'll
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get into it.
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Okay.
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Well, like you've mentioned, I'm a Billboard charting recording artist, singer songwriter,
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playwright, vocal producer.
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I do I'm a woman of many hats.
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Pretty much all things creative dealing with music and, the arts and acting as well.
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So I do a little bit of everything.
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So yeah.
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That's fantastic.
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We we just won an award for content creator of the year, and I think that's kind of what we
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all we all just are at this point.
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Right?
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It's just
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I'm serious.
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Congratulations.
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Oh, thank you so much.
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Yeah.
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I I appreciate that.
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And it's it's not Billboard, but it's our Midwest Music Organization.
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And, but it was a great honor, especially because it was the the members themselves that
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vote on it, and the members are the artists that we spent the last year, having on our
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program and having conversations with.
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So what an honor, right, to be, you know, recognized by your peers, I think, is more
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important than, like, some board of of judges or something.
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Yeah.
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And there's no personal bills here, and people really don't know you if they didn't see that
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climb like you building your podcast to what it is today.
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So that's that's definitely it's like hard work mixed with accolades.
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You know?
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So that's dope.
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Congratulations again.
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Well well, thank you.
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But we're not here to talk about me, Dominique.
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Okay.
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Okay.
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So, where where are you from, and and where are you based out of now?
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Okay.
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I'm based out of Memphis, Tennessee now.
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A lot of people here I I get half and half.
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Some people say, like, I hear an accent.
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Then others are like, no.
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I can tell you when I'm back at home, they're like, I can tell you've been somewhere else.
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So I'm from Memphis, Tennessee originally.
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Moved at 17, went to college.
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Actually, it's crazy that we had this interview today.
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May seventh of twenty sixteen was the day I walked across stage.
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So it's something about seven, and I'm now I'm on a podcast with you.
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I love the number seven.
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So I moved to Texas, got my degree.
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I moved to Sacramento, taught there for a year and done music.
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I was like, no.
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I need something more fast paced.
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Like, this is on my board.
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I'm bored.
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I'm bored.
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Gotta be busier.
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So I moved to LA, and then, it made me eat my words because between a traffic, traffic, three
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hours of traffic a day, plus gigs in Hollywood, then parking, somewhere my brain said, okay.
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Be careful what you ask for.
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But, nevertheless, I'm grateful.
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I met a lot of great individuals, and that's when I really started getting a chance to
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explore myself as an artist and get on Billboard and find out that I really had more
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to offer.
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So
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So I spent a little time in Los Angeles myself.
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My experience was different.
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I didn't have a car.
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I was practically homeless living on Venice Beach.
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I never made it really East Of The 405 ever.
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I stayed on the beach with my guitar, Dominique, and I played music down there.
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And that's where I found value, for what I was doing.
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I I've always been a campfire strummer.
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Right?
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I grew up in the woods of Deadwood, South Dakota.
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Me and my friends, when we were in high school, we used to start bonfires and go drink all
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night, and and I was the entertainer.
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Right?
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So I kind of took that with me when I started traveling the West Coast, and I read Jack
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Kerouac's On the Road and was like, oh, you could just, like, hitchhike around and do that.
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I was like, I'm gonna go do that.
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Now granted, it's in, like, the fifties.
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Right?
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So a little bit different world.
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You know, this is early two thousands, mid '2 thousands.
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And, but landing in Los Angeles, like you say, it's just it's a different world.
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It is a world
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different world.
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And it's just busy, but, it's busy to to it's hurry up and wait.
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Right?
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It's hurry up and wait in traffic.
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Wait for a parking spot.
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Wait your opportunity to to shine because there's so many in line ahead of you.
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Yeah.
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They're moving out.
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Everyone's and I think that's why it's so expensive.
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They know you're moving here to get famous and rich, but it's like until that moment, there's
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so many chapters, like you said, and so many creative stories.
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The homelessness, the I don't have a car, the I had to eat, ramen noodles for a year, you know,
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because it's the cost of living.
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So but like you said, once you make it through those, you know, those roadblocks, it is worth
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it.
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So like I said, my I didn't have too much of a struggle time.
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Once things got on, they went on.
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So I'm I'm grateful to have like, I got a taste of both worlds out there.
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So did your career really take off from the Los Angeles scene?
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If you want me to be honest, yes.
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So yes and no.
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My first, like, kinda getting into the industry or getting industry connects was actually in
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college.
