Artemis Montague is a producer and musical theatre writer as well as the creator of the blog “Reflections of a Life Renewed.” They have over 200 songs, one of which was a finalist for the 2022 Write Out Loud Contest (“friend”), received an AudioFemme Agenda Grant in May 2023 to record an EP of original music, and have released two songs – “could you (I’m yours)” and “gets none” – as an independent singer-songwriter.
NewSong Music: What sort of music was playing in your house when you were growing up?
Artemis Montague: Depends on which parent I was with, but it always varied, no matter what. As I recall, my father liked gospel stuff like Kirk Franklin, southern gangsta rap like DMX, and ’90s R&B like Lauryn Hill. My mom liked The Carpenters, Freddy Mercury and Queen, and seemingly random Top-40 songs from across generations that I wouldn’t have expected. My step-father likes Phil Collins, Muse, and Rage Against the Machine. But, yeah … it was always very wide ranging, in terms of genre, lyricism, and intensity.
What was your journey to music — were you classically trained? From a family of musicians? Self-taught?
I wrote a song called “My Way” in third grade for a girl-group that I was in (called “HFM”) that I thought was gonna take off. Then I played the flute for maybe three months when I was 9. However, I was told I would never be good at it and that I should just give up. So, I switched to chorus that same year and started singing more often and writing more songs. I sang in choirs until my senior year of high school, then gave up musical theatre and music formally, opting for a Women and Gender Studies degree. I was still writing but I wanted a Medical Sociology PhD, a Human Rights law degree, and to work for the UN. However, I started writing my rock, gospel, and R&B musical She Sings Me Home in 2017, embedded the show with knowledge sourced from my degree and lived experiences, and never looked back. It should be noted that I was a quick music learner but always by ear so I still can’t play a tangible instrument nor can I read music fluently. I’m learning all that now, but I have always written music using just my voice. I just now layer my voice in recording software.
What is the first song you wrote that you were proud of, and why?
“take me away” — it was the first song that I think was in my voice as a writer, in a genre that feels truthful for me, and that had a level of maturity and lyricism that previous songs didn’t necessarily have. The song was originally about a man but I later made it queer and put it in She Sings Me Home, my rock, R&B, and gospel musical about two young Black women — one transgender, the other cisgender — falling in love in an under-21 mental health ward.
What is your writing process like?
It depends. A musical lyric phrase usually comes first. With “take me away”, it was “and if you wanted the sun, I’d burn my hands/forget any prior plans/and give it to you … as long as you take me away…” Then the rest of the lyrics and melodies and harmonic structure come to me within 30-45 minutes. I do not yet play a tangible instrument, but it has to feel organic and come quickly to me. Otherwise, it feels trite and forced. I am inspired by words, history, and feeling; I have been described as lyrically poetic, viscerally hopeful, and a wistful writer before. I think I could easily write in virtually any genre that Black people in the Western Hemisphere created or popularized, but I like blues, gospel, and rock the most as they are truth-telling genres that ask us to reflect on ourselves and society. I love my people, our lineage, and our music generally, though. But, yes, I can sit down and write a song, but there has to be a spark no matter what. Or a strong prompt.
Share a musical adventure from this summer with us.
I performed in and produced a concert of my music from across my interests with Black, queer, and or trans singers and instrumentalists at Joe’s Pub at NYC’s The Public Theater on July 29. It was my composer debut there, having sung other people’s work there previously but never my own. Hearing these amazing people with me singing my music with support from friends, family, and random people I didn’t know before, it was the first time I felt fully in my body, in my voice, and in my place as a singer-songwriter. It was a beautiful night that got amazing feedback and praise, was recorded so I could share the memory with folks not in NYC, and made me feel so proud and excited for my progress as a writer, performer, and person.
