 Welcome to the Hawaii Smooth Jazz Connection. I am your host, Gwendolyn Harris. My guest today is a multi-talented guitarist, writer, producer, and performer who is quickly becoming a recognized household name in contemporary jazz. Having shared the stage with the likes of Najee, Gerald Albright, Brian Simpson, James Lloyd, and Alex Pyong, just to name a few. You can find him at jazz festivals and clubs and other events here in the United States and abroad. Not only is he my homeboy from Philadelphia, but let's welcome my guest today, Mr. David P. Stevens to the show. Oh, hi, Gwen. I'm doing well. I'm doing well. Thank you so much for having me. No, thank you for being here. As I stated, you are from Philadelphia. You're my homeboy from Philly. That's right. That's right. You are my homeboy from Philly. West Philly. Yes. Southwest. But thank you so much for being here. I want people to know about you, because when I first found out about you, it was on Facebook, and I think you joined my Facebook group or whatever the case may be, and ever since then, you know, I've been following you. We've been messing with each other about trying to get you here to Hawaii, and you know that's going to happen, right? But tell us. That's right. Tell us and tell my viewers exactly what got you into music. So well, got me into music in general. I was just being in church and watching the church musicians and watching how cool they were and just all the music that was coming out of it just got me really interested in it. And then as far as guitar, the guitar player who was at my church was a really cool guy. You know, the guy used to wear the muscle shirts and have Jerry Curl and all that kind of stuff. And so I thought he was so cool, and I wanted to learn how to play, you know, to just kind of initially to be like him, but then I really fell in love with the guitar. Now, I know that you became a professional musician at the age of 14. Right. I know that. I know that for a fact. Right. Right. What other instruments do you play? Because I know you play more than just a guitar, being modest right now. You play more than just a guitar. What other instruments do you play? Right. Well, let's see. Actually, bass guitar. I started off playing piano, and then I quit because my mom forced me to do it. But then I quit piano, but then I picked it back up again, and so I do a lot of piano. I write and produce, and I also sing. Yeah. And I can play drums a little. I had to play drums in church for many years, so I can get by right. Oh, really? Oh, really? Okay. Okay. Now, the title of the show, and you and I talked about this, it's David P. Stevens, the return of Mr. Guitar. Who is Mr. Guitar? Well, that was a nickname. Well, it's funny. On my third album, my third album was actually, my fourth album was called Mr. Guitar. And the explanation behind it was that I had kind of tried to be some, another kind of artist. You know, I tried to fit into a box, and the Mr. Guitar was kind of the coming out party. It was like saying, listen, this is who I really am, and this is what I'm going to do. And it was a very conversation. He's even the cover had like a blue flame coming up out of the back of the brain. And it got a lot of attention. And just over the years, I kind of fell back into doing some other stuff, and, you know, I recently realized, you know, it brings back that Mr. Guitar. And that's what it's, you know, that's what's coming out now. I like it. I like it. The return of Mr. Guitar. Now, for those of you that... Of course. For those of you that don't know, I recently saw you last month at the Long Beach Jazz Festival. Right. Right. Yeah. Saw you at the Long Beach. Yeah, we finally met first. Yes. That's where we finally, finally met. And you were just, you are just amazing. Just amazing. Thank you. And I tell you this all the time. When I see your things come through in the Facebook group, and just hearing you in general, you are amazing. This is the question that I want to ask you is what sets you apart from other guitarists? What sound, what makes your sound different from others? The first thing is, I had the unapologetic city edge. You know, you're born and raised in Philadelphia. There's a certain sound that is bred, you know, kind of like involved and still whatever you want to say in us. And so I have that. And it's a whole, you know, kind of a slagger thing. And you know, there's also all of the influences that I had, which kind of will shape my sound. So I feel like my sound is more like soulful with a little bit of rock in it, a little bit of fusion. And then singing, too, also kind of helps frame the way that I play my notes differently. Now, you talked about your influencers. Who are some of those influencers? Who are some of the people that influenced you? In range. So the first introduction was George Benton. And then to Steve Lucifer and Mike Stern and John McLaughlin and John Scofield and all these heavy jazz cats, you know, fusion jazz cats, you know, those of them are. And then how them feel like I was there was probably one of my biggest influences. Nice. And then I can't forget. I can't forget Norman Brown. Oh, no, you cannot. No, you cannot. See, I've read about you. So I know, I know some of this. I know some of your influences. And I guess Norman Brown, George Benton, all those heavy hitters are your influences. And I can hear it in your play. When you play, I can definitely hear it. I hear that mixture of all of them. Now, you have worked, you have worked with many, you have worked with many artists. Okay. Right. Who would you like to collaborate with? Somebody that you haven't worked with. Who would you like to collaborate with? There are many. I would love to work with Fantasia. I would love to work with Maxwell. I would love to work with Jill Scott. You know, just those maybe singers. You know, I've been blessed to work with a lot of jazz artists as far as instrumenting it. But I've always wanted to do a lot more with singers. I've done some stuff. I had Jaguar right on one of my albums. And I don't want to start naming stuff. But yeah. So, Michael Cole, I mean, so many people, so I really like to collaborate with singers. You know, I feel like they bring out a different period of time. So those that I mentioned, I would really love to work with them. Awesome. Awesome. Now, we're going to talk about your albums. You haven't, I have them listed here because I couldn't, I could not remember them at all. But we're going to start, you know, starting in 1999, you had, was it from Thoughts to Actions? Correct? Oh, yeah. That's right. Right. That's right. Okay. 2005, you had Timeless. That's right. 