We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Clint Warren. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Clint below.
Clint, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.
I think one of the biggest risks I’ve ever voluntarily taken outside of joining the Marines was giving up the practice of law to become a full-time musician. I remember reading an article in the ABA (law journal) published in December 2021 that a New York public defender named Danielle Ponder gave up being a lawyer to become a full time R&B / Soul singer. All the articles at the time mentioned what an incredible decision it was for her to make. She was a little older than me at the time. It sounds cliché, but I became a lawyer to combat the injustice I had witnessed in society, especially coming from South Africa, and moving with my parents to a low-income neighborhood in Fort Lauderdale, Florida at the age of 10. In law school, I volunteered for the Legal Aid Society of Palm Beach and Broward County, but I noticed that the only people who had enough power to make societal changes were politicians, not lawyers. So, after I graduated law school at Florida International University in 2011, I was recruited by the US Peace Corps to become an international lawyer for them. They felt that a Doctorate in Law (Juris Doctor) wasn’t enough schooling, so they sent me back to school at the University of Miami to get a postdoctoral master’s degree in Community & Social Change (CSC). I also had to undergo about a dozen surgical repairs from all the injuries I still had left over from the Marines in order to qualify.
In 2015, after 4 years of reconstructive surgeries, I left for my post in Albania. When I arrived in Albania, I was surprisingly not greeted how we expected. The people there looked at us with disgust and angst. The residents of Tirana have a special kind of hatred for Americans. I was told that they were originally a very calm and relaxed “coffee-drinking” culture until American corporations arrived in the 1990s, which eventually caused the collapse of their economy and way of life. It was clear from the very beginning that no one wanted us there. Out of all my counterparts I was the only one who wasn’t American, so the people there tended to be more receptive to me. Their English accents were also kind of similar to my own coming from South Africa. I found out that Albania and South Africa had a lot in common. Out of my Peace Corps cohorts I think I was the only one who hung out with the locals. One of those locals was a woman about my age named Rosela Gjylbegu. She was a professional singer and had the equivalent degree as my group in Social Work and worked at the Albanian Parliament in the Public relations Directorate. I would compare her to Albania’s version of Taylor Swift. As a young woman she did more for gender equality through her music than the entire United States Peace Corps did the entire time we were in that Country. She was able to reach young people through her music who went on to become community leaders, changing the entire way of life of the country.
When I returned to the States, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to practice law or do something else completely like music. I relocated to Oregon in 2019 with the intention of taking the Oregon State Bar in 2020. Then covid hit and the State decided that they were canceling new lawyer bar exams and any current law school graduates would automatically become lawyers without the need to take the bar. All that while I really had nothing to do other than practice my music until I read that article in 2021 about Danielle Ponder. I decided that if a public defender – who became a lawyer in order to change the world and then gave up the practice of law to accomplish that goal – then that must have been something worth doing. So, I spent all of my savings on instruments and converting my guest room into a little studio and went about recording 5 songs that were released on my debut EP entitled “Pacific Coast Reggae” in 2022. That release ended up making it on the nomination ballots for a GRAMMY award in the World Music category a year later. Now looking back on it a year later, I get dozens of messages every day on social media from Veterans who are fans of my music telling me how my music has saved their lives. The fact that I was so badly injured in the Marines to the point that I was considered 100% disabled and then came back from that to become a semi-famous Reggae Multi-instrumentalist and singer is more impressive to them than being a lawyer. I’m told that to them I did the impossible, so now I know that I’m finally on the right track with my career in music.
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 South-African born and American-raised Reggae artist and basically a one-man show. I write all my own music and lyrics, perform all the instruments you hear in my songs, and illustrate all the artwork you see on the cover art for my songs. Prior to becoming a full-time musician, I was a lawyer in the US Peace Corps and US Marine before that. The type of music I write tends to be happy, upbeat, and light-hearted. It creates the perfect kind of vibe if you’re on vacation especially if you’re around water or just a lazy day inside with your pets because as my mantra goes, “Life’s not so serious after all.” The thing that I’m most proud of has to be making the GRAMMY nomination ballots for World Music in 2023 for my debut EP entitled “Pacific Coast Reggae.” If that’s where I started, imagine where I can end up.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
It sounds cliché, but for me the most rewarding part of being an artist is my fans. I never expected to end up famous. I just wanted to make Reggae music to reach a few Veterans and people like me who might have been going through a tough time at a particular moment in their lives and let them know that no matter what you’re going through, that feeling won’t last forever. You don’t have to become resilient in my opinion. You only have to focus on the small, good things you can find within each day that might make you happy, like your favorite song. It’s up to each of us to find the beauty in the balance. When fans reach out to me sharing their own life stories and how much my music has helped them, it lets me know that I’m on the right track and the music I’m creating is actually making a difference.
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.
When I gave up the practice of law to become a full-time musician, I honestly didn’t realize how difficult it would be. I mean let’s be honest, Justin Bieber became a famous singer at 15, so I thought how hard could making music really be? Turns out it was somewhere in between getting through USMC Recruit Training and combat training and law school. Not only did I have to learn how to master one instrument, I had to master every instrument in order to be a successful solo artist. So, I practiced for at least 10 hours a day at singing, playing the guitar, keyboard, bass, and drums every day for two solid years from 2020 – 2022 in order to put together my debut EP, which was only five songs. The good news is that eventually it gets easier. Now I only practice for about 6 hours every day, lol. It is definitely a full-time job where you’re expected to take your work home and think about it throughout the night in bed too. It’s cost me a lot of friends and relationships along the way.
Contact Info:
- Website: clintwarrenmusic.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theclintwarren
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/clintwarrenmusic
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/theclintwarren
- Youtube: Youtube.com/ClintWarren
- Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theclintwarren Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7if9OA2tCbweeqTBwiDJVv Apple: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/clint-warren/1577734532 SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/clintwarren