For many people, listening to music is just a hobby they do in their spare time. Whether it’s to work out, to pass them time on the way to work, or to get pumped up for a big game, we all listen. However, for those who actually make the music, it can be a little different. Robert Saul is an up and coming musician out of St. Timothy Community Church in Gary Indiana. He is twenty-six years old and has been writing his own music for about four to five years. Working out of his studio he built from scratch, he’s looking to possibly expand himself beyond other’s expectations.
As a child, he listened to music daily, just like most of us. However, after sometime this wasn’t enough for him. When I asked why he started, he explained, “As the years passed, I didn’t find as much music that I really resonated with so I began writing for myself.” Now a days, coming up from nothing isn’t anything new. However, most things he hears involves people selling drugs or using violent methods to get ahead, which is something he didn’t stand for. He comes from a family with a single mother and two little brothers. His father killed in a mugging when he was only five so he didn’t know too much about him. His mother, though, was able to support him and his two brothers to the best of her abilities, giving them everything she possibly could.
Something that not many people know about him is that he is an avid animal lover. He talked about times when he had nothing to do so he’d go to animal stores and spend hours playing with the different animals. An embarrassing moment for him was once when he was at one of these stores, he got a call and had to leave and actually walked out of the store with a puppy he was playing with, completely forgetting he was holding him. What motivates him is becoming successful in order to give his future family everything his mom did as he grew up, with her being his personal hero. His favorite thing is his old ipod that actually still works, that has over 3000 songs on it that he’s downloaded over the years.
The most meaningful thing that he told me has happened to him in his young life happened about three years ago. He was coming out of a food store and saw a homeless man on the sidewalk. He proceeded to walk over to the man and give him some money, but the man refused to his shock. He asked the man why he did want the money and the man told him something he’d never forget. He told him, “I appreciate it young man, but I’m not looking for a handout, just looking for a chance. I can do anything with a chance.” Before then, he was doubtful in his abilities, but that was just what he needed to get his confidence where it is now. He isn’t a God fearing man, but to him that’s okay. “I can’t confidently tell you I am a Christian or a believer,” he said, “but I can tell you that I find myself to be a better person than a lot of so-called believers. I know the difference between right and wrong, I am caring, I have passion with everything I do whether it’s for myself or to help others. I don’t believe myself to be above anyone, so what makes anyone better than me?”
He proceeded to tell me that his favorite song he’s ever heard is a song by Big Sean called One Man Can Change the World. This is mostly due to what the homeless man told him a while back because just the one comment he made to him has changed his own world, making Big Sean’s song all too true. He mentioned he wished somehow he would have been able to meet and talk to the late Tupac Shakur. He told me, “I didn’t wanna just meet him because he was a musical genius, I wanted to meet him because he not only told stories that we could relate too, but stories that were deeper than all the things we see today.” He’s deeply concerned about the injustices in our society that through his twenty-six years here have only gotten worse. Racism and racial inequality are huge for him, along with black on black violence. He stated that, “we have enough people out to get us (referring to the black community), so why are we helping them?”
Robert Saul is someone we can all relate to, as well as strive to be like. He has seen and been through many things but has taken the punches and got back up. He’s hoping to garner enough music together to go public soon and make a name for himself. He’s just another one of us trying to make it, but he’s actually doing something about it. When I asked him how he wanted to be remembered, he simply said “I just want to be remembered, not everybody is so I want to do something with my life that makes him memorable.”
