Drew Chadwick
Drew Chadwick
Taking the Road Less Traveled
by Rachel DiSipio
You may know Drew Chadwick from the band Emblem3, who started their career on the hit TV show The X-Factor and had the big hit “Chloe (You’re the One I Want)” a little over a year ago. Or, maybe you know him from the amazing messages of positivity he spreads to his fans about life, love, nature and sustainability.
In June of 2014, the twenty-two-year-old singer/songwriter decided to take a different path in his career by branching out and becoming a solo artist. With this change, Chadwick’s life has changed dramatically. He is extremely excited for what the future has in store for him, his up-and-coming platform, as well as his music.
One of our favorite things about catching up with Chadwick is that his answers are always well thought out, deep and positive. He’s definitely a free spirit with a beautiful soul, and we’re excited to see where he’s going next!
Drew Chadwick
We haven’t spoken to you in over a year! How has everything been going?
I’m assuming the last time we talked was #Bandlife when I was on tour with Emblem3. Wow, everything since then has been insane. When I was with them I had financial security, but there was just this spiritual thirst that I had. Part of me after doing the show X-Factor craved that. We skipped a lot of the steps in becoming artists. Part of becoming artists is starting from the bottom and working from the inside out. We went out right in front of everyone and became manufactured, misbranded, and all of that type of stuff happened. I am not saying that was a terrible thing. It gave me time to write some of my best work, which I have been releasing.
It was crazy adapting to that then going back to being one of the common people. For me this is all about connecting and inspiring people. I’m a huge believer in the New Age Movement and consciousness, either on a personal level or on a global level. Even on a global collective scale. For me it has always been about making music that helps awaken that consciousness and helps everyone that hears it. [I want to] make music that is healing to the soul and to the spirit. I guess I felt like I totally got away from that and from myself. I became more identified with my ego rather than heart-centered behaviors. So yeah it has become this huge process of getting back to my heart and finding myself as an artist, learning how to really expand to my fullest potential as a performer.
Before, I was kind of boxed in as a rapper, when in reality I had this whole sensitive melodic side that I now love seeing and that I have worked really hard on. I refocused my voice and love creating who I am as an artist. It ended up being a blessing in disguise, because I got to work with the best song writers in the world in that experience. I got to absorb all of their techniques and how to write a good pop song. Then I got to take that and put it to my conscious, soulful lyrics. Now I feel like I have been blessed with the opportunity to take this message of truth and deliver it in to the public, pop world.
Drew Chadwick
Ultimately that’s what me and my current team are trying to do, which consists of The Mudd Brothers, who are these three brothers: Tom, Jack, and David. Jack is my drummer; David is on the management side, an animation designer, and also does videos. So basically everything I have asked for has been provided for me. There is definitely a higher intelligence helping guide me on this path. I just have to stay true to that, keep an open heart, stay true to my highest self, and keep my intentions pure and everything else just comes along. It’s been quite the journey with its ups and downs. There have been moments where I have hung my head in my hands and thought to myself, “What the hell did I do? I walked away from something that could have been this phenomenal thing. Can I even do this on my own? I must be the biggest idiot.” But after my first show I unlocked new dimensions to my performance and I have gotten more comfortable. I’m starting to get stronger performing. Then I came to the realization that I can totally do this on my own. It’s going really good and I got an amazing response!
Since starting your solo career, do you feel you have been able to grow as an artist and a songwriter?
What great songwriters have is a connection to what is called “cultural zeitgeist.” What that means is that the general spirit that is radiating around all of us. Great artists have a connection to that and can bring that out in their music. I have felt like I have always had that, but since I have walked away from all of that stuff and went on this road less traveled, I have felt like I have earned something by doing that. I definitely leveled up my songwriting capabilities to an even higher level. The response I received from everyone at my last concert was really phenomenal. That was a huge confidence booster and helps refurbish my belief in myself even more, but yeah I feel like as an artist I have definitely gotten a lot stronger and it is only just the beginning. The way that I put it to my friends is that I’m like a bud of a flower that just cracked open. You are just starting to see the color of the flower inside and smell a tiny bit of the fragrance. As time goes on it will fully open and blossom into the flower that it is supposed to be. That is where I am at, in the first stages of blossoming into the artist that I will soon become.
Drew Chadwick
What image do you want your music to convey?
I want my music to be a source of healing. A source of information that connects to my generation that has grown up with the internet. Everything that I write my overall intention is to open the heart and point people back home to their true self and resolve their ego. Those would be my dominant intentions in my music. Other than that I want to open people’s hearts. I want people to share an open-hearted experience at my concerts and have that energy, therefore I can have my open heart. That’s really what it is all about for me.
What has been one of your biggest challenges after wiping the slate clean and starting up your independent career all over again?
