Fresh off a Stellar Award winning weekend, Da Fixx squad celebrates all things gospel music.  From old school traditional to Christian Hip Hop, they are giving our gospel icons that help revolutionize the genre their respect and roses. 

DJ Focus and Dice also share their childhood memories of hearing the greats. how they were introduced to the Holy Spirit early on and the impact they had in their lives and music careers. 

Special guest Ellen Once Again opens up about her faith journey and growing up in the church.  Her musical and church background kept her active in her youth choir, helped her develop her piano skills and allowed her to perform with her mother who sang as well. 

As an independent artist, Ellen understands the struggle of having to wear multiple hats to promote your music without added support and the difficulty of getting your music out there for people to hear. 

As an advocate for the artist, Ellen shares how she was able to navigate the business by registering her music with a music “library” and how getting her first sync placement not only generated income, it helped market her music when she had no budget, enabling her to continue doing music. 

Her advice for aspiring artists, don’t give up!  Even when things get tough, continue planting seeds but don’t quit before you have a chance to see the fruits of your labor. 

Catch this wave with Da Fixx weekday mornings at 6 est. on Holy Culture Radio, Sirius XM Channel 154. And don’t forget to follow on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to join the conversation.

ELLEN ONCE AGAIN: So my faith story is I am a church girl all the way. I grew up in church. You know, one of those, my mom was always in church, baby in church. I grew up my mom. Is a singer. I mean, she’s like one of those belters big voice singers. And so when I was younger, she would take me with, you know, every time she sang, you know, she would do a lot of singing in church.

I started playing the piano, so I became her default musician, . And then at church I played for the youth choir and I just grew up in church and around 11 years old is when I was just in church one day and the message just really started speaking to me, and this is when I gave my life to my life to God. And I’m so grateful that.

At that age, I got saved because as I went into teenage adult, it really just kept me and it really defined how I see things, who I am, and even defines the music that I make. So , that’s my story, .

DICE GAMBLE: So that’s awesome. That’s, that’s absolutely amazing. Could you

share with our viewers maybe. The type of music that you actually do, because this morning I was trying to think about it and I was like, Outside of every single box, like she’s

And I was like the only person there, there’s one person that I could think of and I was like, okay. And I was trying not to be disrespectful. I was like, it

like the heterosexual she, her version of Elton John.

Interesting. That’s what I came up with.

Just the ability to do so many different things, you know what I’m saying?

That are very, very different. They cross cultures, you know what I mean? And every, it’s just, you know, a name that everybody knows, but not that you’re that colorful, you know, in those outfits. But the point is, ,

ELLEN ONCE AGAIN: you know what? Thank you. I, I take it as a culture, you take

DICE GAMBLE: it as a colorful, I mean, you know, I’m just saying like, you know, mixed in with your own vibe, but I’m just saying as far as the, the power level and, and how well known I believe you will be.

ELLEN ONCE AGAIN: Thank you. Yeah. Well I say my music is inspirational music geared towards television and film, and I always say television and film because this is where as an independent artist, This was really the first opportunity that I had to get my music heard on a broader scale. I’m very independent. I’m in Texas.

A lot of the things we did ourselves, we have producer friends that we’ve met along the way, but it was just started just in our house, little home studio making songs, and we ran into what a lot of independent artists. Run into how do you get your songs heard, you know, how do you get this message out?

And my first song was called Spreading the Love. And the first time that I was able to get it out is when I just submitted to some music libraries. I’m like, I’m just gonna submit this album and maybe a few months later. That song was aired on just a few, like little small shows. Mm-hmm. , and then I did like another three song EP because we didn’t really have a budget back then.

We were like, we’re just gonna make it as we go. Okay. The next three song EP that I did. All three songs were placed in television and film. Mm-hmm. one was placed in a Hershey’s commercial, one was in Dance Moms, and they won that dance. They took it to their national, they won that dance. And the other called the Doctor was.

Place in another type ad as well. And that was really the first time I would actually say that I made a income like, Hey, I can make a living a

DICE GAMBLE: lot of money. You can go ahead say it. I saw you, I saw you, I made it.

ELLEN ONCE AGAIN: Well, because you know of, of course it’s not the reason why you’re doing music, right. But, but you do wanna be able to support yourself.

And we, and we just really didn’t know like how can. we continue to put out music and how can we continue to grow and let people hear it? Because we didn’t have a marketing budget, we didn’t have any of that. But because it was on those different shows and those different places, it kind of did the marketing for us.

Hmm. And so a, we noticed that a lot of people who were hearing this. Music. They were like, oh, this really made my day. I was having a hard time. Mm-hmm. , this really encouraged me. Mm-hmm. . And I’d be like, okay, where did you hear it? Oh, I heard it on this television show. And I came back and I Shazamed you, which is the service where you, you know, you pressed the button and it told you who’s the artist.

Mm-hmm. and I came back to your page or to your YouTube, because this song really. Made my day, you know, it picked me up out of a dark place and you would just hear different things from just hearing at different places. So I just continued to create music and just put it in a couple of places that I really trusted and mm-hmm.

it kind of helps me with the marketing because, you know, just being, you know, being alone, you’re like, okay, here, and, and you know, Dre, Dre, Dre, my husband helped too, but it. Us we’re like, how do we, how do we get this music out? How do we become what a lot of independent artists have to become? It’s their own label.

