We were lucky to catch up with Lloyd Anderson recently and have shared our conversation below.

Lloyd, looking forward to hearing all of your stories 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 received my first check playing drums at church when I was 6 years old. It was an annual Men’s Day service that they do at my church and I was compensated for the rehearsals as well as the performance! The check was for $400 so at 6 years old back in the 90’s you couldn’t tell me I was rich! Only to have my dad put it in the bank for me haha. It was at that very moment I knew I wanted to play music for a very long time. It came easy to me and didn’t really ever feel like work.. My parents were musicians too and more so, my mom was a drummer so she worked with me at a very young age to perfect my craft very early. Very grateful for that.

Lloyd, 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?

As I mentioned, my parents were musicians in the church scene back home in Flint, MI so that was definitely my introduction to the professional music world. I started as a drummer and still play here and there but I’m known now more for playing the bass guitar. I was in the church scene as well as a kid because that’s all I really knew. There were so many drummers that grew up with me and we often had to share the songs at the events and programs and honestly I didn’t like that…lol so at 18 I chose to pick an instrument that I could play that I didn’t see many people playing and that just so happened to be the bass guitar! I believe when I was a child, I may have only seen a bass guitarist perform in person about 6 or 7 times. My mom had a bass guitar in the closet one day and was always interested and decided to pick it up and honestly never looked back! Speaking of looking back, this journey has been amazing and had its ups and downs. I remember people would ask me what I wanted to be in life and I would always say a basketball player or a musician. It’s so funny that I still do both! Just didn’t make it professionally on the basketball scene due to injuries and my height lol…but I realized that telling people these things, they thought I was living a fairytale just because many people where I come from get a 9-5 job usually working at GM or some type of desk job and I just knew that wasn’t for me. After a while, people would even tell me to my face that I should reconsider my career choice and that being a musician wasn’t a “real job” or that they didn’t know people that did that for a living. I always believed in myself though and always want to prove people wrong while also inspiring others when they get told the same thing I was told. In the beginning, it was very discouraging especially hearing it from family members and friends that I thought would believe in me and what I wanted to accomplish in life. I’m so proud of where I’ve come from and what I’ve been able to do in my career of music. 2024 has definitely been my year. I’ve been on stage for the first ever hiphop residency in Las Vegas playing for the Wutang Clan and I accepted the position of being the full time bassist for Boyz II Men and we’ve been traveling all over the world and working non stop! God is good. I’ve released an EP and a jazz fusion single under my artist name YoungLA the 2nd. Feel free to check me out on all platforms!!! If anyone ever tries to tell you that you can’t do something, never believe it!!!

How did you build your audience on social media?

Honestly, I started posting content of me playing songs on YouTube, Instagram and Facebook literally because I was bored and just wanted to do stuff…lol without realizing it, this allowed me to work on not being afraid of the camera and continue to just be myself. I think the more that I’ve been posting doing collars with fellow artists and creatives, it has started to create a buzz and I’ve just continued to do what I said earlier which was be myself. My advice to those just starting to build their social media or wanting to, I say JUST DO IT!! Nobody can be you like YOU! Don’t worry about what you think people “might” say or how they’ll react. Just be true to yourself and stay consistent and you’ll start to see things happen! Also don’t be afraid to network. A yes or no shouldn’t discourage you, just keep pushing and becoming better in the process.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

I love when people reach out to me saying they enjoyed my song on Apple Music or they enjoyed my live performance, or that they enjoyed seeing me playing behind their favorite artist. Especially when its someone that knew me when I was a child talking about how I wanted to become a musician and actually see it happen. There are people older than me that have even come to me saying that they now believe in themselves just from seeing me chase my dreams and that’s literally what it’s all about for me. I want everyone to believe in themselves and be the best version of them. If you don’t believe in yourself, no one will. I’ve been laughed at, talked about, mocked, but it will never stop me from doing and completing what I wanna do and become in my life.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://solo.to/lloydanderson
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/youngla_the_2nd/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lloyd.andersonii
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lloyd-anderson-ii-900bb2303?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@YoungLAthe2nd