by wildangels

Here is the last part of my interview with Ieshia. In it, she discusses her upcoming CD and her plans for the future. I hope you've all enjoyed this series.

Jamie: Tell me about your Album.

Ieshia: My album is due for a 2008 release, hopefully before my birthday, which is May 2. It will be titled Still Standing because despite of everything I've been through, I'm still standing. The album will actaully be a cool transition story within itself. It takes me from a good relationship to a bad relationship and when I let go of that bad relationship, I find happiness. It’s time to celebrate, dance, rejoice and help others

Jamie: What else are you working on?

Ieshia: This year, I plan on releasing my first book entitled GIGSTER which is a book especially for artists with club listings and diffrent venues for them to perform. To perform at these clubs, most are required to present something for consideration. That's what i'm doing with my book. I'm doing the work for them and letting them know what each club or venue in each state is requires an artist to present to them in order to perform. Hopefully, My gigster book will turn into a Gigster Transportation Service for singers. Most singers have great talent but there talent is hidden due to finances or not being able to get to gigs due to a lack of transportation. Eventually, Gigster will spin off from a book to a transportation service with a low monthly fee that drops off and picks up a singer , raper, poet to casting calls and performances. Each year, a top artist will be picked for a promo tour. I'm looking for gigster to also have a special fund where each artist get there own marketing package, including demo recording, photo shoot, media kit & more, everything an artist needs to live their dream. Then, a non profit organization called Verity Envision, which keeps teens off the street and in the classroom, doing productive things! There will be GED and educational programs designed to help people reach their goals in life, all while offering a limited amount of financial assistance for rental and utilities through donations.

Jamie: Thanks for taking the time to chat with me. This has been really interesting.

Ieshia: You’re welcome!

by wildangels

Last time, Ieshia talked about getting signed and losing pretty much everything to Hurricane Katrina. Today, she discusses trying to bounce back from that experience and a little about her music.

Jamie: Around the same time, you had mention you were going to school. Can you tell me about that?

Ieshia: I was attending Delta College of Arts & Technology and I completed my degree in Visual Communication that I was working on prior to Katrina. I love to design and I knew that being a singer I was going to need CD COVERS, FLYERS, POSTERS, etc. I figured why not learn it myself and save myself some money while also doing what I love? I've been getting clients since I graduated. My first client I had was when we returned to New Orleansin 2006: TBC BRASS BAND. I also do Music Production and write songs & poems. I also draw.

Jamie: So you basically have your hands in every aspect on your singing career

Ieshia: yes, so I can help others and myself

Jamie: Is there any particular part you prefer? (singing, design, writing, etc)

Ieshia: I love it all, so they all are equal. I try not to limit myself. I sing Country, Rock & Roll, but my genre is rap hip hop & R&B. I just wrote a country song called "Can't Give Up Now that I'm hoping a movie will pickup for a soundtrack

Jamie: When you write, do you mostly draw from your own life or do you take experiences you've heard about from others as well?

Ieshia: I write about my life but mostly, I write about what’s going on in the world in general. I write songs people would love to say but can't say it, songs that give hope and are a guiding light for someone. I don't write just to write and make a hit. I write to touch someone through what I'm saying and make a difference.

Jamie: You mentioned in your information having the album done and having to start it all over.... tell me a little about the recording process and what you had to do to get the project back on track.

Ieshia: We were having some problems and our landlord was about to evict us, but God Showed up again and pulled us out of harms way. We found an organization to pay our rent and my husband and I got jobs again. We started networking and getting to my career again. While I was pregnant and on bed rest, my husband wrote a long letter explaining our situation and how much he loves me and wants me to live my dream. It reach many celebs and top indutry insiders, but only a few reached out to help. Then, Giana Garel & Chuck D of Poublic Enemy read my husband's letter out load of the Famous national Radio Show on The Real Talk Show and help started pouring in. Keep in mind, due to Hurricane Katrina, I'd lost my industry contact, promotional flyers, posters, cd covers, master recordings. I had nothing and had to start over with a $0 budget. Producers started To send me tracks and I wrote new songs. I also entered lots of Contests. I was chosen top 10 in the CW's Dig it or Dis it competition and semi finalist in the How She Move Event Contest with lil mama. Now, here I am getting management deal offer and publicist, I have fans in the UK and the US. My name is known. My MySpace page gets over 300 songs plays and hits a day and my Profile has been viewd over 12,000 times in 4 months since joining the site. I still don't have the money to record my album in the studio, though, or take professional photoshoots nor do I have the clothing for the shoots but people are contacting me with offers of help for free if I offer to design things for them.

