We recently connected with James Abud and have shared our conversation below.
James, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?
Every project is meaningful if you care about what you’re doing. My original albums have all been extraordinary creative experiences, the bands I’ve played with have been hilarious adventures, and the community events that I’ve created and hosted have been beautiful collaborations of spirit with excellent individuals. All that said, I’m very excited about the project I’m currently involved in and I’d like to talk about that.
Right now my creative path has lead me from an 8 year stint performing, teaching and developing my original music in Chicago back to my hometown of Detroit, MI. I’ve recently set up shop here as a private lessons instructor and performer in the local circuit, the normal grind for every working guitar player. Through this work I’ve come into contact with a local NPO called We Care Foster Care (https://www.wecarefostercare.org/) who provides life skills training and art classes and beds and all kinds of aid to children in Michigan in the foster care and the juvenile detention systems. My role in this has been as a general music teacher for middle and high schoolers through a residential foster care facility in Dearborn, MI called Vista Maria (https://www.vistamaria.org/). The school on Campus is Clara B. Ford Academy (https://www.cbfacademy.com/). I’m writing the curriculum, teaching the class, providing some of the instruments, and creating the connections necessary for these kids to get an equivalent arts education to what they’d get in a Michigan public school. The foster care system is kind of swept under the rug as far as people who need assistance is concerned. Foster kids have the lowest graduation rate in Michigan of all groups of kids. It’s hard for them, they need a lot of help and they’ve already been through so much.
It feels good to be working through music to provide service to these kids. My upbringing had a lot of music in it, and it was consistently the safest, most empowering, connective, and beautiful part of my life. I like sharing it, it’s important to give freely of your gifts. I recently completed a month long summer school program with them and the school year starts in September. Their education so far has been spotty at best. They’re such beautiful souls, and such a pleasure to work with (even at their most challenging).. You can see for miles in each of their eyes, it’s really extraordinary. Mind blowing, in fact. And I get to make music with them all the time! I can’t think of a more grateful place to be.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Lol. This interview format is hysterical! What a trip to be filling out a questionnaire like this, it’s very ticklish.
I am James Abud, www.James Abud.com my stage name is Abud: A Bard, when I perform with a full complement of musicians then we’re Abud: A Band. I am a multi-instrumentalist specializing in fretted string instruments (guitar, banjo, etc.) as well as a vocalist and composer.
I am also a music educator. This is my 21st year since I taught my first guitar lesson in the Mesozoic age of 2002! I had absolutely no business teaching back then, I was barely beyond a beginner myself! But I’ve taught private lessons on about a dozen different instruments, group lessons, elementary school band for a couple years, and now I’m in the non-profit music-as-service business and it feels great. Music education continues to be an exquisite service.
My musical endeavors began when I was a child, playing belly dance and dabke music at our hilariously Lebanese church and in the cocoon of my extended family, accompanying my Oud player father as his Doumbek player for all of the parties. There were tons of parties. It was a blast. I later graduated to playing western music (not country/western I mean literally music from the Western Hemisphere) on drum kit, then guitar and all of the usual guitar doubles. I played in rock, blues, jam and funk bands, gospel bands, pit orchestras, whatever kind of ensemble I could get into throughout high school and college. I got my music degree at Wayne State University in Detroit, and all the while reinventing musical wheels at every opportunity. After I learned to write music I got a very silly chip on my shoulder about playing anything written by someone who wasn’t me. My ego was youthful and spry and massive, hah!
After college I found Abud: A Bard while traipsing about in the woods in the upper peninsula of Michigan. He was just sitting there! What a punk! Inspired by the endless natural beauty, I started writing songs with lyrics, which I’d never really done. Before that I’d been very busy playing the pretentious jazz/classical instrumental composition student, to some acclaim. It turned out I had a knack for lyric writing. My lyrics were funny and charming. They’re still funny and charming. I think it’s incredibly important to hear sincere joy in music right now. It’s important to hear about the struggles, it really is, it’s important to sing about them too, and make space for people to have those kinds of feelings. But for me, I like music as a medicine for life. There’s so much out there to grind you down til there’s nothing left. I’d prefer to remind everyone that the part of them that’s connected to joy and presence and love and ease and fun is still there, and you don’t need to overcome anything to get to it. You can connect to joy just because you exist! Isn’t that wonderful? You don’t have to earn it, you don’t have to suffer for it, you can just be there with it! That’s what I like to sing about, and that’s where my music comes from. You being enough. Cause you’re enough!
I’m not worried about setting my music apart from everyone else’s anymore. It’s not really my concern. It used to be, and I made a whole identity out of trying very desperately to be different. But I’ve learned and unlearned a lot since then. My job is to sing to you with all of the joy in my heart, and if you can connect to it and experience it, then that’s beautiful. If not, then I wish you all the best on your journey, make sure you drink some water. Like the great Gibran said “A Singer Cannot Delight You With His Singing Unless He Himself Delights To Sing!”
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
Go to things. It’s hard to do that right now because everything is needlessly expensive but go to stuff, please. Go to live events where people you know or don’t know are playing instruments or singing songs they wrote or reading poetry they wrote or cooking meals they’ve been practicing making. And tell your people! Share everyone’s work on your social media! Fill up everyone’s online lives with art!
Also, remember when you’re talking about society, that YOU are society. So focus on what you’re doing to help, and don’t worry about other people so much. If nobody else wants to go to that local art show? They can go take a bath, you still go. Do things first, support things alone, be brave about it!
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
Learning big connective lessons. Delighting in making. Being fully in the moment of a piece of music. Learning that I don’t actually need any of this. Learning that the music is the thing to focus on and if nobody ever sees it, that’s on them. I don’t have to play the ridiculous game of deciding how other people feel and focusing my energy on that. I have a free heart. The perspectives that lead me here could only have come from my artistic experiences. Or at least they came a lot more easily because of them. :)
Contact Info:
- Website: Www.JamesAbud.com
- Instagram: @abud_a_band
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/abudabard
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-abud-7925b9117
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@AbudMusicServices?si=aiQCRt9GWTAELSmw
- Other: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1j83x3FB05g7SwxwiFeH99?si=ZjGYuIJ4S-eFW1lfQHPbog https://open.spotify.com/artist/4IdVxt2XKDAdbCTiKdrAhj?si=_xE3zB90SKC6fKLQmFv7sg
Image Credits
Grace Pisula Kevin Alvey