Breakthrough Artist (March 2021): P Double

P Double, tell us a little more about how you first got into music!

My introduction to music was a lot different than most.

I got my start in the commercial dance world at a young age and was immediately surrounded by music day in and day out.

I was afforded the opportunity to travel and showcase my talents on different platforms across the nation and the stage quickly became a place of comfort and serenity for me.

It was an escape, and an expression of self I had yet to find anywhere else.

Channeling the words and the energy of the music through the art of movement was something that came easy to me, it brought me into alignment with who I was at the time and who I’d later work towards becoming.

I was blessed to be able to experience performing for all types of crowds, ranging from 50 people at backyard events to 15,000 people in professional sports arenas.

Looking back now I realize that every time I stepped foot on those stages it was preparation for what was to come.

My future as a world class entertainer was no longer an unobtainable fantasy.

I was gaining experience and building confidence while beginning to envision my destiny.

Once I hit adolescence, I began to develop and embrace my inner creator and music was my muse, particularly the production side.

I was obsessed with obtaining the newest, most popular gear, sourcing professional sound packs, and started curating the musical arrangements used for my dance performances.

I became a real student of the game.

My years of dancing, studying our performances and analyzing crowd response led me to develop an ear for what “worked” and I was eager to try to produce something of my own.

I fell in love with the creative process.

I realized then that a career as a dancer would have been a safe and relatively easy route to take but my ambition to grow as an artist myself was not easy to ignore.

I’ve always held myself to high standards and have never been afraid to take risks to better myself as a person and achieve my goals in life.

Thankfully, the people I had around me at that time were open minded and supported me in my decision to pursue music full time.

My first song was released through iTunes in the year 2009 and truthfully, it has been a rollercoaster ride ever since.

From MySpace to Soundcloud to Spotify, and everything in between, my peers and I have had to navigate the rapid evolution of the music industry, specifically the shift from physical to digital releases.

We’ve had to do this on our own and naturally, this has led to a move away from reliance on record labels to “break us.”

I take great pride in being able to say that any and all success that I have had as an artist to this point has been done independently.

I have always had a progressive business mind and entrepreneurial ambition.

The only missing piece of the puzzle was the knowledge and full appreciation of the art form I was taking part in.

To that point I was making music for fun, routinely drowned in autotune to mimic the popular sound during the time and it lacked the substance that was obviously present within the work of the greats.

I had to learn.

So I went back to school.