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

Alright, Lamar thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with 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?

It is not the easiest thing to do. Being creative takes work within itself, but earning a consistent living from it takes planning. When I first started out being DJ Nune full time it was a slow process. I had a few gigs but was trying to figure out a way to get more. I had rent, a car payment, and just everyday expenses to deal with. Sometimes the emotional worry of trying to figure that stuff out takes a toll. I remember I took a bunch of index cards and put them on the floor of my loft and wrote on them every place and event I wanted to do in St. Louis. I had about 75 cards. Every morning Monday-Thursday. I would go sit at the coffee shop and work from 8 am til 2 pm and research 2-3 cards. Finding out the contact person, and event coordinator and figuring out when their next event could possibly use my services. I would email people and no response. After several weeks, I started getting discouraged. My best friend told me to keep at it, something will break. I was looking out my window from my bedroom and saw a company setting up for a fashion show in the building across from me. I told my girlfriend I’m going to go over and see who the contact person was and see do they use deejays. The lady who I spoke to, said they just play the music for the runway themselves. I told them to let me know when their next event was and I will see if my management (which was at the time) would sponsor me deejaying an event for them. A few weeks passed and she called about a show they were having in a couple of weeks. I took the rent money and hired a soundman and did the gig. Her boss asked me my rate and I told her that they hired me for the next 7 events. Being in the room allowed people who had never seen me deejay and play instruments to become familiar with me. I started getting private events and started catching the I of booking companies and event coordinators.
I still kept reaching out to companies on my own and tried to work as much as I could. Sometimes doing 2-3 gigs a day if I could. It was nuts. Then I started developing a bad habit of overbooking and not paying attention to detail. This started costing me money. I had to learn how to paste myself and not take everything. Yet, learn to charge for my worth. I was spinning at 2 clubs regularly but needed to get a different clientele who could afford the rate I wanted and needed to be at. Enter weddings. I saved up money to do a wedding show. the fee at that time was $1,300.00., which was a lot for me. I went not knowing what the flow of the show or crowd would be like and was not fully prepared. I stayed up all night putting together a PowerPoint with photos and info. I brought my tv from the house, brought my rig and instruments with mutes, and performed at my booth for 6 hours. I went from having four people sign up the day before to 45 interested. Out of that, I booked 20 weddings from the show.
Seeing the bigger companies with the banners, literature and staff made me rethink how I wanted to market myself as an artist. I started working on new promo material, documenting events I was spinning at, and getting testimonials that I could use.
It took planning and executing the plan properly. You need to always stay learning new and innovative ways to reach your audience. The way technology changes it is a must. You also have to be willing to invest in what you do and study the spaces you are trying to be in. People trust me to do big events and festivals/programs and manage talent & production because I understand how to deliver a solid product. People will pay you for the fact they not having to worry about it because they know you will deliver. I am not saying I do not have an off night or moment, but I try to be prepared as I can so I am not. You have to treat the art like a business. Have days for bookkeeping, marketing, practice and research. It is a lot at times, but it is necessary.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a brass player/ deejay/ educator from St. Louis, MO. I started out as a musician (trombone/trumpet) playing in Columbia, Missouri at various places. I went to college at the University of Missouri. That is where I got my first experience and crash course in running a band, paying and managing musicians, and dealing with club owners. It was challenging at times but a great learning experience. When I moved back to St. Louis, I worked a bunch of odd jobs and tried to play with different groups in a variety of genres ranging from gospel to jazz to funk to hip-hop. No one really paid, imagine that. Just living the “starving artist” life. Catching the bus and Metrolink across the city to find places to play and hopefully get a gig. I used to play with a hip-hop group and I would ask if could I do some of my original music. The lead singer told me, “no one will ever listen to your music and no one likes trombone anyway”, then he put me out of the band. LOL. A week later I was able to land my first show as a band leader at a 1st Friday Event and had some great musicians such as Jason Moore, Logan Detering, John Normen, DJ K9 & Raquita Henderson.

From there I met and worked with artists such as Son of Starchild, CoCoSoul, Coultrain, BlvckSpvde, Hot House Sessions, Nato & others from the Soultyde Crew. Learning how to band leader, put together better shows, and go through the growing pains of being an artist. It’s a lot of real work outside of playing that goes into it. I have been blessed to play with artists such as Sheila E., Terence Blanchard, Fred Wesley, Dwelle, Eric Roberson, Sy Smith, and others.

