What I'm Wearing: Blazer - Apt 9, Shirt - Calvin Klein, Tie - Forever 21, Skinny Suit Pants - H&M

"Happy Christmas (War Is Over)" 

Dear readers,
Happy Christmas. Another year is over and it's time to turn the page to the next chapters of our lives. I honestly feel this past year has gone by at the speed of lighting. So much happened and it feels like it was all a second ago. We are now here on a Christmas day with one more week of 2017. I have to say, I wasn't the biggest fan of this year. As you already know from pages prior this, it wasn't an easy year. Just because it was another year filled with difficult trials, does not mean I will end it looking back in hate. We are tested every year and regardless if we pass it, Christmas comes to give us a reassurance of hope for what's to come. On Christmas day we ask ourselves what have we done?  Once December 26th comes we start to prep ourselves to move forward. We end one war within ourselves and prep for the battles to come. We take our battle scars and patch them with the heart on our sleeves and the hope we receive on Christmas day. 

Red is bright. Red can be related to anger or joy. I wanted to end the year differently, with a holiday suit that meshes how I feel all together. For me red is burning. There is a fire in my soul that is determined to find a light to shine down on me. These past few months have honestly felt like a timer and i'm trying my best to not waste a second. I turned 22 this year, my mom turned 60, my career celebrated 10 years, I went through turmoil with my first serious adult relationship, I almost lost my parents in a major accident, My dad got his truck stolen and never got it back,  I grew closer to people I love, Peter Parker came home to Marvel, I still am battling Glaucoma, and so much more darkness to battle the light that has happened behind the scenes, that I will not talk about at this time. It's been a long short year. I'm glad it's ending. I'm ready to put the past behind me and go on. When I was 16 I gave myself a plan. Within a year of that plan I reached my goals. My plan included graduating early, releasing my first record, making enough money to move away, getting my first apartment at 17, and living on my own in LA at 17. That seems like a pretty large plan for a young teenager. I did it though. I accomplished what I wanted to within that year of my life. I'm 22 now and headed into the last 5 months of being a 22 year old. To say I was robbed of my later teens and early twenties is an understatement. That's where the green tie comes in. I have made it clear that Glaucoma is a major part of my life. Green is the color of the disease and I make sure it is visible on me because it makes me who I am. I haven't got a chance to live a life like people my age. I grew up pretty fast, I became an adult pretty early, but I never got a chance to do the whole young adult stuff. I went straight into senior citizen land with my eye. I used to wish I had chance to live a life like other people my age. I don't anymore. As my disease progresses and my life evolves, I have become more accepting to what has happened to me. I now proudly wear my green no matter how hard it may be sometimes. I was different person before I got sick. I like this new version of me better. This disease may have got me stuck for awhile, but it evolved me into a better version of myself. The black shades of this look is to honor the true darkness of the year. I have to honor the dark because I still feel that even though the war will be over this year, part of it continues in the new year. We have to take the lessons learned  and use them to patch us back up when we fall. So much bad has happened this year. I won't bring up all of it because I don't need any more darkness to illuminate over my family. However I will always personally address it because it is something that happened. The one lesson I want to highlight is this - My mom always thought us that when someone does you wrong you don't go out and do wrong yourself. Getting revenge and vengeance is not the way to go. The best revenge you can give is by finding a way to live the happiest  version of your life. Sure, you may be hurt but take that hurt and let it fuel a fire in your soul to do good. Christmas is a time of hope and love. All the pain you have faced, let that hope and love inspire you to do better. Satan is a powerful figure. Don't ever let it try to control  and blind you from what really matters in life. That is why I added the shades of black to this suit, to remind myself about the darkness. Even though darkness can bring you down, you'll have some sort of red to remind you why you need to be a beckon of hope, why you need to be a fire that can't be tamed. Then you have the green to remind you about what makes you weak can also make you stronger.

