We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Amari Alexander a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Amari, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

As an artist, I feel it’s very important to learn and study your craft. Growing up I didn’t have any formal vocal training or coaching, and I first learned my craft by singing in the church. I had some great music leaders and directors in the church who worked with me and guided me in choirs, groups, and as a soloist. Outside of church, I learned by listening to and watching many great singers and musicians. I studied their catalogs, studied their voices, and mimicked what I heard, I watched performance concerts and videos, I watched videos on how they wrote, recorded, and created their music, and I watched interviews to better understand their creative process and mindset an artists. These are things I still do to this day.

When attending college I was able to learn music theory and received formal vocal training with a lot of great vocal professors and advisors. I’m grateful for those instructors and advisors as they’ve helped me grow and advance in my craft by teaching me, giving constructive criticism, giving encouragement, opening my mind to new ways of thinking, and caring about me, not only as an artist, but an overall person. There were a few times early on in my college career when I didn’t properly practice or prepare for a lesson or evaluation and my professors quickly knew it. As artists, we’re all blessed with a gift, but we still have to practice our craft in order to truly improve and grow. The things I learned in college about my craft are things I will use and continue to work on forever.

I feel that to be a master of your craft, you really have to work on it, put the time in and constantly practice your craft. The journey of learning never ends, and I will always be learning and studying more about my craft as I continue to grow as an artist.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am a singer/artist, songwriter, producer, background vocalist, vocal arranger, and band leader. I started singing at a very early age and have been singing ever since. I started singing in church, where I received most of my initial training and experience in groups, choirs, and as a soloist. As my love for music continued to grow, I began songwriting and producing music, for myself and other artists as well.

I attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA, and graduated last May with a Bachelor of Music in Performance.
I’m an artist who not only loves recording music, but who also has a passion and love for performing live. While at Berklee, I gained a lot of live performing experience and the feeling I always get on stage while performing is truly a one of a kind feeling that I always cherish.

I think what sets me apart as an artist is my unique voice and style. I’ve been told by many that my voice and my style of music is a mix of old-school and new-school R&B that’s not often heard today. As an artist, my focus is on creating, recording, and performing music that is authentic to me, has meaning, and speaks to the soul. I believe music is very powerful and spiritual and it’s always my goal to create music that means something and that people can truly feel when listening. My love and passion for music drives me to do what I do, but I also feel that my purpose and mission is to spread love, healing, and good energy to the world through music.

I recently released my debut EP titled “The Intro To Love”. The EP is all about experiencing and falling in love for the first time, and all the songs are really close to my heart. I’m very proud of that release as it’s my very first release and so much went into creating it, from writing, rehearsing, recording, and releasing the music. Currently, I am working on recording my full-length debut album. I started recording this music in early 2023 and I was blessed to record the majority of the project in the studio with my entire live band in 2 sessions. The songs on my album are really special and meaningful and I can’t wait to share the project with the world.

The main things I want potential clients/followers/fans to know are that I truly love music, I’m passionate about what I do, and I’m a very hard worker. With any musical or creative project I’m working on or involved in, I’m always dedicated to the work and always give it my best. I love collaborating and working on music with other creatives and always love the opportunity to meet and work with other creatives. I consider myself to be a spiritual person and I’m always grateful to God for blessing me with my gifts and talents. I’m also grateful to God for the dreams and goals he’s given me, those that I’ve already accomplished, and those that I’m working on accomplishing. My love for music continues to grow as I’m constantly growing and evolving, and I will continue using my gifts and talents to my highest ability as I’m excited for all the great things in store.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

For me, the most rewarding aspect of being an artist is seeing my ideas & goals come to life. As an artist, I’m always amazed at how one simple idea can turn into an amazing product, such as a song, project, or performance/show. There is such a joy and satisfaction that I feel in seeing something go from an idea to an actual goal to being in the process of working on bringing that idea/goal to life to seeing that idea/goal manifest and come to life.

There have been many times when I’ve had a musical or creative idea or goal and then began to doubt it or doubt if I was capable of doing it or accomplishing that particular goal. I had to learn, and I’m still learning, that if God blesses me with an idea, goal, vision, or dream that I really feel in my heart and can not stop thinking about, it is for a reason and he will help me to execute and bring those ideas, goals, visions, and dreams to life. To have an idea, and then put so much work, time and energy into it, and see it come to life is very rewarding and inspiring for me as an artist.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

There have been many times in my life where I’ve had to be resilient. During my first few semesters of college, I experienced a period of having very low confidence, low self-esteem, self-doubts, and feeling that I was good enough or talented enough. I had goals and dreams of performing, doing my own shows, and recording original music, but I began to let low confidence, self-doubts, and those negative feelings affect me and hold me back from actually doing it. I struggled with this for a while until one day I decided I was tired of feeling that way and I wasn’t going to let those things stop me anymore. I had to put the work in and change my mindset, believe in myself, and tell myself that I was good enough, talented, able, and capable as an artist to do everything I wanted to do musically.

As I began to improve my mindset, build my confidence and self-esteem, and put myself out there, I finally started working towards achieving the goals I had set knowing that I could achieve them and be successful. With my resilience and determination, I was able to do multiple performances and shows under my own name and with other artists/groups, record music with a band I put together for two of my projects, and graduate having accomplished my goals. Looking back now I can see just how resilient I was during that time, and it shows me with resilience, determination, a positive mindset, hard work, prayer, and faith, I can accomplish anything I set my mind to.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amarialexandermusic/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amari-richardson-89b441276/
• Other: Link to Music: lnk.to/amarialexander

Image Credits
Joe Davis & Kervens Boutin