Deuandra – Blending Fashion, Film, and Faith on the Virtual Sessions 10/8/25

From Scottsdale, Arizona, Deuandra joins to share her journey as a multifaceted artist balancing music, fashion, and film. With twelve albums under her belt, her latest release Fit marks a new creative direction, blending spoken word, rap, and pop influences. The project is deeply personal, inspired by her late mother—a fashion designer—and the rediscovery of her passion for design. Through Fit, she channels emotion, healing, and truth, crafting stories that speak to growth, loss, and resilience.

 

Her creativity extends beyond music into film. Her sci-fi fantasy feature Temps Figé—shot across multiple countries with local talent—has already earned international recognition, winning awards in Hong Kong and India. Currently streaming on her Roku channel Detaron TV, the film showcases her commitment to independent storytelling and global collaboration. Between fashion shows in New York, Paris, and Dubai, Deuandra continues to merge artistry and entrepreneurship, building her brand Detron Couture while uplifting others through her work.

 

A true “predator” in the creative sense—producer, director, and editor—she thrives on crafting her own path. Whether in music, fashion, or film, Deuandra finds her grounding through faith and perseverance. She embraces challenges with gratitude, reminding others to stay authentic despite criticism or setbacks. Her story is a testament to creativity, balance, and the power of faith-driven determination.

 

Topics

0:13 – Introduction and overview of Deuandra’s creative projects
1:21 – The making of Fit and its tribute to her late mother
3:57 – Exploring spoken word as an emotional storytelling medium
7:29 – Creating Temps Figé across global locations
9:13 – Building her own Roku channel, Detaron TV
11:42 – Modeling and traveling the world for fashion week
14:30 – Blending film, music, and fashion influences from childhood
18:27 – Overcoming rejection and self-producing creative work
30:15 – Staying versatile and fearless as an artist
39:28 – Faith, balance, and pursuing joy through creative expression

Connect with Deuandra

• Instagram: @deuandra
• Website: deuandrabrown.com 

[Darran]
Hello, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the DJ Sessions, virtual sessions, where sometimes we’re sideways. Hey, there we go.

Wee! Awesome. We’re here today with D’Andra, coming in from Scottsdale, Arizona.

I’m in the virtual studios here up in Seattle, and we got a lot to talk about today. D’Andra, thank you very much for being here on the DJ Sessions today.

[Deuandra]
Thank you.

[Darran]
Well, you are a very, very busy, talented person doing so much stuff. We’re going to jump right into some of the stuff that you’ve been up to. I mean, we’re going to talk about it all, but a new album, a new movie, fashion week, and another fashion show.

I mean, do you sleep?

[Deuandra]
I do. I do. I sleep a little bit.

[Darran]
Awesome. You know, well, I mean, you just released a new album called Fit, and let’s talk about that a little bit. What was the inspiration behind the album Fit?

Because this isn’t your first… Is this your first release album? Because I know you’ve done some tracks and singles and stuff before, but is this your first full-length album you’ve done, or have you done multiple albums?

[Deuandra]
No, this is my 12th album.

[Darran]
12th album.

[Deuandra]
Wow.

[Darran]
Nice. Congratulations on that. And what was the inspiration and motivation behind Fit?

[Deuandra]
Okay. So Fit is about fashion. So I recently, from a little girl, I’ve been doing fashion shows and modeling and all that stuff.

And then I put it kind of on pause when I went to college for film and pursuing my music career. And my mom passed away in 2022. She was a fashion designer.

Okay. So anyway, when she passed away, it was like fashion found me again. All of a sudden, I was getting all these invites to do fashion shows and every weekend pretty much.

And then I decided to get into fashion design as well. So I became a fashion designer. So when I made my album Fit, it’s focused a lot on fashion, but it’s also focused on truth and some of my life experiences, like with my mom passing away and heartbreak love and a lot of stuff like that as well.

But I feel like it’s more growth and it was my first spoken word album because I normally do pop, R&B, a little bit of Christian and a little bit of rap, but this time it was a little bit more spoken word.

[Darran]
You know, and that’s, I used to go to this thing called the Poetry. It was open mic Poetry Ethel. I won’t say it because I don’t want to get taken down from Spotify or anything like that.

But I always had an awesome time going to those open, those type of open mic events and spoken word events. Very talented people and very powerful and moving. I think that to me, it’s an underrated performance medium that I think should, could be a lot more, could be out there a lot more, you know, and I’m super excited.

Something I’m working on up here is a small project that may bring that more as a show series. I’m sure a lot of people are doing it now online with the advent of technology opening up, but yeah, I like, I love spoken word. So is it spoken word with like music in the background or is it more spoken word without music?

Is there a journey or process or an emotion you’re trying to get people to feel when they’re doing this? That is, you know, when you, when you made these pieces?

[Deuandra]
So yeah, I produced all the music tracks. Every song has music to them. And even though it’s spoken word, a lot of people still feel like it’s rap.

Um, but I, I, I feel like it’s, it’s telling a story and more of a spoken word version, but you might take it more of a rap version. So it just depends on what the audience hears.

[Darran]
So is it, is it, is it stage show rap performance or is it Broadway show, stage show, spoken word, if you were to put this on a stage?

[Deuandra]
Probably a little bit of both. Like, okay, I have this song called dancing in the dark. I just released the music video.

I feel like that would be more like a Broadway type of, you know, a theatrical type of song. And then I have, um, another song called fearless and the shit. So the shit, uh, people take that more like rap and fearless, I think is a little bit of both, a little bit of rap, a little bit of spoken word put together.

