Unitsi Ai aka Austin Musick

“Unitsi” meaning Mother in Cherokee,
                         “Ai” meaning Love in Japanese. I am both.

I am Unitsi Ai, also known as Austin Musick. I am a unique and talented, singer, songwriter, poet, producer and actor based in Los Angeles, California.
Originally from East Tennessee and born with a mixed heritage that consisted of Cherokee and Japanese, I am raw, real and sings from my soul, combining poetry, story, and sound into unison.

I have written poetry since I was a child. I took a few piano lessons at the age of nine but was chastised and discouraged from continuing after my teacher caught me playing by ear and memory rather than reading the sheet music. Nevertheless as an artist, I was determined to create, somehow, someway. I studied Theatre at the University of Tennessee and graduated with high marks, however I was never cast in any of the musicals. In fact, it took nearly 15 more years before I would return to my roots of poetry that would later provide the springboard to my music career.

Coming late into the game and still unable to read music or play an instrument, I knew that I had my work cut out for me. First, I sought out the musicians that I felt played the sounds that were similar to the melodies that had haunted me for quite some time. After a few meetings and a few dead ends, I found my first collaborative pairing with a up and coming Chicago guitarist, Dave Cavalier. He had a trio of his own already, that included a phenomenal drummer named Shane Considine. After a jam session to see what I had to offer, the two fellas agreed to come on board.

From there, a whirlwind of preparation, a few rehearsal sessions, a total of only four, over the next two months began. Before I knew it, I was walking through the doors of the historical, well renowned East West Recording studios to record the four original tracks that would later become my very first EP, “A Year of Denial and Debauchery.”

Since then, I have gone on to continuously learn, write, create, and sing. In January of 2021 after collaborating with Polish Producer Michael Nocny, I released my second EP, titled “Masochist.” Then recently, just this month, in June of 2021, I released three new singles produced by Anthony Galatis in which due to the Covid restrictions, I recorded all the vocals in my living room. You can stream and/or buy both EP’s and the new singles on iTunes, Spotify, and Amazon now.

Just like my Grandmother always said: “It’s never too late to change your mind, it’s never too late to learn something new, it’s never too late to evolve into the best you that you were born to be. I miss her dearly as she is now deceased and was truly my biggest support, cheerleader, and fan when it came to my creativity growing up.

That being said, I feel that the music industry is a constant learning process. Lucky for me, I love to learn. The time constraints of daily life sometimes make it daunting but I feel the music industry is ever-changing especially now due to technology. Not only that, but there are limitless live musical instruments from around the world that I feel haven’t clue even exist but am determined to discover.

I have a confession. I didn’t even learn how, and I am still struggling to do it now, to read music or play the piano until I was 40 years old. But I knew that I had to do it because, other than singing my song idea to someone a capella, I had no other way of being able to communicate to other collaboratives as to what I was hearing in my head. So a few years ago I challenged myself to learn the piano and finally understand sheet music.

I feel its just as important if not more so, to learn about the industry side itself, the business side. For me, this is the part I am not a huge fan of. I am not a PR Firm, manager, or agent; I am not a salesman and while yes, I do help to run my family business in commercial real estate and do have a minor in Business from the University of TN, my BA was in theatre because I am and will always be an artist. I want nothing more than to create. Whether it be within a character, a poem, a story, or a song, a painting, or a sculpture, I am constantly creating and that’s what I love to do. Loving it makes the creative side come naturally and easily. Ah, but selling myself, promoting myself, protecting myself legally with copyright and LLC formation, a PRO registration etc, isn’t my idea of a good time. Nonetheless, it is necessity. Because at the end of the day, I can create until I’m blue in the face but no one is going to know unless I get it out there and share it with the world. The only way to get it out there logistically is to learn the business aspect of the music industry. And now with technologies social platforms, streaming platforms and ability to start ones own LLC, there are infinite ways to succeed independently (without being signed to a label) if you have a good business plan. So learn how to create a business plan and then see it  through.

Secondly, my only other advice that I would give is to stay true to who you are. It took me two EP’s, which I will always love, and quite a bit of money to finally come back around full circle during the quarantine of 2020. It was being on lockdown that forced me to sit in front of that piano and rediscover my love of spoken word over simple sound. Don’t get me wrong, both of my previous EP’s came from my heart, but I also feel they were highly influenced by my collaboration with the producers as well as the idea of how it would “sell” and now when I listen to them/sing these songs sometimes, I just don’t feel like they are “me.” And as we all are ever-evolving, in this industry that so badly wants to place us in a neatly packaged branding box or genre, its easy to loose sight of where you began and what you, the artist, sees in their true reflection of the heart’s mirror. I decided, when I started working with my latest Producer, that boundaries needed to be clearly set as to what I wanted in these new singles, and in doing so, I am more pleased with these songs than any of my others. The music comes from you. There is only one you. Just do you. Thats all you can do. The rest of world will catch up eventually if you stay true to your path. I truly believe that.

