Jon Batiste – HuffPost 11.6.13

Mike Ragogna: What advice do you have for new artists?

Jon Batiste: New artists have to remember why they chose to be an artist in the first place. As simple as that sounds, when you get into money and you get into fame and notoriety and all that stuff that comes with creating a career, it’s really hard. It’s also very difficult to keep a balance between art and commerce, so the best thing–and I feel like this is like the north star, it’s a guiding light–always remember why you do what you do and why you decided to do it in the first place. That somehow, whether or not it makes logical sense, you’ll always make the right decisions in terms of the career/commerce side of the business. It doesn’t necessarily make sense on a business angle, but you’ll feel better with yourself, and as an artist, to me that’s the key. If you don’t feel good about it, you can’t deliver anything of value to people.

MR: Is this what you would have told a younger Jon?

JB: The thing about it is, I had my dad around to tell me, which was awesome. He still does. If I wasn’t able to have my dad around to tell me and learn from the mistakes that they made, then I would definitely tell a young Jon that.