Um, so I guess it’s a combination of all of it, but truly spoken word and rap. I mean, it’s all poetry. It’s all pretty much the same.

[Darran]
Yeah. I was, I was watching something recently online and my friend and I frequently watch comedy shows. And, um, it was funny.

We were here the other night having dinner and we were looking for comedy shows and on Netflix, um, Whoopi Goldberg’s, uh, the movie Sister Act came up. She’s like, Oh, my mom loves Sister Act. And I was like, okay, cool.

And I said, yeah, but you know, I grew up with Whoopi Goldberg and watching her do this comedy act that I watched multiple times as a kid, but it was a Broadway performance comedy show, not a comedy show, not a standup comedy show. There was comedy in it. And also that evening, we’d also put in and watch, uh, John Leguizamo.

He was doing, he did this like standup comedy show, like the history of, uh, the history of Spanish America. Gosh, I should know the title is I’m so bad. I don’t, I love them both, but it wasn’t a standup comedy show, but there was comedy and laughter involved.

So if you thought you were going to go see these two and Whoopi Goldberg was in 1985. So this is old school. So you got to remember television TV wasn’t filmed in a certain way back then, but it is now.

[Deuandra]
I love Sister Act. That’s, that’s the one movie me and my mom used to always watch together.

[Darran]
She said her mom just loves it. She used to love watching with her mom because her mom’s a vocal coach and musician.

[Deuandra]
And, um, I heard they’re doing a remake actually, and it’s going to be on Netflix or something. I heard, I don’t know, but I heard that.

[Darran]
Hence why Sister Act is newly released on Netflix. They probably just announced it. But long story short, it was interesting.

That’s why I asked the difference between, you know, would it be a spoken word show if it was on stage or would it be a performance based like hip rap show, hip hop show. Um, but you’re like, you answered it. It’d be both, you know?

So that’s awesome. In addition to that though, you’ve also released a new movie, um, out as well. Tout Fugé.

I should have put you in there, I might think. Tout Fugé, I gotta brush up on my French. I’m going to Europe a lot more next year, so I should know my French a lot better.

But tell us about Tout Fugé.

[Deuandra]
Okay, so Tout Fugé is, uh, it’s a French sci-fi fantasy film. Um, it’s about a girl named Lily, which I play. Uh, she travels the world through frozen time.

So, and literally, I traveled the world all last year. I was doing fashion week shows. And while I was in each place, I’m like, I’m going to make a movie.

I’m gonna make a sci-fi film. So I put out a casting call in each place, got all local talent, so that way everything would be authentic. And, um, it was fun to shoot, and I’m happy with the way it turned out.

We just had a premiere in LA at the Bright Light Film Festival. Um, it was a finalist. And I also won four awards for it, uh, for international film festivals, like in Hong Kong and India.

So I was excited to, to win and be a finalist. And then I just got another, uh, email that told me they’re going to screen it again in LA at a different film festival in December. So I’m excited about that.

I’ll be making a post about that later on, but yeah. Um, it’s a feature film. It’s an hour and five minutes.

[Darran]
Oh, nice.

[Deuandra]
And, um, it’s streaming right now on, I have a Roku streaming channel. Okay. So anybody that has a Roku remote, just add Detron TV and you could rent it or buy it.

And it’s also on Venmo as well. And then later on, I’ll put it on other streaming platforms like Amazon and stuff like that. But I really want people to come more to Detron TV.

So that way we could build my channel up, you know?

[Darran]
No, I love Roku. I have a, we have a channel there as well that I’ve had some custom stuff done and we’re super excited for that. I need to have it updated, um, here soon.

Um, things have fallen by the wayside over just a little bit on that side of the Roku, Amazon, uh, and, um, Google Play. Um, we’re looking to get an Apple TV app here eventually, you know, that’s just a submission, submission process of its own. But, uh, I think I’m going to get version 2.0 of our app coming out here before I go dev all that stuff, but congratulations on that. I know Roku is an awesome place for people to find content and having your own station there is, is, I think, I think everyone that’s an artist should have all the platforms and, you know, but unfortunately it’s not, it’s still not all in one place yet, unfortunately, you know, if it could all be put in one place and go, you know, and help, you know, grow artists careers, um, or give them a platform they could disseminate stuff on and also come back and make, not, not have the organization take 50% or 75% or whatever it is and get it. There’s hosting costs. Video hosting is not cheap unless, unless you know how to do what you’re doing, but not everyone does.

And it’s not a process. I was talking about that with somebody this morning about, um, you know, of what I’ve even talked with you pre-show about giving somebody the history of all the growth we’ve gone through over here and having to create things out of nothing that didn’t exist way ahead of the time. And now people walk up and go, Oh, I can click a button and boom, this works.

And like, you don’t even know, you don’t even know. So congratulations on that. We’ll look that up on Roku.

[Deuandra]
Thank you. You too. Congratulations.

[Darran]
Yeah. And that was D’Andra TV, correct?

[Deuandra]
No, D’Teron TV.

[Darran]
Oh, D’Teron.

[Deuandra]
Spell that out. So it’s D-E-T-A-R-O-N-T-B.

[Darran]
Oh, D’Teron. Okay. Gotcha.

That will go right in our subtitles perfectly well when that comes out. Okay. And now on top of all that, you said you traveled the world last year, made a movie, had the album come out.

You were just in New York last week for fashion week and in fashion week as well. What was that all about? I mean, what’s going on here?

Just like making movies, making albums, doing fashion week. What was your experience back there in New York fashion week? I was, you know, I love New York.

It’s one of my favorite cities to go to, to visit. Tell us about all that.

