Today we’d like to introduce you to Jonathan Prather; better known as Cephei.
Cephei, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
My life really changed after going to college. Right now, after changing my major about five times, I am a senior at Kennesaw State University, hoping to graduate this coming May after a long five years with a Bachelor’s of Communication in Media & Entertainment. My love for music pushed me to want to learn more about the business side of the music industry and I ended up majoring in it. I started making music about four years ago. It began with just an interest in the production and engineering side of the industry.
About two years ago, I began writing after being around some of my other friends that happen to be artists. I got to a point where I had started recording and making whole songs around early 2019-summer 2019. Finally ended up releasing my first single under my stage name, Cephei (ceh-fay), called Toast this past February, that did pretty well for my first single. I also just recently released my first EP to all streaming platforms, called “From Dusk Til’ Dawn, Vol. 1” which so far is doing pretty well numbers-wise.
Prior to COVID rearing, it’s ugly head in, I also created a fully functional, student-run record label through Kennesaw State: The Owl Entertainment Group. The amazing non-profit NCEG (National Collegiate Entertainment Group) reached out to me to become head of this KSU chapter after having success at Georgia State with the Panther Entertainment Group. The goal of these was to provide industry experience as well as prepare students, with the desire to go into that field, some insight on how this would work in a real-life professional setting.
I founded and registered my own record label in August of this year, called DarkStar Music, LLC. I think the best part about being an independent artist and label owner gives you full creative control over your forms of artistic expression. You aren’t limited to meeting quotas or any time restraints.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
There were definitely struggles along the way. I strongly believe that anything you are supposed to succeed in will create the most difficult life decisions for you to overcome. Specifically, I dealt with a lot of writer’s block and depression. People don’t like to talk about mental health and you have iconic artists in the industry that unfortunately end up dying because of the battles society makes it hard to talk about openly. Things like relationship problems, struggles with my college course grades, hardships within my family, etc. were some of the main influences on my depression.
The only positive I can say that came out of it was some pretty decent songs. Depression can sometimes be a great form of inspiration in a weird sense. I don’t think you ever really get “undepressed.” I think you just find a way to function through and prosper alongside the negativity. Your life is whatever you make it and you just have to do your best to make life in this world tolerable at the least.
DarkStar Music – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
With DarkStar Music just starting up, I think the main goal is getting a team together. As a record label, of course, there are some bigger rivals in the industry that are always going to provide great models for success. One of the main things I think people miss out on though with those larger entities is again that creative control over your own art. With this label, I want to be able to provide the platform for those to express themselves how they see fit. A label’s job is to supply you with the tools you need for success, the label’s work for the artists. What will set us apart is the ability to prioritize the artist’s needs and not necessarily having revenue at the top of your list. The money will come if you can produce good content. High-quality output speaks and earns for itself.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
Good luck for me has been non-existent, haha. When I say I’ve literally just run into bad luck throughout this whole process, I can’t make it up. Delays with my release on the distributor’s end, the state department taking months to file my LLC trademark and registration, COVID-19 putting a hard stop to all events planned; bad luck has really run its course. That being said, even with the negativity, you still try and make do with what you’re given. Good things in life don’t come easy, and even if they do, there’s no way to avoid every obstacle life throws at you.
Contact Info:
- Email: cepheibeats@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cephei__/?hl=en
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/__cephei
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