Through our style and fashion, we always wear apart of our souls and make it visible. Our clothes describe how we feel/ how we want to feel. That's one thing I learned a lot about this year. Through these pages of my life an outfit goes with each of them. It has given me the chance to explore parts of my heart and soul that I needed tapping into. As a songwriter having pages of a diary to balance out the emotions in my music has given me something to reference my true feelings and intentions. I realize more and more each day how my story is apart of a larger plan. As I celebrate Christmas with the ones I love, I turn all this darkness into a beautiful ending and a hopeful brand new beginning. My wish for myself and everyone is that we all have a better year. I truly hope things will get better and we will finally stand in the light  and be free from everything.

"Let It Go" 
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone.
Through it all, every little thing is gonna be alright. 
Love, Dom 

END OF: Chapter 4

Photographer: Joanna Wheeler  

PRESS PLAY
Every post I will include the song that inspired me to build a post around it's title

What I'm Wearing: Not So Ugly Christmas Sweater - Adam Levine Collection, Jeans - Adam Levine Collection, Boots - Apt 9, Socks - Happy Socks 

​"Christmas Time, The Ones I Love" (feat. Happy Socks)

Dear readers, 
It's Christmas week. One of the most  beautiful and memorable weeks of the year. It's finally time to wrap the last of the presents, prep the big dinners, put up the last of the lights, and celebrate the birth of Jesus. It's a week of heavy relfection and precious moments. Christmas is my favorite holiday. Since I was a kid i've had nothing but beautiful memories made every single year. I grew up very fortunate to have a family who was able to celebrate like we do. It wasn't all about the gifts for me. Sure, they were truly amazing, but the little moments made are the best memories I have. For my final collaboration of the year, Happy Socks and I have come full circle. I was sent a gift box of lovely holiday socks and knew exactly what the page was going to be about upon seeing the candy cane design. When I was 16 years old I wrote a song on Halloween called "Christmas Time (The Ones I Love). I know what your saying... Halloween? Well, as soon as Halloween comes I'm already blasting Christmas music and getting myself festive for 2 months of joy and love. When I wrote this song I knew time was ticking for me. The year was ending and I was entering the last half of my 11th and 12th grade years at the same time. I had just completed The X Factor season 1 that year and began working on my first record. I could already feel me miss my loved ones as the final year of innocence approached. I had a plan. Within 10 months I would be out of my parents house and home in LA where I belong. I wrote this as a dedication to my childhood and as love letter to my future. Happy Socks really expanded my mind this year. Being able to see beyond their designs brought me down memory lane. What a beautiful poetic way to celebrate Christmas by celebrating my Christmas past with a brand that has helped me to accept the good and bad of my my journey so far.

As a child my parents would always find a way to go above and beyond for my sister, my uncle, and myself. It's always been the 5 of us. Now that we are older there is more of us. We are so blessed to have my nephews experience Christmas with us now. My boys Tyson a Titus remind me of when I was kid, wide eyes and mesmerized by the mysteries of Christmas. Seeing presents, hearing Christmas carols, learning about Jesus and experiencing Santa - The wonder in their little minds makes me feel as if my special childhood memories live on in them. Seeing them run around the house  I grew up in makes me feel so fortunate for all that we have had in our lives over the years. I decided to do something different. All these photos were taken at our family home in the Bay Area. I can't recreate the memories already made, but I can look back on them and honor them moving forward. As I head into the New Year with the plan of moving back to my home in LA, 8 hours away from my parents and my loved ones, my goal is to make this one of the most special days ever. My mom always found a way to make us festive every year. Our house has always been decorated. We have calmed down a little, but growing up, damn... It was something. We still decorate a lot, but when I was kid the whole house, every corner was festive. My mom and dad made sure we cherished the hard work they put into our home. I still remember waking up every Christmas morning and tearing those gifts open. Although I no longer eat meat, I can still smell the delicious meals my family made. I look forward to purchasing our Christmas trees and decorating them with my cousins or other members of our family.  I still love the sound of waking up to my mom singing in our native language in the kitchen every morning. Then there comes the time when my dad puts up all the lights on the house and makes our home feel like a bright shining star. I still feel the excitement when my family knocks on the door ready to have a fun day. These are things I try to replay in my head a lot.  

