In today’s episode, we're talking with singer-songwriter. CerVon Campbell.  Cervon is an artist known for what has been called a soulful sound and venting lyrics. 

Cervon’s music is about day-to-day experiences that he faces in his life. Cervon gets his inspiration from bands like Lumineers, Go West, and Lynyrd Skynyrd. One of the great songs he has written, created, performed, and produced is a collaboration with John Oates called DND, which inspired him to take a different approach on beats, and even rapping over a ukulele.

As a creative, we asked Cervon what his approach to creating music, where he gets his new ideas and new songs from?

He says writing is a major part of the process. He will start with a line or two lines, or sometimes there's a word somewhere in his discography. Then little by little, he’ll put the lines together, put the words together and come up with a little bit written down. Once, he has a song like this is his verse, this becomes his hook. When he’s ready to record, he will find all the music, find a bunch of instruments and, put them together.  

How did he and John connect so as to work on DND together?  He and John connected through Instagram when John liked a couple of his posts. When Cervon jokingly told him if he liked his music so much they should make music together, to his surprise John DMed him his contacts and the collaboration took off from there.  Cervon says John brings a more organic feel, more realness to it, by bringing in real instruments, 

How has that collaboration impacted or rippled into some of his other newer music?

• All the music he has made since then has had real instruments
• He wants at least 80% instrument in his songs.
• When performing, he intends to fully perform with a band.
• John changed Cervon's perspective of music in that he was able to look within himself and think about his image and who he was as an artist.

In summary, Cervon believes by exposing people to new music, it will stimulate some new creative thinking for writers and musicians and people will be more open and appreciative of this music.  

You can find Cervon at the following handles:

Apple music: Cervon Campbell

Spotify: Cervon Campbell

Soundcloud: Cervon Campbell

Twitter:@vervon campbell

Instagram: sexymonkeylimodriver

Website: https://beatcha.in/cervoncampbell

CerVon and I discuss his collaboration with John Oates from Hall & Oates on his latest release DND. 

Music tracks are copyrighted, provided by the artist, and used with permission.

auto-generated transcript

Unlocking your world of creativity with bestselling author and brand innovator. Mark Stinson. Mark introduces you to some of the world's leading creative talent from publishing film music, restaurants, medical research, and more. You'll discover how to tap into your most original thinking, how to organize your ideas. And most of all, how to make the connections and create the opportunities to launch your creative work. Unlocking your world of creativity.

Welcome back to everyone, to our podcast. Unlocking your world of creativity. We've been from Vietnam to New Zealand, to Ukraine, over to New York and LA. And today our travels take us to South Carolina. It's been a long time coming here where we're talking with singer-songwriter. Cervon Campbell. Cervon welcome to the program.

Thanks for having me.

Finally. Finally, we've been working on this for a while. Well, you've been busy too, working on a lot of great music. Cervon is an artist known for what has been called a soulful sound and venting lyrics. I love that. Cervon it's got the best of two things I love in music. What's your approach to creating your music, new idea, new song?

Well, I just start with writing is a majority of the processes. I'll start with like maybe a line or two lines, or sometimes there's a word somewhere in my discography just, and I'll just start with it. And then little by little, I'll put the lines together, put the words together and I'll come up with a little bit written down. And then once, I have a song like this is my verse, this is my hook. Then when I'm ready to record, I'll find all the music and just find a bunch of instruments and throws stuff together. That's the process I'm in. Now I'm already about to try to get back to the studio.

Love that. Well, listeners, we've got a surprise for you. We're gonna point you to some great music. Of course. Cervon's new album. It'd be like that sometimes, but also a single that you wrote, created, and performed with John Oates called DND. Tell me about that creative process.

I had DND done. Well, not done. I had it. And I originally was working on it with this group Matt and Kim and I love them. I've loved them since I was in the sixth grade and being able to meet with them and talk with them. They sent some songs to me. I sent some songs to them and then out of the blue, I was on Instagram. It said John Oates likes a couple of your pictures. And then I liked a few back and then he commented on some posts, said he really like my music and this whole time I'm thinking this is a fan page. So I'm not paying it any attention.

