A Conversation With Isaia Huron, R&B Artist, Composer, And Producer (Motivational)

Reginald D welcomes R&B singer, Isaia Huron as a special guest on his podcast. Isaia is a multi-talented artist, composer, and producer, hailing from the City of Greenville, South Carolina.

During this captivating conversation, Isaia dives into the fascinating journey of his musical evolution. He shares the remarkable story of his early initiation into the world of music, including experiences as a young rapper and embarking on tours at an age when most are just discovering their passions.

Isaia embarked on a distinct path as he transitioned into a promising career as a drummer. This rhythmic voyage led him to the music scene in Nashville, Tennessee, where he lent his exceptional skills to various country and pop bands.

Isaia opens up about a pivotal turning point in his life when the pandemic forced him to pivot from his career as a drummer to the forefront of the stage as an R&B artist. He divulges the intricate details of this transition, his 2023 tour and the unique, genre-defying style that defines his music.

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Transcript

SPEAKER01: Welcome to Real Talk with Reginald D. I'm your host, Reginald D. Today, I am excited to have a special guest on the show. He's an artist, composer, and a producer. He's also my cousin. Welcome to the show, Isaia Huron
SPEAKER00: Yo, what up? I'm glad to be welcome to the show. This is dope.

SPEAKER_01: I appreciate you taking the time out of your busy schedule, man. You're a busy man to be 26 years old.

SPEAKER_00: You got to stay busy, man. You know, that's the goal.

SPEAKER_01: Right, exactly. So, Isaia, You grew up in the Greenville, South Carolina, such as myself, and you are a pastor's kid. Let's talk a little bit about that. How was it growing up as a pastor's kid? Did you feel like you had to act a certain way or be a certain way?

SPEAKER_00: Uh, nah, never. Even if I did feel like that, I just wouldn't have acted a certain way. Yeah. Like I just, I don't know. It was no different. I don't know. I didn't, I don't have any other childhood to compare it to. So I don't really know what it was like growing up as a pastor's kid. It's like, I don't know. Like I just grew up, you know? Exactly.

SPEAKER_01: So in church, you know how church is, you found your gifts and you was able to use your gifts and things like that. And you also formed a group. I think you maybe were eight years old or something like that. And your mom was a manager. So tell us a little bit about the group.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, let's see. I was at a block party, like eight years old. And I remember this dude, like he was DJing the block party. It was a church block party. And he like threw on this beat. And I remember just being like, I want to rap to this so bad. So I asked him if I could have the microphone. I just spit a freestyle. And everybody cheered for me and I was like, oh shoot, I can rap. And then the next day I like called my homeboys at the time and I was like, y'all want to form a group? It's like, sure. So we all kind of learned how to rap at the same time. Then we ended up recording the project when I was in fifth grade. And then we went on like an East Coast tour in some sense in the middle of our fifth grade and sixth grade year. And Yeah, I mean, it kept going until we all got our Adam's apples and decided it wasn't cute anymore. And so it was like Alvin and the Chipmunks or something like that. Like none of our raps made any sense, just happy to be doing it. So yeah, it was cool. I got to get a taste of what it was like to be in front of the crowd and go back to the hotel and have people pay for your food and stuff and to get paid from doing raps and music and stuff. Like I got all that at a young age. And I think it was like really pivotal for me So yeah, that was a fun time.

SPEAKER_01: Let's talk about Isaia, the drummer. Yeah. You started out playing drums. What inspired you to be a drummer?

SPEAKER_00: when I thought rap wasn't cute anymore. And realistically, I was really just tired of being in the front because it made all my friend's kind of look at me in an envious way. And I kind of wanted to blend in. So, I still chose to do music, but I chose to be the furthest in the bag I could possibly be. That's why I chose to be in drums. So, I was behind the glass. And I wanted to start playing at age 13. And I started playing professionally by 14. And yeah, that's how I got into drums.

SPEAKER_01: That's interesting. So, you started playing drums, then you moved to Nashville and started playing for different bands and things like that, right?

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I moved to Nashville like 2017. Started playing for country bands and pop bands and just doing that whole Nashville thing up until the pandemic. And the pandemic came 2020 and it took all of my drum gigs away and I was so broke. so, in debt. And that's really kind of when I made the transition from playing drums to being an artist. And I haven't really looked back since.