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I got an opportunity to sing on BET with the Grammy Award gospel singer named Yolanda Adams.
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And it all happened, long story short, by mistake, I did was not meaning to audition to
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be on TV.
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I just thought it was a regular talent show.
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I was like, oh, you know, around the town thing.
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I'll do it.
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And then I got a call my director.
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He was like, yeah.
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We gotta leave and go to LA.
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And I was like, woah.
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For what?
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I'm like, they moved the talent show, like, from Texas to LA?
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He was like, no.
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You're singing with a singer.
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And I'm like, oh, well, what call what what college does she go to?
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Not quite.
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She's she has Grammys, and she's a giant.
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Yolanda Adams.
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I was like, oh, no.
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I can't do it.
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I was like, no.
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I can't do it.
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So that's what, that was my first time on TV at 19.
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Oh, shout out to UNCF and BET and all the people who played a part in Wiley University
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for giving me the opportunity.
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But that was my first introduction where I started getting industry connects.
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And ever since that moment, I said, you know what?
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I have to move back to LA.
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I said, I don't know how I'm a get here, but I gotta do it.
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I just manifested every day.
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Had on vision boards, LA.
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You're gonna live in LA doing what you love.
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And one day, I got a call to work there in Hollywood, and that was the that was the well,
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being around the creatives, everybody in my job was already in the industry because they were
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born and raised in LA.
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So I didn't have to go there, like, find the people.
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They're like, oh, you want this gig?
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You want this job?
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It's like, it just worked out.
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It did.
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And then exactly.
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That's a much different experience than someone, coming in that just has that dream and
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lands there.
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I mean, in some ways, that was me.
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It wasn't necessarily my dream to go to LA.
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I'm a country mouse.
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So but
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Oh, really?
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Out there.
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When you get out there, people are like, oh, well, you have to go to LA.
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Right?
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It wasn't necessarily, like, in me that I wanted to go.
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I was being told, oh, you have to be here.
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That's where everybody is.
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You have to be here.
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You have to be here.
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When I landed there, and I was like, I can't afford $2,700 a month for a, you know, one
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bedroom.
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Afford nothing for a bathroom for nothing.
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Not nothing at all.
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Like, this room.
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Yeah.
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Like, 22 I've been in a room, like well, it's one of my bedrooms in my home.
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My friend was living in Hollywood, and he was telling me he was playing 1,800 or something.
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And I was like, there's no the room isn't divided.
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Like, the bathroom is the car is like, what do you pay?
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$1,800.
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Jesus Christ.
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Just because it was in Hollywood.
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Like, that just because it was in Hollywood, that was the big thing.
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Well, but just being there isn't enough.
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Like, you have to be there and to either work for ten years and struggle for that amount of
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time to meet the right people finally, or you get very, very fortunate in which I'm sure you
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are extremely grateful for to to land in a situation like you did where here's everything.
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Right?
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Did it sound like it was kind of handed to you on a platter a little bit?
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I hate you know what?
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I hate to admit that because so many artists who done what I've done, they was like, you
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didn't have any friends out there.
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You didn't have any family.
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Like, they thought my story was the whole sleeping in the car and the thing.
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And I was like, yeah.
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And then, you know, I think back, it does sound crazy.
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I was like, yeah.
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I didn't have any family.
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Didn't know anyone.
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Didn't have anyone like a cousin to crash on.
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I just had to jump and go.
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So sometimes I do because I had my I had the nicest coworkers.
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And one thing I noticed, like, you ever heard of the crab in the barrel mentality?
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Yep.
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That comes from, like, small town.
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That's because those are from people who operate from a scarcity mindset they don't
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have.
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So it's like, I'm not gonna tell you about the opportunity.
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I don't know what this will do for me.
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Like, it's about me.
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It's about me, me, me.
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When they're born and raised in LA and they've been afforded so much, a lot of times they were
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doing my coworkers was doing commercial acting and stuff at, like, five, like, on milk
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commercials.
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So to pass an opportunity to a girl who just moved here '22, '20 '3, don't know, they didn't
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care.
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And could tell it was genuine.
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Like, hey.
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So and so on TV's uncle owns this thing.
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You wanna start doing gigs here?
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It did kinda just come to me because I had no other way for it to come.
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So to answer your question, yes.
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I hate to say it, but, yeah, I got lucky.
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I'm not gonna lie.
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I I did.
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I did.
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Takes work.
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I mean, just to have the opportunities.
