This podcast episode features an engaging conversation with Londa Larmond who shares insights into their journey within the music industry, highlighting the challenges and triumphs of being signed to a record label. They candidly discuss the experience of being dropped by their label, reflecting on the broader issues faced by many artists during that time. The discussion also touches on her upcoming project, which promises to showcase a deeper lyrical content, moving beyond traditional themes in gospel music. Additionally, Londa shares her newfound passion for acting, revealing the joy they found in this unexpected opportunity. The episode concludes with a powerful story about the creative process behind her new song, "Been a Long Time Coming," which illustrates the profound connection between prayer and inspiration in their songwriting journey.

Takeaways:

• Londa reflects on their amazing experiences performing in front of large audiences, including a stadium in South Korea.
• Despite being dropped from her record label, they remain grateful for the opportunities it provided in their career.
• Londa emphasizes the importance of collaboration in songwriting, especially during a songwriting camp experience.
• They discuss the need for deeper lyrical content in gospel music, moving beyond traditional church themes.
• Londa shares a personal story about how prayer inspired a song during a writing session.
• She highlights the challenges faced by gospel and R&B music in gaining recognition in Canada.

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• Elevation

Amazing experience.

Going to South Korea to sing before, I think it was about a stadium of 25,000 people.

That was amazing, too.

And traveling to different places like Nigeria and all of that.

And so I was with the label for a time and then I.

I got dropped from the label.

Got dropped from the label.

A lot of people back then actually got dropped.

So I don't feel too bad about it because when you have people like Karen Clark getting dropped, and I'm like, okay, I'm good, you know, So, I mean, lady, if you're getting dropped, that I don't feel too bad.

You know what I'm saying?

And I think.

I think that back then there was just an issue with record labels on a whole.

I don't know if it's gotten better.

I think there's a lot of labels that.

Right.

That have been shutting down and so on.

And so back then, if.

I mean, if you weren't doing sales like Kirk Franklin at the time with Stomp, then you just weren't staying.

You just weren't staying on a label.

They just didn't.

They didn't see you as a real asset.

Like, you needed to be selling like X amount of units at a time.

So I don't have any hate towards them, though.

They really did an excellent job introducing me to the industry.

I got known by a lot of people because of that album and stuff, so I'm grateful to them, actually.

I really have nothing bad to say.

And it was a great opportunity for me and it was the opening door to where I am now.

So I've recorded.

Recorded that album.

I recorded great Things, which was Live Back in.

And right now I'm working on my next project, which is soon to be released this fall.

This fall?

Throughout next year.

Yeah, a bunch of tracks will be released.

So.

Yeah.

Okay.

Wow.

Yes.

You just took us.

You took us through your whole career in a bit of a nutshell there.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, congratulations on your success so far.

You've done a lot of really amazing.

You've been in some movies, too.

It's been good.

You've been doing some acting.

Yeah.

Done a lot.

Done a lot.

Done.

Is that something that you always wanted to do, acting, or is that just like.

I, you know, I didn't know that I wanted to do it.

I didn't know I got the opportunity came and I said, okay, let's try it.

And it was fun.

I loved it.

So, yeah, it's something that I would love to continue to do wherever the opportunity presents itself.

Okay, you heard that, folks.

Heard it here.

First.

I have a question about your time with the record label.

Was there anything in that time going on in Canada in terms of just any record labels interested in gospel music at the time?

No.

Yeah.

And because I.

I know that R B had a hard time, so I could imagine that gospel had even a harder time, you know?

Right, right, right.

I'm always curious as to why as a collective, we could never.

Or the city or a group of people could never come together to form something that could help put specifically Toronto.

Canada, on the map.

And I wonder if you have any insight as to why.

I think it's the all chefs, no cooks mentality that happens a lot in our community that is support of it.

So it's sad and unfortunate that another Canadian talent had to go to the US to pop off and really make a name for herself.

And Nashville.

Yeah, I would never have guessed was the hub.

I mean, now it makes sense, but back then, I would never guess the place to go for gospel music.

Now when you're creating an album as like a secular artist, you have.

You sit down and sometimes you come up with themes for singles, but with gospel, obviously, the theme is going to pretty much be consistent throughout.

So with this new project, do you have any kind of themes or any types of subject matter that you might want to touch, or do you just go in and whatever you feel at the moment, you kind of just create?

