Today we’d like to introduce you to Christine B.
Hi Christine, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
It all began when I was about 3 years old; I think I was meant for a stage. I was misunderstood my entire life. When you are a true artist, people try so hard to put you in a box because you are different from everyone else. You know, the words, “sensitive,” “weirdo,” “nerd,” “geek,” “stuck-up” “too quiet,” “too loud,” “freak,” “needs attention,” “not good enough,” “well, ya, maybe..” BLAH BLAH BLAH……we’ve heard it all, right? Or maybe not for some of us. Well hello to you all! My name is Christine B. Thank you for taking the time for getting to know a little bit about me today. I’ve always been attracted to weird, annoying, sounds. Why? I couldn’t tell you. The weirder, the better, and to this day, I use them in my music. I’m a geek-tech girl. I like weird people too. I consider myself “the resident unicorn.” I never fully embraced it until about 10 years ago until Maylyn, teased me telling me, “Sis, you really are a nerd,” and we both started laughing insanely as we were in her studio producing music.
This journey all started out when I was taking dance lessons and performing with my first coach, Miss Braddick, and her son at Braddick’s School of Dance; they had us performing to mainly R&B dance tunes, and I loved it. I was listening to music like The Jackson 5, Elton John, The Beatles, The Who, AC/DC, any and everything out on Motown, so my musical tastes were a fusion of rock and soul. My first instrument was actually a xylophone, then I started singing around the age of six. My parents bought my brother and I those bright-colored, cassette-recorders from Sears back in the day; his was red and mine was blue. I used to steal his, and record songs from the radio on my recorder, and take my brother’s recorder and sing harmony with a new cassette tape in the deck. Lol…Yeah, I was doing things like that when I was like eight, which is when I first sang on stage. I just loved to sing, so I guess you can say that was another instrument. (Fast forwarding a bit)….Speaking of my brother, he is an amazing writer with published works. Back then, he would write some lyrics for me, (most of them comedy), and I would finish them, then put some music to it just to blow off some steam. My friend Maureen would come over with her keyboard, and we’d just jam all day until my mom and dad would come home from work and yell, “That’s enough!!!” Lol….
My next instrument was the flute, which I learned how to play at the age of 10. An interesting thing about me, is that I had to work twice as hard because I had a reading disability. To help overcome some of my challenges, I took private lessons to help me learn to read music, and develop my skills as a musician. Sheet music is graded on a scale from 1 to 6; 6 being the most difficult. I chose to memorize most of the music, note for note, because it was easier for me that way. (Chuckle-that is also why my duos are now named “Note 4 Note,” and another is named, “Spot On”). All these things were stuff that again, I was doing back then, at age 11, 12; memorizing grade 6-level music when no one else in my school could, or would even touch it; I felt that I had no other option. I did tons of recitals, concerts, played in orchestras, bands, the marching band, and I practiced a lot.
During my adolescent and teenage years, I had a lot of formal training with dance/acting coach, Lorna Deane School of Performing Arts. I really got into acting in my later middle school to high school years, and I can thank my private music teacher, Miss Deborah James for putting up with me for 6 years, because she is the one who taught me to be a musician; especially when I felt like giving up. I had first chair as flautist in All-State Band/Regional Band for four years. I give credit to Miss James for all that. Also, I was heavily involved in musical theatre at Community College of Rhode Island, even though I was not yet even a student.
Playing the piccolo was natural, I had one of those too; which I played in the high school marching band, and on occasion, I brought home an alto or tenor sax from school. (It’s the same fingerings as the flute). I also loved the marimba, and a ton of percussion instruments. I am a self-taught keyboardist. I love the keytar. I dabble in guitar, and had one as a teen; my now-husband brushed me up on those skills. During my summers starting in 7th grade up until I was a junior in high school, I would be gone, (June-August). I attended many workshops where they had guest musicians come in to teach seminars. Man! Now that was cool. That is where I really picked up some neat stuff about performance maintenance, and was first introduced to a recording studio. I eventually attended Rhode Island College where my major was Sociology, and my minor was creative writing, I still managed to squeeze in vocal training, concert choir, as well as music theory; because without those courses in your tool box, you are toast. However, the magic happens for me when I am in a studio.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
This whole section could be another interview, however, I will try to break it down as best as I can.
I will be honest and say that the road has NEVER been easy for me, and here are a couple of things that I have learned: money cannot buy you happiness, and blood is not thicker than water. I was bullied throughout my whole elementary and middle school days, and even dealt with trauma that I kept under wraps that no one ever knew about. I am an adopted woman of color, and I grew up in a place where people like me are not favored. All of this was done on the down-low, so people got away with what they did. However, because of my talents, and my parent’s place in society, I was favored in certain ways. It’s like, people only know you when you do something good, or need something from you, do you know what I mean? But once the show is over, nobody really cares.
Without going into detail, I can tell you that I made decisions where I ended up in a lot of places that if I could go back, I would fix so many things. I think if I had the support system I needed back then, things would be different. I went from being a pretty good high school student to not really caring at all. It got to a point where I couldn’t take it anymore. I signed myself out of high school in the middles of my so-called, “senior” year. I recall, before I was being “escorted” out after my last day of school, the principal told me that “Black people don’t make it anyway.” I started singing at the top of my lungs, “Hit Me With Your Best Shot,” and some of my friends were raising their fists in virtue. It was epic. Some kids were giving me dirty looks, (of course); some were confused. The vice principal tried to grab me, but then I broke into, Sade’s, “Smooth Operator.”
But don’t worry; I proved that principal wrong. I received my high school equivalency diploma, immediately went to cosmetology school, then went on to college, and a trade school.
