Episode 257
[BONUS] The Rise of Crucial Keys
This podcast episode delves into the intricate dynamics of creative collaboration and personal growth within the music industry, highlighting the multifaceted nature of artistic development. We explore the layers of trauma, self-worth issues, and insecurities that individuals may grapple with while birthing creative projects. The dialogue emphasizes the importance of structured support through coaching, mentoring, and strategic planning, tailored to each person's unique journey. Additionally, we reflect on the evolution of relationships within the industry and the necessity of surrounding oneself with a solid support network to navigate the challenges inherent in artistic pursuits. Our conversation ultimately underscores the significance of resilience and adaptability as we traverse the complexities of the creative landscape.
Takeaways:
- The impact of personal trauma on self-worth and insecurity is profound and intricate, requiring careful exploration during therapeutic sessions.
- The structure and methodology of coaching sessions are tailored to individual needs, ensuring a personalized approach to healing and creativity.
- Establishing a supportive network is crucial for artists, as it fosters resilience and provides essential guidance through challenges.
- The journey into the music industry involves navigating complex dynamics and relationships, which can significantly influence an artist's development and success.
- Artistic endeavors often require a blend of creativity and strategic planning, highlighting the importance of both artistic vision and practical execution.
- Effective communication and collaboration among team members are essential in fostering an environment conducive to artistic growth and innovation.
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- Alicia Keys
- Crucial
- Jeff
- Jodi Gerson
- Peter Edge
Transcript
You know, how much layer of trauma's there, like self worth issue is there, Insecurity and anxiety is there, how much is it?
Speaker A:Just like I'm birthing a creative project and I just need some support around the strategy and framework of how to move that through.
Speaker A:It really, like, depends on where the person is and how the sessions are structured as a result.
Speaker A:But, you know, it's gonna be X number of time based on what we're working on and again, based on, you know, like the amount of kind of coaching, advising, mentoring, teaching versus strategy versus healing energy sessions, you know, it all kind of depends on where you're at.
Speaker A:And then we would structure that like X number of times a month we're going to meet and here's how we're going to do this and here's the journey and the process, the methodology we're going to work through as a result.
Speaker A:And so it varies.
Speaker B:Got you.
Speaker C:So these, a lot of these sessions involve sitting down and talking, basically.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:Which is the best way to resolve most things.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:There's a lot of.
Speaker A:There's a lot of sitting and talking and then there's work in between.
Speaker A:And then sometimes you're just laying there and receiving like some energy work, you know.
Speaker A:Okay, so.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker A:Maybe you're sending me something, you could be sending me music.
Speaker A:And we're going back and forth and listening and we're talking about that and, you know, it depends.
Speaker B:Oh, okay.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So how.
Speaker B:How did you begin working with Alicia?
Speaker B:Alicia Keys?
Speaker B:I don't know her.
Speaker A:Yeah, we.
Speaker A:We knew each other since we met when we were four at a mutual friend's party.
Speaker A:Halloween party.
Speaker A:Very soiree, actually.
Speaker A:No, but she lived in this building in New York City.
Speaker A:It was an artist building, and my uncle lived in that building.
Speaker A:And her mom and my uncle were close.
Speaker A:And then she was close with my older cousins and then they were in like a girl group when Alicia was 9.
Speaker A:And my cousins were like older than us, like 15, 16 or something like that.
Speaker A:And so we just grew up around each other.
Speaker A:Like, I thought, I have a big family.
Speaker A:I thought we were cousins for the longest, and then I found out we weren't.
Speaker A:But so we were just around each other and.
Speaker A:Yeah, what happened was, what had happened was I always wanted to be an artist.
Speaker A:I always wanted to sing and dance, all that stuff.
Speaker A:But my dad was like, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, that's not your path.
Speaker A:That's not for you.
Speaker A:I don't want you in that business.
Speaker A:Because his Brother, the one who lived in the building, was a musician and sort of struggled, and he saw him go through it and heard his stories, and he was just like, no, not my baby.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:So when we were, like, 16, though, you know, my uncle knew.
Speaker A:My uncle knew, and he was my mentor, and he really, like, stuck up for me with my dad, his brother, and was like, no, you have to let her do this.
Speaker A:And I hadn't told Alicia about it because she would have.
Speaker A:She got a record deal.
Speaker A:And, like, I was both, like, super excited for her, but also, like, I didn't want to tell her that I wanted to sing, too, because I thought she would have been like.
Speaker A:I thought she was going to be like, oh, you just want to sing because I want to sing.
