Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Ashley/Stramango Watson. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Ashley/Stramango, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?

I love the at this was one of the topics because this was main goal last year. Creating music will always come first. However, my mental state is directly affected by my environment. Unfortunately, I’m not making a million dollars every song I make. So I have to come up with the money to fund my lifestyle and my passions. After so many years of being a musician I’ve found plenty of ways to fill my pockets other than Uber and Amazon flex. My top source of income is being a DJ. Even though it brings in money now, it didn’t start that way at all. I began with an amp and a phone at parties in college for free. Thank God, I stayed invested passionately because now it pays bills in one night and I still have an amazing time curating an atmosphere no matter the venue. I also make money playing the saxophone. I went to school and studied Classical Saxophone for 4 years so I can teach and play at a high level. Along with a few saxophone lessons every now and then, I get booked to play saxophone live at weddings, private events, and dinner parties. I’ll even bring my saxophone on my DJ set and really do something special. Other than live sax, I also get paid for studio saxophone features. I am also a music producer. I started producing before becoming a DJ but after learning saxophone. I actually didn’t setup any of these passions of mine as a money grab. I don’t advertise most of the services I provide. I believe in putting 100% of my abilities in everything I do and that has turned into blessings that I am so grateful for. The final piece of my repertoire is putting together shows. I have thrown 2 festivals in Houston, and put together my own show solo “Tango with Stramango” 2 times. One of my good friends the founder of “The Common Interest”, has an Artist Showcase Mixer every week for creatives to perform for free. I provide the equipment, co-host, DJ, and I’m a featured artist. I’ve been making music for years, so doing things for free is nothing new to me. I’ve done free shows, features, events, even DJ gigs. It’s part of being successful as an artist. Being successful at anything comes with giving it away for free at some point. So I can’t say I’m surprised that I’ve been able to monetize my art but its rewarding in ways I couldn’t have imagined. Moving forward I want to capitalize off of content and bookings which is something I haven’t completely dove into yet. Social media is overwhelming but I understand that showing my art visually can not only monetize it but share my art beyond comprehension. Other than that I’m very blessed to be in my position where I can use the money I make from art to re-invest to make my art better.

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 started music at a young age but it happened unexpectedly. I never said one day I’m going to be a super star. I just joined band because it was an option. I already loved music but never really had thought about making music and even then composition didn’t happen until later. At the time my schedule was full of sports and doing sports and music was generally frowned upon mostly due to scheduling. I was even kicked off the basketball team once because I was skipping practice for rehearsals. Joining band was my decision but my mother had taught me a few beginner songs on piano, with the little notes taped on the keys. I wasn’t completely untrained musically but I didn’t know a lot. I started saxophone in the 6th grade. At my school, the instructors would look at things like your hand size, teeth, and probably a little personality to determine the instrument you would play. My instructor chose saxophone for me and I played all the way through high school. Eventually, I got a scholarship to learn classical saxophone at Sam Houston State University about an hour north of Houston. Right before I got into college I began producing and writing songs. It was 2015 at the time, and my writing was highly influenced by Chance the Rapper and Childish Gambino. My production was influenced Kanye West and Timbaland. The inspiration to actually start writing was the state of music at the time. I didn’t like the “mumble rap” and I didn’t like the carefree low quality music. The people who were gaining popularity so quickly didn’t have the musicality and talent I wanted to see. Some of those artists I have grown to appreciate now but I felt like it was such an abrupt change I wasn’t ready for it back then. I wasn’t even considering playing saxophone to create music at all. I was trained to play what was one the page so my mindset when playing saxophone was never commercial or imaginative. I actually struggled with the improvisation and could never play what was on my heart. So naturally, I tried musical expression in other forms. I taught myself guitar, how to make beats, how to DJ and learned some piano in college. My first rap name was Midnight Ambassador. Childish Gambino said once in an interview he had used a rap name generator to get his name so I tried the same. Then when I was in college people started calling me “Ashley MF Watson”. Which my parents didn’t like too much. The MF didn’t stand for Mother Fox if you catch my drift. After my 1st album “Stramangonade” I started going by Stramango. I came up with that album name after trying some mango strawberry lemonade. I always do this thing where I mash together words and my name Stramango came out of one of the singles on the project. I graduated college with 4 projects under my belt and a couple of singles. Me and some college buddies started an a cappella group called TKO. Which helped a lot with my singing because I have never been formally trained. I also helped found a band called The Sauce Drippas. Which initially started as a live performing force for my one of my solo shows. My group of friends were so talented, we could all play instruments, produce, rap, and sing. We evenly formed a separate group and began making music together. We wrote an album that never came out but I spent a lot of time creating music, performing, and learning how to be in a group with them. This changed how I created music because now we were using live instruments to make songs instead of just digital sounds, samples, and midi. I was creating music in such a new way I was really falling in love with music all over again. In college I was tasked with practicing for 4 hours a day. Mentally I was exhausted of music but the band revived a lot of the love I had for it. Once I finished college and the band disbanded I decided to focus own my solo career. I started building a home studio that is now at Art is an Asset an exclusive merchandise shop in Houston. As a solo artist I’ve dedicated myself to the independent artist path. I’m very particular about the music I make and release so having complete creative control is imperative. Right now I’m mainly focused on the craft. I find it hard to focus on the social media and music business aspect of it all. I feel like there is so much work to do on the musical side. For the most part I let all my gigs come to me and my songs as well. I try not force too much because I prayed really hard to be able to really dive as deep into music as it would take me. I feel like every step I take is the right one and what’s mine is mine. So I don’t particularly find the social media aspect too appealing but I understand its apart of the current wave. Not having a label or a team makes its more difficult to avoid social media but I’m very proud of who’ve I become without going viral or feeding the machine. I’ve genuinely enjoyed every part of my career even the parts that were challenging created aspects of how my music sounds. When you hear songs like HOWTOBEBLUE, you can really hear my classical background. Separately I enjoy a lot of other music. I had an emo phase and went to a few Warped Tours. I love R&B, new-soul, house, hip-hop and rap, spanish, afro-beats. I’m really a huge fan of all music and you can hear that in my sound. The lyrics I write are always a reflection of me and my true thoughts and feelings. I have a religious background and I talk about that in my music as well. I try to always speak from the heart and use my music to really inspire others to be honest within their own lives too. I think it’s so important to have an outlet where you can be brutally honest. Everyone needs some sort of therapy and time to reflect and I use my music as that outlet. As an independent artist I have to learn all things by myself. What it really means to be an artist? How to distribute my music? How to write a music video treatment? What does it means to make myself a brand? How to make merchandise? How to have stage presence? All these things I have sat and thought about, asked around, and went to YouTube for. You can name any artist of my time and I’ve gone to see perform and study them. Being the boss costs but I’ve enjoyed every bit and can teach to others what I have learned. I’m a very approachable person so I meet a lot of folks wanting to do what I do or just appreciative and they always come and talk to me after a performance. Focusing on my character and keeping integrity I think has been a catalyst in my life even outside of music. I try to be authentic and I think people see and hear that. It helps with sales and simply connecting with my fans. I’ve learned that everything you do will affect your brand so its best to keep a clean slate with everyone so that I can continue to move forward. All the other work I’ve put into my art consists of a website I built, shooting 8 music videos and counting, some limited merchandise I’ve released, and making sure that my music stays true to who I am. This past year I’ve performed in a few different states and probably 75-100 live shows. This coming year I want to focus on content and new music. I’m releasing an R&B album in the fall called “I Don’t Need Therapy”. I’m headed to LA at the end of this month to record some of that and do some networking to push Stramango outside of Houston, Texas. I want to raise the bar for myself and really push to open the doors that have been locked for me. I love what I do and I could go on for days about how its changed my life but I’ll save some for the music and the next interview thank you! I hope you stay along for the ride.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

