We were lucky to catch up with D2Millertime recently and have shared our conversation below.
D2Millertime, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?
The music industry is a marathon, not a sprint. Not only will it drain your energy in the race but it’ll also leave you behind without remorse. In order to keep yourself in it you have to train and that’s how I look at studying my craft. I’ve been musically trained since I was 11, switched from the orchestra to producing at 17, and now from producing to engineering at 22. That’s 11 years worth of experience reading sheet music, arranging, social media promoting, networking, you name it. Each lane providing new challenges and each lane making me a more well rounded musician. Nowadays there’s so many different ways to gather information it’s amazing. However for me I’m old school, I like to read books and handwrite my notes. Reading and handwriting notes has always helped reinforce what I’m trying to learn. If you wanna be great at something I believe that you have to commit just as much time studying great people as you do actually performing your task. These people are great for a reason, and I don’t know where I’d be without my mentors that helped guide me to this moment.
D2Millertime, 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?
Of course! Hi my name is D2 and I am a 22 year old independent music creator. Over the past 4 years I’ve managed to build my own brand in LA as an engineer/producer, although I’ve always found myself doing more than just that. In today’s day and age, music is all about who and what’s gonna be the next biggest thing. What is hot today will not be hot tomorrow. With this in mind, I think the most exciting part about doing what I do is that I have partnered and worked with some of music’s most talented up and coming artists, photographers, and videographers in this city. Some through mutual friends, others through events. After my debut album SUPER BOWL a year ago, which if you haven’t checked it out already please do it’s out on all platforms, I worked to take my game to the next level by embarking on new musical avenues. Now I also work live shows and co-host a radio show.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
Honestly I had to unlearn that planning is everything because there are some things that you just cannot plan for. Coming out of high school I was going in to college to get my certificate in music technology with hopes of getting an internship with some of the city’s top record companies. I had it all mapped out, I was gonna have this accomplished at this age, working for this company here, etc. Halfway through my freshman year covid shut everything down. Finished my certificate that year but no company was hiring, couldn’t go to the studio to record artists, everything was paused. So I decided to pivot. Being at home gave me all the time in the world to make beats so that’s all I did day in and day out. Communicated with artists online, dropped my first couple projects, it was fun. By the time regulations started to ease up I went back to school to get my AA, I had a roster full of talented artists I was working with, and I was less concerned about having everything mapped out and more focused on achieving small goals day by day. 3 years later I graduated college, have almost 20,000 streams across all platforms, working for a recording studio, as well as having fun pursuing smaller ventures. At 19 I could have never predicted this and I wouldn’t change it for the world. So the real lesson I learned is that it’s always good to have a plan, but when things don’t go your way don’t be afraid to adjust. You don’t have to have all the answers from now to 5 years into the future, sometimes it’s best just to take it day to day.
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
I feel like the best thing society can do, is give creatives time to grow and develop. In the social media age where everyone is either “good today” or “terrible tomorrow”, creatives that do blow up only last a week if that. When was the last chart topping song that you felt was a classic? Because of the drive consumers have to need good things now, most creatives feel that pressure and bypass necessary steps to build a foundation so that they can last in this industry. And truthfully it’s hurting the quality of music. If A&R’s prioritized developing artists long term again, and society was a little more patient, then creatives can focus on making better music without worrying that they’re gonna get left behind.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/D2millertime
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/d2_millertime/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-miller-ii-b5a2631b2/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWhr6dtUGbLJGoGkx8KIS1w/playlists
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1JOq5oojAtsXwRAwfI8c19?si=nhMA6rFLRGmQgMDElVbM6A&dl_branch=1
Image Credits
Chillin Visions (@eric_b_chillin)