[Deuandra]
Okay. So this recent New York fashion week, I modeled for Parmar La Demore. I think I’m saying her name right.

It was my first time modeling her clothes and it was a blast. I had a great time. I also modeled in another show too.

It was called Bum fashion week and Megan Good hosted it. And that was in New York as well for New York fashion week. And I modeled the designer.

Their collection is mahogany, mahogany collection. So it was fun modeling their clothes and meeting new people. I love doing these fashion week shows.

I’m actually headed to Dubai in November. So I’m excited to do that fashion week show.

[Darran]
Just all around the world again, right?

[Deuandra]
But last year when I traveled the world in New York, London, Paris, all those, it was for my brand, um, called detron couture. So yeah. And I love modeling and I also love doing the fashion design stuff and which, whichever way life takes me on whatever path, you know, I’m happy.

[Darran]
Definitely that European tour stuff. I can’t wait to get over there more myself next year. I have four trips to the EU and at least two trips to the UK.

And then I’m going to be going East. So travel, travel, travel is fun. Travel is fun.

When you get to, I want to get, when you visit these countries, do you get to take time off to like explore the cultures or is it work, work, work and go to the next market?

[Deuandra]
So it’s pretty much work, work, work. But I do, um, try to at least take a day, just like at least one day. If I don’t get to like see everything, I’ve saw some of it.

And so I try to do as much as I can within a day, because normally with the fashion week shows, they keep you busy. Like you got the fittings, you got to do a photo shoots, rehearsals. It’s just a lot.

And, and, and finally, when you do get a little bit of a break, which I try to take at least one day, I get to see it and it’s so much fun.

[Darran]
Yeah. Now you come from kind of a fashion background, fashion family. We’re talking a little bit of that pre-show was there also, we’ll talk about that background and that upbringing, but did you also come from a musical family as well?

Or was there a transition that said, I’m going from, I’m fashion, fashion around my whole life was growing up and then went, Oh, I want to do this music stuff. And then came back to fashion. How did all that kind of blend together?

And then, well, wait a second, movie making too. I mean, like, how does that all fit in and your, through your childhood to your adulthood?

[Deuandra]
Okay. So my mom, she was a lot like me. She did everything.

She was a fashion designer. She was also a singer. She sung backup for Diana Ross at the Superbowl.

And she also did videography for weddings. So I feel like I kind of like saw her doing all this stuff and got inspired. Like she was like my idol.

I really looked up to her. But I decided to go to school for filmmaking because I did want to be an actress and it’s really, really hard. I’m not going to lie.

It’s really, really hard to get parts. And it’s a lot of auditioning and rejection and all that stuff. So I told myself, I’m like, why don’t I go to school for film?

And I could put myself in all my own movies. And there you go.

[Darran]
You’ll see why I’m laughing later in a few moments here, but go ahead.

[Deuandra]
Yeah. And that was, that was really my main reason for going to school for film, but I actually fell in love with it. I love the writing and creating and piecing stuff together and meeting new people and having the authority and the control of being the producer and director.

I do like that. I like that authority, but I also like, I’ve also, you know, worked with other people and been in their films and I loved doing the acting side as well, but I do love being the director and the producer and writer and all that stuff.

[Darran]
Yeah, no, I know exactly kind of the circumstance. Like I was, I grew up playing with video cameras at the age of six. This is in 1979, 1980.

Not a lot of parents, not a lot of kids have that. And if you did, you weren’t allowed to touch the thousand dollar video camera and play with it. But I snuck it out when my dad wasn’t home.

So, and I’d make little home movies and stuff, set the way forward clock, you know, to my first, um, I went to school, but I went to school to learn how to run a, to learn how to run a company, to have a production company to make my first television series. And my first television series that I came up with was an idea after bouncing around was the show short films by other producers. Cause I already had my first short film that I filmed in college.

And then I said, well, what am I going to do for 13 more episodes? But I looked at it in a way and I said, well, I got at the short film and I wanted to distribute it to film contests and have it, you know, maybe win some awards and all that fun stuff or whatever. Yay.

Cool. But then I thought about it, even if I in, in the Seattle area, if I would have submitted it at the time, what contests would have gone in and how many people could have been in that room at any given time, if it was a fully packed room, what theater, what area was going to plan, let’s say 300 people at most would see my film maybe one night in the film contest that ran for a week. Yay.

Okay, great. But by putting my film, my short film in my own short film show. Yeah.

I guess you could say the judges were biased on that one, but I put that out there. I had 13,000 people see my short film.

[Deuandra]
Oh, that’s what’s up, you know?

[Darran]
Yeah. It was like, whoa, okay, cool. And then, you know, if we ran that series, I can also come back to other artists.

And when I started searching for film, my biggest dilemma was I started getting a lot of submissions for films and I kind of had not a true anxiety attack, but kind of a little bit of overwhelming sensation of like, who am I to say what’s a good piece of work and what’s a bad piece of work? And all these were kind of the rejections that had gone into the other local film festivals. And I’m like, this piece is amazing.

And this piece is a lot of hard work went into it.

[Deuandra]
But you know, a lot of those film festivals don’t even watch all the movies. Like I found out like a friend of mine used to work with them. And it’s all about the money.

And it’s kind of messed up because you know, it can be hurtful to you know, to filmmakers. That’s why I put all this into it. Why did they reject my film?

And it’s because they might have not even watched your film.

[Darran]
Yeah, no, I had to watch all I had boxes and boxes of VHS tapes and my doing it the right way is just myself. I didn’t pass them off to my team and give them 800 tapes. And let me I had to sit there and I didn’t have 800 tapes, but I had boxes and box, but I had to watch them catalog them, put notes on them, contact everyone, Sam screen, all this, the right stuff.