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There's plenty of people that get those opportunities, Dominique, and completely blow
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it.
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Right?
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Like, there's
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Oh, yeah.
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Stories out there too.
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So you obviously put in the work when you were gift you know, given the opportunity to shine.
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You went out and you still gotta shine.
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Like
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Yeah.
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Well and I guess that is the fact that the root word of my name is diamond.
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So I guess, instinctively, I have to live up to that.
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You know, I can't be dull, when it comes to personality and what.
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So, yeah, I will say this.
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You know, I I just stay true to the model that success is when success is being ready when the
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opportunity moments presents itself.
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So when I came in, when I was given solos, I killed the solos.
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I remember the first one that, work I had to do was a golden, summers by from the musical sing.
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And I was like, now I haven't had to sing in front of coworkers, like, for a while, but it
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was a theater job.
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They wanna see if you can go in the classroom and teach these kids who are offspring of
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actors and professionals.
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We need to tell, like sound like a show that's self approved.
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I'm like, sing.
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And I had to sing it, and I they were like, oh my god.
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Okay.
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Like, you're qualified.
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You know?
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You're qualified.
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But every time they gave me a shot, whether it was like, Roscoe's Jazz Lounge in Long Beach,
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whatever they gave me, having me come in to do interviews, helping them with their short
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films, like, I was always on.
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Like, because I knew, again, I didn't have people there, so it would you have to be
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impressive.
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And that can be that can be a little struggling, in LA too because you're trying to
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find your way, but you feel like you always have to be on top 10 because everything is a
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performance.
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You don't know what the producer is at the I met the producer who I still in contact I'm
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still in contact with today.
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I met him at the car wash just because I was humming in my own world practicing for a gig.
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So although that was by happenstance, it's still telling me I was like, oh, I have to be
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ready all the time.
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What if I was singing off key, You know, just in leisure.
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So it's a tough cookie.
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You can make it I will say, you can make it through LA.
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And I held it down for about seven years.
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If you can make it through LA, even one year, you can make it anywhere.
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Yeah.
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Because you've you've found a way.
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Like, you found a way to survive.
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You found a way to thrive there, which a lot of stories don't turn out.
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Do you feel like being raised in Memphis where things aren't California, Do you feel like that
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gave you a little bit of an advantage on some of the people that are, you know, coming from
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other areas where life is maybe a little bit easier?
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You know what?
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No one's ever asked me that.
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Good question.
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I guess I can say yes because, again, the flip side, those who don't operate with scarcity
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mindset, even if you do have it, it's not always communicated in a negative form because,
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you know, okay.
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If American Idol is coming in town, this is all I got.
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You know?
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So it is the I guess that is the advantage.
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Maybe people who are used to the opportunities my coworkers used to say that too.
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They said, well, people down south or from somewhere else move to LA, they just take off.
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And us who've been here our whole life, we get things, but we don't get, like, the big
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climates.
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And I said, that's because you guys are used to everything.
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You know, you don't have to work.
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You live in a place, like, I can roll over and say, okay.
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Tomorrow, I'm gonna audition for commercial.
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I said, picture living in a place, like you said, that doesn't even groom.
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They have the space for the opportunity.
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So once you live in a place, you finally it's like, there's a hundred dollar bills everywhere
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in the room.
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Like, it's like, I gotta grab everything.
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Like, grab the bags.
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Grab everything.
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Look right out of here.
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So I can't say it did give me an advantage because I was hungry every time.
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I treated nothing like a half pitched job.
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Like, I just didn't play that.
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Because I'm like, this is all I got in case, something ends tomorrow.
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I'm this is the only audition I have is the one you're giving me.
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So I went hard.
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You didn't take any of the moments for granted, and I think that's easy, especially with the
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people it sounds like you were around that were these, you know, sons and daughters of, people
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who had already kinda made it, right, that they don't Yeah.
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Hunger.
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Right?
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They don't have what we have.
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You know, I I say all the time that South Dakota South Dakota keeps the crazy people out
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just because of the weather.
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Right?
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It can it's
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Oh, yeah.
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Because I don't wanna be cold.
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Right.
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It'll be, you know, 75 below in the wintertime.
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Right?
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So that that makes for a different type of individual.
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Someone who's willing to work and grind it out just to exist, right, is much different than
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someone who wakes up and it's, you know, 80 and sunny every single day of their life.
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Like, you just have a different mentality.
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Your your whole mind is different.