​Some years we spent Christmas in California early and then Christmas week would be spent in Washington state with my Grandma. I think part of the reason why I cherish this holiday so much is because of my Grandma. She loved Christmas. Every year she would have this rosary said for the birth a jesus, we call it a novena. Then on Christmas day she would have the biggest and grandest party in Port Orchard, Washington. I wish I had photos of her house because she put so much love into decorating her many different Christmas trees. When my Grandma passed away in 2011, Christmas felt so different. That year was really quiet, but we still managed to make memories with her through the spirit in our home. My grandma helped purchase this house for our family. She owned some land in Guam and sold it. With a part of that money my parents used it as down payment for our family home. So my Grandma's spirit runs throughout this home. All my loved ones who have stepped into this house has made every Christmas have a lasting memory in my heart. I don't consider the Bay Area my home, my home is in LA. I do however consider my parents home, our family home, a keeper of a part of my heart. For me, my loved ones and Christmas help plant the seeds for the foundation of my year to come. Obviously we haven't had a good year this year. I haven't had the best last few years. But the other day at a performance I did, I told my audience - I don't know why, but I feel like something good is going to come my way. Through all the bad, I feel some sort of light is bound to shine on me and my family. This year on Christmas I look back at all the little moments. As I walk towards a new road I will use the love I have from my family, the ones I love, to make it feel like all the previous special Christmas days, every day. 

I could sit here forever and go into each detail of every Christmas for the past 22 years. But the photos I have speak for themselves. As the year ends I feel like at least this "War Is Over". I still have many more battles to be fought and won. But in my darkest hours i'll have the memories of Christmas shine through everything I do. I love the ones I love. As we get older we don't get to see everyone we care about. Some people don't live close by, some people aren't on this Earth anymore. But what I do know is we can always go back to those moments and have them stay in our hearts forever. 

Merry Christmas everyone.
Happy Holi-day-aye-aye-ayes
​From Me. 
​Love, Dom 
​
Photographer: Joanna Wheeler  

What I'm Wearing: Complete  Darth Vader Suit - Oppo Suits, Shoes - Giorgio Brutini

For more on Oppo Suits- Click Here
Get your tickets to The Last Jedi - Click Here 

"Nothin But Star Wars" (Feat. Oppo Suits x Star Wars)

Dear readers,
A long time ago in a galaxy far far away a film called Star Wars: A New Hope was released. Here we are in modern times and we are still visiting that famous galaxy. As you know, I may not look like it, but I sure as hell am one of the biggest nerds. I take pride in that. I grew up loving superheroes, fairytales, and rooting for the light in the battle between the dark. I always saw a bit of myself in each character I loved growing up. For the past 2 years Star Wars has released a film in December. My brother Jamie and I made it a tradition to see all the new Star Wars films together when they premiered. Sadly this might be my last year with this tradition. No new Star Wars film will release next December, and instead we will get one in May. I don't know if I will be able to watch it with my brother due to the fact that I will be moving back home to LA. This year the film is called "The Last Jedi", so to go out with a bang i'm honored that Oppo Suits reached out to me to collaborate with them and wear one of their Star Wars collab suits. Darth Vader is such a complex character. Underneath all the evil is a man who is just battling his inner demons. His costume is his armor. Deep down inside he's just a man looking for a point of redemption. Christmas feels like the perfect time for Star Wars, because not only does this franchise bring joy, it shows us what  forgiveness is about. Darth Vader did a lot of wrong, but in the end he did right. Through all the bad, he was forgiven in the end. I feel like Christmas is the perfect time to find a way to forgive those who have done wrong and share a common ground between the light and dark for the greater good. 

