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

IMAJ, appreciate you joining us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

All of my stage costumes are customized and tailored to fit me. I’m super grateful for that as I tend to jump around a lot on stage so I know they’ll hold up well.

One time I had a show where I had to get a pair of sequin pants off-the-rack. I usually can’t just walk into a store and find something that fits so doing that was a huge risk for me.

Fast-forward to the show. It turned out the pants ended up being too big for me and as I jumped up and down onstage they were slowly but surely falling down. At the end of one of the songs, I pulled up the pants said, “Woo! Almost lost my pants there.” And the whole audience just broke into this amazing laughter. I forget what else I said but the audience and I were really laughing together for a little while there.

I’d say the risk was totally worth it because I learned how good it felt to connect with an audience through humor. It was one of my favorite moments on stage.

IMAJ, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m a Country singer and songwriter. Originally from Miami Beach, Florida. Born to two creatively-encouraging parents – a model mother and actor father [Philip Michael Thomas who starred as Detective Ricardo Tubbs on Miami Vice].

I’ve been very fortunate to tour all over – sharing stages with awesome Country artists like Billy Ray Cyrus, Collin Raye, Keith Urban, LeAnn Rimes and Tim McGraw.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

Music has always been a healing art form and so my goal in life is to do my small part in helping to bring about world peace through the music I create.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

To be creative you have to be vulnerable, and we live in a world that often oppresses and discards the most vulnerable among us. To support creativity, I feel like we have to support the vulnerable. That means encouraging children and their quirky ideas. And that means being kind to all your fellow humans, leading by example, so that the children who observe you feel that there are benevolent spaces where they can thrive in this world.

Contact Info:

• Website: loveimaj.com
• Instagram: Instagram.com/imaj
• Facebook: Facebook.com/imajofficial
• Twitter: @loveimaj
• Other: www.tiktok.com/@imajofficial

Image Credits
Jesse Peraza, Sacred Thomas