JuanDre Music Group

JuanDre Music Group is the brainchild and production company of twin brothers Dejuan and Dre Williams. These music impresarios have literally spent their entire lives honing their skills as musicians and producers, and now they are ready to share their music with the world.For Dejuan and Dre, there wasn’t a time in their lives when they weren’t doing something musical. Their father, who moved them from their hometown of Kansas City, Kansas, when they were still very young, was a professional musician and had a major influence on his young sons. As an extremely talented lead guitarist, Wayne Williams was invited to tour with the renowned gospel group The Mighty Clouds of Joy when he was only 13 years old. Needless to say, none of his natural abilities were lost on Dejuan and Dre.“I would always ask my dad to show me something on the guitar,” Dre said, “and one day he taught me how to play a standard blues walk. I showed Dejuan, and that was really the beginning of our careers. We were about 7 years old then, and we started playing for people in my grandmother’s beauty salon. We would just sit and improvise on my dad’s guitars for hours and try to play songs we heard on the radio.”By age 11, the twins were living in Ohio, and Dre had added drums and keyboard to his repertoire. Together, Dejuan and Dre were able to communicate well-enough musically that they began composing their own songs. Inspiration came from their mother’s record collection – from jazz great David Sanborn, to gospel legend John P. Kee and groundbreaking R&B group Tony Toni Tone. They also started playing professionally in local churches and landed their first recording job with Landa Reece Brown, a local Columbus gospel singer.After moving back to Texas when they were 15, Dejuan and Dre expanded their musical scope by forming their own band, Vision. Their local success led to their first major recording two years later with the gospel group Perfect Praise. That job led to work with other artists on the group’s label, World Wide Records, including Keith “Wonderboy” Johnson, E. Stewart and the Stewart Singers and Damascus. Excited by the possibilities of working consistently in the music industry, the twins packed up everything and moved to Atlanta. That decision would prove to be life-changing.“We were hustling in Atlanta, trying to make money selling pizza coupons door-to-door, and we ran into Shamora Crawford, a songwriter who was currently working for Sony,” said Dejuan. “At that point, we really just wanted to be full-time session musicians, and God used her to encourage us to pursue producing. The seed was already in us, and she watered it. She taught us the foundations of producing and the elements of a track. We called our god brother, and he bought us our first equipment.”With the dream of producing alive and well in their hearts, Dejuan and Dre headed back to their roots in Kansas City to perfect their crafts. “We had been around gospel music for so long, and we really respected Asaph Ward,” said Dre. We knew he lived in our hometown, so we decided to try and hook up with him.”Dejuan and Dre did, in fact, meet the uber-successful producer with credits on just about every major gospel artist. It was while working with him that they learned how to produce each element of a song, including vocals and individual instruments, and how to mix the final recording. Ward also provided them with opportunities to record and/or tour with several artists, including Smokie Norful, Virtue, Brent Jones and Dorinda Clark.Around this time, Dejuan and Dre also cultivated other working relationships that enabled them to continue to grow and mature as producers. They spent time working with Ernest “Bishop” Dixon, songwriter for R&B artists Joe, Ginuwine and Profyle, as well as Falonte Moore, hit producer for Destiny’s Child and Will Smith.“We’ve learned so much from everyone that we’ve worked with over the years, and it is all of those collective experiences that make us the producers we are today,” Dre said. “We know that God was preparing us for what we were created to do.”For the last few years, the twins have been a staple of the Kansas City music scene, as producers of local artists and as musicians fronting the highly successful jazz/R&B/funk bands Vibe and Tru Soul. Dejuan and Dre both feel, however, that the time has come for their music to reach the national stage.“We don’t make beats,” Dre said. “We are real, musical producers with a musical background, and everything we do is musical, whether we record live instruments or program them. There is always a place in the industry for producers like us.”“We know that God has truly gifted us to do what we do,” added Dejuan. “He said that our gifts will make room for us, and we believe Him.”

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