SPEAKER_01: That's amazing. You know how to transition, especially at a young age, and then doing your thing, being a drummer, and then it all just stops all of a sudden. And so, I guess you were thinking more like, man, I got to do something.

SPEAKER_00: I mean, it was more so just opportunity just falling in. Because I remember when I was on drums, I was always making music on the side as like a hobby and putting it on SoundCloud. And I guess during the pandemic, it was like such a God thing because I got a random call from Amazon to do a cover and it was going to pay me X amount of thousands of dollars just to do this one Justin Bieber cover. And I turned it in, and they wired me the money and I was just like, I guess we might as well just be doing this then. I always wanted to stay away from being an artist, which I was saying about the drums. I didn't want to be in the front anymore, but it just happened to be the case that I had to go back to doing that. I tried to stay away from it for the longest time. Yeah, it just happened that way. And so, it wasn't like I was looking for opportunity. It was more like the opportunity kind of found me and I took it and we've just been doing this Isaiah Huron thing ever since.

SPEAKER_01: Now you become an artist, you're a singer, and then your style of music. Let's talk a little bit about that. Because I listen to it, it is different. I call it more of a quiet stone kind of thing. I call it a gentleman type music. It has a lot of respect behind it. What made you go that route in the industry? Because everybody else is kind of like saying the same stuff and things like that. What made you go that route?

SPEAKER_00: I'm an Aquarius, so I'm naturally a rebellious person. That's like for starters. And I always get really sick of people doing things because everybody's doing it. I think this whole girl pull up to my house or girl, I miss you, like all this stuff that everybody's kind of saying. And that's just a generalization, but people usually cling on to what works and what makes the most money. I call it like the desire for capitalism. And they don't even know that that's the real desire. They just go into the studio and think it's just making music. It's so much deeper for me because of how I started doing it. I started doing it out of the love of just music. Like, I come from a professional musician's background, so these chords and these structures and me playing in church and understanding, like, the way the spirit works and how you kind of can manipulate the way people feel about the music from the drums, me applying all those thoughts in the music, with the lyrics and with some of the stuff that I'm talking about, that stuff comes from my dad. I have a lot of songs that are nothing about love, nothing about girls, and I'm still in this R&B thing because it's rhythm and blues. And if I'm sad about the state of the world, or if I'm sad about the state of the political system, that's me being blue. And so, I'm just adding rhythm to it. But people take R&B and generalize it like, let's just talk about love and heartbreak and stuff. And it's just, the genre can be so much more expanded to a lot of other topics that can be helpful, but everybody just want to stay in this box that just keeps generating money and tickling on these heartbreak strings. I'm just not really with that. And so, every day I'm trying to find something new to talk about or new to put in this artistic realm that can transcend what we consider the norm. But I guess my music right now, I'm just really inspired by a lot of the innovators and what they do sonically, and I'm trying to just follow their footsteps. Yeah, that's really kind of my purpose right now, I think, you know, until I discover what else the new thing is.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, because I'll tell people all the time, you always got to evolve, man. You can't just stay with everything that's going on. You got to keep moving. You got to keep changing and things like that. And sometimes you don't have to change when things change. You can stay the same, but that's what makes you stand out sometimes.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's true. That's very true. So you have four albums. Well, I got four projects. I don't really think I have an album because I don't know how to make albums. You know what I'm saying? I think an album is like really, really, really like your stamp and everything is really established. And that's what a real stuff is. I think everything I'm doing right now is like an experiment. EPs, little singles, mixtapes even, but an album, I feel like you got to like really hit it out of the park. And I feel like I don't have the resources currently, you know, October 2023, where I can even make that right now. I'm trying to be really, really careful with it because it's a sacred thing to me. A lot of people just go and make an album and it just don't mean anything. It's like, oh, we just make an album. But for me, it's just so much more of a gesture of professionalism that I just feel like I have a lot more to learn before I do that.