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They are like or like you said, some people had to wait three to six months to go on the beach,
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and I'm like, I live in walking distance from the beach.
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I could ride my bike there.
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You know?
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So y'all when you when once you finally reach it in your career to have that, luxury, like,
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it's it's like I said, you absorb everything.
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You're making up for all the years that you were looking at the magazines as a kid saying I
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wanna be on the beach, or it takes once a year for you to see it.
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You know?
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So you're making up for lost times.
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And like I said, I people ask me all the time, like, how did you make it to that?
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And I'm not gonna I did not sleep a lot.
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That's the only thing.
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You know?
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So, I don't have self care tips for that type of grind.
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I just don't.
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I worked my off to make sure I I can live the life that I want to live while pursuing my
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dreams.
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So I did do what I loved.
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I taught.
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I was a vocal coach in North Hollywood.
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I signed I was with an agency.
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Shout out to Greylock Agency doing voice over work, movie work.
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I was singing here.
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I was singing there, performing on award shows.
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I've done everything that was on my list to stay afloat because both have to do this.
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You quit your job.
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Now I'm under the bridge singing.
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I didn't wanna do it like that because I'm like, I don't have anyone else here.
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Like, if I'm really gonna be in my car for real, like, with nobody.
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So I just had to I had to hustle.
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And like you said, it builds so much character when you don't have someone.
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You catch a flat outside of AAA.
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I'm like, oh, can you come down to the street?
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No, sweetheart.
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You have no one to call.
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You don't even have a fourth cousin out here.
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So what are you gonna do?
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So but like I said, I wouldn't trade that experience for the world because it it was a
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very pivotal me learning those type of life skills in my twenties.
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And I didn't return to Memphis until two to two to three years ago, once I got off tour.
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So this still feels like I'm a stranger in my new home as I'm building because I'm like, oh,
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I haven't seen that person since kindergarten.
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Like, who are you?
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I feel like so.
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But I I just don't I wouldn't trade the journey for anything, honestly.
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So what prompted the move from Los Angeles and kind of away from the glitz and the glamour and
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to come back to your hometown?
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I don't know how deep you wanna go with it, but I guess I'll keep it brief.
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I don't wanna talk your ear out.
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But, overall, there's a vocal warm up called one by one they went away, and it helps with
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staggered breathing.
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You your breathing skills, and it goes, one by one, they went away.
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One by one and two by two, they went away.
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And you go up and up and without breathing consistently.
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Right?
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I call that chapter of my life, one by one, they went away.
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There was the pandemic.
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A lot of people lost their jobs at the top.
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I did not, but I did, get furloughed in the back end.
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So that was the first time out of my years I felt that financial tension that artists are
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always having on their mind while going through auditions.
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So that was new.
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I was like, dang.
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Okay.
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What am I supposed to do?
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I need help.
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Where is help?
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Ah, jeez.
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Everybody's going through it.
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It's not like a me thing.
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I'm like, the world is going through.
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We everybody's lost.
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So it started off with, job loss, and, it went from job loss to finances, of course,
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eventually get affected.
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And I'm like, I'm burning through the savings.
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I'm burning through the gig.
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I'm burning I'm just burning because I'm still a very spiritual being.
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So I knew that something was telling me to go back home, but I didn't wanna go because I
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worked my tail off.
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I'm like, no.
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And you don't wanna be the hometown girl that gave it your all, and here we are.
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We have to return to this space again.
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Like, you don't you don't want this storyline.
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So I'm like, I'm gonna do everything that I can to thug it out, and that wasn't a smart choice.
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And, because I I dug a deeper hole for myself than I really had to.
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So it was that job loss, money loss.
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I was one month from paying my car off in the pandemic, and then I had a total loss wreck
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that totaled the whole car.
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So car loss.
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And then me and my boyfriend went through a breakup.
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Load loss.
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By one.
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One by one, they went in a way you know what?
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To this day, I question, asking myself.
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I'm like, how in the h e, double l?
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I don't know if you can curse on your show or whatever, so I'm trying to be
18:47
What you want, Diamond h?
18:49
I said you say what you want.
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Okay.
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I didn't know.
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I didn't wanna, be that girl.
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You're like, dang.
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I gotta, edit everything.
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But, honestly, to this day, I'm a be for real with you.
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I don't know how the hell I made it out of that because it was such a dark time.
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Because it's one thing to move into a place and feel like, feeling alone and you building
19:11
yourself up, but to feel alone after you've done so much, it kinda makes you it attacks
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your pride.
