Posted March 11th, 2015 at 5:04 pmComments Closed
DO WHAT YOU LOVE – THE INTERVIEW WITH SOUL MUSICIAN HENRI BROWN
Doing what you love is important to your health and happiness. When you love what you do, there is no end to the journey. Doing what you love is the secret to longevity and happiness in your vocation. I interviewed music artist Henri Brown on his devotion to his craft. Henri Brown is also the first cousin of the legendary Jimi Hendrix. Henri’s love for music spans over three decades, playing music throughout Asia, North America and Europe. In this interview, Henri Brown takes us through his personal journey. He is definitely an example of someone who is doing what he loves.
The Interview
• How did you discover that music is your passion?
• I grew up in a family of musicians. My mother was a jazz singer. My auntie was also a jazz singer and also the first African American woman in all of North America to have her own music show in the late 50’s and early 60’s. My auntie’s sons were singers in the city and had a band called Mojo Co. And my cousin is Jimi Hendrix.
• So how did you know music was your calling too?
• It just came natural to me. Because music and entertainment was in my family, as a kid, I felt it right away. When I was a young kid, I knew exactly what I was going to do with my life. I didn’t hesitate. I just knew that I was going to be in the entertainment field. I did plays when I was really young and when I was 13-14 years of age, I started putting my own band together. I started getting at it right away. So it was something that was innate in me. With all of my family members being in the music industry, it was really easy. It was everything I knew. When I was a young kid, my mom used to take me to all the concerts. I’ve seen Ray Charles. I’ve seen The Pointer Sisters, Diana Ross, The Fifth Dimensions…I’ve seen Little Richard, Fats Domino, Joe Tex…I mean, I saw all the entertainers when I was 6-7 years old.
• How did you know that it was a right fit for you?
• Well, at a young age, it was a reassuring thing. I was in Grade 2 and we just had moved from America to Canada. So like about a week into school, I started bringing my 45 player to school. I remember me singing to all the girls at recess with my 45 player playing Michael Jackson or The Osmond Brothers, “Da da da bum bada one bad apple doesn’t spoil a whole bunch of girls”. I’d sing this to the girls at lunch time or recess time. That whole thing you know of you do something and you get that residual back, you know if it’s for you or not. And I knew it way back when.
• What is it about music that gives you the most joy?
• I love to take an idea and put it into action. I love creating. When I have an idea in my head, I hit the piano or grab the guitar. I do whatever it is that’s in my head and put it onto a CD. I like that feeling of completion.
• How has doing what you love contributed to your life?
• I think that it has allowed me to basically be the person I am. And that is, with having music in my life, I’ve been able to meet a million people that I wouldn’t have met or have the opportunity to. I get to perform and play with musicians from all over the world, from rock to pop to country to hip hop to jazz. It’s just been one of those things that I go everyday “Thank you for the blessings for being able to do what I do versus having chosen another career”.
• What is the most rewarding part about what you do, doing what you love?
• To be up on stage performing, knowing that the dance floor is packed and hearing the audience singing the lyrics to a song that I am playing like they have known it for years. And I know that they don’t know it because I just wrote it. To look at the audience and see that is incredible! Amazing.
• Have you had to make sacrifices to do what you love? If so, what?
• Umm, I think the sacrifices…you know remember, I think the majority of entertainers are sort of egotistical and sort of self-centered and I can’t excuse myself from that. So I think that I’m not the one who really sacrifices. I think my family had to sacrifice the fact that they allow me to do what I do. I think that they pay the price more than I do. I’m doing what I love and I feel like I’m blessed to do it and I continue to do it regardless. In saying that, I try to sacrifice by making sure I bring my family every time I go on tour. I try to make sure that they get a chance to come over to different countries and different places. Maybe I didn’t save my money or didn’t have a nice nest egg of a savings, but I feel that I sacrifice by making the effort to bring my family to enjoy and see what I do for living.
• What have been the highlights of your career?
• I’ve had so many highlights! So if I’m going to pick one, I’m going to pick…I’m standing in the Pacific Coliseum, I’m taking pictures of Diana Ross in the room, and she walks down the stairs and hands me the microphone and takes my camera. So she’s taking pictures of me and I’m singing her song. I also have the opportunity of playing on the Experience Hendrix Tour which there’s like some of my heroes…Bootsy Collins, Eric Johnson, Eric Gales, Dweezil Zappa…oh my goodness…the guitar player from Aerosmith, the guitar player from The Black Crowes, the drummer from Stevie Ray Vaughan…I mean I got a chance to play with all of these guys…umm the actual bass player who played with Jimi Hendrix – Billy Cox and also Buddy Guy! These guys are legends! I get a chance to perform with these guys once a year!
