Growing up as a kid from Tupelo, Mississippi and coming to the city of Kansas City, he had his mind set on playing baseball and pursuing his masters in psychology. But his craving to inspire the world has led him to change paths and do just that…
Brandon Williams had already moved to Kansas City and started his collegiate career at Avila when he was introduced to the school’s music program, which led him to change his major to music with a minor in psychology. Recently Avila University’s theater program hosted the play “The Imaginary Cuckold” and Brandon assisted with the sound cues and had a small role, despite never acting before. When asked how that went, Brandon exclaimed that “It was a fun experience, it was definitely different because I've never done anything like that but it definitely made me think to start acting for real”.
Brandon has always been instrumental growing up, starting with playing the drums in the school band in 5th grade, but he decided to drop everything to focus on baseball in the 8th grade. It wasn’t until 2017 when his love for music circled back and he began writing his own music.
“It started off as a lowkey joke, and all these rappers kept dropping music and I was such a stickler on making sure the lyrics sounded good then one day I was like ‘I can write’, so I started writing poetry and tried to freestyle. I couldn't freestyle so I started practicing it. Then one day, I realized I had potential so I started trying to record, but recording was hard because I don’t know the techniques. So I was making good songs, but the quality was bad.”
After realizing he wanted to be in a professional environment, Brandon waited until the time was right and finally got the opportunity to work with a professional grade engineer - and once he heard the results, it changed his mindset and made him realize he could really do this.
When realizing this is the career path he wanted to pursue, Brandon decided to give himself an artist name. Formerly known as BlckSamson, inspired by one of his famous artist’s 6lack and his Samson being his favorite story in the Bible, he decided to change it to Lee in honor of his late great grand-dad, Lee Williams, a famous quartet singer. His grandad is famously known for his song “Cooling Water” and Brandon wanted to dedicate his artist name to him because he highly values getting his musicality from his family.
When asked when the switch from fun pastime activity to professional “this is my dream job” occurred, Brandon said “it always feels fun, so to me it's a good mix but I feel like it really switched when I dropped my first single in 2019. But at the beginning of this year I began buckling down, learning new techniques, getting serious with my diets, you know, to help with me vocally which has been helping a whole lot.”
Anybody who knows Brandon personally would be fast to say he’s one of the friendliest, down to earth people they’ve ever met, so when explaining where he gets his boss mindset he explains “I just get that from the type of people I hang out with. I hang around a lot of older people that have influenced me for the better. Tyree Washington, he rubbed off on me a bit. One thing he always tells me is how important it is to treat people and to be careful where you place your energy; listen to what people show you and now what they tell you.” Brandon vividly remembers when he was a little kid around the age 7-10, he randomly blurted out that he wanted to inspire the world. “I don’t know what made me say that, but I’ve carried that with me so whenever somebody asks me about my music or watches me live my life, working, and tells me it inspires them or motivates them, that’s the biggest thing that keeps me going. Being an example for people the best I can.”
The Avila University music department has been key to Brandon with his growth. “The music department has been such a great support system, too. Especially if you show initiative and drive, they just add onto that. Even on days you don’t feel like doing this and that, they’re not going to allow you to do anything less than the potential they know you can do. I love them over there.”
Brandon, who goes by the singer name Lee, recently just released his single “Wait For Me”, which can be found on Apple Music, Spotify, and Youtube. When asked what inspired him to write that, he explained that his feelings were the prime influence. “Oh yeah, I was mad when I made that. You know me, I’m just chill. I try to be a gentleman which I feel just gets taken for granted and told the same thing every time like “oh, you're such a good guy.. Or it's not you, it’s me” it’s always something that makes me feel like I have to wait. And it’s like, I’m not waiting anymore so that’s where the idea came from. It was a song around being fed up and finally acknowledging your worth and moving on.”
The next step for the singer Lee is creating a Christmas song that will be performed at his next show on December 20th at The Sourze in Westport. Following graduation in May, Lee is planning on getting a place, creating an LLC to work independently, start booking more shows and getting myself established to the point I’ll have the leverage whenever I do get the opportunity to sign a deal.”
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