Łukasz James is a person of many talents. Coming from New Orleans, he had contact with many artists at a young age, but above all he shined as a musician. He began his profession singing for Tyrese after which went on to put in writing for artists comparable to Justin Bieber, Chris Brown and Snoh ​​Alegra, amongst others. Since then, he has been nominated for 3 Grammy Awards and successfully entered the film industry, showing his range and flexibility as a real creator.

The “I Want You” singer got his big break as an actor with the role of Johnny Gill in 2016. This was followed by stellar performances in , , and the critically acclaimed , created by Lena Waithe. Now the 39-year-old talent will appear alongside Deborah Ayorinde and Pam Grier in the second season of the horror anthology series, which was a really special opportunity for James.

“I’m very grateful to be a component of this. It’s really something for us, our own creation. It’s an anthology,” he says about . “There was already presupposed to be a second season, so after I watched the primary season, I used to be just completely happy to be a component of the brand new season – it is a high-quality job. Very different from the primary season, but definitely just as exciting and really exciting.

From starring in critically acclaimed movies and hit television series, to releasing chart-topping albums and touring the country with a few of music’s biggest superstars, James has develop into some of the watched talents in the entertainment industry today.

ESSENCE: You are a really famous singer. What made you begin your adventure with acting and when did you catch the acting bug?

Luke James: As a toddler, I all the time admired individuals who were on TV, and in some ways I desired to be them, especially in the event that they brought joy to people’s lives. So I watched , , and . My mom loved Denzel, in order a child I knew I watched every kind of Spike Lee movies, however it was all the time something I desired to do. It so happened that music took first place in my life and it was because of music that I gained the opportunities that I actually have been and still am blessed with. So it was sort of a natural progression. It’s just one other art form. I feel if I had the chance to go to the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA), I’d select theater and music.

While working with Lena Waithe on and all of the amazing actors who were on set. What have you ever learned as an actor since participating in this series?

The power of being a vessel as an actor is actually about putting yourself at the middle of it. It’s you, your experiences and feelings, and you have got to interpret what’s written, what’s given to you in the script. Also, especially if it’s a brand new character that does not exist, you have got to make use of your imagination to essentially create that person and convey them to life. This likelihood to act, man, it really was, like an actor, one other likelihood to act, improve yourself and be a part of this drama.

It was one other opportunity to essentially hone my craft, and being surrounded by a team of actors, each young and experienced, made me a sponge brother. I’m really a sponge for every part. I’m interested in art and totality. So it is a blessing to be around actors like Curtiss Cook, who plays Douda, and just break bread with him and just get grounded simply because I’m not from Chicago and all of us sort of hang around together because a few of us aren’t from Chicago. So when we’ve break day and we will break bread with an actor who has been in this business longer than me and has been acting most of his life, just to essentially have the ability to talk over with someone who does it and does it at a high level. It was an experience to be here, brother, simply to see phenomenal people who find themselves really putting in all their effort to inform a phenomenal story.

It was very nice to only be in that space. And I can not estimate how much I learned, man. I’m still learning tell a story and direct. I talk over with the crew and the writers. I’m learning rather a lot about writing and the way the camera should move. I learned a lot, man. This experience was really, really amazing and pivotal in my life and profession.

Staying on the subject of acting, you might be in the brand new season , which is an incredible spectacle. I desired to talk over with you about this role since it’s a rather different show than the roles you’ve got played in the past.

It’s very different from roles in the past, but my preparation hasn’t modified. Preparation is what it’s, learn your lines, learn your job. It’s a series, so if there was an earlier season, watch it to grasp the extent of movement of every part, how things are shot and the drama behind it, because every series is different and you’ll be able to tell. Not all shows are the identical, the way in which the words are said aren’t the identical, but after I watched the primary season, I actually reached a level that I sort of need to undergo. It was only a matter of going back to the fundamentals of what I often do to explore a personality, especially if it’s something that is on the page and also you’re just trying to grasp what the creator has in mind for that character and in addition what you what you are feeling for this reason character and what you read. It’s just that straightforward preparation and telling the reality.

It was really great fun, brother. I’m not going to deceive you. It was the craziest thing I’ve ever done and it was just a lot fun. It’s a horror anthology. The cool thing about horror is that it’s incredibly creative because you actually just try as much as you’ll be able to and see what lands that moves you in so some ways. And I feel just like the space created on set was different from another space I’ve been in. Not that another spaces aren’t warm and alluring, but because that is such a high octane series, if I could say so myself, the stakes are very high. The space that Little Marvin created was really cool for me, I used to be capable of have a good time and just dive in and do something I had never done before.

I need to return to where we began this conversation. Your introduction to the broader audience was the musician Luke. I do know acting costs loads of money and the music business can also be very volatile straight away.

Music is garbage. You can say it.

I’m glad you said that.

The movie business could also be strange, however the checks are all the time on time. Work is figure and also you receives a commission for that work. There is in some way a shyness in music that all the time creeps in. But in the movie every part is black and white. There are many things involved, there’s insurance, there are a lot of other things and this matter is just not variable. A date is a date. This doesn’t change, and if it does, there’s loads of money at stake. But anything can occur in music, man. Anything could occur. That’s why music is in the state it’s in. You’re higher off on your individual, and you’ll be able to accomplish that way more.

Has all this stigma behind the music industry dimmed your passion for it even a bit?

Not in any respect. At some point I didn’t feel this love and it wasn’t a lot the necessity for some external love from those in power. And not only that, but additionally inner love. I have not felt a single moment where I didn’t feel the fervour that I had after I was a toddler, listening to music to create it. It was for me to leap into the film and do something that I had never done before at this level, like…

It moved me, it opened me up and allowed me to seek out my love for music through this project, and it was a music project. No, I could never lose my love for music. That’s just a part of my responsibilities, I feel my perspective has modified because I feel I enjoy making movies, I like it, I like it, however it also gives me the space where financially I could make music the way in which I need the music from the space love and truth and from my soul, as an alternative of signing to a label where everyone has their very own wants and desires for you.

And I do not think music ought to be like that. I feel music is a spiritual journey for every body and I feel you have got to offer it time, and I feel loads of things are rushed in this business. Artists aren’t ready to come back out yet, but here they get kicked out because they’ve a single and placed on a nasty performance during a live show. It just doesn’t move you in the identical way a record does, but that is only since it’s only a record.

There is not any artist development, no time. Artists have not even discovered who they are surely and I feel that is a giant problem with music today, but man, I’m grateful, man. I’m grateful for every part. I feel that because of what I read, real music allowed me to grasp break the humanity in an individual. It just made me a more spiritual person. And I feel that if it weren’t for music, I would not be here, just the opportunities, but additionally the understanding of life that I learned through music. That’s why I could never not make music. Music and acting help me personally, especially at this stage in my life.

You sing, play and interact in various other activities. What fuels your creativity?

At some point, I say in some unspecified time in the future. I feel a part of it touches people’s souls, there’s a possibility that I could transport someone right into a space of reflection. Whether it’s love, I feel for me, for every part, love is the core. Everything I create through music is love. This is my north star. I feel that each time I create something, I’m all the time trying to grasp love higher, to like, to let go of affection, or simply to let love, to like. It moves me a lot to fill a room with spirit and just make people so crazy and lovey-dovey that it excites me. I feel the opposite thing is just a possibility to shine. I’m an only child, I feel that for me it has all the time been every opportunity to easily feel worthwhile. I do not know, it is a deeper idea, but I feel there are loads of artists, and one in every of the explanations we do what we do is only a likelihood to have a way of purpose.