SPEAKER_01: That's wise. So, let's talk about your music. So, you manage, and I actually read this, You manage all the instruments, the sound, the bass, the drums, you kind of take it all. I know you got a lot of people that work with you and stuff like that, but you kind of say, I want it to be like this, I want it to be like that, and then you get it all and then you bring it together.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, end-to-end control. That's my thing. Because of where I source my music inspiration from, it's nobody really that I've met that I can speak the same language to that can understand it more than me and how to execute it like I do. And I'm not saying that like with arrogance or anything. I'm just saying just as far as circumstance, really just how I was forced to do it. I had to teach myself. There was nobody to teach me anything. So, I had to learn everything. And I'm really glad that I took that route because it was a long route, and it still is a long route. I could easily just be like, let me call some producer and then let me just sing on it and they handle everything. But I'm like a problem solver. I think of myself as more of a problem solver or engineer when it comes to trying to make the music and stuff, not just somebody who just sings. And I get jealous of people who can do that because they're able to pump out stuff so much quicker. But It's not that way for me. And I'm really thankful because I just get to learn so much more. And in the long run, there's much more for me to manipulate and change and alter to my liking exactly once you take that long route. And so whatever criticisms I get about, you know, oh, we should probably get somebody else to produce this or whatever. I mean, I like to take all the L's. and learn, because it just gives you something to wake up to try to accomplish more. And that's my passion. I cry about chords first, more than I cry about the actual lyrics or how somebody sings. I cry because of the production. I'm a production person. So, it's best that I just try to exercise that muscle as much as possible.

SPEAKER_01: So, Isaiah, you were on a tour. Was it a year ago or something like that?

SPEAKER_00: It started in March, early this year.

SPEAKER_01: So, what was that tour like? Was it exciting? How did that make you feel?

SPEAKER_00: Well, it was interesting because we started it, my first show was like two days after my dad's heart attack, you know, so I really didn't want to be on there at all, to be honest. So, I got on there and I don't know, I made it challenging for myself in different ways because I purposely just didn't pack any clothes other than just underwear and socks. So, I tried to make it really fun for myself to try to find an outfit right before the show so that can be my stress and not me overthinking stress about my performance of the show. So, because of that and because I put those things into it, I mean, it was fun. It was just a big learning experience and I'm just happy that I was able to do it.

SPEAKER_01: Now people say, and I read this, they say your sound or your music sounds like Drake, Trey Songz, and The Weeknd. Who do you think it sounds like?

SPEAKER_00: Definitely none of those people. I don't know. I'm just so in it. I don't care. I mean, people's interpretations of it is their own interpretations of it. I don't think it sounds like I just think it just sounds like something I just made. So yeah, I don't know. I don't know how to compare it to whatever. I don't really listen to much music anyway. So, it's very tough for me to be like, oh, it sounds like this. People can pull comparisons themselves, but I don't. I personally have no clue. Well, I'll tell you, I think it sounds like you. Thank you. Yeah, that's a good answer.

SPEAKER_01: Isaiah, let's talk a little bit about this. How tough has it been being an artist and doing it basically your way?

SPEAKER_00: It's the toughest part, I think, because when you don't do it the traditional way, the roadblocks are just kind of like one of one. I don't know anybody going through this other than the people who control it all themselves. It's like, everybody wants you to just be a part of this. It's almost like a factory mill or something like that. I'm just like, the outlier. And so, because you're an outlier in that situation, it's going to be difficult. People don't treat you like you know your worth or something like that, or like your trajectory in the future. And that'd be the hardest part is just like people kind of making you feel less than or something, or by the way they talk to you and make you feel like you are stupid, like you don't know how negotiations work, or you don't know how the terms work. A lot of the artists that are in the factory mill don't know how to read contracts. I know how to read contracts. And I think because that is a thing, it does become intimidating for most people, and they reject you for that. And not only that, I have end-to-end control over the sonics, over the music itself. So, when you are like a self-sustaining person or self-efficient or self-sufficient person, like it will be hard. And I think that applies to pretty much everything. If you're a business owner, if you are like Ice Cube with the whole big three league, if you're trying to do something for yourself, there's going to be gatekeepers and people just to try to make it very, very, very difficult. And you just don't know why. But yeah, that just seems to be the biggest struggles.

SPEAKER_01: What makes you have that much confidence in doing it your own way?

SPEAKER_00: Because I just don't really care about the results monetarily of it. And I really didn't want to do this. So, because I'm doing this, I have to do it my way. Otherwise, I'm just going to stop. Like, I don't know any other way to do it. You know, I've never in my life, in any situation, been the person to like do something somebody else's way, just because they say that it's the right way. So, I think understanding myself is the confidence. Know thyself. Yeah, I think that's where the confidence comes from. I just don't know how else we're going to do this. If I'm going to do it, we're just going to do it my way.

