Review Fix Exclusive: Lamont Dozier, Jr Talks Goals in Music And More

Review Fix chats with singer/songwriter Lamont Dozier, Jr, who discusses his origin in music and goals for the future.

Review Fix: How did you get involved in music?

Lamont Dozier, Jr: My involvement with music started when I was young. My Mom was my main teacher and had me exploring my musical leanings on the instruments we had around the house, which included a piano and an organ. She would play songs and I would sit on the organ and hold the notes down I thought went with what she was playing. I was about 4 yrs. old. 

Then as I got older, she started showing me how to play the piano. She was the choir director at our church, and a piano teacher, so she taught me the fundamentals of playing the songs for our church. As I got old, around 11yrs. old, I began to sing and play for my church, joining my mother as a second musician in the church.

Growing up in Detroit, I was always around talented, musically, gifted people, in addition to my parents being musically inclined, as well as, my sisters, who also sang in church with me and my Mom.

Outside of church, I began to get involved with school plays, local productions of musicals in the city of Detroit, and I was a performer in the Detroit Council Of The Arts, a summer youth program, that catered to the talented youth of the city. I had the benefit of great instructors in Jazz Voice, Dance, Live Performing, like Miche Braden, Harold Mckinney, and Clifford Fears. It was a great opportunity for a young person like myself to hone their craft, and it gave me a great foundation for a career as a professional musician.

Review Fix: What’s your creative process like?

Dozier, Jr: For me, my creative process is a spiritual process, meaning it’s very organic, raw emotion that draws me in, or speaks to me on some sort of emotional level, where I’m moved to articulate musically, what I’m feeling or observing.

For me, it may start with a melody, or a beat, or I might hear someone say something, or I can hit a groove while I’m on the piano or keyboards, and I just explore where the song takes me. Sometimes the musical ideas come in full, or they come in parts, and as a songwriter, you have to trust the process as it comes, and you’ll know what feels right after you develop your skill to interpret what is being revealed to you and what you’re gifted to do. I’m basically a conduit to place emotion and truth to sound.  Not necessarily my truth, but in touch with the truth of the listener, as well. I believe he or she, have to be able to see themselves in the music and lyrics of what you’re composing.

Review Fix: What inspires you?

Dozier, Jr: I think, for me, is being dialed in to what catches my interest, for whatever reason, and being honest about how I’m affected by it, whether it’s about joy, love, heartbreak, lust, anger, victory, loss, regret, etc. Life, if you’re paying attention, has a way of bringing clarity and wisdom to situations, whether we are ready or not. The rawness of life, good or bad, provides quite of bit of inspiration for me.

Review Fix: What does music mean to you?

Dozier, Jr: Music is everything to me, and I can’t imagine a life without it. It gives our experience here on this planet, depth and meaning. Music enhances the human experience. Music communicates what can’t be said, but how you feel. It puts you in contact with those that may be feeling the same thing, with no boundaries, no barriers, just everyone coming together in the power of music.

Review Fix: How would describe your sound to someone who never has heard you?

Dozier, Jr: I’d describe it as heavily influenced in a diaspora of musical influences, but the one constant is that it is very soulful. I was exposed to gospel music, classical music, rock, r&b, ballads, funk, pop at a young age, but when I sing, the choir boy in me always comes to the mike.

Review Fix: How are your live shows different from your studio work?

Dozier, Jr:  In the studio, I’m trying to achieve a certain objective of catching the spirit of the song in the recording session and making sure that the listener will hear what I’m trying to achieve.

Performing live is the opportunity to embellish, for the better, what was recorded, and making the song even more personal, exciting, now that the performer and listener are in the same room together. And also, there is the aspect of being free, and creating something special and spontaneous when performing live.

Review Fix: What inspired your latest single?

Dozier, Jr: My first single, “Why Can’t We Be Lovers”, was a tribute and update to a classic my Father sang on and composed with the Holland Brothers. It has always been one of my favorites of their many compositions.

My original single, “I’m Gonna Take My Time”, is a tune about a guy that has been away from the one he loves for far too long. He will break all speed rules to be by her side, but is dedicated to loving her as long as she wants to make up for lost time. Steamy!!!

Review Fix: What are your goals for the rest of 2020?

Dozier, Jr: I want to introduce myself to music lovers as a soul guy, forged from the traditional, but currently influenced, genre of R&B and Soul music.

I’ve been performing and writing for a very long time, but I’m looking to widen my audience, and keep Soul Music alive! I enjoy making music and doing what I do as a performer.

Review Fix: What’s next?

Dozier, Jr: Well, I will be releasing two new songs after my first releases, and I’m looking to promote those to soul lovers, and continue to build on my foundation as a recording artist, and make music that people will hopefully embrace, and make part of their lives.

Review Fix: Anything else you’d like to add?

Dozier, Jr: Everyone, please stay safe, and stay soulful, and stay true to yourself.