I always related Star Wars to religion. I grew up Catholic and always saw the similarities between the 2. Oppo Suits had many different Star Wars designs for me to rock, but something about Darth Vader stood out to me. Not only is the suit very settle, its mysterious and the pop of red just adds another level of fire that burns for the inner battle within our souls. As the year ends the last major blockbuster of the year releases. “The Last Jedi” and the whole Star Wars franchise echoes what we go through today in society. This whole year the world has genuinely been a mess. In Star Wars they call the bad guys, the sith. From what we have all seen there is so many sith lords surrounding our world and doing horrible things. I try to touch base with the good and the bad things that happen in our world, and try to understand why these things happen. I think of the men like Anakin Skywalker. Before he was Darth Vader he was a young man named Anakin with a bright future ahead of him. Then one day he was lured into the dark side by an evil force named Darth Sidious. Anakin thought the ways of life on the dark side would benefit him in the long run, but it only brought out the worst in him. He could have had it all - Love, a family, honor… but he chose to give into his inner demons and burn all that he knew to become Darth Vader. He did however come full circle. Under all the armor, Anakin Skywalker’s true self was battling to get out. Darth Vader became Anakin in the end, and the light side didn’t refuse forgiving him. He learned his lesson and became one with the force, once again. What i’m trying to say is, we all come full circle. We all have to go and battle whatever demons in the world and in our souls. On Christmas day we celebrate the birth of Jesus, we morn his death on Good Friday, and celebrate his resurrection on Easter. We rise, we fall, but we always find a way to rise back up and stand in the light. Films like Star Wars and holidays like Christmas and Easter give us the one thing we need through all the darkness, hope. 

​This franchise has so many themes that can relate to each and every one of our lives. That's why I always look forward to what's next in the story. Star Wars has played a pivotal part in my story. There is something about it that hits me on an emotional level. The battle between light and dark reminds me of the battles I have faced, especially these last few years. Seeing that pinch of hope in the eyes of these characters, gives me a pinch of hope for another day and a brighter future. I love that Star Wars comes out during the holidays because this time of year is all about hope. "Christmas Time" is the time for gathering around the ones we love. We reflect and honor the good and bad of the past year. We look forward with love in our hearts and hope in our eyes, that through our heroes journey we will rise above it all and be the Last Jedi’s standing.
Love, Dom 

​Photographer: Joanna Wheeler  

PRESS PLAY
Every post I will include the song that inspired me to build a post around it's title. ​​​​​​​​​​​

What I’m Wearing: Coat - Good Fellow, Sweater Vest - US POLO, Turtle Neck - Apt 9, Pants - Good Fellow, Shoes - Giorgio Brutini, Watch - Daniel Wellington.

​This page is sponsored by Daniel Wellington
Get your own classic DW watch this holiday season for you or your loved ones.
Get 15% now- January 30, 2018 by using my code "BAZA" 


​START OF: Chapter 4


"It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas"

Dear readers,
It's finally December, the last month of the year to try and be the happiest version of ourselves. Christmas is my favorite time of year. To kick off the month every December 7th is my career anniversary. December 7th is a reflection gift to myself. I unwrap my memories and see how far i've come in life and in my career. Then Every 2nd week of the month is Star Wars mania. Literally it's a been holiday week for me for the past 2 years Star Wars has a film release in December. I go all out. It's tradition for me and my brother Jamie to go to the wild first screening release night. I also take time to reflect on the loved ones lost throughout the month, previous Decembers. I lost my Auntie Terry and my Uncle Johnny around this time of year. Both lost in different years, but still feel the loss of them today. I get so into the holidays mainly because most of my fond childhood memories revolve around the love I received from my family. Since getting diagnosed with Glaucoma I cherish Christmas even more. My doctors tell me my eye is literally a ticking clock. One day I could wake up and it will be gone, no sight whatsoever. I cherish the little things, like embracing the Christmas lights through my dark glasses and admiring the beautiful decorations I see in every shop and storefront. I hold onto the visits to the Christmas tree lot and picking out a Christmas tree with my family. I look forward to Christmas day and making memories and enjoying a good meal surrounded by love. Christmas is a time for setting aside issues and opening up your heart and feeling the grace god all around. Time goes by so fast and I want to take the next 4 pages, including this page to tell stories about what makes this the most special time of year for me. 

