Meet Iamdouglas | Recording artist, Songwriter, Brand owner

We had the good fortune of connecting with Iamdouglas and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi IAMDouglas, what is the most important factor behind your success?
For my brand to become successful it needs to remain transparent. Music is the catalyst, for the greater mission of developing a safe space for those who struggle internally and are afraid they’re the only ones. For this to succeed, I need to shine light on my own mistakes, struggles, and failures. However, I’m human and sharing these vulnerabilities is intimidating at times. Having a team of people that support me and remind me of the greater mission helps give me strength to speak up, and continue to move forward.
Whether it be through my music or the art we create, we can never forget why we’re doing this. The moment I stop being honest or we pretend everything is perfect, we compromise the integrity of what this brand is built upon. My friends, team, supporters, and family all play a role behind the success of this.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
My art is a reflection of my reality, and the reality I’ve grown up in. It was hard being a multi ethnic kid who moved around growing up to feel like I belong anywhere. That loneliness lead me to the path of creating, but the comfort of expression has been what’s kept me. My music crosses all genres, but the message stays true. I’ve struggled with mental health since I was a kid, and the only thing that helped me feel better in the madness I was raised in was putting in headphones and dreaming my own world. In my world people are safe, its okay to be sad, its okay to be different, and its okay to be yourself. To this day, what I’m most proud of are the people who have told me they find comfort in my music. None of this was easy, but I don’t think anything worth fighting for is. It took risks, long nights, and years of losses to gain what I have so far. The good thing is, these moments are captured in my music as we move through them. As for my fellow dreamers, I want you to know it’s important to find balance. For a lot of my journey I ignored balance and it was the biggest mistake I made. Forgetting to take breaks while being overly obsessed with the next goal led me to years of allowing my work to dictate my identity. It’s important not to allow our work to dictate our happiness.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
The city of Atlanta is still very new to me, but in this short time I’ve been able to experience so much culture. I would love for anyone who visits to see the studios I work at like “Parhelion” and “Patchwerk”. I would love for someone to visit, and leave with the same inspiration I find in this city. In Pittsburgh, we don’t have an NBA team so it would be definitely be good to go to a Hawks game. One thing I love about the city of Atlanta is how welcoming people are to recommending places to eat. I feel like I haven’t even found the best places to eat yet, I would love to take a day and just explore all the recommendations I have. There’s so much history here to be explored. Other than the studios, Marietta diner, and a sporting event I would like to just leave the schedule open and find things as we go.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Id like to shout out my friend and business partner Carlin Ford, AKA “Nilrac”. Carlin is a creative designer, director, and brand owner. We both began our journeys back In college as roommates. I had just started making music and he would make beats with cover arts between classes and shifts at work. Fast forward to now, he’s done graphic design for Adidas, Overtime, NFL players, Music labels, and created his own brand “Zenz”. He’s responsible for majority of my creative direction. Aside from his success, he has always stressed the importance of being close to his faith, and practicing humility. In todays world, there seems to be a narrative that to become successful you need to bend on core values. However, from the time we were teenagers, all the way up until now he has never sacrificed his core beliefs no matter how much success he’s gained. He is the role model a lot of people need.

Website: https://www.iamdouglasmusic.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamdouglasflp/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@iamdouglasmusic

Other: Find me on TIkTok @ iamdouglasflp !