This can't be the John Oates.

Yeah. I'm like he has better things to do to be on my page right now. So then he was commenting on a few more things. Like just the songs, the samples, and snippets I had on there. And then he said, Hey, I really like this. And I went to Google and Google took me to that Instagram page. I'm thinking this might be the real one. So I said, if you like it so much, you need to make a song with me. And he DMed me his email and all that stuff. And I sent him that one and I'm surprised he sent anything back. So that's really just how it all happened.

It's a great sound. And it's unmistakable that John Oates.'s fingerprint is on the song. Isn't it? There's a certain feel in a sound that he brought.

Everything.

What did he bring to the party? Because it's a great song, to begin with. I did hear the original that he probably heard.

Yeah. He gave it a lot more of an organic feel. Because originally I made a lot of the beat with somebody else. I found a beat from somebody and I added a lot more to it, but me and the guy that originally did it, everything we did was just on computers and beat boards and stuff. So we had a similar sound, but it was more robotic and it wasn't as real as John made it. So then John gave, a little verse and I spread it out throughout the song and put it in the background with the Oohs and all kind of stuff. And that gave it a lot more life. Originally. I had a sample in it. We took the sample out and it became me and him singing in the back. He just added a lot more realness to it, He and this guy, David Kalmusky, jumped in and they just brought all real instruments, really just made it like a feeling like even feel the song a lot more with them too on it.

And how has that collaboration may be impacted or affected or rippled into some of your other newer music?

It makes me not really want to do a lot of the beats and stuff like that. All the music I've made since then has had real instruments. Like that's my thing now, ever since he introduced me to who would originally have a couple. I would find a guitarist and little stuff like that, but now I want at least 80% instrument. I wanna be able to fully perform these with a band and stuff. He just gave me a lot more perspective and a lot of thought about my image and who I am as an artist and stuff like that. He's a really down-to-earth person. So he changed my whole perspective on music.

Give me an example of one of those songs that we could highlight that has been impacted with more real instrumental sounds.

Okay. So on the album, it's a few of them on there. There's a song, broken people. And broken people, you can kind of hear it in the song. I took all the fakeness out of it originally. And I came at the end. I was like, I'm gonna add more instruments. Broken people, was before I met him. And I just shifted it a little bit after meeting him. But a song after him was a song called still growing up. And still growing up is pretty much all instrument. I found so many great people and I rented a bunch of instruments and just kind of just played around with it. I wanted a song that was a hundred percent mine. So I did like pretty much all the production on it. Yeah. I got that from him. He made me want to fully be in control of the sound that I was getting and I had,

That's so good. You know, Cervon, a lot of young artists aren't so open to that kind of feedback and collaboration a lot of singer-songwriters I've talked to are more, Hey, I'm searching for people who make the song that I wanna make. It sounds like you were open enough to say it's my song, but now I've got some other ideas on how to make it, talk to me about that.

I think a lot of artists are really big into being okay with being in a box. And I feel like that sounds like a really cliche or just really weird, but originally I was looked at as I'm a rapper. So I have to stay in this little box. So I'm rapping all the time and if I want to sing, I'll get a girl on it, and then she'll sing and then I'll just rap. I listen to a ton of folk music, a lot of 80's 70's rock music. So I really wanted that. So I have to kind of be able to travel outside of my confines of the regular rap stuff that I'm giving now.

So John and I were really big, like, Hey, I can be more than this. Because we had DND it's like my part in it is pretty much how it was before he touched it. But coming from that, it was like I can be different on beats. Even if I am gonna rap, I can rap over a ukulele or something. It's so much out there away from just a little keypad with little beat sounds that everybody else has. And I feel like that's what the problem is, a lot of today's music has been, everybody's trapped in the same little cycle. They get the same little sounds and they play around with them. But it's not a lot of life in it, so I wanted to, and that was a lot of what I wanted to do with the album.

