We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Quintin Gerard W. a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Quintin, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

As a creative, one would imagine that the journey to success would come with challenges you must overcome and decisions you will have to make that may or may not suit your needs at the time. For me, one of the biggest risks in my life I took was dropping out of college, packing up everything I owned and moving to Los Angeles, CA to pursue my dreams of a career in the music business.

I had just turned 22 yrs old and thought I was ready for the challenges that I would face attempting to survive in a place new and foreign place where I had very little support. Nonetheless, when you have a calling or let’s say – burning passion that drives you, none of these trivial ideologies affect how you think and perceive your life and ability to achieve your goals.

That said, I was sitting in a computer science class in college daydreaming of playing on stage in front of thousands of people who appreciated the effort and hard work that I had put in to learn music and play my instrument at a high level. Look, there’s nothing wrong with computer science, but I simply felt like I was wasting my life away no matter how much money I was told I could make after graduation.

For me, money is simply a commodity or tool that allows you to purchase “things” but it has no relevance whatsoever in the overall grand scheme of feeling and being completely fulfilled as a human being and living soul. I later came to find out, however that money was the difference between rapid success versus taking some “real life” financial beatings and walking the long road of poverty in the music business until you figure out the game and finally get over the hump to success.

For me, my road like many had it’s ups and downs but my faith never wavered and I was completely grounded in my self-confidence, reality of who I am, and what I wanted out of this life. So, making the decision to drop out of college essentially was the best and worse decision I made at a young age that would eventually come full circle later on in my life and play out as the right decision for me to make at that time.

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.

My story is pretty simple. I come from a humble background growing up in the south in a small town just west of New Orleans. My dad worked at the refinery and my mother was a stay home mom who took care all of the needs of six kids growing up in the heat of the south. There weren’t many options for someone like me to become much other than what most people wound up becoming which was a refinery worker, especially if you didn’t graduate high school or go to college. Nothing wrong with the refinery, but I saw how hard my dad worked just to make ends meet and keep everything afloat and I promised my mother that one day I would be rich and buy her a “big ole’ house!”

So one day I was listening to some music in the living room on our stereo console and I actually, for the first time, read the sticker on the old forty five record I was spinning and it was my first time noticing the record label who put that music out. At that very moment I said to myself I want to be in the music business because I figured you could get rich doing that and I could play my saxophone for a living instead of slaving at the refinery.

While I was in college, attending Loyola University in New Orleans, I had the opportunity to study with New Orleans jazz legend Ellis Marsalis who one day asked me…”So, what are you going to do differently on the saxophone that hasn’t been done already? What are you going to bring to the market?”

From that very moment I began to organize my thoughts and started building my image, brand, and style of playing the saxophone which I later became synonymous with. That brand is called “FnkySax!” which is “The method of playing saxophone characterized by incorporating elements of Funk, R & B, Gospel, Blues and Jazz supported by the underlying foundation of the urban culture and experience.”

I must have achieved my goal because at one point in my life and career absolutely no one but me knew about this, believed it, or cared about “FnkySax.” Now all of a sudden radio stations and everywhere I go people refer to me as “The FnkySax Player!” Truly amazing what a commitment to your ideas, beliefs, and yourself will reveal later on in life if you stick to your goals, plan, believe in yourself, and most importantly – tune out the noise!

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

Absolutely! As we all know the music industry, at that time and back in those days, was all about “the record deal.” Well, for whatever strange reason I was never able to sign a deal! I was recognized and offered a few deals verbally, but somehow the paperwork was never finalized. I even had Stevie Wonder personally recommend me for a recording contract with the now defunct MoJazz Label distributed by Motown Records. At one point I really started to get down and doubt myself, but eventually that wore off and I took the attitude “it’s not my fault, it’s just simply their loss.” I still have the most important asset…the ideas, product, and most of all talent!

So, instead of feeling sorry for myself about all of the so-called “bad luck,” or “missed opportunities,” I simply strapped it up and started my own record label (O.T.S. Music!) which I am still currently on to this day. In other words, I simply took away their power over me. Sure, starting a record label came with another set of dynamics and challenges which took me a while to overcome to become a force to be reckoned with in my genre, but I’m there now and I am not going anywhere soon. This experience I just shared can basically be summed up as having the fortitude to not allow anyone to dangle a carrot in front of you.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I would say that the biggest “thing” or lesson I had to unlearn is probably not essentially a conscience lesson, but it is simply the ability and determination to mind my own business and stop worrying or focusing on what everybody else doing…! This is, in my opinion, the biggest lesson and piece of advice I could pass along to anyone who is an entrepreneur or considering becoming one.

That said, of course you have to pay attention to your competition in the marketplace, but you don’t have spend every second of the day trying to become your competition. What’s funny about this is I notice other people in my music world who are literally copying everything I do in the hopes that it will somehow work for them or catapult them to the level of success that I am achieving right now. The sad part is they don’t think that I notice it or can see it although I do both. I adhere to the Oscar Wilde quote stating “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” I never confront anyone about it, I simply shake my head and smile with confidence and confirmation knowing that I am doing something right and something special!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.quintingerardw.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fnkysax/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fnkysax/
• Twitter: https://x.com/fnkysax
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@fnkysax
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-339785740

Image Credits

OTS MUSIC!