And what I, what I decided though, what it really came down to, unfortunately, that one word that you said there, it wasn’t money. It wasn’t people paying me to put their films on, but I had to look at the aspect. I had to look at the main thing of, okay, what’s going to be commercially viable for our audience and say, that was a good short film, or that’s going to have a sponsor come on board and say, that was a great, you have a great lineup, a great sequence of films that we know people are going to tune into and watch.

So we’ll give you money to buy ads on your shows. I had to look at what was going to get us better ratings basically, you know, and that’s just, that’s just the unfortunate truth is we have to, if we want to pay people, we have to have money coming through the door and money’s coming through the doors. We have to have content that they were going to want to come back and watch.

You know, if we start getting bad ratings or nobody wants to talk about our show, well, I mean, that’s like having a Broadway show and nobody goes to it. Well, all right, well, that’s for reviews. You get those phenomenal people, but if nobody goes, well then there you go.

So, and I didn’t want to be just another fly by night type thing. So yeah, I get it. You know, wanting to do it all yourself and kind of being your self made person is doable.

Now we used, there was a term that came up in 2005, right when YouTube was coming out. I remember this term because it applied to me directly and they called people in the industry that were kind of doing everything. They called them predators and cause you were the producer, the director and the editor.

So you’re a predator.

[Deuandra]
Yeah.

[Darran]
Okay. That’s great. That’s something exactly.

Cause I didn’t want to go out to Facebook or my space at the time. I’m like, everyone, I’m a predator. Okay.

No, not, not good timing on that one, but that’s what that’s because you can kind of do it all yourself now, you know, as technology has gotten bigger, faster that we didn’t even have iPhones in our hand in 2005, they didn’t come out until 2007. So, you know, even still filming a show, you still wanted to get a decent quality camera, you know, and the cameras that were coming out at the time were digital based that were broadcast quality. Um, you know, so it wasn’t getting a VHS tape, then converting it.

And then it looked like crap and all that. It looked like what it looked like. You could afford, let’s put it that way.

Maybe that’s the artistic goal you were going for is I want it to look like VHS. Yeah. Okay.

[Deuandra]
Well, actually nowadays I think they are trying to do that. Look like I saw a few music, I think Doja cat, she was trying to give like that old, old quality type of look in her video.

[Darran]
I have a boy cat, but I got him from somebody else and they named him Doja the cat, but he’s a boy cat. So he’s like, who said my name? Anyways.

Um, yeah, no, I mean, you get that, that, that, that definitely aesthetic is there. I mean, um, that’s, uh, it’s a medium. It was definitely a medium that you look back on the old footage and you’re like, ah, what was the shot on?

But I think, uh, there was a group. I know they, they went back and just recently, um, Oh, something. Come on, last a stare.

I just wanted their sound to be very analog. So they went and they bought a Tascam four-track mixer. They had to basically buy one.

That one didn’t work. And this is a piece of machinery from like the eighties basically. And they bought one, had to dismantle Frankenstein, that one to build another one.

So they could actually have this analog four-track sound on cassette tape to make a new album. That’s really kind of cool that they wanted that sound. So, you know, doing that is you can’t make that digitally.

[Deuandra]
You can, right. And the stuff in the eighties and the nineties, I mean, it was just, it was epic. And it’s really hard to get that even movies, like the writing.

And it was just such really good stuff out there.

[Darran]
Yeah. And I talk about it with my friend that I was in this industry with for years, uh, still my best friend to this day, who I started in the industry with back in 92 in public access television. You know, he’s like, well, I want my shows to look like it’s being filmed from a phone because everyone’s filming from a phone and that’s what it looks like.

I go, no, no, no, no. It’s that’s no, just because you see everyone filming with a phone, you want to do that medium on a phone. You can have it done professionally, but make it look like it’s from a phone.

I don’t make it go from a phone and then try to think that’s a commercially viable product. I mean, it’s frequently the debate in the, in the music industry right now is the cell phones at concerts and events and nightclubs, you know, and people are just now on the floor, you know, It’s kind of sad though, that everyone is very caught up in their phone.

[Deuandra]
Cause it’s like, they kind of missing the moment, you know, enjoying the moment. Cause you’re so into your phone now. It’s like, Oh, I got to get on my phone.

But what about actually being present?

[Darran]
You know, performers are noticing that in the dance floors and the clubs, there are clubs that are coming out now and putting stickers on the phone. I talk about, I’ve talked about it for the last four weeks. Sort of what topic that I talk about with artists.

How do you feel about the cell phone on the floors and what it takes away? I’m for it. I mean, if I do some events, I’m, I probably, I want to start a trend in my own city of being the first actual venue.

I’m working on becoming an event manager, a program manager for a space here in Seattle. And if I do it, I might just say, you look, no cell phones allowed or no, no, no cell phone photography. And I can go on very legal reasons for that to say, and if you do, if you get seen recording the show or recording in here or using your phone, we will ask you to leave.

Actually, there won’t be any forgiveness. It’s like, we’ll make us, we’ll make a selfie area. You want to take a selfie?

We’ll make a photo booth area and take pictures of your friends there, record there, but no cell phones past this point. You know, people don’t want to come. They want to talk bad about us.

We’ll probably make national headlines with it going, Oh, all night, all first club in Seattle, the band cell phone use don’t steal my ideas. If anyone’s watching my show, by the way, always happens.

[Deuandra]
That’s a good idea though. That really sounds good. Cause like, you know, um, when Beyonce, when she did her concert, it was all over the internet.