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It's like, damn.
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What do I do now?
19:22
So that happened, but I'm always saved by a big gig.
19:26
So then I got asked to go on tour with the comedian named Corey Holcomb.
19:30
And, I was like, yeah.
19:32
I thought that was gonna pop me out of my depression from everything shutting down.
19:36
I like, yeah.
19:36
Let's go.
19:37
So I go on tour.
19:38
And after that, I just got tired of running.
19:41
I said, this is the time.
19:44
I said, I have to it's time to move.
19:46
So after I got off tour, the guy I was touring with was mad.
19:50
He was like, why are you going back to Memphis?
19:51
Memphis doesn't have anything.
19:53
And I said, I have to be in tune.
19:56
I said, I know.
19:57
All the signs didn't have to be this hard, but I'm hard hit.
20:00
I'm a Leo too, so I'm stubborn.
20:02
I'm like, how many things does how many things have to go wrong to get your attention for you
20:08
to just move?
20:09
All you have to do is move.
20:10
You could've still had your money.
20:11
You could've said I had all the things, but you didn't wanna do it.
20:14
So it took, like I said, losing the job, losing the money, losing the boyfriend, the car,
20:21
apartment.
20:22
I almost got lost.
20:23
We had to skate up out of that situation all to get your attention and just say, start over.
20:29
That's the beauty of life no matter what.
20:30
I don't care what you're coming out of, divorce, bad car wreck, whatever.
20:34
You're you have another chance to start over.
20:36
So that's what led to this.
20:38
But I'm on the other side of depression, you know, main mental health awareness month, and I
20:44
wanna highlight creators as we go through that.
20:46
We're either very inspired or very depressed.
20:49
Black or white, hardly ever gray.
20:52
But I'm I'm just happy to be on the better side of that.
20:56
Well and do you feel like having to, because it sounds like to me that fear of feeling like a
21:02
failure, not necessarily the fear of failure, but of the purse the perception of of being a
21:08
failure.
21:09
The girl, oh, she had to come home.
21:10
Oh, she thought she made it.
21:12
Right?
21:12
And now she had to come home.
21:14
It it feels like that was kinda driving you to stay more than, this is keeping me here.
21:20
There was nothing necessarily keeping you here except that fear of the perception of you going
21:25
home.
21:26
And and that's a heck of a thing to have to conquer, even if you kinda, you know, miss the
21:31
signs as they're coming at you or going away.
21:35
Yeah.
21:35
You know what?
21:36
You make me feel like I need to sign, sign up therapy again.
21:40
I I enjoy talking because some of this stuff I'm speaking for the first time out loud, and
21:44
I'm like, damn.
21:45
That really was what was going on.
21:47
You feel like I'm I'm talking to a therapist.
21:48
I like the way you think because you make me think from a different perspective.
21:51
But like you say, it wasn't like I had kids.
21:53
I don't have children, I wasn't married to him, although we talked about it.
21:57
We weren't married.
21:57
So and then when it broke up, like you said, when you break up, it's okay.
22:01
Free game.
22:01
I go my way.
22:02
You go yours.
22:04
Now that you say I guess it was me being seen like a failure.
22:07
Like, I I guess I thrived off success, because I was always successful.
22:13
You know, I did this before TV.
22:15
I'm the oldest, so I have that natural overachiever, have to set the bar high
22:19
mentality.
22:21
So I just always felt like I have people who were riding on me to thrive.
22:25
So to thrive and then to get for life to switch, I'm like, dang.
22:29
I'm not the girl with all the bands no more.
22:31
Like, I'm not the girl with you know, my life wasn't as, what's the word word I'm looking
22:36
for?
22:37
Free as I was
22:39
Right.
22:39
Well
22:40
Extravagant.
22:40
I'm like, I'm back in Memphis.
22:42
Like, what?
22:43
But you're still the same girl.
22:45
Right?
22:46
And I think that's what your local community will always think of you like that.
22:51
I mean, you went away to college, then you went away to LA.
22:54
Like, you you always had to have that thing.
22:56
And while yeah.
22:57
I'm sure there was a few haters behind your back that were like,
23:00
oh Of course.
23:02
Get it, haters.
23:02
Still had to come back to Memphis.
23:04
She ain't that big.
23:05
She still had to come home.
23:06
I already know.
23:07
Right?
23:08
I got a hometown too, Dominique.
23:09
I hated that.