As I stated before, my degree is in theatre. Other than loving music and watching my Mother sing to her favorites (Tina Turner, Bill Withers, Sam Cooke, Nina Simone, Prince, Sting, Michael Jackson to name a few,) I knew nothing about music theory, how to play an instrument, or the music industry until 3 years ago when I first began.

I was taking time off from acting after an encounter of domestic abuse from another actor who I thought was my soul mate, and I started writing again. Then I met a really kind older man man who recommended a poetry group called Philosophers Stone Poets. I went to check them out and was asked to read at the next gathering. When that day came it felt so good to stand in a room and read aloud with others, sharing ourselves through spoken word. After the get together I met a young man who invited me to this party up in the hills where musicians would come in and out and jam. He told me to bring my journal of poems so I did. When we arrived there it truly was this improvisation of music that I had never experienced. Someone new would come in and
plug in their guitar or pick up a shaker and another would leave to take a smoke break etc but the jam never ceased, just shifted and evolved into the new groove. They asked me if I wanted to join in and I told them I don’t know how to play an instrument but I could riff verbally. So, the next thing I knew, I was on the stage at first speaking over the rhythm and then quickly discovering the pockets for my spoken word to float into its own melody. Before I knew it, I began to howl, as if an exorcism was being conducted and I was somehow being released. It was from that moment on, I was hooked and there was no going back. I knew that I was meant for music.

Do I still love to act? Yes. I like to look at Acting as a way to sooth, explore, and forgive myself and others. I love putting myself in the shoes of a character, another life, another perspective, which allows me to truly empathize with others and where they come from. Acting grants me an ability to see how we are all different and yet all the same at the core, with the same wants, needs, fears, and desires to love and be loved. So on one hand, Acting soothes my soul. On the other hand, however, I feel Music does more than just sooth my soul but also feeds my soul. I say this because there is no mask to remove at the end of the day. It is me and only me that stands before you sharing my thoughts, dreams, love and heartbreak and there is something in this that feels like growth every time I do it. Does it also feel like I am losing my virginity while jumping out of an airplane and everyone is watching? Yes. It is scary to be vulnerable and to stand ‘naked’ on the stage? Yes. But at the end of the day, its worth every bit of the adrenaline rush knowing that I did. I shared my heart on this Earth before I was gone and as a creative, that is what I am destined to do.

For me, it always begins with the poetry inspired by whatever is going on presently in my life. It could be something internal or external, from a very personal place like love or heartbreak or from an objective perspective that I feel needs to be addressed because from my point of view, the silence around it is breeding fear and anger within our society and I feel it is my duty to use the gifts I have as a wordsmith to create change when there is injustice or hate among us.

When writing my lyrics, as they begin in this poem, I begin to hear the cadence within the words. It’s as if they fall like leaves that the wind blows into this small stream below. When I read the poem out loud the rhythm is created by the pause in thought, a tapping of the toe, sometimes a clicking of the tongue, or even the rattle of my pen as I roll it back and forth in my hand.

It is now the fun really begins as I go over to the piano and start playing with different chords in accompaniment with this new found rhythm. The Chords and Rhythm in combination turn this small “Stream” into more of what I now call “The River.” Once the river has been formed and recorded roughly in a demo form, I then begin to hum and sing and riff while I explore other ‘streams’ like the sound of a horn or a violin coming in. From there, I extend my reach and begin discussing with my collaborators (ie my producers or fellow musicians/friends) the idea I have for this new song and ask them if they would like to be a part of it. From there the river begins to truly find its current, its rapids so to speak, in which, if we are lucky, at the end of it all, the river will make its way to the “Sea” where the world can later join and sing along with our melody.

I am greatly influenced by my love of Jazz and the musical improv it provides.
So all that being said above, there are also times that I am just listening to the jam of the band and the words form on the spot there and then. One thing is for certain that I have found and that is the fact that if the words are forced or untrue, well they tend not to come at all. Even if they do, they never stick around too long and will certainly get scrapped in the end because I feel they just aren’t very good if they don’t speak from the heart.