Right. And it’s like, Oh, I haven’t even went yet, but I could just watch it on YouTube.

[Darran]
Yeah. They’ve talked about banning cell phones. They make magnetic bags that like, when you get there, you put your phone in the bag, it closes.

You can only unlock it. If you go to an area and, uh, you know, like, like to the bar area where it’s not where you can film any of the show or when you go outside, we’ll unlock your phone, go outside, come back in. I could go in so strict and saying, I have a no, a one-time re-entry policy.

You want to go outside, be on your phone, come back in. Okay. But once you go back out, you’re not, you’re not going in and out of our club.

You know, it’s, it’s, I get it that even when I was talking to somebody a few weeks ago, they said kids 15 and up, or when they were going cell phones in their hand at 15 years old, it’s not getting in there. I mean, even from a bar perspective, if you look at it from a financial perspective, um, if somebody’s standing there on their phone, cause they’re bored at the show and they’re doing this, okay. They could be either standing there or watching the show.

What’s going on. They could be talking to interacting with people or they could be standing in line to buy drinks.

[Deuandra]
Right.

[Darran]
And then this happened a long time ago at a nightclub. I was at, not to try to go off on a tangent here, but they would play movies as the visuals in the, in the electronic music nightclub. We’d have people standing there as kind of wallflowers.

They weren’t watching the show. They weren’t checking their phones. They were watching those screens and they were watching enter the dragon.

Bruce leaflet, you know, and if they’re standing there for 10, 15 minutes, they’re not in line to buy drinks. They’re taking up space. Yeah.

The club looks full, but they’re not part of the machine other than the club looking full in that sense. And they’re not, they’re watching the artist and the music. And now what they’ll do is they’ll just simply go on.

I mean, if I’m bored of the club, I’ll drop on candy crush. You know, very rarely am I doing that in the club, but I was very impressed when I went to germ to Berlin last year and walked right up to the door and they went sticker sticker. I went cool.

No worries for me because I’m a videographer though. And I’m sure you’d be in a video professional. The last thing we want to be doing if we’re out of the nightclub is filming the event, trying to get some awesome shots.

And it’s like, can I just set up an interview with you later, the professional like later on. But that being said, yeah, it’s, it’s see that cell phone used in the company, but now everyone has access to make a 43, 48 pay pixel, make a megapixel cameras in your phone, iPhone now on the iPhone 17. And the one other thing that’s coming out is now you can do reverse reverse shooting.

So when I’m filming the show, my front, my camera here can be filming me and the reaction shot that I have.

[Deuandra]
Oh, that’s what’s up.

[Darran]
Well, both angles are getting that in the footage with it. So basically we’re going to see where that all goes, but yeah, maybe I’ll try to start a trend here in Seattle and make all like no cell phone use in our club, you know, because you got to think of the performance rights too. If somebody’s out there working on their comedy act and you’re in the club and you’re filming that that’s their content going out online or, or, you know, or, you know, I can say, Hey, you want to watch it online?

Well, we’re going to pay per view the damn thing, you know, give us 10 bucks to watch it online for home. If you’re not going to come to the club or if you’re out and about and you’re anywhere in the world, watch it here, you know, watch it online. So, you know, do some revenue generation split that with the artists as well as something that I think is being left on the tip.

But again, I can talk about all that stuff. We’re here to talk about you, not what Darran wants to do in the future of nightclub business and all that stuff. You know, let’s get back to you.

Has your musical tastes changed over time or, or do you think it will? Did you start out with kind of the vision of I’m an artist doing this kind of music and now I’m spoken word and rap. I mean, I don’t know your whole catalog, so forgive me for not listening to everything years and your backlog before I got you on the show, but has your musical taste changed over time?

Or do you, do you maybe see, I want to really, I like where I’m at, but I want to explore this in the future.

[Deuandra]
So I feel like I always dabbled into a little bit of everything. I mean, even from my first album, it was like a mix of pop R&B and even a little bit of rap on the first one. So I’ve always dabbled into different genres.

And I did a couple gospel songs too. And I even did like two or three rock songs. So for me, it’s just, I like exploring all different genres and I don’t, I don’t think you should be like trapped into doing one thing.

Cause I know a lot of people get mad. Like when Beyonce decided to go country, they were like, why? And I’m like, why not?

Right. You’re an artist. You don’t want to just be stuck in a zone.

So for me, I love to explore and I’m going to keep doing it.

[Darran]
Well, you know, when you’re at that level of the machine, I don’t, I say this quite frequently with a couple of projects I do is that if you were selling air, somebody’s going to complain about it. If you’re selling water, somebody’s going to complain. Well, it’s not Fiji water.

Nothing against Fiji water. I just brought that up by the top of my head. I met water that comes from the actual country of Fiji or, you know, it’s not Icelandic ice cube water.

It’s not, it just doesn’t have the right mineral. Like, I mean, somebody’s going to complain out there. And before we may have not, before the internet, you may have not heard these complaints unless it was at a local level.

You go out to your local environments, you talk, you talk, talk, or if somebody got on stage at a major concert in front of 40,000 people, they can be like, this really sucks. And everyone goes, you know, or something like that. But they didn’t really have a mass outlet, but the evening news or a local newspaper, and it wasn’t in real time that you could change any of that.

So the media could really control the opinions of people very fast. And now we can see how fast opinions can grow. And, you know, or you could talk about Russian farm sites that basically, or other spoof sites that go out there and just try to dox things or create controversy out there.

And it’s like, really, if you don’t like the person’s music, don’t buy and don’t listen to it.

[Deuandra]
Agreed.