Time. I've spoken a lot about time this past year. Sometimes things don't pan out the way you want it to. It's not the right time sometimes. As I head into the new year, I feel like i'm pressed against time. I'm running towards it and sometimes running away from it. I don't want to loose these feelings i'm feeling inside. I know i'm going to loose apart of myself when I move next year. You always loose some sense of innocence when a drastic change happens. So i'm taking time to cherish more memories and learn more these last next few months of my long as hell extended stay in the Bay Area. Recently Daniel Wellington approached me to collaborate with them for the next 2 months. Through their watches I see time move forward but freeze from their classic designs. Every time the clock strikes 12 i'm reminded another hour has past and i'm getting older every second of time. So I stop. I take a breath... and I continue to move forward. As much as I would love to stay in a beautiful moment forever, time can't stand still. However the pieces of time that we wear can be a reminder of the unforgettable moments in our lives. Daniel Wellington came to me at the right time. Now that it is Christmas time I can wear this beautiful watch and look down at many 12's and remember the good times and memories I will make this holiday season. 

I look around me and I see the beautiful decorations all over the city. San Fran is filled with so much love year around, but there is something about Christmas time in the city. I look up at the beautiful tree in Union Square and my heart warms up from the kids skating around the ice skate rink across from me. I see the lights lit up on the trees on the street and tell myself to remember these little details. Around the corner a man and his daughter are busking to earn a little extra for the holiday season and across from them is a woman who dresses up as a robot for a living. Then there is me exploring this big world during the most wonderful time of the year. I step into Macy's and Brett Eldridge's version of "It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas" begins to play. I look out at the window on the 7th floor and take in everything I have just witnessed. I'm reminded that next week i'll be witnessing a new "Star Wars" film, and the week after it's all about Christmas. I look down at my watch it is 12:00pm. Another hour has past and more stories are waiting to be told. Some old, some new, and some in nearby a galaxy far far way. 

​Love, Dom 

Photographer: Joanna Wheeler  

PRESS PLAY
Every post I will include the song that inspired me to build a post around it's title. ​​​​​​​​​​​

What I’m Wearing: Cardigan - Banana Republic, Shirt- Good Fellow, Pants- Good Fellow, Shoes - Apt 9, Socks - Happy Socks

"I Will Find You"

Dear readers, 
You sit back and realize how fast 10 years has past. You look back at your former self and ask who was I then? I'm trying to step back into that mindset at this moment. This week on December 7,2017 marks 10 years since I started dipping my feet in the music industry. I was 12 when I started, I'm now 22. My life has gone through many ups and downs. I have won and I have lost. People can say I have failed at my goals, aspirations, and dreams, but I look at this in a completely different perspective than they do. 10 years is a milestone for anyone and anything. I have done a lot for someone my age. Not as much as some, but definitely more than others. As I look forward to next year and beyond, I reflect on what has happened in my life these past 10 years.

I never thought I would open a fashion blog/ personal diary and share it with the world. This year has been filled with various collaborations with many brands, including one special happy brand, Happy Socks. Teaming up with Happy Socks has expanded my mind as a writer. People look at their socks as a happy piece of clothing to give their outfit an added flare. I never saw them as just socks with a design. I saw Happy Socks as someones dream coming to life. All these socks started somewhere and it reminds me of how we all started somewhere and how we grow and bring our dreams to see the light of day.

