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

Howard, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. 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.

Honestly, when it comes to anything music-wise, whether it’s singing, rapping, writing, producing, recording, mixing, and playing instruments; Im self taught. to learn piano i asked someone to show me the chords to a gospel song when i was 14 and from there i figured it out the rest of the way. For guitar, i locked myself in my room for a week until i learn some basic chords and fingering.
If Im being honest i wouldn’t want to speed up my learning process. The rate at which I’ve learned everything suits the rate at which im growing as a person and man of God.
The most essential skills in my opinion would be those of a producer and engineer. I have saved so much money making my own beats and recording and mixing my own songs. In the long run no one knows my voice better than i do and there’s only 2 other engineers besides myself that I would trust with my voice.
Life circumstances definitely made it difficult to learn though. Everytime there was adversity I felt as if I went through a mental setback. I felt as if I was stagnant in what I was doing musically.

Howard, 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?

For those who dont know who I am, which I imagine is most of you, Whats up?! Im Jdot!
I am a Christian hip-hop and R&B artist and producer. I have been into music for as long as i can remember but, i started to take my Christian music journey serious in 2022. I started singing as a toddler, rapping in highschool (I was so bad at it lol), and producing in highschool as well, For anyone who chooses to listen to my music, be prepared. I say that because my life’s story is in my music. It’s always been a way for me to express myself and vent but theres something different about my newer works. God is guiding the way that i write about my life now, which makes it so much more transparent and raw. What sets me apart from everyone else is my versatility. Im not afraid to go into a different genre and i will do it confidently. I honestly think genre hopping is fun. I even have a country song in my archives that no one will ever hear.
Im most proud of my accomplishments in music as of recently and my resilience in this space. I could’ve easily quit years ago but i never would’ve won album of the year with The Vibe 5 awards and i definitely wouldn’t have met the people and friends that i have along the way. I wouldn’t have so many songs that im excited for yout guys to hear either BUT, here we are!

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I had to get out of the mindset that “If the music is good people will listen”.

I used to think that and feel entitled behind that mindframe. Thinking that I can just drop music with zero promo or footwork and automatically have an audience eager to see and hear me. That was the furthest thing from the truth. Needless to say i was on my way to dropping my very first EP and had no one waiting for it because no one knew about it. I was straight up humbled by having zero listens, streams, or downloads.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

This is a sticky subject for me honestly because of the mixed feelings I have about social media. I am still building when it comes to my audience. Im learning to be more consistent with content and not be afraid to look different from everyone else. I never really liked to create content around the music and I’ve struggled with the concepts of visuals behind the music but, Im learning and building.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://instagram.com/whoisjdot
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXAH0pEPUQZcIqTSUXrvneQ

Image Credits

Brandon Malcolm