Jehlad Akin

Achieve Balance. Energy is contagious. Intent is Intentional. I was made for this. Ever since I was a baby in the crib, I followed the beat to my own drum, literally. My mother and my father said that I was born with big hands so I would hit the kitchen table, the chairs in the living room, and my bed, literally making a pattern of sounds that would stay within in me for a while. This was because I lived in a pretty big house, with over 10 family members under one roof at one point. So, when I would whistle or start singing (my family would tell you that I would scream, which would make sense because I was a child), I would be silenced and told to stop. This stayed in my head for a while, and because I was not into sports until middle school, I did not really have an outlet, until I lived with my uncle and my aunt in Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

While living with them for a couple of years, my aunt would bring me to her church choir, and I finally had a place to let my gift of singing roam free. I sang two to three times a week at Trinity Church in the heart of downtown Boston and had covered several local Boston magazines that published articles about me. When I went to St. Columbkille Catholic school in Brighton, Boston, I would literally ask the nuns who were teachers of the class if I could get up in front of everybody, and sing a song that I wrote right then and there. I was only nine years old. The first song I ever wrote was titled “Cash and Money.” I was 10. After I moved back to live with my mother while I was in sixth grade (this would be my eighth or ninth time moving, and moving to San Diego in 2018 would be move number 18), I got caught up in being bullied for that whole year. I hated going to school. Yet, I always had music to escape.

At the age of 13, my mother, my brother and I were homeless for half a year. I always knew we would not be in that same position because my mom was very resilient. We moved into a nice condominium resort in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, (I was born in Manchester, NH) and we stayed there for my entire high school career, which would be a pretty solid and set time in my life. For the first time, I was involved in everything from sports to health clubs, and most importantly, my love for music and theater. I went to Stonehill College, which would be a pretty rough patch in my life. I knew music was going to be the only thing that would set me straight so I started getting serious after I graduated in 2017. I started going to every music opportunity once I moved to San Diego, and since, everything has been going great.