Artist and songwriter Toni Jones has dedicated her life to making music as a form of healing. The creator of Affirmation Music, Toni has released three albums focused on empowering her listeners through self-love and compassion.
In observance of May’s Mental Health Awareness Month, and African American Music Appreciation Month coming up in June, we caught up with Toni about her career, her influences, and her advice to others.
How did you begin your career in music?
I was a life coach for young people and helping women heal from workaholism. I prayed for an idea to help my clients practice wellness on-the-go and that would boost my coaching business.
You have developed a completely different sub-genre. How did Affirmation Music evolve?
All I knew was that music historically and scientifically has a medicinal legacy, so I knew that it would be a great mental health tool with affirmations over sound. Once I discovered I had something, like a gift, I started to explore how I could grow as an artist and professional in order to support the evolution of Affirmation Music.
I didn’t want to do just affirmations over new age music. I wanted it to be music that had mainstream appeal because I knew it would be sonically pleasing to the human mind and lifestyle for people to heal on the go while they are enjoying the beats and the melodies while speaking life, positivity, and transformational words into their lives.
May is Mental Health Awareness Month. Given your background in psychology and the focus of your music, why is this so
important to you?
In full transparency, when I released my first album ‘Affirmations for the Grown Ass Women’ it went completely viral all while my personal life was falling apart. I ended up being in a psych ward because I tried to take my life.
I thought to myself how could I be this dope, this wise, this powerful, this creative, and yet I wanted to end my life? I had to admit I was not okay and hadn’t been okay for a while.
Mental Health Awareness Month is important to me because I know what it’s like to hide behind a shiny ego, put-together persona, and beauty, but deep down be so disenchanted with living.
I like to think of this month as my Christmas because I get to promote and share the story that we as humans can change our lives and our minds to activate our power to heal our nervous systems and maintain a healthier mental state while loving life again. I am a living testimony so I can’t shut up about it.
What is your biggest piece of advice for fellow creatives when it comes to taking care of their mental health?
There is no other option but to take care of our mental health. Our art, our creativity, and the sustainability of our success depend on the quality and devotion of our internal world. Our greatest art to create is ourselves, and that is an inside job. So, my advice would be true artists create from within… and buy the book ‘The Artist Way’ by Julia Cameron.
We are nearing African American Music Appreciation Month in June. Can you tell us who your biggest influences are and how they’ve impacted you?
My biggest early influences in my career were the Clark Sisters, Special Gift, Aretha Franklin, and Diana Ross. They ministered soul and vulnerable authentic expression. Growing up I didn’t know that was going to impact the way I showed up in music before audiences. I genuinely feel the soul of audiences and feel like I’ve been trusted to care and nourish them through voice and music.
As my career grew, my influences have been Nikki Giovanni, Nina Simone, Lauryn Hill, and Alice Coltrane; they all impacted my depth, where I pull from when I write, when I express through song and dialogue, they impacted my level of awareness to how you must respect the sacred responsibility to being integral with the music I create, I can’t just create and share the music I must embody the music in my life with myself and with the audience and speak to the times we are living in.
Do you have a unique project that you are most proud of?
I’m most proud of my ‘I See Me Mantras’ album because I poured my entire self into that album. I didn’t know what I was doing, and I didn’t have experts helping me. All I knew was I had to get these songs out of me because that album took my career to a whole new level.
I received notable mentions in Forbes and Essence. My most popular single from that album “Take UP Space Sis” was placed on Showtime’s show, “The Chi”. It’s an album that inspired me to continue to activate other genres of music with affirmations, which is not standard.
Can you tell me about your Sound Royalties experience?
My Sound Royalties experience has been really life-enhancing! It opened up a world for me to experience being an artist, who can take care of their livelihood while mastering business, art, music, and being in service to humanity.
What’s on the horizon for you?
I intend to continue to have a healthy, regulated nervous system, enjoy life, create more music, and expand Affirmation Music into the world in unique ways. I also have a new single coming out on June 13 called “All in Me”, which is on pre-order starting May 31, the last day of Mental Health Awareness Month.
For more information on Toni Jones, follow her on Instagram, check out her AffirmNation membership group and be sure to stream her Affirmation Music on all major platforms.