I went through a REAL funky time in my life where I had several odd jobs and hung around Massachusetts a lot; met a lot of musicians, open mics, clubs, I was a hairdresser and a makeup artist. My prime residence became back to the Island….
Musically, I had been in several bands, was a was a singing telegram-person, was a karaoke host, a praise and worship leader in a church for 5 years, I have had music stolen from me, I have been on a label only to get removed from the same label, I’ve been a “ghost-writer,” and heck, I even auditioned for Berklee and got in high school transcripts pending, (but did not go because I chose to be a mother).
Professionally, I had worked for the state of RI in various positions for 18 years.
Emotionally, over and over, I kept learning hard core lessons about love, and trust. I felt that honestly, there is absolutely no one that I could ever trust, and I wanted out of this pain in my heart, and pit in my stomach. I felt beat down and defeated. I had put doing music on hold for so long. I was not happy. Nothing was going right. Yes, I was doing what I had to do to take care of my daughter, but I was empty inside. I was a single mother; I would do studio sessions here and there, but it just was not enough. I am a survivor of every possible thing you can imagine. Because of all these things, I consider myself almost like a Pheonix. I rose above all the “stuff” I dealt with, dusted off my shoulders, and had a vision and a plan: MOVE & MUSIC.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
So, after moving away from New England, I landed in Florida. You have read a lot about my background and you can pretty much guess that I am a recording artist/actress/music producer, and I have done some modeling here and there. Currently, I produce big beautiful events, which embrace live entertainment and sound reinforcement, (ie: weddings, special events, corporate events, fundraisers, public engagements, etc). I am also an A&R Entertainment Consultant for a few companies. I write, and vocal arrange for other artists, and love to collaborate, which has been fun lately, especially the traveling part.
My vision is simple: Down to earth, being organic, no smoke and mirrors, and giving people a real-life, free-flowing, concert-level experience with state of the art sound. I have invested in people, and my background of my parents owning a successful business for forty-one years also gives me a cutting edge to be a contender in the market. Speaking of which, I do not believe in repetitive marketing; I am more of an “Element of Surprise” type of woman. I always tell my artists to just drop their music the night before or two days before the single is ready. “Rotating” once per week marketing works just fine as well.
What I do is all about giving back with the best integrity. We want to give our clients the full-on, VIP treatment through music. Whether it is one of our bands, we will give YOU a concert and have you leave as though YOU were in the show; for karaoke, YOU are the concert; (that’s a no-brainer); and we offer top-notch quality gear everywhere we go. We are often called upon to audio engineer mainstream performances for concerts and local bands. We also proudly loan our gear out for fellow musicians in need. Both my husband and I are audio engineers, and know software on different consoles, and keep up with whatever comes out next. At this juncture, we mainly focus on special events, concerts, festivals, duos, and karaoke. Personally, I have moved away from performing, and handed off some of my shows to other artists, and have put other people into new positions in BVIP Entertainment. We finally fully trained someone on one of the consoles we use from start to finish, so we are growing. Our sound is our number one priority; it always has been, which is why we have invested so much to get it and perfect it. I don’t think we are done with that either lol….People think it’s all about the gear; trust me, it’s not. It’s all about having an ear. Sound is an artistry. I hear everything when I have my “magic headphones” on in the chopping room. It takes decades of training and technique, and I’m still learning new plug-ins; I learn something new everyday. I’m not too proud to admit that. They come out with something new all the time!
For now, I am comfortable being behind the scenes, doing what I do, and focussing on what I NEED to do in order to continue to be successful. All I can do is try with my best foot forward. I am working on film projects now, and that is where my head is at. I will give you a hint though; I do have music coming out eventually, because all good products cost good money. The global pandemic hit us all pretty hard. Also, there IS a legacy in my family who will emerge someday very soon. *Wink* She is more fierce than I could ever be…
It’s the small things that are done behind the scenes in silence that make a huge difference in the music community. I am hoping to lead my team by example, and instill these practices with my legacy.
Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
Would like to thank the following people for their unconditional love and support. These people have ALWAYS had my back, and never wavered:
-Dave, without your patience, I could not be where I am today, so I thank you so very much. I love you.
-My best friend Christine Harrington-Brown; my brother Bill, my daughter Merceides, Sunshine, my son Eric, my sisters Maylyn Atkinson, and Dina Watkins.
-My prodigy, Adalina-Ariel, (“Lina”), I cannot wait for you to show the world who you are; I thank you and love you with all my heart.
-My manager Fran, nothing but love and respect. Thank you for everything.
-I would like to thank and our web designer & my brother-in-law, Tim Budd.
-Lisa Matthews, thank you for always standing behind me and supporting my journey. You are, and always will be, family.
-To everyone in BVIP Entertainment, I could not do any of this without each and every one of YOU! You already know!!!!
-To all the folks who have supported my music, come on out to a Rocket City show, a VIP karaoke show, or any member of BVIP was involved in….THANK YOU. That alone, means everything to me, and to the team.
Extra shout-out to the following people:
Lester Bullock, Pete Lynch, Ancel Carter, Sarah Potenza, Jborn, Penta, Steve Caropolli, Irving Brown, Chris and Laura Bland, Contra, Nina, Rocco, Sam Buzzell, Veronica Just, my current label mates, and to the members of ABWA.
I am very blessed, again, I appreciate everyone for taking the time to read this. Love to you all.
–Christine B.
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#bvipfl #christinebvocals #rocketcityfl #bvipentertainment #positivity #livemusic
Contact Info:
- Email: bvipfl@gmail.com
- Website: www.bvipentertainment.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/christinebvocals
- Facebook:www.facebook.com/christinebvocals
Image Credits
All selfies, and taken by my husband. LOL