One of my biggest challenges has been, well, knowing who to trust and learning to trust the flow of the universe. Also learning to trust and believe in myself. Know that I can do it. There were times where I was really frustrated with my voice, because before I was a rapper and I basically learned to sing completely wrong. There has been a huge process of retraining my voice and changing my approach. That has been a huge thing for me, but recently my voice has totally opened up. It has become real for me and I’m so grateful.
You stand for so many beautiful and inspirational things when it comes to life, nature and wildlife. Beyond music and social media, how do you share these important messages with your fans and how do you recommend they get involved to make a positive change in the world?
Besides from my blog posts and my music, my life goal is this idea I have called, “We the Change.” It is in development right now with a whole team of people that are working on launching it early next year, after my music is established. I didn’t mention this before but I am starting an independent record label with all these great people that I work with called True Works. Out of that we are going to have B-Corporation, so it will be attached to a nonprofit which “We the Change” is. It is basically going to be the supercenter for activism and personal healing. It will hopefully be like the Facebook of conscious people. It’s all laid out. I have the app and everything trademarked. What I plan to do when my music launched is direct all my fans into “We the Change,” so we can start something really big. It’s going to be really cool to connect companies with people in a way that companies can endorse, but they also get tax write offs for their endorsements since it’s a nonprofit. People get rewarded points by going to campaigns. There is this whole serial number system.
It’s a crazy idea but it is definitely my life purpose to launch “We the Change.” I think that is why people like Steve Jobs devoted their whole life to the advancement of technology, because there is a huge potential for connectivity. I definitely think that we need a platform like the one I’m going to create for bringing all these people who want to do something together. It’s going to be awesome, because I always wanted to change the world. I believe that this is my way of doing that. My music is my platform for doing that and X-Factor was my ability to reach critical mass at a young age. I just feel like it has been all laid out perfectly for me in my life. Now it is just about staying true to that path.
Drew Chadwick
Who has been one of your biggest musical influences in life? You have such huge plans in life, who has made you think,“I can do this.”?
Well, there is this girl named Laura Lombardi. I don’t know, for some reason I hold her opinion so high on so many different levels. We aren’t necessarily in an intimate relationship now, maybe one day, who knows, but I have always found her so inspiring. She has just helped awaken me. She actually worked for X-Factor interestingly enough. She really was like “There is something different about you, you’re special. You’re an indigo child.” [She] showed me all these books on it and said you should read these and check this out. That helped awaken me and help me understand more about who I really was, because I have always been so different than everyone else. People always called me weird and stuff like that, and I was, believe me, but yeah she is just a huge inspiration in my life. For some reason she is just this goddess in my life. Everything I do I want to make her proud. She believes in me and she has since I was 19. So yeah, probably Laura oddly enough. Don’t tell her I said that.
If you could collab with anyone in the world who would it be?
Probably someone who is just phenomenal at an instrument. Or maybe I would do a collaboration with an orchestra and do a super epic piece, and it would kind of fit my vibe because with a full string section and the big drums it could be such a crazy song. But other than that I’m not really sure.
Drew Chadwick
What can your fans expect from you? New music? Touring?
As of right now I’m just trusting my flow. I have my team around me setting things up. I’m playing small, intimate shows and am just connecting with the whole conscious audience that is in Southern California. Then we plan on taking that and bringing it to the east coast and bringing these vibes over there. But as of right now I’m counting on my team. I think we are planning a tour right now, east and west coast. I’m just getting my band together, it’s just me and Jack right now. I’m probably going to get a bassist and a keyboardist. Whatever happens I’m still getting a full band together and hopefully everything will fall into place in the next couple of weeks.
Drew Chadwick
Do you have a message for your supporters?
All I can say is December 7, 2014 I hold as the most wonderful day of my entire life. One thing that ran through that experience on that day was the greatest gift that I have received in my life is my fan base. I actually fully realize that to the core and it brought tears to my eyes. There is nothing that matters more to me, not family, not friends, not myself. It’s about them and opening their hearts and them opening other people’s hearts. It’s not even about the music. It’s about the movement and what the movement causes out here in this world. I can’t do anything without them. An artist without someone to share with might as well be in hell, because as an artist all you want to do is create and share. If there aren’t people to share with or they don’t care, then that’s the saddest thing.
To know that they genuinely care about me, my heart, and my art and want to hear more and want to be a part of it and are just waiting for me to do something and start this movement, is amazing. Which it is starting, it’s just a subtle thing I’m a part of. It’s on a global scale and the music is just going to be assisting in the movement, it’s a process. They’re key players. They are just as important as the music. My music is their music. They’re the inspiration that made the music. They shouldn’t even think of me as the guy making the music, think of me as the guy who channels it in and puts it together. I’m just doing my service, they are the ones who the music is for. They are the ones generating it. I am just so thankful for everything they do for me. All I can say is thank you.
Copyright ©2015 PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved. Posted: March 9, 2015.
Photos ©2015. Courtesy of TrueChadwick.com. All rights reserved.