Speaker A:And that's not even, like, her way.
Speaker A:But I was like.
Speaker A:I was super insecure about it.
Speaker A:Like, she just thinks I'm like, oh, me too.
Speaker A:I want a record deal.
Speaker A:So I didn't say, yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:And one day, like, my uncle called me up.
Speaker A:He's like, hey, Erica.
Speaker A:I'm like, hey.
Speaker A:He's like, I got Alicia and Crucial here.
Speaker A:Crucial.
Speaker A:Crucial was her partner at the time.
Speaker A:And I was like, oh, hey, y'all.
Speaker A:What's up, da, da da?
Speaker A:And he was like, Alicia.
Speaker A:She's like, yeah.
Speaker A:He's like, erica sings.
Speaker A:And she was like, what?
Speaker A:What do you mean?
Speaker A:What are you.
Speaker A:What are you talking about?
Speaker A:He's like, no, she, like, sings, and, like, she wants to sing.
Speaker A:She's like, how have you never told me this?
Speaker A:You know?
Speaker A:She's like, when can you get here?
Speaker A:So on my next, like, school break, I came to New York, and they had this little spot in Harlem, this little studio, and we just recorded, and it was like, boom.
Speaker A:You know, they were building this Crucial Keys concept, and it was a production family, and da da, da, da, da.
Speaker A:And so I was like, let's do this.
Speaker A:It's Crucial Keys.
Speaker A:And so we started just writing and making music together, and it was like, maybe, like, a crew of, like, five or six of us.
Speaker A:And that was going on.
Speaker A:And so we did that for years.
Speaker A:And it was like, Alicia, because she had the deal already, so she was gonna come out.
Speaker A:And then we were all working on our own demos and also working on the alb, the first album.
Speaker A:And so then we were gonna each, like, strategically, you know, submit our own demos and get our own deals and come out.
Speaker A:We would be the crew.
Speaker A:Ba ba, ba.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And then she came out, and, you know, we had been.
Speaker A:Again, we'd been Working on this.
Speaker A:I mean, we had moved multiple labels at this point.
Speaker A:By the time the album came out, we'd been through labels and.
Speaker D:Wow.
Speaker A:And then it just.
Speaker A:And then it just was like, it went from zero to like a gazillion, what seemed like overnight, but we had been working on for years and it was just like, hey, you know, can you come on the road with me for a few weeks?
Speaker A:Because, you know, one of our other friends was supposed to go as her assistant, and I was like, yeah, sure, that'd be cool, because I was working on my demo and everything.
Speaker A:And then three weeks turned into six weeks and the road manager left and I was like, oh, I could do that gig.
Speaker A:And then I became the road manager and then her manager was like, you should be my day to day person.
Speaker A:So, like, all of a sudden I went from working on my demo to being, like, management, and that was that.
Speaker A:That was that.
Speaker D:Okay, so how long.
Speaker D:How long was the process before, like, while you guys were shopping the deal to actually becoming the phenomenon that was her debut album?
Speaker A:Well, she'd been working diligently and hard for many, many years, so.
Speaker A:And I wasn't a part of shopping the deal.
Speaker A:I was a teenager.
Speaker A:But her and Jeff and, you know, her publisher, Jodi Gerson, and her A and R Peter Edge, like, it was, you know, they were the ones who, you know, if she signed at 16, the album, you know, I don't know, it was 15.
Speaker A:We were 15 or 16, and then the album came out when we were 20.
Speaker A:So it was a five year process.
Speaker D:Right, Right.
Speaker D:Gotcha.
Speaker A:Yep.
Speaker D:Was there ever a moment where you were like, I don't know if it's gonna actually happen or did she ever feel that or you guys are just.
Speaker D:It's a matter of time.
Speaker A:Because there was just.
Speaker A:No.
Speaker A:Yeah, there was no, we weren't.
Speaker A:I mean, we were in, like.
Speaker A:We were in.
Speaker A:We had a record deal.
Speaker A:Know what I mean?
Speaker A:It was just like.
Speaker C:She was already writing for other artists too, right at that time.
Speaker A:Yeah, there was some of that going on, but it was just like.
Speaker A:Like she, you know, when you saw her do her thing behind a piano live, it was just.
Speaker A:You hadn't seen anything like that.
Speaker A:There was no doubt.
Speaker A:There was no doubt.
Speaker D:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:It just, you know, we just have to, like, eat shit for a minute.
Speaker A:That's all.
