“Michael Jackson’s showmanship, Prince’s efficiency and productivity, Andre 3000’s perspective and approach, and Childish Gambino’s willingness to push the envelope,” Quinton Jones said about his musical influences. The 28-year-old musician plays piano (he started when he was 12), guitars and drums and has always used music to express himself.

“Music was this cool space and place for me to be expressive [because] when I was younger, I did not talk a lot, and by that I really mean I was not very expressive,” Jones said. “So when I started playing piano, I was able to create something that was completely mine and more importantly, it was me.”

Jones’ preference is the piano because that’s where he started and it’s the instrument he feels the most comfortable with. He hopes to master the guitar (he’s currently learning more) and the drums to continue expressing himself through music because he’s fascinated by the notion that people who play and master these instruments all think differently.

What he likes most about being a multi-instrumentalist is that they attend to and appease his thoughts and emotions.

“The instruments that I stick to are pianos [or] keyboards, guitars and drums. The melodic instruments I gravitate to when I want to be soft, thoughtful and engaging,” Jones said, “and the drums let me be more aggressive and in your face. That shows up in recordings but more so when I get a chance to actually play.”

Jones believes his perspective and approach to music aid in making him a good musician. He considers himself a visual person so when he’s coming up with songs, he sees and feels them but the images and scenes are beneficial. 

Keep reading to find out his dream collaboration, what makes a good song and more. 

1. How would you describe your music? Which genre? I would describe my music as a blend of all of my influences because you can hear pop, electronic music, jazz, hip hop, R&B, gospel and the list goes on. If I had to go with a genre, I would lean more to hip hop just because of where I am currently with knowing and learning more about the history of hip hop.

2. What led you to start Musically Gifted & Socially Awkward and who are the other members? Musically Gifted and Socially Awkward started years ago with a conversation of sharing dreams, goals, aspirations and pure desire to do something great for ourselves that others could enjoy and join in too. The members are Jouri and myself.  I remember the day it all came together I drove over to the house where Jouri lived at the time and we started sharing beats and songs that we had made. We would trade back and forth, both of us asking the other how did you do this, how did you do that, why this, why that and the enthusiasm kept rising until we realized, “Hey, I like what you’re doing, how you’re doing it and why you’re doing it. Let’s do something together.” After that, the rest is history.

3. List albums/EPs you’ve released. What was the subject matter/inspiration? To this date, the only album I’ve released is “Love’s Last Episode,” which I put out in 2015. The subject matter was about love, heart break and just overall a product of where I was in my life leading up to the completion of the album. The inspiration was all about what was going on in my world: good and not so good that I had trouble expressing and it showed up here in the music.

4. Who do you want to collaborate with and why? Which musicians inspire you and what qualities do you admire about them? I have a list of people I would love to collaborate with [but] the first name that always comes to mind is Andre 3000. He has been such an inspiration and influence to me and a lot of my favorite artists to listen to. I would love to collaborate with him because I know it would be great, the world and myself are always looking and wanting more from him but we all know if [he] doesn’t do anything else as far as releasing music to the public, he’s done enough. If I stay with my choice of Andre 3000, it’s the level of craftsmanship he puts into his music, the dire need to say exactly what he is feeling and still have it be so translucent that it all still resonates with us.

5. What are your goals in regards to music? Are you pursuing it full-time? What’s your 9 to 5? My goals are to always be true to myself, make things that I and others enjoy and relate to, I want to be financially stable and make a living with music, I want it to take me to new places and meet new people. Good People. 

Fortunately, I am pursuing music full-time. I’m a music teacher at Dinwiddie Middle School, a freelance musician, church musician, and pursuing my own personal career as an artist, producer and engineer.

6. How do you write your songs? How long does it take for you to write a song? Where do you get the inspiration to write your songs? I feel like I write my songs or at least start my songs with so little structure. It’s always a feeling or a thought that I have to catch that turns into something visual. After that, the process can go several different ways. I’ve started songs with the drums first, words first, chords first and even the melody first. It’s whatever feels right and sticks [and] once that happens, I try to just flow before I have to think too hard on it to finish it. 

The time it takes to finish a song always varies, I’ve been lucky enough to finish songs within a day and other times it can take years. When it doesn’t take long to finish, it’s usually [because] I’m just in a space where I can almost hear the song in its entirety and it’s up to me to do the very best I can to bring it to this side. Other times when the process is long, I don’t really like to force the music (there’s a time and place for that) so I take breaks because I believe there is a possibility that it’s not time for the song or I can’t progress with it because I haven’t lived the parts so the feeling isn’t there just yet.

7. What makes a good song? To me, a good song is one that influences you as it makes you dance, feel happy, sad, loved, confident, mad, rebellious, triumphant. If the music can make you feel something, think of something or someone. If it makes you want to do something, not do something, if it brings up nostalgia, or sparks inspiration that’s a good song.

8. Did you have a lot of success with your previous project? What was the response? From a marketing [and] business standpoint, this being a livelihood, no. My views and exposure to the outside was not all that well, [but] I definitely know why. But on a personal level, yes. I have had success with my previous project because the feedback I have received from family, friends and other creatives that I have met along the way have given me so much good feedback. They have told me what’s good and what’s not so good, [and] they’ve encouraged me in such ways that has built up my confidence in my own abilities that I am coming into my own. The excitement and desire to succeed is exceeding my fear of failure.

9. How has the pandemic affected you (music and in general)? Musically, it’s affected me in both a good and bad way. The bad, it’s stopped me from performing in front of people whether it’s playing in someone else’s band, getting my own opportunity to perform my own songs, going out to open mic nights, or going out and just being able to be in those spaces with other creatives. 

The way that it has positively affected me is that it has given me … a lot of time to think about what is actually going on with me. How do I feel about certain things, what do I think about certain things? The pandemic has given me time to think about me and the things that are important to me and, as a result, it all shows up in the music. Everything is connected to me.

10. Your last release was “Don’t Do It” in 2019, do you have any plans on releasing new music? What’s next for you? Absolutely, I have a whole lot of ideas for releasing music, and honestly, I have a huge backlog of music waiting to be released. Even though I don’t post things to social media as much as I would like to or as others would like to hear from me, I’ve never stopped working, writing, listening, studying, asking questions, seeking answers or playing. If I could give some titles, I have a song called “Racing” that will be released soon and another song called “Never Do” featuring Tencahe Hunter. I am extremely excited to share [both songs] with you all.

Keep up with Quinton’s musical releases via Bandcamp, Facebook and Youtube. Listen to Quinton’s last release below: