Nzondi Perspective on Eaton Canyon Falls - Nzondi

Nzondi is an award-winning author, singer and music producer from New York who now resides in Los Angeles, California. Author of horror novels, Confessions of Sylva Slasher (2013), and Lipstick Asylum (2021), he is the first African-American to win the prestigious Bram Stoker Award in a novel category for his book, Oware Mosaic (2019), becoming a trailblazer in the literary arts. 

Being that his father, Chris Acemandese Hall, wrote the lyrics to a few jazz classics, including Miles Davis’s “So What” (sung by vocalese pioneer, Eddie Jefferson), it could be said that the apple didn’t fall far from the tree now that Nzondi has creatively expanded from writing spine-tingling books to singing rock-fused songs. 

I don't remember my earliest memeory of listening to music but I do remember my first concert. It was in Jacksonville, Floirda and the line up was Roger Troutman, The Time, Rick James and Prince!

The first time I heard "Smells Like Teen Spirit", I knew I wanted to be an artist.

Lenny Kravitz. Why? Is that a trick question?

When I released "Teenage RockStar" featuring Fredro Starr from Onyx almost three years ago, I really didn't know what I was doing. I still don't, not really but the music's a lot better. 

It fluctuates. Right now, my favorite is a remix that will be coming out in a few weeks. It's smoothed-out remix of the Madonna cover song I did on my album with Renee Rice called "La Isla Bonita". Last week, it was Jar of Scars, and all summer, I've been banging out "Eaton Canyon Falls" and driving my friends bonkers I played it so much. 

I was in a Hooters in Orlando, and the words of a new song came to me and I started writing it down on a napkin. That also led to a date with a Hooter's girl; the first and last time I ever did that, unfortunately.

I go through different moods, and different vibes. I could never answer that question. Would it be Adele, Lala Hathaway and Jimi Hendrix?  Or would it be Jennifer Hudson, Guy and Michael Jackson? Would it be Nirvana, Prince and Alice in Chains? Kirk Franklin and a DJ set by Masters at Work? I could never-ever answer that question.

I'm always learning, always practicing, always studying the craft. Always feeling like I don't know enough or am good enough. I don't practice until I get it right, I practice until I can't get it wrong.

I've worked since I was 15, and have done over 55 jobs from being a landscaper for the fifth precinct police department in Elmont, NY - to being a lifeguard at a pool -to cleaning houses in East Hampton, NY - to teaching NY middle school English - to being a Director of Education at the Sylvan Learning Center - to being a character at Disney in Orlando, working as a cashier at Sam's Club in Atlanta, Georgia, to working as a stand-in actor for Star Wars TV & movie projects - to being a manager for a waterbed store to working in McDonalds fresh out of high school in Jacksonville, Florida. 

Without question horror literature is my favorite work of art. That, and Spider-Man comic books. 

I lived about three miles southwest of the Altadena fire evacuation zone. It was a scary time, last year, right after New Year's Day. Every day while on a film set at work, I thought I would have to rush home and move my valuables and belongings to a hotel. The smoke and ash was so thick, the first few days it covered my car and even more than five miles away ash fell from the sky like out of an apocalyptic horror movie. 

Since I used to hike up to the Eaton Canyon Falls with my girlfriend, great memories cement nostalgic times of that place. The song is about love, and the rebuilding of a town traumatized by such a terrible event. I have friends on the film crew who lost their homes in the Altadena fires. This song is one of hope and love. 

Great song with a vocal styling mix of Lenny Kravitz and Scott Weiland. Killer guitar riffs over a post-punk beat brings the catchy chorus alive. Jesse M. gives the song a country twang with her brilliant fiddle playing. The lyrics are definitely influenced by John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads” and delivers the kind of memorable salute to songs that have become homegrown classics and stood the test of time.