[Darran]
You don’t have to say anything about it. It’s like the saying out of Bambi, if you have nothing nice to say, don’t say anything at all. What if you don’t like it, then don’t don’t gravitate towards around people that do like it.

If you don’t like that they like it, well, then if you don’t like people eating hot dogs, then don’t hang around people eat hot dogs, you know, or whatever. I just pulled that out. You know, it’s that kind of thing, surround yourself with people that are gonna that you’re gonna like that you’re gonna like the same qualities you but if your group is just hate, hate, hate, well, have fun with that.

I guess you’re always gonna find something that you’re not gonna like in the world. So I think you’re right when Beyonce transcended that and went over to another genre. It probably hit a lot of people but she sounds like a pretty smart person and don’t worry, they’re not coming for me.

Oh, yeah, I’m getting arrested by the Beyonce police now. I put in the back of the show. You know, basically, you know, it’s like let people do what they want to do because artists like her that obviously she puts in a lot of hard work.

She has a team of people putting a lot of hard work. But even if you’re even as a aspiring artist coming up, you’re right, people can get pigeonholed into a this is their genre. This is their type.

And then they break away from that. I hear that a lot with electronic music artists is they really produce like they produce one genre of music that they’re really known for. But then they break away and they got to create a whole nother alias that they release that music under because they don’t want it to impact their, their thing and make it look like they’re all over the radar.

And then they come back and go, I’m going to reinvent this art. I really like this because in the background, they were producing this kind of music. Like I’m gonna bring this out now.

People go what what’s going on? You’re just my brain is. They’re a musician.

They’re allowed there. I painted in green and all of a sudden start painting in red. I don’t like you anymore.

So what I’m painting red. What do you do? Leave me alone.

[Deuandra]
Right, right. Like, I mean, I even I’ve experienced a lot. Oh my god, a lot of cyber bullying and people hating on me for my films, my music, anything I do, even I wrote a children’s book, there was a couple of haters on that too.

But I’m like, Well, if you hate me so much, then why do you continue to every time I post something new? Go talk about it. Like, obviously, I must be on your brain some for some reason, because you continuing to harass me.

[Darran]
So I just written your mind.

[Deuandra]
Right? So I’m like, Okay, well, you say you hate me, but I think you really love me. So we’ll go with that.

[Darran]
No, it’s they say all publicity is good publicity. You know, I recently we drive our mobile studio around Seattle. And somebody decides that they just they don’t think about what they’re really doing.

When they want to post a negative post about what we do out there. And it’s like, thank you, because you just had a bunch of people see that on Reddit. Okay, and they’re probably going back to my website now.

Thanks for the free promo. And then I mean, so yes, we and it shows me a character, we have a rule called the 999 to one rule, where we see 999 people dancing in the streets, pulling their phones out, putting on Tick Tock, Instagram, you know, boom, boom, or, you know, and getting 10s of 1000s of views on our footage that we do when we drive around. And one person will drive by and be like, and we’ll just simply slow down the truck and go, thank you very much.

We love you. We love you so much. You’re amazing.

We love you. The world loves you. You’re a very awesome person.

You know, you know, we got, they’re like, what they’re doing is illegal. Well, yeah, you know what, I’ll say it right here on camera. We have the Seattle Police Department, the cops, they dance in the streets.

We’ve had them. We’ve literally driven by them and watch them. I thought that one time they were like, Hey, trying to get our attention.

This is just a few weeks ago. I’m like, Oh crap. Okay.

This is going to bust this. And the guy goes, turn it up. And I’m like, this is a cop with two other cops.

And I’m like, all right, cool. Fire engine drive by. They love us.

I mean, the town knows us. We’re out here spreading joy and having fun, but you’re always going to find critics and people want to voice, especially when they get keyboard tough guy. A lot of keyboard and you’re never going to know who I am.

Cause my name is 813. I hate the world. All right, cool.

Thank you. Cause simply come back. I’ll give you a, I’m just going to say this on camera.

I got it. I got to say recently came in. Here’s my response back when anyone ever complains about our truck.

Thank you for contacting. I am, we strive to make our advertising campaigns memorable. Feel free to contact us for any of your advertising needs.

That’s what I send out when somebody says, thank you for going back. And I actually manually type that. Thank you very much for contacting us.

Oh, it gets better. This one, this one, I know I’m digressing a little bit here, but this one gets a little funny. It’s like basically the internet show.

They’re like, stop contacting me. I said, hello, this is the customer service department for IM. If you wish for us to stop contacting you, please stop contacting us.

We’ll be happy to oblige to your request. If you choose to stop contacting us, have a wonderful day. You’re the one reaching out to us.

We wouldn’t contact you, you know, this is people, but you can’t control people. And they’re going to have their opinions and like something. Everyone has one is the same, I guess.

Um, you know, so do you ever sometimes get fed up with making and playing music, doing fashion, making movies, and do you kind of have a mantra spot or a way to reset yourself, um, to deal with that? Do I get fed up with creating, making, making music, playing music, the fashion industry dealing with, with, with, with, with, I wouldn’t say hate, but dealing with haters and all that do you have a way to woosaw out of that? Is there anything that you’ve gone to like a go-to mantra of like, okay, I know that I go to my special place.

I meditate anything that you have or any advice other artists out there to know how to take a break from it all. So you don’t burn out.

[Deuandra]
Jesus. I always pray to God, you know, he is my number one. If I’m going through a trouble time or something, I always take my problems to him because I know that he can bring me that peace, that joy, that comfort and a lot of stress and worry, you know, that calls from Satan, I would say.

