KickActs interviews “Deja Mae”!

Welcome to Kick Acts. Tell us a little about yourself and were you can be found online.

Hellllo Kick Acts and thank you so much for having me! My name is Deja Mae, well my name is Deja Mae Howell, but I go by Deja Mae for music. My family and close friends have called me Deja Mae since I was tiny, and no matter what I told them I promoted my band name to be when I was starting out, they would all say “I’m here to see Deja Mae” to the door person. So I stopped being clever and made my regular ol’ name my band name.

Here are a few hundred places you can find me:

www.dejamae.com

www.facebook.com/dejamaehowell

www.youtube.com/dejamaemusic

www.soundcloud.com/dejamae

www.twitter.com/wheresdeja

www.instagram.com/wheresdeja

*Reason for the handle “wheresdeja” is because it’s what my family and close friends are ALWAYS SAYING “where’s deja?”. I disappear a lot, and run late a lot. I’ll hear my mom say it when I am just up in a different part of their house. I am merely a few walls and arches away, but still I am somehow deemed lost or missing.

Who are your musical heroes and influences? Why?

Hank Williams Sr., Patsy Cline, Nirvana, Bob Dylan, Muddy Waters, Neil Young, Paul Simon, Robert Johnson, Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Elliott Smith, Conor Oberst, Son House, Mississipi John Hurt, Nancy Sinatra, Modest Mouse, Kendrick Lamar, Tupac, Fiona Apple, Cat Power, Etta James, Otis Redding, Sam Cooke, Ray Lamontagne,  Mazzy Star, The Misfits… ahhh I could go on with this list for eternity, it seems. They all speak to the places inside of me no one else sees. It’s hard to explain, something in each one of these musicians/bands brings alive and soothes the pieces of me I thought broken, or even the pieces I celebrate.   They are all extremely talented to say the least.

Do you have any advice for someone just getting started in the music business?

My advice would be to take it seriously like you would any business, because that is exactly what it is, a business. The work is never finished, I am never not working. It’s important I stay focused and give myself deadlines otherwise things that are important get pushed aside for whatever comes with a deadline. Boundaries and Read more…