2008, you had, was it the Shed? Shed. Uh-huh. And then 2013, you had Epiphany. 2014, you had Mr. Guitar. Right. And these last two that I'm going to get to, 2016, you had an album titled Love City, which they say was one of your best albums. Right? Right, that's what, yeah. And then 2018, which is your latest one, Rogue. And I've heard both of them. You know, I just love your music. I'm a fan of you anyway. But I'm not even going to tell you which one I like better. But I'm going to put you on the spot and ask you which one you like the most. Thank you. I'm not even going to tell you which one I like better. But I'm going to put you on the spot and ask you which one of your albums, out of all of those, and anything that you've done, which one is your favorite? So it's hard to do that, but I will. I'm going to say Mr. Guitar was between Mr. Guitar and Rogue. It's a tie. Because those are the albums that I took the most chances, most artistic, most artistic chances. I kind of, even though I really love Love City and all of them, they all have an interesting story. Like time, when that came out, I was trying to decide what I wanted to be. So it's kind of, you can hear there's all kinds of influences going on through that album. But, you know, as I started to get older, I started kind of, you know, be able to mirror whatever was going on in that particular time playing and make a pretty, you know, an album from that. So, yeah, so I would say Mr. Guitar and Rogue. So what was your thought process on Rogue when you were making Rogue? How did you come about with that title and, you know, with the album title? What was your thought process on that? Again, I probably, because I'm in the smooth jazz genre, and don't get me wrong, I love the genre. I love the guys, you know, and the ladies who are performing. And I think it's amazing. But I think I wanted to kind of veer off from it on this last album. I wanted to do something that was a little more edgy and showed a little bit more of my range. So if you like really dig in, you can hear all kinds of stuff in that album. It was made to like be a departure from everything that I had already done. So I'm excited about that one because it's just like, I mean, you know how you have your song, everybody has their song in the key of life. For me, I feel like that was my, that was my one. That was it, right? Right. Now you recently, and we've discussed this, you recently moved from Philly to California. How's that been for you? I love, let me tell you, I love LA. It has been amazing, amazing. It's hot, but different from Philly. Yeah, like today, oh my goodness, my computer, the first time I've ever seen a temperature thing pop up on the computer and it just kept shutting down. But, you know, it's just hot. Yeah, I love it. Other than that, it's been amazing. It's been one of the best moves that I've made, you know, career-wise. There's something going on every day. And that's how I was going to ask you, career-wise, if you think it was one of your best moves, huh? Absolutely, absolutely. And everybody's here. Yes. It's a little quicker. Because it's like, hey, instead of, you know, hey, can you sit in the spot? It's like, you know, come over and record this part. And then we're done, you know. Yeah. It's an easy thing. So I like that. I like that. Nice. Nice. We have to go, we're going to go on a quick break, everyone. And we will be right back. So stay tuned. Don't go anywhere. Be right back. Aloha, my name is Duretian. You are watching Think Tech Hawaii. I will be hosting a show here every other Wednesday at 1 p.m. And we will be talking to a lot of experts and guests around sustainability, social justice, the future here in Hawaii, progressive politics, and a whole lot more. So please tune in. And thank you for watching Think Tech Hawaii. Hello, I'm Mufi Hanamit. I want to tell you about a great show that appears on Think Tech Hawaii. It's all about tourism. In fact, we call it Tourism 101. When we talk about the issues and challenges, that faces our number one industry throughout the state. We'll have some interesting guests from a very informative dialogue and allow you an opportunity to maybe learn a little bit more about why this industry is so important for our state. It's been great for us in the past. We need it today. And especially going forward. That's Tourism 101 on Think Tech Hawaii. Mahalo. Aloha. Welcome back to the Hawaii Smooth Jazz Connection. And I am your host, Gwendolyn Harris. And with me today, I have one of my favorites, one of my homeboys from Philadelphia, multi-talented smooth jazz artist, Mr. David P. Stevens. Welcome back. Welcome back. Welcome back. I am so happy that you are here with me. Well, you're not here. I wish you were here with me in the studio, but you're here with me. Yeah, we're on the show. We have to do that. We have to do that when I come. We got to go do something in the studio. Yes. Most definitely. Now, we've talked about a few things. We've talked about your albums. We've talked about you moving to California. But one thing that I do want to talk about, and I asked this of everyone. I asked this of everyone, all of my guests. And I'm pretty sure that you grew up playing music in the schools, right? In Philadelphia? In my school? Kind of sorta? No. No. Actually, I was playing outside of