We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Adam/Jerome Bell-Bastien. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Adam/Jerome below.
Hi Adam/Jerome, thanks for joining us today. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?
After a long journey both as individuals and as a duo, we are extremely grateful to say that we make our full-time living from music. As individuals, our stories are very different from one another. Jerome began his career in music at the age of 16 as an opening act for the MTV TRL Tour which launched him into a lifelong career as a singer. Adam began pursuing a full-time career in music at the age of 25 after several years of embracing music purely as a hobby. By the time our paths collided in 2017, we had each worked relentlessly to make our dreams come true, never knowing that those dreams paled in comparison to what we would eventually build together.
Our journey as OneUpDuo began with serendipity when a mutual friend of ours invited us to collab on some YouTube videos. There was so much chemistry between us that we made immediate plans to sing together again, leading us to singing cover songs on Instagram. A few months later, our posts gained the attention of a casting agency leading us to audition as a duo to compete on season 15 of The Voice. We landed a coveted spot on Kelly Clarkson’s team as the very first openly gay couple/duo on the show and continued to hone our sound together. The whole beginning of OneUpDuo is surreal to look back on, to be honest!
Once our time on TV ended, that’s when we fully combined our individual knowledge and experience to go all-in on building a fulfilling career as OneUpDuo. In addition to gaining new fans from the show, we had been contacted by a booking agent who began booking us as a headline act at Pride Festivals across the US. This was monumental in laying the groundwork for our career together and gave us an amazing platform, one that we are still building on today.
As for speeding up the process? Knowing what we know now, it’s very clear to us that there really is no way to speed up the process of pursuing a creative career. We’ve learned that all you can do is endlessly work on your craft, be genuine in your message, and authentic to those around you…when it’s your time, it is simply your time.
Adam/Jerome, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Our mission as OneUpDuo is to create uplifting and empowering dance music, provide live shows that usher people into a carefree space, and to be a beacon of light in a dark time. Nothing makes us happier than seeing people in a crowd begin to move freely in their bodies…it’s almost as if we can see the moment the world melts off their shoulders and they become lost in the music. Beyond the beat, we have made it our focus to sing words straight from our souls. A lot of our lyrics reflect our own journey as an interracial gay couple, but all of them highlight the love and self-empowerment that make up our core values. If we can make you smile, dance, and feel loved, then we’ve done what we set out to do.
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
Our favorite thing about this question is that we feel like society is starting to head in a great direction with this! For example, TikTok has created an environment where people support and share content they love, regardless of the creator’s level of notoriety. It’s easy for society to only rave about what is already being raved about, but taking the risk to elevate art that is unknown has a tremendous, positive impact on lesser known artists. Real life examples of this are things like stopping to listen to the pianist at the airport, visiting a local art show, or attending a concert at a small venue. While many artists strive to make a living off their art, it’s also true that not everyone has extra money to spend on our products. The simplest way society can support artists and encourage them to keep going is by doing this: showing up.
Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?
Creatives have this habit of only wanting show off the final product. Rightly so, because the final product represents who we are and is ultimately how we want to be known. What most people don’t see is that creating for a living is a 24/7, all-consuming life. We never stop learning, growing, or thinking about what the next steps are that allow us to go to a new level. Even when the steps are laid out clearly, there are always obstacles that pop up…like the flight cancellation that caused us to arrive to our destination at 7am before heading to sound check at 9am with a show at 1pm. Or maybe Adam left our entire wardrobe for a concert in the overhead bin of a plane the day before a show. Or perhaps a musician gets ill 24 hours before a show and we need to spend a fortune to book a flight for their replacement. This list goes on and on and ON, but our audiences will never know it because our promise is to show up, entertain, and bring people into a place of joy and lightheartedness. Just the way we like it. ;)
Contact Info:
- Website: www.oneupduo.com
- Instagram: @oneupduo
- Facebook: facebook.com/oneupduo
- Youtube: youtube.com/@oneupduo3163
- Other: TikTok: @oneupduo
Image Credits
Kevin Barranco(photos 1, 2, 4