Connect
To Top

Meet Jamila Ford of The Working Singer Podcast in Hollywood

Avatar photo

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jamila Ford.

So, before we jump into specific questions, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I am a singer/songwriter and I also host “The Working Singer” podcast. On my show, I interview singers who make a full time living in the music business. I launched my podcast in January and have been steadily growing it since. We have a mighty little Facebook group to support podcast listeners and regular events to meet, sing, and talk shop. It can be quite hard, but not impossible, to create a feeling of connectedness in LA. We’re all so spread out that if we want to see each other and make true friendships, we have to make a concerted effort, so these events have been a way to create that sense of connectedness.

I grew up in Rialto, CA and stayed close to home after graduating high school by attending UC Riverside. There I majored in music with an emphasis in vocal performance. It was tough. Most of the time I felt I was in over my head. I recently took a music class at LACC and believe I am a much better student now than I was then. It’s had more years to marinate and makes much more sense to me now, I think.

I remember the first day of school at UCR feeling so out of my element. I walked into the music theory class and it was packed, but by week two, there were maybe ten or fifteen of us left. The eventual graduating class was small, pretty much the same people from that second week of class!

I loved school. I was gigging with my classmates, writing songs, and looking for every opportunity to record. I recorded my first EP while I was in school. I also performed with the music department’s two choirs, the jazz big band, and the jazz ensemble. It was a time for me to dig deep into learning jazz standards and grow my voice. I’d say school is probably the rare times in life when you get to focus solely on your craft and that is a true gift you don’t want to take for granted.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has not been a smooth road. I think there are the obstacles that life throws at us and there are the ones we place in our own way. In fact, I’m so glad I started interviewing other singers for my podcast because I’ve found that no matter how successful they are they’ve all had obstacles to overcome. A lot of the time they just needed to get out of their own way.

I think my biggest hurdle has been not thinking outside of the box enough. Having tunnel vision about what I thought a singing career would look like. Coming up my examples were mega stars – Mariah Carey, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston – and it was stardom or nothing. That was all in my head, of course, because there are so many possibilities and creative ways to work as a singer in this industry.

I just wanted to be an artist though and I’m sure I closed myself off to possibilities by being a bit too focused on that aspect of being a singer. I had actually gotten advice early on that if I wanted to be that level of artist I should avoid pursuing back up singing gigs as that would pigeonhole me. Did it pigeonhole Sheryl Crow to sing backup for Michael Jackson or Luther Vandross to sing backup for David Bowie? That person was in the industry and had some successes, so I took that advice as gospel at the time.

However, I now think if you understand that you’re a force in life, you’ll also understand that no one job will define you. You tell the world who you are, not the other way around. I’m only now starting to get what that really means. You should take most advice you receive with a grain of salt. I also think whether you want to be a singer or a butcher or a plumber, you need to seek career advice from people who’ve actually done that job, otherwise, they don’t know what they’re talking about. In any case, it wasn’t in my plans to sing backup for anyone, but I’d say I struggled because of my narrow point of view.

Please tell us about The Working Singer Podcast.
Well, right now I’m known for singing and podcasting. I’d put off starting this podcast for the longest time and I’m glad I finally allowed myself to do it. It has forced me to grow so much in the past year. I’ve really had to get out of my comfort zone. I’ve had to be more social than I’ve been in a long while as we’re doing the events to connect with listeners. I’ve had to approach singers for interviews who are well-known in the Hollywood community and that was intimidating at first. So I’ve had to transform a lot of insecurities – not taking it personally if I don’t hear back from someone I’ve emailed to request an interview, being persistent and following up.

I would say if I’m proud of anything it’s the consistency and empathy with which I choose to show up with my podcast. I see every singer. I have deep empathy for what a struggle it can be. It doesn’t all have to be difficult, but we do need to develop the confidence to bet on ourselves over and over again.

I notice the singers who take that chance and bet on themselves have the biggest results. There’s strategy, of course, because we should consider ourselves a small business, but if you don’t have that confidence and openness, you’re going to have a tough time moving forward. The great thing is that it’s not impossible to get that confidence. In my experience, we just have to allow ourselves to try things – network, send that email, record that demo – be willing to make the messy version, but just get on the road and adjust the path as you go. Your GPS will reroute. Did you notice that when you’re driving and you miss that exit, your GPS will always adjusts the path even though you’ve veered off? It doesn’t berate, it doesn’t tell you to just stop driving, it simply adjusts. You arrive intact and you’re okay.

Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
I come back to consistency and empathy. I’ve simply made the effort to show up whether it’s for listeners of the podcast or a band I’m working with. For the podcast, I release a new one every Monday. Singers who look to it for inspiration and ideas know it will be there. For my singing, I show up to rehearsals having done my homework. I’m not the one the bandleader has to worry about. I try to keep asking how I can best show up for everyone. People definitely feel valued and respected when you operate that way. I can definitely feel that.

I think I also have to be alright with failing. I think that’s the common characteristic of the successful people I’ve observed. Failure in some way, shape, or form is inevitable, and most importantly, it’s survivable. It’s how we learn.

It does take a great deal of vulnerability to put oneself out there. I struggled with this a lot releasing The Working Singer. I’ve said to people that I got everything together – interviews, artwork, the website – and when it came time to press the “publish” button I swear I heard a bomb go off. It was such a scary thing. This vulnerability to put my voice out there in a new way is definitely something within myself I’ve had to develop, but it had to happen. I think the alternative is a small life where I play it completely safe and have very little connection to the humans around me, which is really no kind of life at all. I’m at a place where I need to have enough courage to expand.

Contact Info:


Image Credit:
Dwight Istanbulian, Juliet Beach, PK Images

Suggest a story: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.

Related Items

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

More in