school. Outside of school. I never got in the school band, because I was so busy doing stuff outside of school. Well, my question to you, because I know that I played music in the schools, and I know a lot of other people have played music in the schools, you know, for me, even up through college at Hampton University in the marching band. So my thing is, right now, they are taking the arts and music out of the schools, in some schools they are. What is your thought on that? I think that's horrible. I mean, I think, you know, even though I didn't play music in school, I had a lot of friends who are hit producers today and hit writers today. And musicians and everybody who got their start playing in school. And I know for many of them, the music programs saved their lives. You know, it was something to do and gave them hope and gave, you know, something to do with their dreams. So I think it's awful to take, you know, music programs or any kind of artistic programs out of school. You know, we, I think there needs to be some kind of outside funding or something like that that should go into to help them bring the instruments back and create programs. Taking the schools that you can't afford it. And cutting that is, is cutting expression. Yes, yes. And I, you know, I agree with, I definitely, excuse me, I definitely agree with you. Now you're becoming, you are, you're an amazing artist and you know, you're still moving up. Them songs are moving up on the charts. For new artists that are coming into the music industry. Some make it and some don't. What, what advice would you give to them? What advice would you give to a new artist that's coming into the industry today? A couple things. One, I would say study your craft. Make sure that you are, you know, because you're competing against a global market now. It's not just competing against, you know, a local talent. I mean, with the internet, you're competing against the best artist. So you've got to make sure that your talent is up there as well. But then I will stay focused a lot on your foundation building. This is like your website, your EPK, your, you know, all the things that you need to send to promoters. Add a material that you need. Make sure you focus heavily on those things because, you know, those are the things that are going to get, you know, draw people to you. And learn a business. If you want to know, learn the music business. Because it is a business. It is a business for real. It is a business for real. Now, you know, you know I love your music, David, right? Do you think that you would be able to play a little something for us right now? Sure, sure, sure. Just a little something, something. Just a little something, something. Yeah, I try to do it. I don't know if you'll be able to hear it, but I'll try. Okay. Can you hear that? I can. Can you hear that? I can hear it. I can hear it. I can hear it. I can hear it. Thank you. So now we ask you, you definitely need to come to Hawaii for real. You need to come to Hawaii for real. What projects do you have coming up? What's going on? What do you have coming up? Where can people go to see? Oh, I'm actually put a lot of writing and production. So I have an interesting story. I'm just, this is my last week of classes until I finished my master's degree of business. And I called this year, I called us to finish my business degree. And so I did not trust you so much on performing and stuff like that. So this coming year, we're seeing a lot more places working on some new, working on a new project, but also writing and producing for a lot of other people. So I just did a song called The Breeze, which is by Latoya London, featuring Najee. And that song is just hit the charts, just hit the radio charts. Wow. We're doing a lot of writing and production. Yeah. I'm excited about that one. Yes. Awesome. Yeah. So just a lot of writing and production and beginning to start to show us for the coming year. Nice. Now you have a website. So where can people find you on your website? What's, what's your website? So my website is DavidSeason.com and you can go there and find out all the latest information. All my social media is DavidSeason. So Instagram, Facebook, all of that stuff. And I try to be pretty interactive. You know, and try to, sometimes there's so many messages I might, but you know, I do try to be, try to respond. Wow. So now you're working on your master's, you're at Berkeley, yeah? Right. Berkeley College and New Year's. Wow. How's that going between, I don't know how you do that. It's just, I guess it's just like with anything between doing your studies and working and everything else. Sort of like me juggling stuff around. So I know that it's got to be hard. It was hard. I had to shut down literally everything because the work was so boring. It was literally all day every day you had to be working on, you know, on this topic. And so I don't even know what life is. I don't remember life before it. You know how it was so much work and just like, man, what am I generating? Like the freedom of my experience is amazing. Yes, yes. I'm excited. Well, I thank you so much for joining me here on the Hawaii Smooth Jazz Connection. For all of you that want to know more about my guests, my homeboy, Mr. David P. Stevens, go to davidpstevens.com and I'm going to tell you you will not be disappointed. His bio, he's going to be playing everything is on that website. And go out and see him. He is amazing. Just amazing. Again, David, I thank you so much for joining us here, here on the show. And we definitely need to get you here in Hawaii, most definitely. Thank you. I can't wait. I'm excited. I've been to Hawaii one time and I enjoyed it. And now you're even closer. Now you're even closer because before you came from Philly. So now you're even closer, which is awesome. Well, we'll make sure that we get you, that we will get you back here. To my audience of the Hawaii Smooth Jazz Connection, thank you very much. And until next time. Aloha and God bless.