We were lucky to catch up with Charlie Dane recently and have shared our conversation below.

Charlie, appreciate you joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

While getting my degree in Music Production & Engineering at Berklee College of Music, I started shooting and editing music videos for myself and my friends. Making music and visual art had been my entire life until that point, so making music videos came naturally to me. Although it can be the most overwhelming and time consuming process, making those videos resulted in extremely fulfilling and rewarding work that I couldn’t wait to share with the world.

I still keep in touch with my Berklee friends, most of us now dispersed in New York, LA and Nashville. I moved from New York to LA in the summer of 2022, and shortly after my arrival I received a call from my good friend Doug Leonard, who I shot and edited my first music video with at Berklee. He graduated a year before me and moved to Nashville. Doug told me about a song he’d written about Josh Burr, his home friend who had committed suicide a few months prior, and how he wanted me to shoot the music video for it. I knew the project would be something really special, and I couldn’t wait to get started. After some planning, phone calls and a short plane ride, Doug and I found ourselves in his childhood home in Santa Cruz. Little did we know, ahead of us was the craziest, most fulfilling 5-day shoot.

Josh Burr was well known around town as the most positive, uplifting and supportive friend. His passing was a huge loss felt throughout the entire community. Doug’s vision was to film all around Santa Cruz, hitting the locally-favored spots where he and Josh had the most memories. Throughout the video he wanted shots of him in the middle of a field playing piano and singing, so a few hours after landing we hit the ground running searching for field locations. Our biggest hurdle was finding a field that was vast enough to get an unobstructed 360-view, accessible enough to where we could transport an upright piano to the location, and discreet enough so that we wouldn’t get shut down by park rangers. We also needed to find, pick up and transport a piano in less than 5 days.

Throughout the shoot, I got to see where Doug grew up, I met his family, hometown friends, even his first guitar teacher. I got to see the exact spot that inspired the tattoo on his shoulder, it was surreal. For one of the scenes we wanted to get onto the football field of his high school where he and Josh played football together. As we walked up to the field, we ran into none other than Doug’s old football coach. We told him what we were doing, and that it was for Josh, and he let us onto the field before practice was about to begin. He and Doug reminisced about their time together, and he shared with us that “Josh gave the best hugs.” It was so special to hear about how loved he was by his community. One of Josh’s friends Jacob even offered his mom’s 1961 Cadillac for one of the scenes, and him and his mom stayed to watch the shoot. Although I had never met Josh, I could feel his energy through the people he touched.

Another constant throughout the video was the creation of a huge graffiti piece dedicated to Josh by one of his good friends, Justin Miller. Getting to the graffiti location was a feat in itself–I risked my life and my camera gear scaling a cliff at 6 a.m. in order to get the shot, but it was well worth it. By the skin of our teeth, Doug and I found the perfect field, the perfect piano on Facebook marketplace being given away for free, picked up some dollies and straps and 4 of Doug’s largest friends, and successfully transported the piano to the field for our final iconic scene to end this 5-day adventure.

There’s even more to this story, some of it too intense to share, but overall it was the most meaningful piece of art I’ve created. I am so grateful for the opportunity to share this story and hope that it can help at least one person dealing with mental health struggles. The song is called “You’re With Me” by Doug Leonard on all streaming platforms, and the video can be found on Youtube.

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 was born and raised in Oyster Bay, New York. Since birth I have dedicated my life to art and music. I spent my early life drawing, painting, and creating murals for my school, and I learned guitar at age 5. I started my own airbrush tattoo business at age 8 and continued the business throughout my teenage years. At age 10 I started vocal lessons, and from age 10-16 I was writing, recording and performing regularly as a solo singer/songwriter, traveling all around the tristate area. I created my own website, business cards, merch, and album artwork. I performed on several radio shows, won awards for my songwriting, poetry and art, sang the National Anthem at several sports games, and performed at SXSW music festival in Austin, TX at age 14.

I went on to study at Berklee College of Music majoring in Music Production & Engineering, focusing on learning how to produce music for myself and others. While studying at Berklee, my passion for creating art continued as I became the head designer of Mona’s Lounge visual production company, collaborating with Natural Soul Rhythm as well as artists under Mona’s Lounge management to develop digital and print marketing materials including live sessions, interviews, logos, cover art, websites, business cards, and flyers. I then started shooting and editing music videos for my own original music as well as collaborations with friends.

I graduated in 3 years right before the pandemic, and during lockdown I started my freelance music production and graphic design business, honing in on my skills as I produced music and art virtually. It was during this time that I started teaching myself video animation, 3D design, and how to sew and make clothing. After the pandemic I moved to Los Angeles to continue pursuing my passions.

Currently I live in Echo Park with one of my best friends from Berklee. While I continue my freelance business, I also recently became GRL SND Recording Studio’s first female engineer, and became a songwriter for Songfinch, a company that provides custom written and recorded songs as gifts. My days consist of creating audio and visual content such as songs, album art, logos, websites, music videos, animations and clothing design for all different types of clients including myself.

What sets me apart from the average music producer, engineer, or graphic designer is that I have experience in studios, on stage, and behind the scenes, so whether I’m working on audio, visuals, or both, I see the bigger picture of each project while still being detail oriented. I am quite the perfectionist, but I feel as though this pushes me to always create high quality work. I am so proud of the work I’ve put out into the world, and all the collaborations with the amazing people I’ve met along the way. My only hope is to continue doing what I love and never settling for just one outlet of creativity.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist/creative is definitely getting to see the impact my art has on others. Getting to write or perform a song that makes someone cry, or makes them dance. Getting to illustrate a feeling with art or video that cannot be expressed in words, but still manages to relate to so many people. Getting to make clothing that people can feel special in, live life and make memories in. It makes me feel like I’m fulfilling my purpose, that my life really does have meaning. All my life I’ve been my worst critic, but what keeps me going is seeing that others really do relate to the joy and pain in my work. I’ll create songs and after listening to them so many times through the writing, recording, mixing, marketing, and especially music video making process, all I can hear is flaws or what could be better, or just downright start to hate it, but knowing that people still cry to it, still sing along to it, still replay it over and over, diminishes any doubts I have immediately.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I have a few goals for my creative journey. I would love to have my work displayed in a gallery or museum. I love going to museums and seeing my work in one would really be a dream come true. Another dream of mine is to create a space where musicians and visual artists can work together, at the same time. Imagine a half music/half art studio, maybe separated by a big glass pane, where the musicians can view the art being created, and the artists can hear the music being created, and both sides could be influenced by each other. Maybe that would be too chaotic, but it’s a fun idea. Lastly, for the past few years I’ve had this vision of a museum thats also a store? Like instead of having a museum, and then a gift shop at the end, the entire museum would be like an interactive gift shop. You could walk down halls of art that you could buy originals or prints of, you could walk down halls of models posing in clothing for sale, or you could just enjoy it like a regular museum. Another chaotic but fun idea.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.charlie-dane.com
• Instagram: @charliedane & @museumofcharliedane
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100090054274749
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlie-lublin-a02452254/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@charliedane4260
• Other: TikTok: @itscharliebb