The first time he stepped on the stage, junior Jackson Doane felt that he wasn’t as nervous as he should have been. He had finally accomplished his dream even though his peers told him that he’d never make it anywhere.

“When I first started off, I was made fun of a lot,” Doane said. “You know, it’s such a far-fetched dream to want to be a musician or a famous rapper or something like that, so I was put down for it a lot.”

Not tied down by others’ opinions or any labels except for his stage name, Capital, Doane says he aspires to be as far from the norm as possible, all while making music and becoming successful with his music.

Doane started his path to becoming an artist when he was in seventh grade and first hoped to make it to the stage one day. Inspiration struck when Doane stumbled upon a YouTube series by G-Eazy called “The Rise.” The series consisted of G-Eazy on tour, playing shows and working on an album at the time. One video in the series that seemed to strike an interest in him was a video of G-Eazy performing on stage in front of his fans.

“(Seeing) the videos and stuff of him playing on stage, I was like that looks really cool, and I would like to do that someday,” Doane said.

According to Doane, his idol’s performance prompted him to start practicing and working towards his dream. Doane says he began performing in front of the mirror as practice. At first, he started to record his music only using an Xbox and an iPad. He later upgraded to professional equipment and began to make higher quality music. Doane is self taught when it comes to mixing and mastering his music. As the quality of the music improved, people began to take Doane seriously and started to support him. Doane performed at school Coffee Houses which, after hard work and determination, soon became the Hoosier Dome and Irving Theater.

He says his lyrics are typically based off of his unique life experiences. On top of this, Doane feels his ADHD is a positive thing for his writing process because he constantly has ideas popping into his head. For inspiration for his upcoming album, Doane began to write in a journal every day since August of 2018, recording what happened on these days and the emotions he was feeling, and then he incorporated those experiences into his lyrics. This album based on his journal is planned to be released in December.

On July 25 of this year Doane opened for Ethan MacCowan, a local artist, at the Hoosier Dome, a live music venue in Indianapolis. MacCowan says that it was the best decision he’s made. He was more than glad to give Doane the opportunity to perform before him and share his uniqueness with the audience.

“He is himself on stage in a way that no else dares to be,” MacCowan said.

When performing, Doane says he likes to woo the crowd with his wacky personality, high spirit and an energy that’s easy to vibe with. He inspires many with the way he doesn’t let his flaws define him and high-spirited performances. According to Daniel Stephens, a fellow SoundCloud musician, Doane is an overall inspirational person.

“He inspires me with his imperfections with the way he dusts them off of his shoulder and keeps the show rolling on and off the stage,” Stephens said.

Doane strives for success, so he tries to keep potential competition out of his mind. He says that focusing on competition would be nothing but a distraction for him, especially when he wants to be his own person and prefers not to be tied to one specific genre. Doane says that he likes for his style to fluctuate and that it can range from anything from hip-hop to rock ‘n’ roll, all just depending on his mood and the vibe he feels while writing.

“I don’t really consider myself to have a specific genre just because I feel like that’s putting myself in a box and limiting my creativity,” Doane said.