• What has doing what you love given you in life?
• If the good Lord says “It’s time for you to come home”, I have been so blessed, grateful and thankful to spend my adult life playing music, acting, and all the things in entertainment that I enjoy so much. I’ve been blessed with that throughout my whole life.
• What advice do you have to give to others who are in search of their passion?
• If you really REALLY are passionate about what you are doing and what you want to do, the biggest thing is discouragement. The biggest thing is being discouraged. People try to discourage you and say well “When are you going to get a real job?” and “When are you going to do this or that?” The people who give up and go do that means that they weren’t that passionate about it in the first place. It’s the ones that go “Hey, no matter what, I’m going to do this!” who actually follow their passion. You have to stick to your guns and do what you feel is best in your heart.
• How has doing what you love contributed to your health and happiness?
• Well, look at me, I’m 55, I’m still cute, I still look pretty good and I’m enjoying my life and I’m being able to go back and help young artists. I’ve taken more artists on tour with me than any of my counterparts who grew up with me…and we all came up in music. Every tour I go on, I take a different person who I’ve never taken before. It gives all the young artists the opportunity to go see the world, play some music and get the experience that they would probably never get unless somebody would take a chance with them and take them out. I get to travel and see the world while doing what I love to do. Doing what I love allows me to be open and true to the feelings that are inside of me.
• Would you say that doing what you love gives you a special energy that extends out to others?
• I think doing what I do has given me a sort of eye opening situation by knowing that what I do pleases a lot of people. You know, it’s funny because some people are envious of the musician or the artist. They wish they could do that too. When people come and see the shows, they get the chance to embrace something that they would love to do themselves and get a chance to see it firsthand or talk to you firsthand. People try to live vicariously through the person that they envy. Instead of thinking of it as a negative, look at it as a positive – you are helping people to find a way within themselves to enjoy something that they admire and inspire them to do what they love.
• Would you say that by doing what you love that other people not only see it, but they feel it?
• Oh without a doubt! When I go to perform and to play music, no matter when it is or where it is, I do it whole-heartedly and with all the passion that’s within me to make sure that I can give them the best that I can give them at that time. Because I really truly feel within my spirit, within my heart, within my soul that it is something that I am thankful and grateful to be able to do, I put my whole heart into it when I go out to play music.
• At what age did you start?
• Well I tell the story that when I was sixteen, I went to this music shop on Kingsway in East Vancouver and talked the shop owner to allow me to have this bass guitar amp. At that time it was very expensive, like six or seven hundred dollars. I would take it home and my mom would have to go back later to make payments on it. I started music before I was sixteen, but I think I actually said “Ok I’m going to do this” when I turned 16. It was when I got my first bass amp that I started calling musicians over to have a jam.
• So is that how you chose music as your lifetime career? How did you choose it?
• The reality is, you don’t choose music. It chooses you. So in saying that, when I was a young kid, Grade 2 in elementary school, I was already performing. From Grade 2 to Grade 4, I was trying to make bands in the school, setting up practices at lunch time. I was trying to do music when I was not even out of elementary school. I didn’t choose it, it chose me.
• How do you get inspired or what motivates you?
• So many things! I could be watching TV and see something or driving down the street and some song comes on. So many things inspire me. It doesn’t matter where it is. Somewhere, someway, somehow, something will give me an idea, giving me a spark that allows me to go back and either write a song or create something. There are so many things, right? Life itself is inspiring.
• So then would you say that you are guided by a higher force?
• Definitely. Because if I were to be smart enough for myself I’d probably go “No, I shouldn’t do this” and maybe go get a regular job or something. It’s easy to get caught up in pretension. But no, I chose to do what I do. It’s not about being smart, it’s about following your heart to pursue your dream. Let that force within guide you.
• So if you were to think it rather than following your gut, you would have probably picked to do something else?
• It could be. I listen to everything. Like when you are working out, you are listening to your body and you listen to what it’s trying to tell you. It always tells you “Oh please don’t do that because for today we are not feeling it,” or “Let’s do that because I need to strengthen.” If we listen to our body, it always tells us which way to go. What’s ailing us if we are feeling kinda sick…if we listen to our body, it tells us what it is and what we should do at that time. I know if I should sit down today or lay down to meditate today to get my mind right. I follow my instincts. I follow my heart and my soul. My instincts always guide me in the right direction.
• So what you’re saying is that if we stop thinking so much and follow our heart and our instincts that we will be on the right track?
• When we think so much, we second guess ourselves.
• So just follow your heart and follow your instincts and you will find your passion?
• Right, because it’s within all of us.
