We recently connected with ToNY CaMM and have shared our conversation below.
ToNY, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.
Generally I enter into all of my projects with an idea of how they can serve a meaningful purpose to individuals, groups of people or society as a whole.
The most meaningful one to-date has to be my current project, The School Of Funk Project, where we are taking young people aged 10-17 and giving them the experience of studio recording and live show performances.
Over the course of a few weeks the young musicians and singers are exposed to the studio setting, band rehearsals, travel and load-in for gigs, set-up and soundcheck, live performance…and then get paid for the gig.
Our hope is that these young performers gain an understanding of what it will take to pursue a career in the performing arts and/or music industry.
ToNY, 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?
I label myself an “entertainerpreneur”…which basically means that my business is entertainment, in a lot of various forms.
Under my umbrella company ToNY CaMM Entertainment, LLC I operate a music division, where I record, produce and distribute music, an animation company that creates and produces animation content, a film division that writes, films and releases short movies, an events company that is a “one stop shop” for wedding and party planning, decorating, venue and entertainment, a fashion label based off of my art designs, a comic book division that creates and releases digital and paper comics, all while hosting an online radio show, operating a full-service hotel, and fronting my 16-piece funk band.
I have a philosophy of “live each day like it’s your FIRST”…which allows me to wake up each day and ponder “what have I not created yet?”…and then I set out to imagine what it would take to bring that thing to fruition.
I have always had a love for entertainment, from a little boy when I used to delight the family with my “little Michael Jackson” performances, making home movies with a 35mm camera, and getting lost in my dreams after watching tv shows like Batman & Robin, The Cisco Kid and Lost In Space, along with our neighbors’ extensive comic book collection.
I first realized the possibility of entertaining as a profession when I joined a local R&B/Funk band in 1978 at the age of 18, holding down the frontline with vocals and self-taught percussion.
It’s also where I met my wife. We were singing to each other nightly, and soon found ourselves as parents (LOL), so we both put our music careers on hold and raised our children, then forty years later we took our teenage dreams off of the shelf, dusted them off, and here we are.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
For me, the most rewarding thing about being an artist and a creative is the concept of taking a blank canvas or an empty audio track and filling it with an idea that did not exist before you thought of it, and then sharing it with the public at large and having them respond favorably. to it.
There is no more gratifying sensation.
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
In my opinion, the best thing that society can do to support artists and creatives is to make an effort to “fall in love” with creative and artistic works.
Visit a gallery, explore music platforms for sounds outside of your preferred genre, ignite emotional responses that you may not know you’d have.
I have a saying “love is greater than support”, meaning if people love that thing that you do or create, the support will come, not because they consciously want to…but because they sub-consciously have to.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.tonycamm.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tonycamm
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tonycamm
- Twitter: https://www.x.com/tonycamm
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/cammtony