It is like that. Sometimes I wanted to add everything that I was listening to into it. I listened to a lot of Lumineers, a lot of Go West and just everything, a lot of Lynyrd Skynyrd just everything. And I wanted to put as much into it that I could, of everything that I was listening to because a lot of people they'll listen to Taylor Swift and then listen to green Day and listen to Tupac. They're all over the place too. So that's really what I'm pushing now with my music, the newer stuff. Now I'm kind of figured out, okay, I can mix around or I'm going for it now it's gonna just be weirder and go crazy about it.

Yeah. Really get out that genre box.

Yeah.

And I have to tell the listeners, I'm looking at your zoom picture now, and you're wearing your Led Zeppelin shirt you know, Led Zeppelin as a blues band. You know, many people may not appreciate it, but look at what Robert Plant has done with Alison Krauss.

Yeah. they have another album coming out together, I think.

Yeah. That's fantastic. Yes.

Oh, is it already out? You heard it?

I know some singles are out. I'm not sure if the full album's out, but I've heard a couple of singles.

Yeah. That was a really big surprising thing too. And I feel like it's so many, weird mixes out there. Yeah. That was a great example.

Well, Cervon, like you said, getting out of these genres, what do you account for the appeal of music? Can people be open to hearing the mixes and the influences and those collaborations that are not straight up if I like rap, all I'm gonna listen to is rap? Do you think people are ready for this more open, appreciation of the music?

I feel like a lot of people are. But it's also you know, peer pressure. It's a lot of like I listen to this, but I'm nervous. Like my clique, my friends don't listen to this person. So I don't wanna open listen to this person. And I that a lot in school with what I was listening to. And I talked to a lot of people now who are like, I love Taylor swift, but I won't admit that. I am not that person. I will admit that I love Taylor Swift to death. Everything she has put out I have listened to. Once you can get out of those little crutches, then I feel like a lot of people's ears will perk up. So I feel like Kendric Lamar did a really cool thing where he mixed blues and rock and hip hop in an album. And I feel like a lot of people liked it. And they always said like, Hey, he mixed around. He got a little weird, he got a little out of the box. And I feel like a lot of people, a lot of people want like like a mall, everybody wants all the stuff they like in one spot. So if you can mix all these genres in one place and it sounds okay, I'm sure people love it.

Well, that's a great analogy. And I think it stimulates your creative thinking. Doesn't it? I think about a couple of guests I've had on the podcast. Recently. One was an Afro-pop artist from Nigeria and another was EDM electronic dance music from LA. And as I was sampling their music on the episode, I thought there may be people who are listening to this podcast who may not appreciate that music. On the other hand, they may have never been exposed to it. And so by exposing people to new music, maybe it'll stimulate some new creative thinking.

And that's the thing. I was really nervous about it, about the album when I put out it be like that. Sometimes it's like two songs at the end where it really shifts where it's one called Risk. That's more like today's whatever rap music where it's like, it's not about nothing. It's just whatever. And then there's a song don't cry that I was really pushing this folk mindset that I had. And I put them right beside each other. And it's like eating something sweet and then having a bunch of salt with it. It is just a really weird mix. So I was really nervous that people that came to me listening to like DND the first song they hear is Risk. And they're like, wait, wait, this isn't what I signed up for. So that was a big worry. And with the newer stuff, it's a bigger worry, because I'm really trying to exercise that muscle now. So it's a constant fear. Because you know, not everybody likes everything and you know, some people do, you gotta find the ones that do.

Yeah. Well, we've been talking about the sound, the genres, the beats, the instruments, but let's talk about the lyrics. Where do these venting lyrics as they've been called, where does that come from? What's the message that you're trying to get out in your stories?

Well, at first, when I first started out, it was just like overly sad music. I would write when I was going through a hard time in a relationship or when I had problems with like mental health and I'm feeling low, I would just write that. And then I was think thinking like with DND it's not everything has to be sad. And even if it is, like, I noticed I was doing a show a few years ago and I was like four or five songs in and I saw this girl crying, but she was like still into the show, but she was crying. And I was thinking, and like, if I put out a whole album and I have nothing but sad songs, that's gonna keep people in the sad box or say, they listen to me all the time.