23:10
And it just make when you're already dealing with it, it makes you, ugh, you know, it's you
23:16
don't wanna hear.
23:17
You can't let them know because if you let them know what they what is it saying?
23:21
Never let people know your weaknesses.
23:22
They'll keep making you hitting you.
23:24
But it was like dealing like you said, dealing with it and hearing it, it it was really like a
23:30
mess, like a hot mess because you feel like everybody knows.
23:34
You know?
23:34
Like, everybody knows what I'm going through.
23:36
Everybody knows, and you hear all that talk, and I'm like, damn.
23:39
And you slowly, like, die.
23:42
Oh my god.
23:42
A defeatist mentality, I guess.
23:45
And that wasn't me because I always won.
23:48
You know, I was competing with myself.
23:51
And and and not to kinda rub it in, but you were kinda Californicated.
23:57
Right?
23:58
Where Okay.
23:58
So tell me.
23:59
Wait.
23:59
Wait.
23:59
Wait.
24:00
What does that mean?
24:00
What do you mean by that?
24:01
You were kinda becoming like the people that you first met when you were there.
24:06
And not that you weren't working and grinding and everything still, but you had grown
24:09
accustomed to things going very well.
24:12
You had grown accustomed to all of those things.
24:14
So to kinda go back to where it's like, oh my god.
24:17
I gotta rebuild everything.
24:18
I'm going back home to kinda be nobody again.
24:21
Like like, I'm sure those no no shit you got depressed.
24:24
Right?
24:25
You you feel like you're going back a decade of your life when you were here.
24:29
You were already there.
24:30
My god.
24:31
That's it.
24:31
I felt like I was going back in time.
24:35
Like, to oh, like, I'm I was demoted.
24:38
I was demoted.
24:39
Oh, that's good.
24:41
Are you a therapist?
24:42
You you're something.
24:44
I didn't really like school, Diamond Hing.
24:46
So
24:47
Yeah.
24:47
You were life's you you've school life because I'm sitting here like, why is he making me feel
24:52
like I'm just learning myself?
24:54
I'm like, I'm like but I guess that's what it was.
24:58
I was I just wanted my life to be great like it was.
25:01
Well, but it it it was, and it is again.
25:04
And thank god it happened when it happened to everybody.
25:07
I mean, the the pandemic in those years of nine you know?
25:10
Up until I mean, people would still say even now it's terrible, but I've I've lived a pretty
25:15
good life the last five years.
25:17
Yeah.
25:17
Had a much different experience with COVID than California did, obviously, for a lot of obvious
25:24
reasons.
25:24
But Right.
25:25
You know, at least you landed in that time where everybody was going through it.
25:31
And while it felt to you that everybody was watching you, everybody is so self absorbed,
25:38
Dominique.
25:38
Nobody's paying attention.
25:40
Right?
25:40
And now you've been able to kinda go back home and to continue doing all the things that made
25:47
you successful in the first place.
25:49
So Yeah.
25:49
Bring this up to current times.
25:51
What are you doing now?
25:52
I so your background's in education then.
25:55
Your degree was in education?
25:56
Or
25:57
Yes.
25:58
So, I have a major well, my major is in studies with emphasis in global child development and a
26:05
minor in music education.
26:07
So I kept two things because I love music.
26:09
I also have a love for children and teaching.
26:11
That's, like, one of my other gifts in the many hats that I wear.
26:14
So, that's what I'm doing now.
26:17
Since I've been home these last two to three years, I came off to a rebuild my life.
26:21
You know, everything's been up from there, you know, the COVID swash.
26:25
I've discovered that I'm a playwright.
26:28
Didn't know that I was a wrote plays.
26:31
It started off supposed to have been coming up with some for the kids, and I don't know how we
26:35
got to a whole production.
26:37
But I've been writing plays for the school ever since, although I'm not a theater teacher.
26:41
I'm a music teacher.
26:42
So they're getting a bonus.
26:44
Uh-oh.
26:45
A bonus from me.
26:46
So I have that.
26:48
I just released two weeks my single, Reminisce, and it's reminiscent of nineties R and B.
26:54
I've been told that it reminds people like Janet Jackson, J.
26:57
Cole, no sleep record, from my friend Nakia.
27:00
Shout out to her and Lil' Rock.
27:02
But that's been my first single since I released since I moved from LA.
27:08
Like, I've done features.
27:09
I've been writing for people behind the board, but I have not released any music up until two
27:13
weeks ago since that whole blurred my life.
