We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jon Spreez. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jon below.
Jon, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?
I’ve always looked at life as a series of eras and new iterations of self, hopefully each better than its predecessor. As a creative I’ve been blessed with a medium, in music that has allowed me the privilege to document and catalog every one of these moments and transitions. So when pondering which project was most meaningful I started to consider which of these transitions were most impactful to the man I am today. Was it when I was working on the final record of The White Owls series, when I was a young man becoming a father for the first time? Could it have been the explorations of loss and grief I had to wade through while writing In It’s Midst, or the depths of love and it’s pain within an album like It’s Not Easy Loving Spreezy? I explored my environment and the effects it had had on me and my children on The Plain and grappled with my own mortality finishing Spreezy Never Dies from a hospital bed. In my latest work She Hate Me I’ve had to question who and what I am outside of my work and what all of this actually means in the grand scheme of things. If I couldn’t or didn’t do this any longer how is my life defined? Am I proud of the man I am and the decisions I’ve made? As I stand today I haven’t found many questions more meaningful than that.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I am a writer, producer, painter, podcast host, entrepreneur, emcee, promoter, pretty much a man of many hats. I’ve been writing as long as I can remember, stories, poems, songs, jokes. I’ve used art most of my life to create the worlds I wanted to see and tell the stories and truths of those around me unable to express themselves. I started The Higher Plain in 2014, a music production company and me and my partners made VA Vizions soon after to market artists and create a platform for those talents whom needed it, going on our first tour from Ohio to Austin, Texas in 2016 and a second one in 2017 and put on many shows in Columbus, Ohio and surrounding areas. I have 7 albums available on streaming with a new album upcoming on December 24th 2024, titled She Hate Me. I began a partnership with Ancient Flow recordings in 2023, a collective of artists from different mediums striving to push creativity forward in the city. I started Higher Plain radio in 2020 a podcast focused on rap and hip hop culture. You can find all of season one available on YouTube.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.
Our modern society tends to equate value with money. As a result a lot of our time ends up spent in this pursuit, a pursuit that many often seem unfulfilled by when all of this is said and done. Artistic merit can often seem as if it is determined by the commodification of said art and as creatives we’re often swept up into this trap. But as I’ve matured in my work, more importantly in my life, I’ve grown keenly aware of all that is lost in that mode of thinking. Imagination survived wars, famines, genocides, and cultural suppression. Art in its purest form is the universal language of the human experience and the value of such is incalculable.
Like the journey of the medium itself, I’ve found the beauty in the disappointment and purpose in the failure. I’ve had the privilege of learning beneath the pressure of expectations placed by outside entities and being pushed by the desire to overcome the feeling of being underrated. As a creative individual the music has been the narration of the journey, just as necessary as the events it’s soundtracked. While we likely all seek some sort of notoriety, gain, or acclaim for our work, much of what I’ve received has been the reward of what I’ve been allowed to give to you. I’ve been able to speak to people millions of miles away, from different backgrounds, and languages from my modest home in Ohio. The world is only as small as your mindset.
Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?
Many years ago a friend lent me The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho which tells the story of a shepherd who has a vision of a treasure. That dream leads him to leave behind the things he knows and loves to seek out his destiny and purpose. Along his journey he encounters an Englishman in search of an Alchemist whom he joins on his quest. He journeys through a literal and figurative desert and finds a woman he falls in love with in an oasis. But the pull of his purpose never leaves him and again he must choose. A series of individuals, fortunes, and misfortunes drives the shepherds quest in the direction he desired it to lead him the entire time. We are the shepherd with his hard decisions. The journey is our lives and as Paulo puts it, when a person truly desires something all of the universe works in collaboration to make it manifest.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://officialnewpreez.bandcamp.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spreezybaby
- Twitter: @spreezy
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@spreezybaby
- Soundcloud: https://on.soundcloud.com/7zMfUEHqZB8axBes6