That's all that they have. So with DND, I made it words of affirmation. Where you can sing along to DND and you're speaking positive things over yourself. Like, I'm not depressed. I'm not gonna have these thoughts again. And, even if you don't believe it, you can say these things. So I'm trying to say now in my music, I wanna be on the other side of the coin where I was originally. Where originally I'm just, I'm sad all the time, but now I'm at a spot and I feel like I've matured. And I'm older now than when I started. Of course. So like I have a more mature look at things where it's like, it be like that sometimes. So yeah, it's sad, but you know, it's good times too.

You can write about the good things. And even you can turn a sad song into an upbeat song where you're just not constantly in this depressing box. When I was at my most depressed, I feel like I was just listening to depressing songs all day. So it's just like, it's building this little demon in my mind and it's just I'm feeding it. I'm not, I'm not helping it come out of that. You know, you gotta walk into the sun a little bit more. So with the lyrics, it's everything I have going on in life. So still growing up, it's me realizing I am a child and I need to be an adult. Now I need to grow up. I need to, I need to learn how to file my own taxes and stuff. Like I had to kinda hurry.

It always comes around to the taxes. You need to, learn to file your own taxes.

Yo, that's a big thing. Now I know how to do it. So I feel like I'm getting this little adult thing figured out.

You're the man. Now I love that. Well, let's continue this thought of deconstructing and focusing on parts of the music. Maybe you could share some of the lyrics we've been sampling the songs. We want to hear it, listen to the words, but maybe we could hear you just read and share some of the lyrics with us to give us insight into your writing style.

Okay. So let me schedule the songs. I know for a fact, the lyrics DND another night, I'm up and I'm sleep deprived. Web B says I'm about to die and I'm just here waiting. I had a really weird dream and I'm like, I wake up and I'm like full panic attack mode. And I'm like, I can't go to sleep. Now I'm trying to like figure stuff out. Because this is when I first had just left college and I'm like, now I have to kind of figure stuff out. I can go this direction or this direction or this direction. And it was just freaking me out all the time because I always say saved by the bell. And NTY classifies, all those shows stopped at college or like halfway to college. Nobody really showed me what to do as an adult. So I had woke up, I couldn't sleep Because I'm trying to plan life. And then I noticed I had a migraine or I had something going on. So I got on Google and I started typing into some. And if you do that, then you know, nothing, good happens.

I love that. Webmd is not mentioned in a lot of songs. So that's nice that you bring that brand name up

Yeah. I, I should have messaged them so I can try to get a little promotion out of it.

There you go. Maybe, it's a positive thing. I think you've said, you've turned it into something positive.

I can do better. Let me look up the lyrics or a song. That's good. I'm really bad. I just had this problem. My wife picks on me all the time because I don't know the words to a lot of my songs. So even the show I did with John, you can see, I forgot the words mid-song. I can do that one, but I know my main song right now, that's doing anything for me is broken people. And it's me talking to a girl and we both were like trying to find God and trying to figure out religion, figure out life. And we both had depression and all those weird, funny things and lyrics are, I see your cracks and my wrong too.

Find them attractive and find myself in you. My heart's been broken in two and I see you had yours ripped too. Broken people have this urge to fix each other and solve everybody's issues. But when you're your own hero, who saves you when you're your own hero and own villain, who can help you. And I said that as a lot of things, I feel like that's been bothering me in my life's always been like just my perception of it. Just like my own thoughts, me overthinking. And I feel like a lot of kids have that problem. That's why I feel like we have such a really crazy high suicide rate. It's just like, it's so much overthinking. And a lot of times it really isn't that bad. So all the things in my life, I was just super stressed about. Now I look at, or it's just like, it's not that big of a deal.

