Today we’d like to introduce you to Mykhel Scott.
Mykhel, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I was born in Toronto, Canada and raised in Boston, MA. I grew up in a Trinidadian & musically inclined family!
I had always showed signs of being a musician, low key – from always finding drumsticks to make noise, or fake playing my blue trumpet toy, or singing with my mom everywhere! My mother explains that it was because she would put her stomach to speakers all the time before I was born!
I started as a Steel-Panist at the age of 8 with Branches Steel Orchestra, located in Boston, MA. I played various instruments such as Tenor Bass, Bass, Tenor, and Seconds! By the time I was 13, I traveled out to New York to participate in a competition called Panorama with Adlib Steel Orchestra as a Tenor player. That same year, we landed first place in the competition!
As I grew more knowledge as a Steel-Panist, I began to grow more interest in drums and arranging. By the age of 10, I began to teach myself how to play drums – but eventually was given a week of lessons from my uncle, Kendrick John! And by the age of 14, I started arranging for ‘Branches’, full time!
By the age of 13, my parents was informed by Lynette Gittens about this program in Boston called Berklee City Music.
Berklee City Music is a music program led by the infamous, Berklee College of Music. The program benefited kids (like myself) that wanted to potentially pursue their career as a musician. Before joining the program, I told my mom that I really wanted to play drums but, they were explaining the fact that there was so much drummers and very little bass players in the program. The ONLY reason why my mom highly recommended me to play bass was cause she knew that I had family members such as Winston Maccow and Justin Raines to teach me. In addition, my mother knew Justin Raines was my favorite cousin and it would be the greatest way to bond with him! It was a bittersweet choice to study bass guitar at City Music.
As I began to learn more about music theory & musicianship as a bassist, it (unintentionally) caused me to fall off as a Steel-Panist. I also began to learn more about Boston Arts Academy (BAA) from my peers – which encouraged me to officially become a “full time” bassist. By the age 14, I had enrolled into my first pick high school.
By my freshmen year, I was surrounded by amazing musicians such as Christoff Glaude, Daniel Winshall (Bass), Joshua Sutherland, RJ Walters (Keys), Miguel Diaz, Antonio Loomis (Guitar), Kemet Crayton & Lashawn Harris (Drums). Each one of these musicians pushed me to my limit everyday in high school until they graduated. Along with being a full-time student at BAA, I was also put into Berklee High School Academy!
Actually, that same year I became a student of Alonzo Harris (H.E.R’s Musical Director) for ensemble under Berklee High School Academy! He was THE FIRST guy that allowed to program a song. I still remember it like it was yesterday! I’m sure if I look back at it now, it was terrible! But regardless, it was my start and he allowed me to do whatever. I will forever give him the credit for giving me the confidence to program! He didn’t teach me much about programming, but he definitely gave me my first experience in what I do today!
By the summertime of my freshman year, I was accepted by Berklee College of Music to study at Berklee’s Five Week program. That was the year that confirmed that I wanted to do two things; I definitely wanted to be a bassist, and I definitely wanted to be accepted into Berklee College of Music after high school. By Sophomore year, I was more than determined to become better as a bassist and programmer. That same year, Justin Raines had moved from Boston to Atlanta – so I began to be around Paul ‘Papabear’ Johnson (who is now Lil Wayne’s bassist!) Being around Papabear, caused me to go a completely different route as a musician – but in the greatest way possible! He inspired me to change my approach to everything, really! At this point of my career, I had felt as though I was progressing the most as a bassist. For the rest of the year, I proceeded to try my absolute best to play to impress anybody on every song I had the opportunity to play over. That mindset was short live as I started to learn more about the art of “pocket”.
By my Junior year, I started to prioritize learning how to program off of Logic Pro X! My friend, Dom, had given me his laptop for free! And my cousin, O’Neil ‘Doctor O’ Palmer, had given me a sound pack to help with making my arrangements sound better! Around that time, I was ready to form a band and drop a live arrangement. Months later, this competition in Nashville called “Strange Arrange” came back up again. After seeing my cousins do that competition, I felt like it would’ve been cool to continue the legacy and join. From then I assembled a band with my classmate Miguel Diaz (Guitar) named Majesty! He recommended me to Denzel Hollis for keys, am I added my boy, Johnathan “Joobie” Nation to play keys as well. And I also heard about this insane drummer on YouTube named Tony Taylor Jr. and I knew I HAD to get him on the team and, fortunately, he was down! We luckily made it all the way to the finals to lose to the infamous band, Red Camp! Regardless of the loss, the fact we made it that far was history to us! Especially for me since I was the MD and arranging majority of the composition while in high school!
By my Senior Year, I had grown some serious confidence in my skills as a bassist and programmer I was ready to drop some more live arrangements and bass covers. By the end of my senior year, I had met Adam Blackstone in school and began to grow my relationship with him. I sent him all of Majesty’s arrangements and so much other stuff! I had also gained so much more information about what I actually wanted to do as a musician that it helped me to realize that Berklee was not meant for me. Instead, I attended to Musician’s Institute – located in Hollywood, CA!
By the time I moved to Los Angeles, I had met every musician I looked up to such as Joe Cleveland, Stixx Taylor, Rico Nichols, Darek Cobbs, Darion Ja’Von and so many more! I had also met my classmates, Tre Reid, Tarron Overshown, Timmy Manson, Destinee Sade, Megan Parker, & Jacq V! My classmates eventually became family to me and we began to build as one. Although majority of us dropped out of college, everybody went off to do amazing things!
I dropped out in January 2019 but I was already with my new 1500 Or Nothin’ and was given a scholarship to attend to 1500 Sound Academy!
By the summer of 2019, I had been getting called for work from both infamous companies, 1500 Or Nothin’ and Adam Blackstone of BASSic Black Entertainment!
As of today, I am honored to have been apart of so many memorable performances and projects as a bassist and programmer!
Has it been a smooth road?
It was definitely not a smooth road!
While trying to pursue my career as a musician, I struggled as a student due to low interest. My dad wanted me out of the music scene for a while because of how bad I was doing in school. My parents wanted me to succeed in school FIRST in order to succeed in anything else. They never ever played about my grades. I almost graduated in the Summer due to poor grades.
I was also just making a lot of poor decisions while growing up. It caused too many arguments with my parents. And it caused me to be involved in a lot of drama in school. A lot!
Alright – so let’s talk business. What else should we know about you and your career so far?
My business is labeled Majesty Entertainment. Majesty Entertainment was inspired to continue the legacy that 1500 and BBE hold today! The business is still in its early stages but is still building as we speak!
Our intentions is to give our clients the musical experience they expect and more!
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
My dream is to become one of the most reliable Musical Directors in the industry like Rickey Minor, Adam Blackstone, & Javad Day. I want anybody and everybody to trust my executive decisions and know that every choice that is made will always the best choice!
While taking care of the live music side of the industry, I also enjoy producing. I look forward to the day when I can do the two and make good music with good people!
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
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