Iamdoechii 101: Tampa multi-hyphenate Iamdoechii welcomes us to her coven
By Ime Ekiko
Wicked. Fluid. Effortless. Choosing any one word to encapsulate IamDoechii — Tampa born and raised artist, musician, dancer, choreographer, art director, and just about everything else — is a terribly moot point.
Her sound is distinct, her flow an unyielding cascade of bar after bar. Her authenticity, talent, and dedication on each track are unmistakable. A few weeks ago, we got to catch up with her and ask about her process, her goals, and her influences. This is IamDoechii 101:
Image courtesy of Jayprob.
You were born and raised in Tampa, Florida. I’m a Florida girl, too — Miami, 305 all the way! But you moved to New York fairly recently. What led to the move?
I went to Georgia with my mom after my lease was up. When I went to Georgia, an internet friend of mine — Oyinda, she is now my manager — called me one day and said, “I want to manage you.” I don’t know what it was about the way she said it, but we decided that we were going to take the leap to New York and further my career. She was going to manage me. A month later, we moved to New York to get together. Our first time meeting was when we got to New York.
But you’d done music before you moved to New York. How did you first get into music in Florida?
I am a theater baby. I’ve been doing performance art since I was in middle school. In highschool, I was doing chorus, and originally, I wanted to be a classical choral singer, traveling the world with choirs. That was because I didn't know you could be an independent artist. I thought that if you were making music videos, you had to be signed to a label, so it seemed really farfetched. It wasn’t until I met my friend Taylor Moon — she’s an artist as well. I went to her house one time when she was making music, and I found out she recorded her own songs. She opened my eyes to the fact that I didn’t have to be signed to make music. I had always been writing my own songs. I had a YouTube channel where I posted my videos, but I never took it very seriously. It wasn’t until she showed me that I could record myself and make music myself that I started making music. I jumped into the scene in 2016 with my first song that blew up. From there, I've been doing features left and right and connecting with engineers. That’s when I built a local fan base.
[Listen: IamDoechii’s first single, titled “El Chapo.”]
Speaking of recording your own music, on your YouTube channel, you have the Coven Music Sessions that have now become a compilation EP. It’s an incredible mix of a wide range of songs and styles. How did this come about?
The Coven Music Sessions started because I wanted to put myself in this bootcamp mindset. I wanted to write songs everyday just to build up my strength and my momentum with songwriting. I started the Coven Music Sessions by giving myself twenty to thirty minutes to write before. I would make the song on the spot and record on the spot. Then I would post it. I thought it would be a really good way to just make a compilation of my different styles and approaches. As I started doing it more, I felt like it could be something much bigger — and Coven Music is something I’ve been reppin’ for a long time. It’s a label that I want to start in the future. I want to be able to have an all Black women label, with Black artists who identify as women and come with similar sounds. I made the Coven Music Sessions and made it into a tape so people can stream, and I’ll keep doing those volumes before every album that I drop. Before every project, you’ll get another volume.
[Listen: Coven Music Sessions: Doechii 101]
Your next project is The Broom Project?
Actually, it’s not! The project I’ll be dropping is called Oh, The Places You’ll Go. It’s a theatrical, conceptual project. There are skits and a theme — the theme is a classroom. The audience will be in the classroom with me, Doechii the teacher. I am going to take you through different points of my life, different scenarios, different situations. It’s going to be like a movie. A holy experience. That’ll be coming out soon.
Image courtesy of JocZilla.
What is one experience that you will be including in this project? An experience that can truly push you to do your music?
This project is a glimpse into my past transformative moments that have molded me into who I am today. The very first song is called “Yucky Blucky Fruitcake” because it's a reference to Junie B. Jones. Junie B. Jones is a classic [series], and there were a whole bunch of [books in the] series. She really resonated with me when I was younger. She was a badass kid who was super weird and never fit in anywhere — nobody really liked her. She was very outspoken, and I thought she was the greatest person. The stories I’m referencing are from a time when I was in elementary school. It’s a series of memories: things I used to wear, things I used to watch, how I used to speak, things that happened in school and at home. You’ll become immersed in my home life and my school life and see how those things influenced me.
“I gave myself permission to be bad at things because I realized in order to be good at something you have to get through the bad.”
What are some of your influences in your sound? Who do you look up to for inspiration?
Number one? That’s so hard. It’s neck and neck with three people: Lauryn Hill, Beyoncé, and Kanye West. The My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy Kanye West. Classic Kanye West definitely influences me.
