We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jamie-Lee Dimes a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

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

1973 Records and my new label 1973 By Jamie-Lee, using my music platform to create conversations.

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

My name is Jamie-Lee Dimes, I am an artist in the entertainment industry, and the founder of 1973 Records, a Grammy-approved media, music, and creative agency. This week I announced the launch of a new line of seventies chic fashion under the label 1973 by Jamie-Lee, the first collection is called ‘California Dreamin,’ and after a pretty hectic year experiencing the full spectrum of derailment of being in the music industry, I am proud to release new music soon, too. I am also represented in film and TV, I hope to move more in that direction the next year.

As an artist, my main inspiration is to create conversations and push limits. My own limits of exploring my internal world, so I can write honest lyrics that are emotive, and help me through life, and that can hopefully inspire other people to experience their own emotions and navigate their own life situations. I also love styling and creative directing, and photoshoots, I have my hand in a few different pies of the entertainment industry which is why I have founded two companies.

I am the founder of 1973 Records, a creative agency where I work with clients across industries to help them tell their stories, storytelling through a sociology and media lens. I help companies, brands, and people communicate via branding, messaging, strategic communications, imagery, content planning, digital media, and business consulting. I have been working behind the scenes in music, and I have a background in business studies and entertainment, so I think I have a unique perspective to bring to the industry. I’ve been in some pretty high-pressure, situations, in life, and in my career. I think my strength in business is strategizing. I can handle very high-pressure situations, and somehow I just always find solutions to pivot swiftly. I have been studying strategic communication and sociology, and training to see situations through a sociological lens, to think differently about things and consider why we do the things we do, and essentially see cracks and new ways of doing things, in everything. It’s a blessing and a curse.

With styling and photoshoots, I work with women and see such a transformation in their energy and self-confidence, after one shoot or styling session. I’m highly motivated to help other women step into their power and find their voice, as it’s something I’ve always struggled with myself.

I am also represented in film and television and will be hopefully on some sets in the coming year.

I am most proud of my ambition and relentless work ethic to create something meaningful, out of nothing.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

For the past year, I have been going through psychotherapy for trauma and traumatic shock after an assault took place in my first business meeting for 1973 Records, and my music career. I lost a lot of my hair, had a lot more trauma come out in therapy, and had to essentially spend months under the most intense brain fog while I reprogrammed the processing of my memory, taking the trauma of not just this event, but my entire life, and refiling it to my long memory process. It has been a really tortuous experience, and I’ve lost an entire year. I actually can’t even remember most of the year, it’s like total blackness. And of course, it is people in business and entertainment that feel they can do that to someone and try to stop you on your path and take away any power you have gained for yourself where you don’t need to rely on others.

During the peak of my psychotherapy, I got showcasing opportunities at Folk Alliance, and SXSW, something every artist works so hard for, and I could barely function, honestly, I was sobbing my eyes out in the back rooms before being on stage, my hands were shaking, I was suicidal and depressed, but I didn’t want to turn the opportunities down and essentially feel like these people won. I was in such low moments, that I needed the music to get me through but in hindsight, I shouldn’t have probably done them. For folk alliance, I drove across America, slept out of my car because I spent all my money on therapy, and I slept on BLM land. it was an empowering experience. It helped me start moving forward again. But then you know all your relationships change because now you are having to set strong boundaries and there are a lot of boundary-crossing narcissists and sociopaths in music. I remember doing all this therapy, getting to the folk alliance, having the lead belly estate manager in the room at my showcase, and a band member got so drunk he was playing the tambourine out of time and slurring his words. it was the first time I tried to bring a band on tour. after being patient through two songs, I told him quietly to get off stage and he blew up and tried to bring me down and sabotage that moment, my industry showcase.  I just had to see it as a test on old paradigms. I guess I would have usually tolerated that behavior and looked passed it, but now I set firm boundaries, and that pisses a lot of people off. The amount of hurtful things people will say behind your back as a woman in a business setting boundaries is astonishing.

Another thing in all of this, my first piece of writing went viral, and I was not prepared for what came with that. The hardest part was having family members throw me under the bus at my lowest moments or like everyone having an opinion on how I handle things, instead of just asking if you’re ok and being there for me.

In all of this, I lost a whole year of prime time in my life, but I am getting back on track. I did an ayahuasca retreat for two days in California two months ago, the psychotherapy opens the door and the ayahuasca indigenous trauma medicine ceremony sped up the process. it was ten years of psychotherapy. it was the hardest experience of my life, I didn’t think I was going to make it through, being confronted with so much trauma in my body, and releasing it was like an exorcism 8-hour of labor. They say the hardest thing is going through it you know, most of the time I would just travel and distract myself in my career, but this event forced me to look at the darkness which has been holding me back. So I recently made some big life changes, I thought to myself, I’m going to wake up in a year’s time miserable and unwell if I don’t act. So right now I am on a strict health routine, getting back on track, and thriving in business thanks to a few key people who believe in me when I don’t believe in myself.

What is so frustrating for me is this was essentially my first business meeting for 1973 Records where I was put into contact with highly powerful people in entertainment, media, and business, and it was the same week my media agency got registered with the Grammys. I thought I was in the clear of predatory behavior. So moving forward, I would like to work with women in business and the entertainment industry, to create a safe space, and to see the men who are taking advantage of their power, being held accountable in the law.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I owned a home in Joshua Tree, California, was working endlessly to renovate it, and rent it out and run two businesses and make something out of nothing on the other side of the world.  Though I had to learn some hard lessons in going into business with the wrong person, signing contracts against my gut intuition, and then having that person blackmail me and threaten me while trying to take away everything I had built out of spite. I didn’t have any idea about the legal world and would spend hours in the car park of a Mexican restaurant using their wifi, as there was no reception where my house was, and I would just google legal advice, I tried calling legal helplines, but I didn’t really have any legal protection as I wasn’t an American citizen. The person I went into business with, who I was walking away from, then started threatening to call immigration and get my artist visa revoked and even hacked my flights and changed my flights on one instance, was hacking my social media pages and ultimately giving me a lot of stress. It was summer, in the desert, and it was the first time I realized I needed a drastic pivot to cut all ties to that pattern and conditioning. I also needed to be somewhere where my money would last longer and where I could break away and regain control of all aspects of my life. so I decided to go to Mexico by myself for 6 weeks not speaking an ounce of the language. My entire life changed from this business, career, and life pivot. I ended up getting on a whole new path, one that has influenced my entire life. When you are in business, music, and focusing on your career, you can be so focused on constantly moving forward, and going on to the next project, or goal. It is very rare you go, I need to actually pause, take some time for myself to recentre, and get on a whole new track.      

Contact Info:

• Website: http://1973byjamielee.com/
• Instagram: http://instagram.com/jamieleedimes
• Facebook: http://facebook.com/jamieleedimes
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamie-lee-dimes-a3263240/
• Twitter: http://twitter.com/jamieleedimes
• Other: Agency http://1973records.com/

Image Credits
Photos by Charlez Malasana