introduced myself , I just kept going you know , and the next day I got an email from Speech , he had contacted my best friend to get my contact information and asked me if I would be interested in auditioning for the group . RA : So you impressed him obviously and didn ’ t even know it .
Tasha LaRae : I guess so , and I didn ’ t even know . RA : With Arrested Development being such a Revolutionary Group with prolific content in their music , as a solo artist does lyrical content play a part in your music ? Will you be writing your own music ? Tasha LaRae : Oh yes , definitely writing my own music . I think it will definitely have a great influence on it . Before I met the group I was pursuing a solo artist career and so with songwriting it was always important to write something that was meaningful , insightful and helpful . I never wanted to create anything that wasn ’ t going to add any value to anybody ’ s life . So being apart of the group stretched my knowledge and even my awareness of other issues because prior to that I wasn ’ t as open to local issues and it ’ s still a field that I ’ m exploring but I ’ m a lot more aware of what ’ s going on around me . So I love that . RA : I love that . It ’ s such a Responsible ARTistry fit . Let ’ s talk about the entrepreneur side of you , not a lot of people may know that you have your own jewelry company called EarJeans so tell us exactly how that came to be . Tasha LaRae : Okay , so after I got the gig with Arrested Development I learned all the music in about two months ( it was a ton of music ) and our first tour was in Australia and we were going to be there for three weeks , eight shows , three weeks , and I ’ m like I don ’ t have eight shows worth of clothes you know as women that ’ s the first thing we think about [ laughter ] forget the music and everything . I didn ’ t have a lot of money so I thought what can I do , well I started pulling some of my clothes , I looked at old pictures of the group ’ s performances and stuff and it was very organic , very thrifty and creative . So I started cutting up jeans and ripping stuff , adding stuff , painting and there was a particular pair of pants I painted and I was thinking what earrings would I wear with these ? Seriously that was my first thought [ laughing ] and I thought it would be really cool to have a pair of earrings that has the exact same pattern on them made out of jeans and everything . So that ’ s what I did , I made about three pairs of earrings like that and I took them on the tour , so many people complimented me on it and I was like “ WOW “ okay this might work . Throughout the months we did a few more shows and I started making little pieces just to fit that outfit and getting more compliments . One lady came up to me in Dubai and she said , “ I want your earrings and I will trade you mine . She was wearing some really nice sterling silver hoop earrings and I still have them to this day J� so I traded her and she asked me to autograph the back of my earrings and when she did that I said I ’ m going home to start my business and that ’ s how my company got started . RA : What is the mission of your company ? Tasha LaRae : I want to help other people pursue what they want in their life and I want my company to help provide the jewelry that they ’ re gonna need to get there . Because you gotta look fabulous in whatever it is that you ’ re doing . ( Continued on page 38 )
11