I was at a crossroad when I was 12 years old. I knew I loved music. I was the top Alto Sax player in my middle school Concert, Marching, and Jazz Band. I enjoyed it very much. Getting all the top solos and performing was something the fire in my soul fed off of. Something about it wasn't enough for me though. I have been singing since I was 3 years old, I knew I wanted to sing for a living, I just didn't know when. In 2007 Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus was my world... along with High School Musical. Judge me all you want, but the more I watched the tv shows, and listened to all the music... the more I learned. Miley inspired me so much. Hearing her songs and realizing that she wrote it made my mind desire the same things. I grew up on Michael Jackson, Elvis, Whitney, and all the greats. Miley was added to that list and because of her I tried songwriting. I thought I was going to be horrible at songwriting, but it turns out I found it very easy to write music at 12 years old. It's like all these stories from my childhood were inside of me waiting to come out and be told. When your in middle school, you have teenage drama... at least I did. I was the most popular kid. You know how kids are, they have pyramids at school, I was at the top of the circle of life. All the young ones looked up to me, all the older ones looked to me. I knew once I made my choice I would be walking on a thin line. I knew it would be easy for me to get knocked off of the pyramid. I did't care. My last year and a half of middle school would involve me being devoted to the band, my squad, and building a pyramid of my own inside my soul. Anyone that tried to screw me over, any crush I had, any frustrating teenage problem I was going through, I wrote about it. I loved writing these songs and singing them in my bedroom to myself. I knew I needed an outlet to perform. I turned to youtube. I got a flip camera (do you remember those, lol) and recorded videos and uploaded them to youtube. My first upload was December 7th, 2007. From there I kept growing. I started singing in Church with my mom. I remember the first time I really sang in public was a song called "Fill My Cup". I still remember it like the back of my hand. "Fill my cup lord, I lift up lord". I loved seeing the audience just connect for a moment in time. As my middle school era winded down, I joined the school talent show. I joined as singer... not as the alto sax player. A few of my former buddies backed me up on instruments and I sang "Don't Forget" by Demi Lovato. In that moment, things changed. I owned that crowd, I owned that moment, I felt the birth of Dom Baza finally see the light of day. I caught the bug and there was no going back. As high school started I quit band and made up my mind to do music full time. My parents were very hesitant at the start. They didn't want me to loose the opportunities I could have gained if I stayed at high school. I had to convince them that I could do this. I worked for it. For the first few years from 14-16 years old, I would travel Northern California and perform at various nursing homes and rehabs. My parents always raised me to use my voice for good. I went to perform for people who desperately needed to feel something for an hour of their life. I joined a singing competition called Nor Call Sings in-between that time period. I was 15 and despite the standing ovations, I couldn't please the judges. I performed the hell out of that live audition. I threw my hat out into the audience, and got down on my knees to show these people, i'm not just here to sing a song for you... I'm here to give you a show. Those judges ended up picking an opera singer and I moved onto the next. 

Courtney Johnson came into my life. She became my little sister and my best friend. She looked up to me when I was in middle school. I was a myth of some sorts to the younger kids. Everyone wanted to get to know Dom Baza. My sister Courtney dm'd me on twitter one day and asked if I would like to collab with her. I looked her up and saw she had thousands of youtube views, so I said yes. I went into an in home studio at my aunts house and recorded a cover of the song "Send It On". Courtney and my family all took part in the video and we released it on youtube to praise and backlash. The backlash did not stop me or Courtney. I went on to audition for a tv show called the X Factor. I left for LA for a bit and made top 200. After I didn't make the final cut my mom put me in vocal lessons with a woman named Mary Brennan. Mary became my vocal savior. She helped craft what my voice is today. During this time Courtney and I started writing music together. I started going into the studio with a local and respected producer Doug Chancellor, and I was secretly seeing someone at the time. That didn't last so I wrote a song about it called, September. Courtney got in and helped on the track and help me write what I couldn't. A month later I recorded it and it became the lead single off my first album "Time Is All I Have". I was 17 by the time my album dropped. I was home schooled and in my final year of high school. I strived to graduate early so I can focus full time on my music. In August of that year I got my first apartment. After searching high and low I found a place where I belong, LA. Time is all I have helped me to make enough money so I can live on my own. My record helped me make a living. As I got used to life in LA, I didn't think my story would be cut so short there.

