We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kito Denham a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Kito, thanks for joining us today. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?
I started out as a struggling artist after I just up and quit my job(s) one day. After getting my car repoed and loosing my apartment, I began to really find my way as a producer and recording artist, but I didn’t have money to really push my career like I needed to. After a few years I found myself married with a child on the way so I began working again and took the family route. A couple years later I found myself back with my true love again…music and the recording studio. By this time I had my own studio in an apartment on OSU campus so I begin to stay there and pushed the limits once again. Now married again, I’ve been with several groups, a live band and even toured the USA while producing and engineering for some big name industry acts and living the dream of making music full-time. I’m blessed this time to be able to make a pretty decent living.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
I grew up in a family band where I first learned to play lead guitar. After learning to read music on the guitar, I got kinda bored with it and moved into keyboards and synthesizers. I started to play African Drums in 1989 with Tony West & The Imani Dancers and fell in love all over again, but this time with percussion. While in high school, I started deejaying with a few friends and we begin to DJ the parties in the neighborhood and school dances. Our first professional studio session was in 1998 where I produced my first record with my then crew “Da Gladiators”. We went on to perform at a few shows that summer but then we all went off to college. After a few years in college, I found myself back in Ohio and working in the studio with the same people I started with. I officially started my business (Superb Entertainment, LLC.) in 2018 but I’ve been DBA Productz Of Society, Ltd. since about 2001.
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
I believe society can support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem by actually tapping into these artists. Streaming and artists music is great but check and see if that artists has physical music available. Check out their website, sign up for their mailing lists, purchase music and merchandise if they have it available. That helps artists out a lot more than streaming.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
I think the most rewarding aspect of being an artist is being able to make music at anytime of the day I want to. Whenever the creativity hits me I can come down in my studio and capture my ideas. There is nothing better than having the ability to record your ideas and experiments and then be able to tweak them until they turn into something major.
Contact Info:
- Website: Mayh3m614.com
- Instagram: @kitodenham
- Facebook: Facebook.com/kito.denham
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kito-denham/
- Twitter: @mayh3mtls
- Youtube: Youtube.com/user/Mayh3mDaGlaD8R
Image Credits
@canal_lane @smokinjelli