Mm.

I would say the latter.

Not that you can't have a theme.

Of course you can.

Of course.

But with me, it's always been the latter.

Where.

Especially with this project, what happened was.

Are you familiar with gospel music?

Yes, ma'am.

Okay.

And Christian music.

So ccm, not so much favorite stuff.

Not so much ccm.

I don't want to get.

I'm familiar with them.

Okay.

So the only reason why I ask is because of the person that I worked with.

So for this, for these songs, the person that we called on to do actually a songwriting session, a songwriting camp, which I've never done before.

Right.

Usually if I'm going to write a song, I do it by myself.

Got.

I learned so much from doing a songwriting camp that the fact that you get to collaborate with different songwriters and come up with a song together is just fantastic.

Like, why aren't we doing that?

Right.

Cuz sometimes you get songwriters block, you get writers block, and you can't think of what to.

But there's somebody right there.

Oh, how about this?

How about that?

How about this melody?

Yeah.

Like it.

It just.

And you.

It flows so nicely.

And I'm so grateful for what we came up with because it's.

It's something that I wouldn't have come up with by myself.

I just wouldn't.

The lyrics are more in depth.

And the person that I worked with, his name is LJ Mitchell.

He's actually originally lj.

Okay.

So you know him?

We had him on here.

Okay, awesome.

So you know he's with Elevation now.

Yeah.

Yes, yes.

Right.

So we called on him and I said, yo, we want you to come down here and let's do some writing.

Because he's worked with Elevation.

And I wanted something more than just.

Even though you say, you know, when it comes to the gospel, you know, there's a particular theme when it comes to gospel, but I didn't want the lyrics to just be churchy lyrics.

Right, Got it.

Yeah.

I wanted them.

I wanted to them to be more in depth, which is something that I appreciate about the CCM side of Christian music.

You know what I'm saying?

They.

You know, people will complain and say, your songs are too wordy.

Your songs are too.

I shut that down.

Like, I.

I think that's something that we need to shut down.

Because if you love hymns, then you have no problem learning the songs to CCM music.

Yeah.

Because hymns are just as wordy.

Right.

You know what I'm saying?

And the reason why we know hymns is because we sang the same hymns over and over almost every Sunday.

Exactly.

That's right.

Yeah.

You know what I'm saying?

So.

Because it was sung over and over and now it gets in your mind and now you know the hymns and they're with you for life.

No different from these songs.

They're.

They're just as wordy, but they're just as powerful, too, and speak to life situations and.

And things that are relatable.

Just like those songs were relatable to everyday life, you know, but not leaving out Jesus out of the equation.

You can't do that if you're going to talk about Christian music.

So that's what we did.

And I.

And actually with one of the songs, one of the songs that I recorded is called Been a Long Time Coming.

Okay.

And what happened was the first writing session, I opened it with prayer.

Like, we were talking.

There was three of us, Karroy Williams, who's actually one of my BGVs, and then LJ and myself.

And we were just talking about how, you know, they were LJ was asking me, you know, Londa, what is it that you want to come out of this session?

What do you want to write about?

Blah, blah, blah.

And then we were talking about a whole bunch of stuff, like what we're talking about now, industry things and all that stuff.

But the way that the.

The.

The conversation was going, I started to feel the Holy Ghost in the room, sir.

And I said.

I said, it's time for us to.

Before we go any further, I need us to just open up in prayer.

So I opened up in prayer, and in my prayer, you know, I was just giving God thanks for this opportunity to be.

Even be working with LJ and my BG Beat for him to come and be willing to do.

And I was like, God, you know, it's been a long time coming because I've been wanting to work on a new music and so on.

And lj, as soon as I was done, he's like, londa, that prayer.

And he just automatically started playing a melody to the words.

Been a long time coming it's been a long time coming along Been a long time coming And I was like, jesus, what is going on here?

It was so sweet.

And we just started writing on top of that.

And so.

And now the song.

I mean, it's my favorite song.

One of.

Right.

Like, all the songs are powerful, but that one is one.

And so we're like, londy, he said, london, every session we have, you're gonna open up in prayer, because, woman, you can pray and something out of your prayer.

Yeah.

So that.

That.

That.

That was awesome.

That was awesome.

Amazing.

I guess that really answers your question about the inspiration, too.

Where it comes.

Yes.