SPEAKER_01: Okay, since you're my cousin, I'm going to ask you three kind of fun questions about you, so the listeners can hear.

SPEAKER_00: What's your favorite food? It's either going to be fried okra or steak.

SPEAKER_01: Okay, okay. What's your favorite car?

SPEAKER_00: I don't think I have one. I don't really think like that. I don't know if it's been invented yet.

SPEAKER_01: Who is your favorite music artist?

SPEAKER_00: I can tell you who it is right now. Right now it's Tom York from Radiohead, the lead singer from Radiohead. He's like my music dad or something. I just really, really admire him. He's the man.

SPEAKER_01: Gotcha. So, tell the listeners, what is next for Isaia Huron?

SPEAKER_00: I don't know. I don't know how to describe it. I don't know. That could be understood by many people, all the listeners that you have. But I'll say, yeah, just really good music. That's what you can expect next. Just really good, clean music that everybody can enjoy. That's where I'm at right now.

SPEAKER_01: One thing I admire about you is that you don't rush your music. You take your time with it, you let it come to you, you let it develop before you even put it out there. Because you see a lot of people just throwing songs, songs, songs, songs, just back-to-back. And you really nurture it for it to be great. And I think that's what makes you so authentic and so different from the rest, because the way you handle your music and your talent.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I appreciate that. One of the things I can't stand is the normalization of fans and consumers demanding the quickness or the speed or the rate in which artists are supposed to put out music. Because that's like never in history ever happened in a form of art. It's just like, you wait for the artist to conjure up something important to say, and then when they say it, you digest yourself with it. But when you try to put this expectation on people, and this comes back to capitalism conversation in music or the factory thing. Once you put a time limit on these people, the quality of the music becomes less potent. And that's why you got to respect people like Kendrick, because it's like, I don't care how long it takes. If God's not speaking to me, I'm not speaking. Artists are supposed to be a channel to God's voice. And if you're not doing that, I just don't know what you're doing. You know?

SPEAKER_01: I know that's the difference. If you're not hearing from God and you're just doing stuff that makes all the difference in the world. of anything in life at the end of the day. Okay. Lastly, Isaiah, what would you say to the youth today that's trying to get into the music industry?

SPEAKER_00: So, I'm not a guy who gives advice because I just don't think that advice is really, really that necessary in life because I think to give advice to somebody You got to like know the context and know like how they were brought up and know how they think about things in order for it to actually apply. Otherwise, you're just kind of like spitting out like what you know to them. And hopefully, you know, everybody gets mad about this, like one size fits all type of thing. And for me, my advice is that there is no advice. It's just like, do what you feel. If you are artists, you are supposed to be abstract and you are supposed to stick to your vision and If you're letting somebody else dictate your artistic vision through them trying to give you their advice, that's a recipe for you to be burnt out. It's a recipe for you to be wanting to quit and self-doubt and all these different things because you didn't stay true to your vision. And so, yeah, I mean, that's my advice. It's really that there is kind of no advice. Well said.

SPEAKER_01: So Isaia, how can people follow your career and listen to your music or find you on social media?

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, just Isaia Huron everywhere. I-S-A-I-A-H-U-R-O-N. No spaces, no underscores, no dots. That's me everywhere. YouTube, Apple Music, Spotify, Instagram, soon to be TikTok, every platform you can think of.

SPEAKER_01: I'll definitely be listening to you on Spotify.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah. Yeah. That's where most people, that's where the bread come in.

SPEAKER_01: Right, right. So, Isaia Huron, thank you so much, man, for taking time out of your busy schedule to hang out with me for a minute.

SPEAKER_00: Most def, most def. You're my cousin. We can do this all day, every day.

SPEAKER_01: That's it, man. I really appreciate you, man. Keep pushing, keep striving. Anything you need from me; you know how to reach me.

SPEAKER_00: Yes, sir. Most definitely. And likewise. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01: Yes, sir. Thank you. Thanks for tuning in to Real Talk with Reginald D. If you enjoyed the show, Please share with anyone you feel the need to take this journey with us on being a better you. See you next time.