Meet CJ Hammond

Today we’d like to introduce you to CJ Hammond.

CJ, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I originally came to LA seven years ago to start a career in modeling, and at that time, I don’t think I had a game plan much past that. As my career grew and naturally progressed, I started doing commercials and a few little TV one liners here and there. Music was never really in the cards for me because I didn’t trust my voice and I was always nervous to sing in front of people. I was “the person who just sings covers on Instagram”. Fortunately for me, I got an audition for a musical that changed my career path. I needed a piano player to play that sheet music and was connected to Mark Rodriguez (producer/songwriter/composer). He heard my voice and loved it, but he knew I was rough around the edges and had some things to learn so we just started working together and before we knew it, we were making music. We added another producer/songwriter named Arif Elahi to the sessions and the three of us have been making singles ever since. A quick shout out to Steven Felix, a mix/master engineer who’s had his touch on all of the releases. Now, to this point we have six singles released with tons more music coming for the summer and beyond.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
The older I get, the more I realize the notion of a smooth road doesn’t exist, nor would I want it to. I have been on the highest of highs thinking; “This is it, I’ve made it”, to the lowest of lows, both financially and mentally. Entertainment is a really grueling business, constantly throwing curveballs at you. I haven’t mastered the art of remaining calm through it all, and the road still gets bumpy, but I have grown so much and the bumps in the road that used to knock me off my course are now so much more easy to navigate because of the lessons I’ve learned.

Can you give our readers some background on your music?
When I started making my own music. One of the first questions I was asked was “What do you want your music to sound like?”. For me, that was a tough question to answer because I was always singing other artist’s songs and that was my only reference point. So I had to look at my musical influences I had, which tended to be a lot of Motown/ Soul/ R&B/Pop. The motto I landed on was ” Old school sound, with new school vibes”. I love Sam Cooke, Marvin Gaye, Bobby Caldwell, The Temptations, etc… But how can I take that sound and those amazing melodies from the past and modernize them into today’s contemporary standards? That was the sound we set out to make, and I can proudly say we’ve done that without the need, in today’s culture; to be overly sexualized, graphic, or vulgar. I just like making good music everyone can move to without having to censor every other word.

If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
I wouldn’t do a single thing differently. Every step I’ve taken has placed me exactly where I need to be with all the lessons I’ve learned and I thank God for that everyday.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.cjhammondmusic.com
• Instagram: @cjhammondmusic
• Facebook: @cjhammondmusic
• Twitter: @cjhammondmusic

Image Credit:
Holly Lynch & Freeman

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