Speaker A:It was worth it.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:And then, I mean, that from road manager, that journey continued for a number of years and you're, I mean, still growing up at that time.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:Yes, you've Done a lot of things.
Speaker B:You've worn a lot of hats.
Speaker B:How much of that experience came directly from the works?
Speaker B:I know that you, I'm sure your roles changed over the years from road.
Speaker A:Yeah, all of it.
Speaker A:I mean, I literally, yeah, I played, I played every possible role you could imagine.
Speaker A:And it was cool because nobody knew what we were doing.
Speaker A:Not even her manager, quite frankly, you know what I'm saying?
Speaker A:Like, he never managed somebody at this scale.
Speaker A:So he wasn't like, okay, here's how you manage, here's what you do.
Speaker A:It was just like, you're gonna figure it out, you know, so it was a very fake it till you make it type of thing.
Speaker A:And, you know, I was responsible in managing and we were touring and I mean, people were, you know, the sound guy was like 50 and I was 20.
Speaker A:Do you know what I mean?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker A:And so we were like, you know, in my little like Juicy Couture jumpsuit, people were just like, really?
Speaker A:Aw, you're so cute.
Speaker A:You know, So I had to like.
Speaker A:I remember going to the production office and they'd be like, fuck.
Speaker A:Da da da, da da.
Speaker A:So I was like, okay, fuck, Fuck.
Speaker A:I gotta say, fuck.
Speaker A:More noted.
Speaker A:You know, I was just like, you know, figured it out as I went.
Speaker A:But because I grew up in a, in a really business minded home, my parents are both were, you know, successful entrepreneurs.
Speaker A:I was comfortable in business, but I was also like, but I'm supposed to be an artist, why am I doing all this?
Speaker A:But I was good at it.
Speaker A:And again, I got to learn from the ground up.
Speaker A:Sometimes we would go to a club gig and I would be standing there like, security, you can't come in.
Speaker A:You know what I mean?
Speaker A:Or I'd be like, or whatever.
Speaker A:So it was cool because, yeah, I learned all the jobs on the way, you know, on the way kind of like up.
Speaker A:And we grew together as a team through the years.
Speaker A:And so it was, it was really cool to be able to see it from all those different angles.
Speaker A:And luckily also the great thing about Alicia was that, you know, like, she's still with Peter Edge, who was her A and R when she was 14 years old.
Speaker A:Peter is now the CEO of the label.
Speaker A:So it's just like so many of the relationships, you know, we've grown up with these people and so we.
Speaker A:Most of the relationships around her things, people have changed, of course, but there's a good handful of like long term relationships, which is really rare.
Speaker A:And I would say that's also kind of what sets like Alicia like, what put her in the.
Speaker A:In a good standing?
Speaker A:Because I think a lot of artists who really do struggle with some darkness, like, they don't have good support around them.
Speaker A:You know what I'm saying?
Speaker A:And so I think that's like.
Speaker A:That's like, one of the most critical things, I think, for any artist in this business.
Speaker A:Like, you need some real solid people around you to help you.
Speaker A:Like, her mom is like, no joke.
Speaker A:She'd be like, what?
Speaker A:You know, you better check, you know what I'm saying?
Speaker A:Like, you don't mess with Terry, you know what I'm saying?
Speaker A:Like, type of thing.
Speaker A:And I were.
Speaker A:You know, she and I were super tight, and I always kept it 100.
Speaker A:Like, I'm not known for not keeping it 100.
Speaker A:So it's like she had the right mix of people around her, and a lot of people don't have that.
Speaker A:It's like, yeah, totally.
Speaker A:Oh, that's such a good idea.
Speaker A:You should definitely drive your car off a cliff.
Speaker A:That's gonna be epic.
Speaker A:You know what I mean?
Speaker A:So it's like, if you have people like that around you just yesing you and not willing to tell you the truth, you're in for it.
Speaker A:You're in for a tough ride.
Speaker B:Wise words.
Speaker B:Wise words.
Speaker B:What are some of the bigger challenges that you came across, especially in those early days, entering the music industry?
Speaker A:I think it was just in the early days, it was just like learning the game, you know what I mean?
Speaker A:We just didn't really know what we were dealing with, and it.
Speaker A:You know, like, anywhere there's.
Speaker A:It's just.
Speaker A:There's like, understanding the politics, you know, what is the game I'm playing?
Speaker A:You know what I mean?
Speaker A:You know, you don't know the rules of the game until you get into it, and the industry is a game indeed.
