Becoming a Pink Elephant:
The N’dambi Interview

Written by: Billy Winn

 

As an avid consumer of music and a musician in my own right, I pride myself on knowing what’s new, edgy, and, most importantly, making a statement in music. However, when I received the call to meet N’Dambi for an interview at the Lincoln Theatre in Washington DC, I’ll admit—I hadn’t actually heard of her. Considering my passion for the craft, I immediately looked her up, and as I strolled satisfyingly through her new album, Pink Elephant, I couldn’t help but ask myself, “Why have you not been listening to her?!” Fortunately for me, I not only got to discover her music, I got to discover N’Dambi herself as we sat down for a conversation before her performance. Not only did I get to learn a little about N’Dambi the singer, the songwriter, and the musician—I also got the chance to take a glimpse into N’Dambi as a person and an artist as a whole…

 

The first thing I would like to know is who is N’Dambi? How do you describe yourself as an artist?

As an artist, I should say I like to describe myself as a color—‘cause a color has so many dimensions and can be so many different shades. I say that because in art, I like to eXperiment with food, crocheting, writing short stories, practicing/playing my piano… To me, everything I do, I try to apply creativity to—fitness, eXercising, eating…

 

I like to eat, too. [laughs]

[laughs] So, being creative with simple things like writing and coloring and stuff—I like to say that I am an amalgamation of a lot of different ideas and points of view and trying to put that together to make a statement that maybe will be something that’s left behind—that may be instrumental later.

 

“You dream about it all the time and keep dreaming about it, but then you start writing it down, and start making pictures of what you think the dream looks like, and you take one step every day to get closer to your dream…”

 
That’s cool. You mentioned short stories, and I read in another interview you did that you actually think of your songs as short stories over music. That’s an interesting perspective. As a songwriter myself, I’ve never heard it described quite like that. Can you elaborate just a little?

Yeah. Well, the reason I say that is ‘cause I don’t ever really tell my stories. I usually am watching people—how they live—and I narrate the stories of other folks’ lives. I let people tell me their stories and I write them down. And so, usually I try to do this so that people can get their own point of view from what I’m writing—not mine. I don’t want it to be jaded by how I see the world, but I want people to see the world the way they do.

 

That’s interesting. Most artists/songwriters think the other way around. I really like that.

Thank you.

 

Did you do that with Pink Elephant too?

Mmmm hmmm—I did.

 

I love that album.

Thank you.

 

Tell me a little about what you were going through when you were putting it together.

Well, the process in putting it together was just trying to write—I wrote a lot of songs—but just trying to write the songs that I felt like would be the best fit for what I wanted to present to people, and how I wanted them to see me with the music I wanted to make. So, the idea was really trying to write songs that would fluidly—from the beginning to the end—make sense to someone outside of myself. And if they read the story, they could find something relatable. And so I wanted to do that, and I wanted to eXperiment with backgrounds on this album—backgrounds as chords like a keyboard.

 

Awesome. So Pink Elephant reads like a novel in terms of the short stories that are included on it?

I think Pink Elephant reads like vignettes or short stories: each one thing is its own story—they’re not necessarily connected, but they’re just a story in the life of a certain event—a certain set of circumstances.

 

Can they all relate to the concept of there being a pink elephant in the room?

I think there are a lot of things in those songs, like “Nobody Jones” or “Can’t Hardly Wait”. They have moments that relate to the Pink Elephant—‘cause really what I’m talking about is finding your own greatness and letting it resonate and not feeling like you have to dumb that down to make other people be comfortable with that and being your own star.

 

So, essentially being the pink elephant in the room.

Being the pink elephant in the room. [laughs]

 

“I’m inspired by watching people. That’s one of my biggest things: to watch folks; how they live, their
mannerisms, how they talk, how they walk, their character flaws—those are the things that inspire me…”

 

I really enjoy your musical perspective—It comes from such a unique place, but still so very familiar. You are multifaceted as an artist—how important do you think it is to balance all parts of your artistry, and how do you do it?

Well, I think that it’s important to balance artistry as much as anything with life ‘cause, you know, you can do eXtremes with everything. But, you should do enough so that it can get done. And, the thing is, you can overwhelm yourself by taking on too many things at one time and trying to get them all done at the same time. You have to list them as priorities—which is first, which is most important right now—and try to plan it out a little so you can see it to the end. Otherwise, you know, they can fall by the wayside and it’s just an idea and you don’t really…

 

Ever get to finish…

So, it’s important—and it’s also important [for me] to balance creativity with silence, nothingness, laying down and taking a nap, going for a walk on a beach, and living life outside of the daydream world so that I don’t believe all that I see in my daydreams are real.

 

So, what inspires you? Not just as a musician, but as the whole artist that you are?

I’m inspired by watching people. That’s one of my biggest things: to watch folks; how they live, their mannerisms, how they talk, how they walk, their character flaws—those are the things that inspire me. I’m inspired by old music… new music… I’m inspired by books and movies, and I think everything you can imagine—going to watch art, having a conversation, talking about politics, religion, or any conversation that could bring about a thought that may ring a bell for me. I’m inspired by all the things that involve the senses—I’m inspired by all those things.

 

Is there one song that’s your favorite out of all of them?

I like “What It Takes” a lot—I do—because of the message and it’s like a couples’ song and it’s like “ride or die”—like no matter what happens, we gon’ roll ‘til the wheels fall off—if it falls off tomorrow, we still gon’ be okay. [laughs]

 

So, that would be your favorite?

You know, it changes—That’s one of the love songs that I really have a special place for.

 

I find it intriguing that you can find creativity in just about anything—sleeping, eating, but let me ask you—you’ve been an independent artist for some time. What advice would you give to other aspiring musicians, independent artists, or anyone who has a dream that they just don’t want to give up?

Well, you hold onto it. You dream about it all the time and keep dreaming about it, but then you start writing it down, and start making pictures of what you think the dream looks like, and you take one step every day to get closer to your dream—everyday you do one thing—whether that means enrolling in a class, or watching an art eXhibit or whatever it is, that will help you get closer to making your dream come to fruition. Also, surround yourself [with] other people who want to do the same things you want to do because when you have a resource of people like that, it keeps you on task—and you won’t stray away from it by people telling you you can’t do it…

 

 

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