27:16
So that is exciting to be putting out records again and where people can hear me.
27:21
I'm opening myself back up.
27:22
And I guess now you guys get to time travel with me because on the album, eventually, I'll
27:27
be talking about things from the past as well as where I am because I I don't like to stay in
27:31
one place because I don't stay in one place.
27:34
So that's what we have.
27:35
We're releasing music.
27:36
We're preparing for the album.
27:37
We're just we're on the up and up now.
27:39
We're basically, I'm reintroducing myself back to me.
27:44
And like you said, you're not a failure because you moved back to Memphis.
27:47
You're still the billboard charting recording artist.
27:50
And, yeah, nothing nothing has happened.
27:53
Away from you, and they won't take that away from you, and you're gonna get back to that
27:57
level again.
27:58
Right?
27:58
You're reemerging after, you know, a little bit of a hiatus and time to find new things that
28:05
you're good at.
28:06
Right?
28:07
Like, some people never find one thing that they're good at, and you have several.
28:12
You have a long list of of creative pursuits that you've been able to become a success at,
28:19
and it's gonna set you up for a long career of doing exactly that.
28:23
I have to tell you that I love that you work with kids, that you're a teacher.
28:28
My wife is a paraprofessional at our elementary school in town,
28:32
but she's
28:33
also part of the teacher apprentice program through the state of South Dakota.
28:37
So she is going to school full time while working full time as a para with some of the
28:42
harder behavioral kids at that and is, going through an accelerated program.
28:47
So she's gonna graduate with a teacher certificate, double major in special ed and
28:51
early elementary ed, and she will be graduating in a two year program.
28:56
Right?
28:56
Not a traditional four year, all while working full time.
28:59
Right?
28:59
While
29:00
still working a job?
29:02
Yep.
29:02
Yep.
29:03
So she'll do summer school, 17 credits this summer, while working at school, right, and
29:08
doing this.
29:08
And, but she's such an amazing woman, and she graduated college already with a business
29:14
degree, you know, in 2018.
29:17
Right?
29:17
So she already had a degree when she took the job as a paraprofessional, but I I think man, I
29:22
saw a whole different side of my wife when she started working at that school, Dominique.
29:25
And Really?
29:26
What giving back to her community.
29:28
We live in my wife's hometown.
29:29
So we moved, from where where I grew up in the Black Hills Of South Dakota.
29:34
We moved back to her home town, a little farm town.
29:36
Her dad, farms about a thousand acres out here, and, we just settled in.
29:42
And when she found this job kind of on a whim, it it it changed who she was.
29:48
Right?
29:48
It it changed who she was because she found a passion for helping people.
29:52
And I've never seen that part of my wife just as a paraprofessional and then to be kind of,
29:58
you know, prodded by her principal and superintendent to at least apply for the
30:01
program and then getting selected for it last year around the same time that we started this
30:06
podcast.
30:07
It's a big reason why I kinda let go of my everyday, you know, job.
30:11
I worked in a factory, and I made okay money.
30:13
Right?
30:14
But I knew that between working full time and going to school full time that I was gonna need
30:20
to be more available at home.
30:22
Right?
30:22
Absolutely.
30:23
To do those things, you know, to kinda be the house husband, and we have we have children.
30:27
Right?
30:27
So taking care of a lot of those things so that she was available to do to pursue that dream.
30:34
Everything her dreams.
30:35
Yeah.
30:36
Yeah.
30:36
Well and she's ten years younger than me, Dominique.
30:38
So I was like, you know what?
30:39
I've lived a lot of my life already, and I've got to pursue a lot of my things.
30:43
And in some ways, I still am now.
30:45
Right?
30:45
Having conversations, and and this is now my life, right, where I'm I'm a performer and a
30:50
songwriter myself.
30:52
But I lived through all
30:53
of that.
30:53
Know that.
30:54
Okay.
30:54
Well and I never had the passion.
30:57
I don't know.
30:57
I just never knew the route.
30:58
I I never knew the way.
31:00
I I was raised playing in bars since I was 14.
31:02
I learned how to play a guitar, and my dad's like, cool.
31:04
You're in the band.
31:05
And then I was just in bars playing and getting paid.
31:08
So I didn't know that, like, oh, you know, you have to, like, dedicate yourself to a craft.
31:12
And and in some ways, I took advantage of the fact that South Dakota is a small area.
31:17
You it doesn't take a lot of talent to be the most talented person in your hometown.