Jamie: Do you have a favorite song you’ve written?

Ieshia: Actually I love them all. My song "hott sex" is the most popular with 1,5000 play in less than 3 months. I also wrote a poem about what we went through in the convention center that my fans love. I have a new dance song similar to the Soulja Boy's hit called "Hater Walk".

Jamie: There is a lot of change in the music industry today and so many people are now turning to things like MySpace. How do you feel about the changes happening and the new ways people are getting music?

Ieshia: Myspace is awesome! Although it can be a blessing a curse, it has been nothing but a blessing to me and it's an honor to be a part of MySpace. Ithelps me network with so many people and receive help, while also offering help. I get the most of my design clients though MySpace and Craigslist.

Check back tomorrow, when she tells us a little about her album and her plans for the future. Until then, "let the music play".

by wildangels

My interview with Ieshia continues as she discusses getting signed and the event that brought her career to a stand still...

Jamie: Tell me about your deal with Pimptown. How did that come about?

Ieshia: I was looking through a newspaper ad that was looking for singers, rappers etc. it said to call for an audition. I called him and he loved my voice. A few weeks later my grandmother signed me to a recording contract with his company. One month later I had my first performance, when I opened a concert for his top artist. We got married March 16th 2003. We had our first child May 22, 2003 and our daughter was born August 5th 2004.

Jamie: In your information, you mentioned Hurricane Katrina pretty much forced you to go back to the beginning career wise. Can you elaborate on that and tell me about what you experienced during the storm?

Ieshia: My career was starting to take off with gigs, tours and more lined up by my celebrity booking agent Lionel Robinson. We'd just brought a car and a house when the storm was coming. My husband had been through many storms, and this was my first. We talked it over and decided to get out of the city. Even though we'd just brought a car, we didn't have enough gas or the money to buy the gas to get out, so we stuck the storm out. I was so terrified, I scared myself to sleep. When I woke up, I went in the other room and said, "Wow, that storm wasn't so bad after all." My husband said "look outside". I looked outside and there it was: Hurricane Katrina. I ran back under the covers like Shag and Scooby! When the storm was over, everyone was getting ready to make and eat breakfast when all of a sudden water started to come in the front door. We couldn’t stop it from coming in, so we grabbed our kids and belongings and ran upstairs. We were stranded on the second floor with no food for 3 days. We flashed the lights in the sky when helicopters passed by, but noone would save us.

Jamie: How did you finally get rescued?

Ieshia: Luckily, there was a neighbor that lived in the subdivision that owned a boat. Come to find out he was going around rescuing. his neighbors. We let him take the another family in his boat first, but when he came back to us we didn't want to leave each other. We couldn't my husband is 300 plus pounds, plus it was myself our two kids, his sister and her two sons. We all couldn't fit into the little boat, so he went and found some more help. When he returned, we grabbed our belongings. My kids and my husband and his sister and one of her sons got in the boat. Myself and my sister in laws other son got on the jet ski bikes. That was my first time on a jet ski; first time in the water actually.

Jamie: Can you describe the ride for me?

Ieshia: When we were riding through it was as riding in a murky lake; river for that matter. The water was so deep If I would have stepped in it I would have drowned. My husband is 6'3 and when he went to go and save the other family I mentioned earlier, the water was up to his chest; close to his neck. They didn't bring us far after rescuing us. The nearest dry was on Chef Menteur Highway. We found a shopping cart and put our kids inside of it and started the long journey to the convention center. Luckily, the police let us get some food & drink out of stores to give us the strength to keep walking. As we walked, guns were pointed at us and my children were crying hysterically. My husband passed out from dehydration because he would go into the stores and get food and drink for us and not himself, because there wasn't enough. He recovered, though. The original plan was to go to our house (they stayed with her sister-in-law during the storm) but when we looked down coming of the exit, our house and our entre area was under water to the roof tops. It was a good things we went by my sister's house because we would not have made it otherwise.