I picked up deejaying in 2010 with my first gig being at a Birthday Party for the Music Critic of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and my 1st paying gig being a wedding for Henry & April Gray. (Still one of the Best Weddings I have EVER done!) I got my turn tables on a Friday & with some guidance from DJ Uptown was using them the next day. I developed my craft as DJ Nune (nue-nee) being able to play at places like the Delmar Lounge, Lola and for Fashion Events for Alive Magazine. I do something a little different as a deejay. I play live instruments while spinning & sometimes will have a drummer and other musicians with me. It is a different experience that I try to give people. It has allowed me to share stages with artists such as Doug E Fresh, BabyFace, Mc Lyte, NHL National All-star Week, Taste of St. Louis, Fair St. Louis, and other great places.

I am most proud of my work as composer/producer for a work I created for Alvin Alley Dance Company’s, STILL by Kirven Boyd. I have never created a brass-driven classical/jazzy body of work that was 25 minutes in length. It was a good yet challenging experience. I am blessed to do what I do. I have a lot of ideas in my head and have been able to execute most of them. From my Superheroes of Blackness theatrical production, The Georgia Mae Big Band, to my coloring book, God has allowed me to do it. It has come with some sacrifices, but that is how you grow. I may not be popular, but I enjoy the work I do. The best gig I have ever done was in All-Suburban Jazz my senior year. It was the only time I ever had my grandparents & mother listen to me play and made that trombone solo count. One of the few times I played I felt like I wasn’t in my own body. My household has always been my foundation. My deejay name was my grandfather’s nickname, the big band is named after my grandmother, and the comic book character for Soundwave Comic Xpo in St. Louis was named after my mother.

When my mother passed in 2015, I started a consulting company, Mind Speak Consulting. During the pandemic I kicked it into full gear and focused on communications, creating video media content, project management, and community engagement for clients. That has been fun, but it has been hard work! I have had good mentors and awesome people who have supported and helped me in my life thus far. It is not a one-man show. It takes help, encouragement, and willingness to learn & grow.

I am just taking it one day at a time and working through this chart called life.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

When I think about a pivot in my career it would certainly be during the pandemic. I had not done a good job processing major life events prior to the start of the pandemic, which forced me to do what I was not used to doing; sitting still and taking time to deal with my personal life. Sometimes as creative we get tired or feel a weight about what to do next and making the right move. Sometimes you look around and its just you because you have isolated yourself in from the world with work. You miss the important things that really sustain you cause you not paying attention to them. You wake up one morning like, “what now?” That’s what happened. I had to revamp my website so I can go live with deejaying and part of that was learning platforms like OBS, buying cameras, lights, and learning video editing in premiere. I started realizing people needed help doing media and video creation, so I kicked in full throttle and started offering it. I would take days and watch training videos, research everything I needed to know about the gear and experiment. Even deejaying and pre-recording yourself for a client is hard and takes practice. Sometimes you have to stop, step away and then get right back at it. At first, I thought I would never get work, but patience & perseverance changed that. I try to make every day count with a client and try to do my best as if it was me doing work for myself. Today MSC is on the move and has been working with clients in Florida, Baltimore, L.A., Chicago, and St. Louis. It was a scary process learning something new. Yet, why not take a chance and see what happens. It has helped me develop more as an artist and improve my communication skills.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My goal is simply to run as hard as I can, while I can for as long as I can. Everything has expiration date. The things we used to do in our twenties we can’t do the same in our sixties. I do not believe in waiting until I retire to see the world, yet I travel as much as I can, even if its for work, to let the world inspire the music and the work. I have a lot of things that I want to do and experience career-wise and do not want to miss out on the journey. That is where the real meat and potatoes of the story are. I do not have time for shouda, coulda woulda, or maybe ifs. I try to learn from past situations and grow from them. Sometimes I get it right, but sometimes I don’t. That is even with the coming and going of people in your life. Every connection has a purpose, either to help, distract or be a bridge to the next point. I am just trying to give it everything I can and maneuver to happy places with good memories. I want to look back and see that I did things that were productive and that made me and others happy.

Contact Info:

• Website: Thelamarharris.ocm
• Instagram: lamarharris314
• Facebook: lamarharris314
• Linkedin: Lamarharris314
• Twitter: lamarharris314
• Youtube: LamarHarris314

Image Credits
Antonio Harris Photography Levon Davis