31:22
Right?
31:22
The the big fish in a small pond, I have that, and I still live that.
31:26
Right?
31:26
I mean, I was on the TV news station in the biggest town in the two biggest markets in
31:31
South Dakota back to back weeks, essentially.
31:34
Right?
31:34
It's very easy for someone with a little bit of talent and a little bit of determination to to
31:39
open a lot of doors in South Dakota.
31:41
Now I'm busy trying to figure out, well, how do you unlock those doors in Minnesota?
31:45
know?
31:45
How do you unlock those doors for yourself in Illinois?
31:48
Right?
31:48
How do you stretch this farther and start to reach these bigger markets and and having some
31:53
awards in your back pocket or, you know, the same as being a billboard charting artist?
31:58
Like, they can't ever take that away from you.
32:00
Right?
32:00
That goes on the stays forever, and it's gonna open doors for you.
32:04
It's gonna continue open doors for you.
32:05
Continues to ride.
32:07
Right.
32:08
Yeah.
32:08
Well, and it makes guys like me really excited to talk to you too because I'm like, Brad, I
32:12
mean, I I've had, you know, Bill Payne who is the founder of Little Feet, an old, you know,
32:17
classic rock band.
32:18
Oh, yeah.
32:20
That was, like, one of my first ten interviews on this show.
32:23
It's like
32:24
Oh, so you kinda came out the gate swinging yourself.
32:27
Dominique.
32:28
I don't know how.
32:29
Being connected to the big dog.
32:30
When was it the big dog?
32:31
The big guy.
32:32
Because there's no media out here.
32:34
There's a few radio stations.
32:35
There's the two TV networks, and there's, like, five podcasts that talk about music in the
32:40
whole state.
32:41
So I was very fortunate to be connected, and they're like, hey.
32:45
All of a sudden, you get an email, and it's like, hey.
32:48
Little Feat's coming to town.
32:49
They wanna talk to you.
32:50
And I was like, this ain't real.
32:52
This isn't this ain't real.
32:53
I emailed my mom, and I was like, what do you think of this?
32:55
And she's like, well, it's a California area code.
32:58
You should at least try to call them.
32:59
Yeah.
33:00
That's look.
33:00
Like, start there before we lose the opportunity.
33:03
Right.
33:04
Exactly.
33:05
But then, yeah, then you're having a forty five minute conversation with someone who, I mean,
33:09
played with all of my heroes.
33:10
This man played with BB King and all of the blues
33:13
people.
33:14
Memphis.
33:15
Yeah.
33:15
You you know I I love music, and I love the blues especially.
33:19
I'm looking forward to coming to Memphis for my first time this summer, so I hope we get a
33:24
chance to connect while
33:25
I'm here.
33:25
And I hope it falls on where I'm in the city doing the shows.
33:28
I do a lot of travel in the summer, but I make sure I still keep in town shows consistent as
33:33
well.
33:33
Well, I'm gonna get your schedule before I, let you go today, and I'm gonna know exactly where
33:37
where and when you're at, and I'm gonna make it a point to be there.
33:41
Why don't you go ahead?
33:42
We'll take an opportunity to plug it right here.
33:44
I know me and you could just talk all night if we want.
33:47
You feel very comfortable.
33:48
I'm like, I like him.
33:49
He we could be friends.
33:50
I'm like, that's that's my good guy.
33:52
Thank you.
33:52
Why don't you go ahead, plug plug everything, tell people where they can find you, and then
33:56
we can talk more the next time you come on the show.
33:58
Cool.
33:59
Absolutely.
33:59
So, again, Dominique Jackson, everyone.
34:01
Thank you so much both for having me.
34:04
I'm grateful you could find me on Facebook under DIAMONIQUE Jackson, d I a Monique.
34:08
That's a quick switch.
34:09
But d I a Monique Jackson, but you pronounce it DIAMONIQUE Jackson.
34:13
You call me Diamond for sure.
34:14
Instagram handle is I am DIAMONIQUE Jackson.
34:18
So all things, you'll see my link trees on all of those, and it'll link you to all you could
34:23
be nosing all up in my business from TikTok to Snapchat.
34:25
So, yeah, no judgment.
34:29
Yo.
34:29
You heard it from her.
34:30
Get all up in her business.
34:32
Please.
34:32
Jackson,
34:33
thanks for being part of the scene.
34:35
Thank you so much.
34:37
Bye, guys.