Eventually, Ieshia and her family made it to the Convention Center, where even more drama was to unfold. They were forced to deal with death, violence and people who were trying to profit off the evacuees situation. They also had to endure family members who were less than accommodating to them once they were able to reach Grambling. Ieshia and her husband managed to find jobs so that they could get a place of their own again. Ieshia’s job actually involved distributing various supplies to other victims of the storm. Join me next time for another part of my interview with Ieshia. Til then, "let the music play..."

by wildangels

Recently, I had the opportunity to chat with an up and coming artist named Ieshia. She’s been making quite a name for herself through her MySpace page and is about to release her first single, "Still Standing." If you consider her background, there was no other song that could be the first release. I spoke with her via IM about some of the struggles she’s dealt with, her music and other plans for the future. This first part deals with her childhood.

Jamie: First off... tell me a little bit about your mother and the effect she had on your singing.

Ieshia: My Mother was an angel... Although by being so young when she died I don't remeber much! I do remember her love for Jesus and her passion for singing. She was in her early to mid 30's when she had me, and her pregnancy was high risk. She didn't abort me because that's not what she believed in. She wanted a child, most of all a daughter, that could carry on her singing dream if she was to pass.

Jamie: You mentioned in your information that your grandmother raised you after your mother’s death when you were 7. Can you tell me about her and the relationship you two had?

Ieshia: Oh, my grandmother and I was inseparable! It was hard because she was raising me, but I had to take care of her. Not long after my mom died, my grandmother's Sugar Diabetes and High Blood Pressure started to kick in and she started getting sicker and sicker. I had very little time to pursue my singing career due to having to take care of my grandmother. The relationship that my grandmother and I had was one where if I'd go to a burger place and had only enough money for one burger, I would buy that one burger and save half for her. I spent 1 year at Touro Hospital with my grandmother. I would never leave her side. All of the nurses knew me and especially the Cafeteria workers, with all the bacon I would order for breakfast. The whole second floor of Touro Hospital adopted me. I'd get special treatment with the vcr's and more food. They also put a special bed in my grandmother's private room just for me with extra pillows

Jamie: That was nice of them to do that for you. How old were you during all this?

Ieshia: I was 16. At this point I was tossed from family member to family member. A long time ago my grandmother told me she never wanted to be in a home, and I vowed to keep that promise. She was put on a breathing machine and was not expected to live through the night. I went home and prayed and asked God to touch my grandmother. I begged God like i'd never before not to let her leave me and he answered. The next day, she was sitting up eating. I asked the doctor what happened and he said she pulled the breathing tube out of her mouth herself. She always told me she never wanted those things and she'd rather died than be on the machine.

Despite being a double amputee and suffering from various health problems related to diabetes, her grandmother recovered from the experience and was allowed to return home when Ieshia was 17, provided they could provide round the clock care for her. Eventually, Ieshia was able to find someone to care for her grandmother while in school. Then, the would-be singer was delivered another blow...

Ieshia: She had to return again to the hospital. At this point, she started to get alzheimers. Yet again, I stayed by her side. A week later my grandmother died. She tried to fight back to stay with me. At times she would grab my shirt and try to mumble a W word, but with the breathing tube it made it hard to talk. I stayed at the hospital, but I had more senior exit exams so my nanny to me to go home and get sleep. 6:30 that next morning, my nanny woke me up and told me my grandmother had passed away. I didn't get a chance to say goodbye.

Check back tomorrow, when Ieshia discusses getting signed to a deal, her early successes and the event that changed everything...

by wildangels

is the first single by HipHop/R&B singer Ieshia. I recently met her through MySpace and got the chance to interview her. Starting Monday, I'll be posting the interview in parts each day (it's a long one, but a good read). For now, I thought I would let y'all check out the video she posted on youtube of her singing "Still Standing." If you want to check out other songs, visit her MySpace page.