The best thing society can do to best support artists is to give every artist grace. Being an artist is being vulnerable and that is scary. As fans we should continue to create a safe space for artists to be free. Try to separate the artist from the music and be patient with people, as we can’t look at them through the same lens that we look at them through music with. For example, Kanye West. So much of his life is in the media. He lost his mother and has been diagnosed with a mental disorder. Let’s have some grace. Katt Williams said something I really liked in his last interview about Kanye. He said that we all are aware of his mental state and still continue to watch him for entertainment. Trust me, I was ready to stop listening to Kanye and his music. However, we all need to be actively separate the music from the artist. Especially when they need help. So many eyes on one person with no privacy would make anyone go crazy. As a society, cancel culture is so popular but imagine the whole world turning against you for something outside of your control when you really just need help. Now I’m not saying R.Kelly and P.Diddy need to be back in our hearts or speakers. With so many eyes on them, they should’ve known the truth would have come to light. However, people like Doja Cat who lost a huge following because she decided to show us her true passion for music was unfair to her. A lot of bigger artists have to make music for the radio and I think she was over doing that. We should’ve given her a safer space to release her new art and not judged her for what we thought was happening and just appreciated her vulnerability. Fans is the direct connection we have with our listeners. Don’t make artists feel unappreciated by jumping ship so quickly. Continue to support their entire career or you could miss out on music you really love. Most importantly we need your support to keep our outlet healthy.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

I think the most rewarding part of being an artist is being able to speak to every being on the earth. Music is the universal language of the soul. Music heals and destroys. Music can make you laugh and cry. The trees dance while the wind whistles. Animals understand music, babies speak music. There is a fairly new Music Degree called Music Therapy. Playing music for people with dementia or Alzheimer’s has shown to help recovery. Music is the key of magic. Love is the only other greater thing that moves like that. Music has a place in all corners of the world. How lucky am I? I get to be a conductor of frequencies. It’s truly a blessing to be able to create, cover, and inspire. It’s so rewarding to be exactly where I am and live and support my life with magic.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://stramango.wixsite.com/stramango
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stramango?igsh=MXNxczh6d3J5bThqYw%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
• Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/TangoWithStramango
• Twitter: https://x.com/stramangomango?s=21
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@stramango?si=fQXhoiuhcLc9V0H9

Image Credits
Saywordstaz?! Rashad Parks Nick Breda Taelar Haegens Provence 8 Art Studio