Back to the Coven Music Sessions for a second. I watched you create this series while also following a book called The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. How did this book — this program — help you to develop as an artist? It’s a pretty heavy workload.
I had to really break down every single thing I was reading. It's really helped me look into my past patterns and dig into my memories. I had to think about things that may have harmed me, traumatized me, and blocked me from getting to where I want to go with my artistic expression. Once I was able to bring those things up and understand how they affected me and why they did, I felt like I was able to move forward. That book gave me this fearless confidence to fail, to try things. I gave myself permission to be bad at things because I realized in order to be good at something you have to get through the bad — the “I suck, I quit.” “It sucks right now, but I have to get through the sucky part to get to the great part. That book helped me with that and other things like overcoming jealousy and overcoming fears.. The book is written amazingly. Translating it into [my] words had a huge impact on how I was able to push so much out. I felt like I was pushing out a lot of content because I was letting it go. I wasn’t holding onto it like I was before. Or trying to be so perfect. I let go of perfection and just went for it.
What other books have you come across that’s helped you explore in such a deep way besides this one?
Alice Wolf. There is a book called Resonate. The best book I’ve ever read thus far. For anybody who is looking to build an audience, or wants to understand how audiences are formed, or wants to understand the science of what resonates with people. I’m really into that stuff, and it's just about art and what resonates with humans. I feel like that’s something that's important — especially for artists.
Image courtesy of Ceci’s Lens Photography.
“All of my creative energy — all of the ideas that I have — comes from the source, and the source is God.”
Going back to some themes I’ve noticed in your music, you touch on the concept of the divine feminine in a number of your songs. How has your connection to spiritually influenced you?
My spiritual journey started when I was young. I spoke in tongues when I was in third grade and I laid hands on people in fifth grade. I grew up in the church and my religion was Christianity. I am more spiritual than religious right now, but I do believe there is a God. I’ve felt God. I’ve spoken to God. That’s just what it is. But I started to experiment with different ways to connect with different energies. When I was around 19, I started trying to learn more about my ancestors. I started getting into tarot cards, crystals, gems, and sage. The typical new-age package, just trying to understand and learn some things. The Broom Closet was inspired by the tarot deck. Every card in the deck represents a point in life that someone has been through or will eventually experience, and those moments are transformative moments. I took six cards that I felt resonate with me and made those specific cards into songs. All of my creative energy — all of the ideas that I have — comes from the source, and the source is God. Every walking being is a ball of creative energy, and I am just trying my best to tap into that source and get to know that source, exert the energy. That is my purpose. I feel like I got really deep there.
You did. Thank you for that. Truly the gospel for the day. We actually met at Installation Brooklyn, a Black-owned thrift shop in Brooklyn. You source looks from them for photoshoots, so it’s safe to say you’re very much into fashion and photography. What other arts are you into? Any visual arts like painting? And do you find yourself expressing these the same as with your music? Or has music always been your first love even when you were doing theater back in high school?
I am going to say no, it’s not my first love. My mom always had me in performing arts, so that was always there. My passion before all of this was YouTube. I loved making videos. I was also in acting for a really long time. My mom had me in so many different things. I’ve been in plays, I’ve tried commercials, all of it. So really, my first love has always been making content. And to tie it back into fashion — I love fashion just as much as I love music. The two go together. I will say that styling is a creative direction for your body, and I love creative direction, especially when it comes to photoshoots. I don’t have to model. Just let me come up with the concepts. I love that. I’d say my first love is creative direction and making scenes come to life.
Lastly, aside from creating music, with everything going on nowadays — COVID-19, protests and the uprisings — how are you keeping sane? How are you trying to level yourself off, especially as a Black woman, when things are at an all-time high? How are you taking care of yourself? Do you have any tips?
I have been getting close to my family. I left New York and came back to Florida where my family is. Right now, I feel like we need each other. I feel like I need to be around people who know me — I love my friends, but I feel like what is keeping me sane is the love from my family and the love from my mother. Other than that, everyone is going through it. I’m struggling, too, but the main thing that’s helping me is the love from my family and being present. When I say being present, I mean meditation. Being present in your body, staying hydrated, sitting outside and things like that are all that we can do right now.
If everything goes well in the next coming months — as in people learn to wear their damn masks correctly and we make it to the other side of this pandemic — can we expect to see you on tour?
It’s crazy that you brought that up because I was just talking with my A&R about that last night. It would be a mini tour. It would be insane.
“I love my friends, but I feel like what is keeping me sane is the love from my family and the love from my mother.”
Image courtesy of Oyinda Tabiyi.