We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Chavez Parker. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Chavez below.

Chavez, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

The most meaningful project I worked on was creating the theme song for Tyler Perry’s Zatima.

Earlier this year (2022) the brief for this project was sent out by Tyler Perry Studios to Blaze Unlimited, a sync licensing company based in Los Angeles who specializes in sync licensees and custom work. The head of the company reach out and share the opportunity with a team of creatives and we all had 48hr turn-around time to submit our ideas for consideration.

After the submission process, the head team narrowed down all the submissions to three of strongest records and me being a music producer, two out of the 3 used my beat. At this point, I knew I had a strong chance of gaining the placement. After a few long months of awaiting confirmation from TPS, we finally got an email saying Tyler Perry gave the final thumbs up for the now Zatima Theme Song “Perfect” sung by Phil Da Great and produced by yours truly(Big Vezy).

This is so meaningful to me because it proved that all of my hard work, dedication, preparation and faith finally paid off. This was my first major placement and it just so happened to be a TV show’s theme song which is the biggest achievement for a music producer I’d say next to winning a Grammy. Ultimately, this project means so much because I have motivated and inspired so many or young creatives back in my home country. Coming from a small country with just 400,000 people we rarely get to celebrate huge wins like this. So knowing that we actually got to as a country and now there’s more to look forward too that feeling is priceless.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I was born and raised on Freeport, Grand Bahama in The Bahamas and my entire upbringing was surrounded by music. I started music lessons around the age of five learning both piano and drums and later became a church musician. In my high school years, at age 15 I started a cover band with some of my friends and we got hired to play numerous gigs around the island. In addition to this, I was apart of the Grand Bahama Youth Choir where I served as the junior director of the choir that had the amazing opportunity to travel to Atlanta and Washington DC for performances sanctioned by the Bahamian Government. It was during this time when I grew a strong love for music and decided that this was the path I wanted to take. It took me no time before I dove straight into songwriting and music production.

After completing high school I pursued a degree in Music Performance from the University of The Bahamas. Initially, I was rejected from the program because my skillset did not meet the requirements of the music program. As a result of this, I had to register as a Business major, minoring in Music Performance. Thankfully, I had a professor who allowed me to prove myself during the first semester. This was a defining moment for me. I had to shift gears and go as hard as I could because I only had one semester to make it happen. I worked tirelessly, practicing about four hours a day to improve my skills and before the end of that fall semester, I had reached my goal and was accepted into the Music Program as a Piano Major. Not only did I completed that degree program but I graduated top of the music program in June of 2015.

Later that summer, I attended Full Sail University for Music Production. It was during this time where I got the awesome opportunity to work under amazing industry professionals that not only taught me everything I needed to know about music and how diverse the industry is but I gained valuable information that helped me develop my sound as a music producer. While attending Full Sail, I worked with many local talents in Orlando as well as playing piano for a local jazz band. Just months before graduating from Full Sail, I applied for my dream school and to my surprise, I got accepted.

Summer of 2017, I packed everything up and moved halfway across the world to Valencia, Spain to begin my Master’s in Music Production at Berklee College of Music. I had a lot of amazing experiences before this, but going to Berklee was a dream come true! During my time there, I worked as a studio assistant on campus while outsourcing my time to others who needed a session recorded, production work or just to play the live piano when it was needed. I made amazing connections during this time and some that I hold dear to my heart. Berklee challenged me, but it was a fun challenge that I thoroughly enjoyed. I learned a lot about digital coding and video mapping which lead to my thesis project which consists of a series of instrumentals accompanied by 360 music videos all designed by yours truly. The extent of this project is so intense that it’s still a work in progress but I will share with the world very soon!

At this time Berklee has been the highlight of my life but it was time to move on as the graduation date quickly approached. After receiving my Master’s in Music Production in the summer of 2018, I decided to follow my girlfriend who is now my wife to Shanghai, China for one year. Shanghai was an interesting and amazing experience all in one. This experience carved out the best version of me and I am grateful for that. Over that year, I worked as a freelance producer in the day, English teacher in the evening and a jazz musician at night. I had the amazing opportunity to work with talented musicians all over the city playing at all of the top jazz bars in Shanghai. In addition to this, I did production work for a few artists in Shanghai also.

As we know, all good things must come to an end eventually, and it was time for me to leave Shanghai. Not knowing where I was going after that, I got the opportunity to move to Atlanta where I have been now since July 2019. Being here has been nothing short of amazing and it is evident that the opportunities are endless. I’ve been blessed to connect with some of the cities top producers and managers in the music industry. Since living here, I have worked with a few local artists (both signed and unsigned) in hopes to have an amazing future as the most sought after Music Producer.

As I reflect on my story and how I started to where I am now, I can only think of one word; persistence. No matter where I went or what I did, I tried my best to stay determined and push through no matter what obstacles I face. The good thing is that I am only getting started, and my tolerance for obstacles are high! I look forward to building a strong foundation that will lead to an amazing future.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

Absolutely! The mission for me is to be in a position where I can help facilitate the careers of other creatives. As mentioned before, I am from a very small country but we have so much talent there. I see myself going back not only to The Bahamas but the other Caribbean nations with the resources that I would accumulate to help take our artists to the world. I know for a fact that I would need to reach major heights inside of the music industry to achieve such an ambitions goal but luckily for me I am very ambitious and I won’t stop until this mission is complete.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is simply the feeling of someone else enjoying your art. That is a feeling that is indescribable; rewarding is an understatement.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.bigvezy.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bigvezy/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bigvezy/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/bigvezy
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/BigVezy/featured