We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Dylan Cornell a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Dylan, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Has your work ever been misunderstood or mischaracterized?

I have been misunderstood, and mischaracterized my entire life because I have Asperger’s Syndrome. It is a high functioning form of Autism where three of the main traits would be

– exceptional verbal skills
– below-average non verbal skills
– lack of eye contact

Therefore many times people think that I am rude because I fail to make eye contact; while not understanding that it is something that is difficult for me/us to do. I feel many of us often get mischaracterized as sociopaths/psychopaths because at a glance some of the attributes are similar. My suggestion to neurotypicals: if your first instinct is that someone is a sociopath/psychopath they are probably on the spectrum, and if you meet someone that is overwhelming charming, to the point of being too good to be true, they are most likely the one with Antisocial Personality Disorder. Would it kill anyone to research things out before coming to definitive conclusions about people or things…

Dylan, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I have been playing music since I was a little kid. I have always had the ability to figure out melodies, or make them up from behind my Grandma’s piano since the age of three. However my introduction to the music industry was through Cliff Davies the drummer/producer of the Ted Nugent band. We had worked together at a local music store, and that is where he. became a mentor/brother/father figure to me on my musical journey. For the past fourteen years I have been playing with various Metal, Blues-Rock, Corporate/Cover bands, and until recently I played for Whey Jennings, who is Waylon Jennings oldest grandson. I co-wrote the album that he is about to release called If It Wasn’t For The Sinning to be released in 2022. It is definitely worth a listen because it really sums up the way we both met. We both were at a crossroads of being on a dark path, and since then have turned our life’s around. Although I am no longer playing for him at the moment he will always be my brother, and it will never be out of the question for us to work together again in some form. I just needed to focus on my own music for a bit, and to quote the movie Big Fish “The biggest fish in the water gets that way by never being caught”.

I also write/record my own music under the Dylan Cornell Project which can be found on Spotify, YouTube, and most streaming platforms. Although most of the time it is more Lo-fi out of circumstance, it’s also a preference at this point. The problem is when too many people go to school to learn how to do something (production, music, etc) it often creates a box, or set of boundaries, where the liberties of actually being creative can be stifled. I also believe there are far too many people within the Music Industry that aren’t even musicians so their intention is to make a product to make money instead of making art that is actually good, and making a real statement. I often feel like the real life Holden Caulfield in a world full of a bunch of phonies!

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

It is often said “people just want you to be yourself” but in my experience I don’t find that to be true in a phony world. I think that it is always best to be yourself, but the truth of the matter is that you should only be yourself for yourself. Because the moment when you stop trying to please everyone you will actually be able to please somebody, in some way.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

I am driven by a passion to serve others at this point. Along with being on the spectrum I have also had to deal with the loss of my older brother that died two years before I was born; when he was hit by a car at the age of three. That created an overwhelming amount of despair in most of my life, but now drives me to be a light unto others. I see many today suffering from a spirit of apathy at a time where the World feels pretty hopeless; take it from my experience, that is no way to live. As the saying goes “when the going gets tough, the tough get going”. I am so grateful for my parents showing me that. So I want to encourage others to never lose hope, never give up, be strong, be resilient, be persistent, and to always let love reign in your hearts and mind.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dylancornellproject/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dylancornellproject/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9ssDUo85D-zisFUzSTGxjQ
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3WLonBTW4nWQr4FH2WcZ74

Image Credits
Shelle Cleland Photography