In 2013 I performed at my god mothers funeral services. I was approached by a talent scout in the audience. He loved my rendition of "I Will Always Love You" and asked to set up a meeting. Although I was living on my own, I was still a minor. My mom or dad had to attend all legal meetings with me. We met a producer who heard a song I wrote called "Let The Music Be Your Guide". He loved what he heard and asked if we could record a 5 song EP. There was catch.... I would not be recording these songs in LA, I would be recording them in  Berkeley California. Once again at a crossroad, I had to leave LA, not for me, but for my dreams.  Leaving LA was an emotional experience for me. I knew I had to leave to record this ep, but I knew my story there was nowhere near complete. Putting a pause to my life there, I moved back to my parents home in the Bay Area. I went to work on my EP and wrapped it up within 5 months. My team and producer along with his team was so impressed that the EP turned into a complete album. "Let The Music Be Your Guide" will always be the first real taste I had in the music industry. On my first day of work on the complete album, I recorded "I Will Find You". I sang that song over 20 times. I wrote it when I was 15 years old. I'm a hopeless romantic and a sucker for a powerful love song. That song was so hard to sing. I think it's one of the most difficult songs I have written in the last 10 years. The hard work and tears I shed on that day prepped me for what was to come. In 2014 I got sick. As you know I woke up and could not see. All of that led to my diagnoses of Glaucoma. "Let The Music Be Your Guide" kept getting pushed back because of my illness. I had just started radio promo and was supposed to tour the record in the states and overseas. That never happened when no one would answer my phone calls anymore.

I went into a deep state of depression in the later half of 2014. I was a mess. I spent 2014-2016 in the hospital every week. My disease kept getting worst and I keep going further down the rabbit hole. Something happened in 2015 that I broke down and broke a lot of my personal items. I received 2 awards for my records "Time Is All I Have" and "Let The Music Be Your Guide". When I went on my rampage I got to that side of my wall where they are hanging. As I was about to break the awards and crack them, I stopped. I could not hurt my children. My songs are my kids and to break my records, would be the end of it. I woke up the next day and I felt so uplifted. No matter how much pain I was going through, I felt like I can start turning the pages. I ended up writing a song called "2nd Chance To Do It All Right". You guys haven't heard it yet, but I hope you will one day. From there I just tried my best to keep living. 

Here we are in 2017. It's been another somber year. A lot of low moments this year for myself and my family. I truly believe those low moments will be retconned once 2018 comes. As I spent the last few weeks evaluating my career and endeavors, I made some decisions for my future. I said earlier that people can look at me and say I have failed. I have not failed. I am 22 years old. I have done hundreds of shows, written thousands of songs, released 2 albums, worked with some of the best in the industry, moved to LA on my own at 17 years old, got diagnosed with a disease at 18 and accepted it, and touched peoples hearts by living my life and telling my story. In 2013 when "Let The Music Be Your Guide" came out as a single, a kid told me - Dom Baza is going to be the next big thing in music. One girl tweeted me, thanking me for the music I was releasing. Another tweeted saying Dom Baza is going to change the world. I have all these tweets screen shotted and saved in my phone to remind me of what i'm here for. God gave me a voice to use. I'm here to go on this journey and share my story with the world. I am here to lift people up and make them feel something in their darkest hours from the experience of my darkest hours. I don't know how i'm going to do it, but i'm going to redeem myself and prove to the world what I can do, what I was born to do. If you asked me 6 months ago where do you see yourself in 2018, I would have said Paris France. I have made up my mind and decided I will go home to LA in 2018. I haven't been home in 4 years. I haven't been able to travel because of my illness. As my treatment gets spaced out, and as I get used to living a life on medication, I'm ready for a new challenge. The challenge of getting my career back on track.

I have written a new album. I have been writing this album since I got sick. I have so much to tell you all. I know its special. I'm not just saying that cause it's my work, but I know when I have something special in my hands. My goal is to find someone in LA to help me bring these stories to life. Someone found me when I was 17 years old. It's not too late to find me again. It's not too late to start again.
10 years have passed and so many people have come and gone. If you are here and if you have left, thank you, thank you all of you. You made me who I am. I am becoming a better version of myself every year. I promise you, I will not let you down. I refuse to let myself down. It may be "Beginning To Look a lot like Christmas" outside my window, but come next year I will find my way to rise from the ashes. My story is not yet done. I will not let my story end because of an illness and all the wrong done in my life. I've been searching high and low for something I have lost, I will find it. I'm going home, and I can't wait for you and me to see where the story goes from there, the next 10 years and beyond. 
I will make you proud.

Love, 
Dom 

END OF: Chapter 3

Photographer: Joanna Wheeler  

PRESS PLAY
Here is the studio version of "I Will Find You" from my 2nd album "Let The Music Be Your Guide"
​Available now on iTunes