So, um, it’s always, for me, it’s good to have God in your life that brings me peace and joy. Um, but when it comes to creating, I really love it. I love it so much that I don’t think I would ever really get fed up on creating, but I think that’s why I like to do multiple different things.

That way, if I may be a little bored with it, then I’ll go do some fashion. Oh, I’m bored with fashion. Let me go write a book.

You know what I mean?

[Darran]
So wait a second. Wait a second. We’re just writing a book, writing a book.

Now you’re writing a book.

[Deuandra]
Oh yeah. I have a children’s book. I actually won an award for it this year.

Uh, impact award. Yeah. It’s a children’s holiday book called Bijou.

It’s on Amazon, Barnes and Nobles.

[Darran]
Nice. Okay. I’m going to jump in with that.

It’s like books, fashion, movies, music, acting. Well, yeah. Okay.

Do you do theater too? I bet you do theater.

[Deuandra]
I did theater when I was younger. Yeah. Um, I also own a magazine too.

We just released it, uh, this past week. It’s a quarterly magazine and it’s focused for artists, um, fashion, actors, everybody.

[Darran]
Nice.

[Deuandra]
Yeah. So yeah, I guess you could say if I’m getting a little bored, then I’ll go do something new or do something else or do something else that I love. But it’s normally always in the art form.

[Darran]
How about the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given? What is, is there anything that really sticks out in your mind that keeps you moving every day? I know there’s one that I have that I remember, uh, as a kid growing up.

Um, but I usually like to hear if there’s anything that anyone’s ever said to you that really sticks to you to this day that says, yes, I, that’s the, I do follow that. Yeah. Or something you maybe read or, uh, just a message that you could let our DJ sessions fans know about to bless, to be stressed, you know, we amazing, blessed life.

[Deuandra]
We should enjoy every moment and don’t stress about it.

[Darran]
Just, just, I hear that. Well, um, do you ever get nervous before a performance before you go on? Are you now?

[Deuandra]
No, I’ve always been excited. Every time I have a show, I’m like, yeah, okay. These people are here to see me.

Let me go out there and yeah. So no, I’ve never been nervous on a show.

[Darran]
Who’s, uh, who’s the best, who’s the most inspiring person you’ve ever met backstage? Like I know when you’re backstage, I’ve been to a lot of events, a lot of places. Has there ever been anyone backstage?

You’d be like, wow, I was backstage and so-and-so walked over or I saw so-and-so and I talked with them for a minute. Any, anyone that you’ve, that comes to mind that you’ve met that would say, and then that was an inspiration to meet that person because I’d always looked up to them.

[Deuandra]
Yes. I mean, I met a lot of celebrities through my lifetime, so it’s, uh, it’s been cool to meet just about every last one of them, but I would say Hayden Christensen from Star Wars. I’ve always had a crush on him and I was invited to the takers premiere in Los Angeles and it was during my birthday weekend and he was in takers.

And so I got to meet him and he was so nice, but it was crazy because as he was coming close to me, it was like slow motion. It was like a light, like an angel. It was, it was so hard to explain, but he was like the most exciting, um, for me to meet.

Yeah.

[Darran]
Yeah. I mean, my, my experience I had, I was in my early twenties, like 21 years old, maybe 22. And I met Jack Nicholson and, uh, it was pretty, pretty awesome.

I, uh, I, it was interesting. The whole story, I won’t go too much into it, but I’ll never forget what he said to me. Never forget the interaction.

And that kind of has been a little bit of a driving factor in the back of my head. I’ve met a lot of people, but of course my family is, you know, a big influence there as well. Uh, what’s up mom, dad.

Hope you’re watching, but you know, um, but no, that was a very, very pivotal moment that kind of was like, okay, this is, this is game time. And looking back on that, it’s like, wow, that was cool. You know?

So, um, it’s always, it’s always interesting, you know, meeting some people, the people that you look up to or see on the silver screen for, you know, up on a stage and then meeting them in person. And, you know, sometimes there’s that persona too, they’re putting on the show, but back scenes, a lot of people I meet, they’re all, you look at them, they’re all energetic like this on stage, but really they’re like back behind the scenes, really humble and kind and nice. And, you know, and a lot of them want to share and also look out and help people that were them when they started out, you know, remembering they were this small at once too.

Nobody just goes, no overnight Cinderella’s. There was probably a lot of hard work that went into all that stuff to make them a Cinderella that nobody ever sees. You know, all this stuff that goes on and you just have to hear about it in their autobiography.

So when you’re, what do you like to do when you’re taking a break from all of this stuff? Is there something that you like to go do that says, okay, no fashion, no music, no this, no that, a break, not the mantra to get you back in, but just a break. Like some people like horseback riding, some people like scuba diving, some people like rock climbing, some people like reading a book.

Is there anything that you, what do you like to do when you’re taking a break from all of this? Because like you said, you can pick up and be like, oh, I’m done with this right now. I’m going to make some music.

Okay. I’m over here. I’m making a film.

I’m not trying to depict that you have ADD or anything. Cause I know what that’s like. I have ADD, but I know what it’s like having multiple irons in the fire.

And I got to sometimes get back and go, all right, it’s dinnertime and Netflix or dinnertime and comedy or, um, you know, go do some activity outside. Do you have anything, what do you like to do when you’re taking a break from all this?

[Deuandra]
I do love cooking. I love, I love doing like sweets and, um, yeah, I love cooking. That’s one thing.

And then I like watching movies. I like going to the theater and I like to chill and watch Netflix and Hulu and stream and stuff like that. So yeah, I’m a huge movie buff.

[Darran]
Any particular genre?