So I was like my own villain and I would have to work myself through these problems. And I was always that friend helping other people. So I was like, I was the hero and I was the villain. So it's like, I just, I was just a whiny kid. Like I need help too. So who's gonna help me. And talking to somebody who had similar thoughts it really was, it was good. So like, we were broken people, which now sounds crazy. Like we're broken people. It sounds like those old Gothic emo kids, like a Twilight thing, but yeah, that's broken people,

But it's the heart. And you mentioned this sort of more mature outlook on life. I mean, from the lyrics all the way to now what you're saying, collaborating bringing in more instruments, trying to make your songs more you, and reality is that a direction you wanna continue to mature in and grow into?

Yes, a hundred percent. I feel like my whole career in a lot of other people's careers has always been just on the steps of me looking at my audience. Looking back, trying to say, "Hey, well they've been liking this. I need to keep on doing this. And I just wanted to be liked. And I wanted to blow up and have all this fame and followers and stuff. So now I'm at a point where it's kind of like, I care about the people that listen to it, but I also don't mind if this is the end of the road, like it, it could be. So if it is I gotta try to enjoy it, have more fun with it, and kind of exercise what I can and can't do because if not, then like I was putting out songs.

I'm not, I'm not happy about it. And you just come away with a lot of stuff that you're just there with and as an artist and even like you have your own podcast, I'm sure you, have this problem too, where you're the main person. Like you hear it more than right. So when you're editing or whatever you're doing like me, I get so sick of my songs because when I first write it, I have to go over a hundred times to make sure it fits the music. When I first record it, I gotta go over it a hundred times to edit every little detail of it. And it's all that. And then if you're performing it, it gets so old. So like I want to put stuff in songs now where I can have fun with it and you know, it makes me feel good. So I wanna keep it going in that. And I wanna develop more of a talent to play instruments. Because I have a lot of instruments rented for this new project and I really wanna maximize the sound of it. I'm going full orchestra. If I can.

I love that. Well, I can't wait to hear some of it. Keep us posted on how it's developing. Cervon Campbell has been our guest Cervon how do we connect with you, follow your work and, keep our eyes and ears out for new music

On everything. I Am CervonCampbell. C E R V O N Campbell like the suit, and on Instagram I am sexmonkeylimodriver. If I could change it, I promise you I would, but yeah.

But you already have 50,000 followers. So don't give it up too fast.

I have tried for years to change it. Instagram won't let me change it.

Is that right?

Am stuck with it.

Well you know it's you. It's authentic I love that. Well, Cervon all the best to you. Love the music, love the message. Love the story and wish you all the best in the future creative endeavors too.

Yes, sir. Thank you for having me. I'm glad I finally came on.

Keep reaching out for those big names. There are gonna wanna come on now. Then you can go on tour with him or vice versa.

Yep. That's the next big, that's the next big shooter fill. I'm gonna try to tour.

That'll be exciting. We'll let us know when you're coming through town.

Yes, sir.

All right. We've been talking Cervon Campbell about his work as an artists music, but we'll also continue our worldwide travels to talk to practitioners every about their creative process, how they get inspired, how they organize their ideas, and most of all, how they gain the confidence and the connections to get their work into the world. And we've heard some great stories about collaborations from Cervon today. So until next time, I'm Mark Stinson and we're unlocking your world of creativity. We'll see you next.

Unlocking your world of creativity with bestselling author and brand innovator. Mark Stinson. This program was produced by BSB media creators of Entelechy Leadership Stories, unlocking your world of creativity and the peaceroom.love. We've created a special offer just for listeners of the podcast. You can get the book, a world of creativity for a special price of 5.98 for paperback. And the Kindle version is only 99 cents. Go to mark hyphen stinson.com to take advantage of this special offer. Our podcast is supported by Adobe in the Adobe creative cloud, the world's best creative app and service. So you can make almost anything you can imagine. Wherever you're inspired. We use Adobe to help make this podcast using audition. Premier rush in design and more. So join the creative community with the Adobe creative cloud and let's make something better. Unlocking your world of creativity.