Nice. And so this really was a avenue that I was really. I will share with anybody, like, Hey, if you don’t have a budget, but you have music and you have a vision and you, you wanna get a message out mm-hmm. , go ahead and put your music on some of these libraries and some of these places that, that can play your songs.

Because it works both ways. It, it helps me. With a budget to create more music and it got the music out so people could be encouraged. So that’s how I got into that part. , that was a little bit, I had to tell that story because that’s good. . I know a lot of people are like, well, how do you, how do you get your music out?

I’m independent. I get that a lot. Mm-hmm. Online. And I just, this is one of the things I tell people. I’m like, if you’re independent and you know, first get your music first, you know, what do you wanna do? Who are you as an artist? And then I always tell them, you know, this is one avenue, you know, , it’s just, there’s several, but this is just one avenue to get your music.

That’s good.

DJ FOCUS: Listen, listen, listen. It’s one avenue, but it’s a major avenue. Let’s be very clear. , don’t keep downplay Saint Placement and just being able to get your music out in front of the masses and movies and, you know, series and stuff. Listen, talk a little bit about your creative process because I, I, I’m, I’m very much interested to hear this cuz your music is totally different.

It has a different sound and feel. So when you go in to create, when you write, what does that process look like for you? Making a song.

ELLEN ONCE AGAIN: This process. So a lot of times the process is just me sitting down, you know, sometimes I sit down and write songs and I have in mind like, I wanna write this song. I have Other times I’m out just doing stuff and this will come to me like how I’m feeling.

Like, you know what? I have hope, you know, this is one of my latest singles. I have hope in things unseen and it’s gonna get better, you know, and just encouraging people. I, that was when I wrote during the pandemic, and I didn’t write it all in one time. , I have like a thousand voice memos because I’m humming the melody here.

Usually the melody comes first and then I’m writing some lyrics. I have my notes in my phone. I’m writing lyrics, and usually at the end I’m putting it all together and I’m seeing like, okay, what it, what am. What do I wanna say at this time? And so this is really where those songs, a lot of songs come from Moments.

Mm-hmm. . So again, hope came from the Pandemic. You know, it was just a lot going on. It seemed very chaotic, you know, a lot of people were just like, I don’t really, you know, everybody was going through something different. Mm-hmm. . And so for me, You know, it was just like hope. You know? It’s just like I have a lot of hope.

Even our family my dad had gotten really sick, you know, just from Covid Hope, you know, and this was just the one word that I kept hearing was hope. Another song I wrote, which is just completely different, is I do, I wrote that a little bit after I got married, and this is the one that was on Dance mom.

But It was just a song I wrote, you know, about my husband at the time, you know, I want to grow old next to you, you know, . And so it, it’s kind of poppy, you know, has that kind of poppy feel because I, at the time I did know like, okay, I am going to pitch this to. A broader audience. Mm-hmm. So I wanted it to be kind of fun,

And so this was, I do, but all these songs really just come from moments and, you know, just things that are going on. Nice.

DJ FOCUS: Listen Ellen, we, we appreciate you coming on with us today and I. Definitely just sharing that, sharing your gift. La last thing I will wanna ask you. If you could give an aspiring artist maybe one one or two advice or tips, what, what would you give to aspiring artists who’s looking to do like move in the lane where you are right now?

ELLEN ONCE AGAIN: You know what? A lot of times I will say this, the, the. The wanting to sometimes give up on your gift and give up on what you’re supposed to be doing is real . Mm-hmm. . And especially when you don’t feel like the direction is clear, because it wasn’t like a clear path. It wasn’t like, okay, I’m on this label now I’m doing this.

And even if I was on the label it, you know, I know that’s hard, that can be hard in itself, but a lot of the time it was just, Faith walk. It was a trust that what I’m doing is going to return fruit because I was just planting seeds. So I’m gonna say, if you are starting out, you know there are a lot of resources, even what we were talking about that you can do with your music.

But the thing is you have to keep going even when it gets tough. You have to have that, that push to be like, you know what? This is going to make sense. I’m just planting seeds, but they’re gonna come back to me. Starting out, plant those seeds, but don’t give up. Don’t give up before it returns fruit. So ,

DJ FOCUS: that’s good.

That’s good. That’s good. Listen, can you tell the people how they can connect with you, follow you on all your platforms, right? And say, and shout out some of the work you’ve done to, as well, some of the, you know, series and stuff that people have heard you on. What they did not know.

ELLEN ONCE AGAIN: Oh my goodness. Well some of the shows recently was All American.

They played my song survivor at the very end of the episode, and they played about a minute of it. So that was one. Hershey’s Target ads dove ads. Dance Moms was a big one because they did the full dance to the song. Netflix a movie called Falling in Love. It had Christina Milian in it.

And boy, there’s, there’s been just a lot of blessings. But those are some Hershey’s, I think I mentioned that one. There’s a lot of commercials and television shows that I’ve been blessed to hear those songs in. But those were just a few. And if you’re looking to find me, Ellen once again, dot com and all of my social medias at Ellen.

Once again, I’m on, I’m doing duets on TikTok a lot, so come and sing with me. TikTok at Ellen. Once again YouTube, all of the social media.

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