[Deuandra]
So I used to be obsessed with like horror movies. I love movies like scream. I know what you did last summer and stuff like that.

But here recently I feel like I’m more into like Hallmark Christmas movies, lifetime films, stuff like that. I really, I know you’re laughing at me, but Christmas is coming. So, yeah.

[Darran]
No, you mentioned horror. And my sister recent was telling me about a horror film that won a bunch of awards and it was so good. They boy, and it’s a horror movie that it was so well received at Sundance.

It got funded for limited release in theaters. They’re not paying me for this plug, by the way. But, uh, no, it’s, uh, um, it’s, it’s all told from the perspective of a dog.

Like the dog is telling the whole story. Yeah. That’s from what I understand.

It’s, um, you know, uh, good boy fetches a top IFC opening as canine star emotes, fear suspense, better than many actors says Scott Schumann, especially. Yeah. I was like, and I guess it’s not too scary or gory.

It’s spooky.

[Deuandra]
So. Oh, that’s cool.

[Darran]
Yeah. I was, she wanted me to go see that the other night because it was playing here in Seattle. I guess a couple of theaters were sold out and there was one theater, you know, that wasn’t sold out.

And I was like, oh, cool. Like 10 30 at night. And I was like, oh, okay.

Yeah.

[Deuandra]
I’m not a huge, you’re not a huge horror film. I just watched the strangers to yesterday at the big screen and, uh, it was good. Yeah.

[Darran]
Hmm. No, I’m not. I’m more, uh, science fiction, Tennessee type type more science fiction.

I’d say, um, type, uh, some comedies. Um, my friend likes to watch a lot of rom-com. So I’m, I’m, I get myself caught up watching a lot of those, which are funny.

I mean, there’s good, good stuff out there. Good writing out there. Um, I’m kind of excited to see what happens with these.

I grew up as a kid reading the choose your own adventure books. So, um, I’m kind of interested to see what it comes out with, with them making the choose your own adventure kind of series of like you go around and that’d be kind of fun and seeing all the different endings that could happen with a different movie. If they made certain different ways of it, you died.

Oh, well, now I got to go back and start the movie all over again and go this way. You got to figure it out kind of like a video game. Those books were always so exciting as a kid because you never knew what decision you made.

You’re choosing your own adventure or, you know, seeing, I’m not a big fan on necessarily people using AI to use other people’s work to make stuff, but they’re now having the movies you can kind of generate on your own and then have them play. I don’t think Netflix is doing that somewhere is doing that, but basically maybe it is Netflix that’s doing it, but you can kind of create your own story and then have it be a movie or something like that. Um, on Netflix.

[Deuandra]
Oh, wow.

[Darran]
Dabbling in that realm just a little bit. I don’t, I use it to do tasks for me in the back end over here at the DJ sessions, not to create stuff from other people’s stuff. I think that’s kind of like, ah, cool.

But date that’s people are going to use things to do things, you know, and I can’t kind of stop them from doing that. But, you know, is there anything else you want to let our DJ sessions fans know before we let you get going?

[Deuandra]
Go stream fit available on all digital platforms.

[Darran]
Where’s the best place people can go to find out information on where to go get fit?

[Deuandra]
Oh, so I’m on Instagram at Deuandra. You can also go to my website, DeuandraBrown.com or DetronTV.com. And that’s where a lot of my films are located.

[Darran]
And Roku.

[Deuandra]
And Roku, yes.

[Darran]
I say Roku, you say Roku.

[Deuandra]
Yeah, I don’t know.

[Darran]
Yeah, you’re from Arizona. So is there was an accent influenced on you anywhere in your life?

[Deuandra]
Um, well, my mother’s, my mother’s mom was from Oklahoma, and then my mom’s dad was from Louisiana. So they always told me that I had a little bit of country in me. And my mom’s like, I don’t know where you got that accent from because none of us talk like that.

But it was really strong when I was younger. Yeah.

[Darran]
Yeah, my mom’s from Idaho. And I grew up a lot of kids would make fun of me because I’d say Washington. And I, the kids would be like, there’s no R in Washington.

And I’m like, what are you talking about? I didn’t. Of course there isn’t.

But it said Washington. And that’s like, you know, I’m like, so I had to break that out in like fourth or fifth grade. And Washington, Washington, my dad’s from the East Coast.

So, you know, sometimes I get back east a little bit, a little bit will sink in and I’ll be like, coffee, you know, or, or, you know, I say Roosevelt instead of Roosevelt. Little, little things, little slips will happen in there. But that’s because, you know, as a kid, you’re growing up and you’re hearing it like that.

And it just sticks. So awesome. Deuandra, thank you so much for coming on the show.

We definitely want to follow up with you in the future, stay along with you in your career and everything that’s got going on. I’m going to check out your site. It’s going to check out your links, your music and more.

One more time. Where’s the best place for people to go to find out about that?

[Deuandra]
At Deuandra.

[Darran]
At Deuandra on Insta, the big IG over there. Awesome. Well, thank you very much for being on the show today.

It was a pleasure having you.

[Deuandra]
Thank you. You’re welcome.

[Darran]
On that note, don’t forget to go to our website, the DJ Sessions dot com. Find us there and all our socials with over 2700 past episodes, live interviews, exclusive mixes, 700 news stories, plus a month and our new music section coming out soon, syndicated episodes and more at the DJ Sessions dot com. I’m Darran and that’s Deuandra coming to you from Scottsdale, Arizona.

I’m coming to you from Seattle in Washington in the virtual studios for the DJ Sessions. And remember, on the DJ Sessions, the music never stops.