We recently connected with Dahlia Grizzard and have shared our conversation below.
Dahlia, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.
My most meaningful project so far has been as a solo artist. Looking back I can see a journey where despite setbacks I always found ways to record my music, On “Untold”, one of my first singles, I recorded it in my bedroom. I had a stereo recorder on my guitar, and since I didn’t have a mic stand I rigged up my vocal mic by hanging a SM57 from a plant hook in the ceiling. My EP was recorded in college, at my school’s recording studios, with my friends all taking a part as session players. The most personally meaningful song to me off of the EP was “Man in the Moon” a song in tribute to my dad who passed away, I had always wanted to write a song that would do him justice and didn’t think I would accomplish that so soon in my releases. After graduating and during the shutdown I no longer had access to a studio or equipment, but I believe my singles afterwards were better, it made me realize that with improved skill I could do more with a laptop than I had been able to do with a full studio. Of all my songs, “Memory Lane” has the most of a story behind it. A fellow alum had reached out to me about jamming, since he was in Boston and I was in LA we started to jam over Zoom. He told me his story about being in a car accident and recovering from memory loss. He had managed to regain the ability to play drums, and I found his tenacity really inspiring. He made me think about how important memories are, and I started reflecting about a childhood friend after one of our jam sessions. I came up with the riff on piano, and the song unfolded from there. Currently I am in the process of completing my debut album, adding the final touches of background vocals and mixing the songs.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I am an audio engineer and producer, I do both recording and mixing. I have recorded and produced for bands and solo artists, recently I mixed the album “Manzanita” for my band Poppy Roscoe. I got into music recording in high school when I would record my band, and then started studying audio engineering at Berklee College of Music. While I was there I interned at a recording studio, I recorded my EP and recorded, produced, and mixed music for my friends. I also started gigging as a live sound engineer. After I graduated I started working in post production and have done mixing, dialogue work, and sound design. Although I can also do live sound and post, my main focus is music. Currently I work at Paramount Recording Studios and do my own freelance mixing and recording. My trained ear elevates my mixing and my unique approach helps me as a producer.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
For me the most rewarding thing is realizing I’m improving and honing my craft. This happens with my guitar playing, like when I come back to a song that I’d been learning and its much easier, and it happens with engineering, like when I play a mix for my friend and they notice I’ve gotten better. This happens to when I open old mixes and I can instantly hear how to improve it, and in ten minutes I can make adjustments to make it sound vastly better, things I just couldn’t hear before. Producing also becomes more seamless overtime, when there’s less indecision and more of being dissatisfied with a sound and then knowing exactly what it needs.
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
Creatives need time and money, life in general should be more affordable for everyone so people have the free time to create art and the resources to do it in the first place. More public spaces should be open to art, like painting murals and live music. There should be more venues for live music and more support so the venues stay open. Local shows and events are really important places where creative people can meet each other, inspire each other, and collaborate in the future.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://dmgrizzard.wixsite.com/mysite
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dahliagrizzard/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dahlia-grizzard-b317a5178/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@dahliagrizzard
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-238217072
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7HIzU96qCUW0VrwIJhAEIg?si=9my4E0q6Tjes5aRCIX_qWw&nd=1&dlsi=0a74a85bed694baa
