We were lucky to catch up with Corin Liall Douieb recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Corin, thanks for joining us today. Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?

Honestly I think about getting a regular job about five times a day. Usually when I’m doing normal things like food shopping and double checking the price olive oil, or not ordering take-out more than once a month out of sheer anxiety. But a big prevailing question to whether or not I should have a regular job mostly comes in those moments of purpose. Having a project to work on that I don’t have to dream up every morning is a beautiful smooth-brained gift. Sometimes I would love to be told what to create or dream up, and just do that, then clock off at 5pm and have a cup of tea and watch reality TV like a normal person. Not that I’m complaining – I am so grateful I’ve spent my life honing my skills in my various fields, and so damn excited to constantly get gratification from a project that begins as a mad-scientist style idea, then formulates in to something huge – but also, I would really like to one day just sit in an office and be told to go to meetings. I think I would be great at meetings, and speaking to accounts, and quarterly reports. I think that kinda sounds relaxing.

Corin, 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 released music under the alias The Last Skeptik for the past 20+ years – as a rapper, music producer and DJ. I’ve toured the world and put out songs that have had tens of millions of streams, and amassed audiences the world over. I’ve supported the likes of Charli XCX, 2Chainz, Childish Gambino, Wu Tang Clan and many more live, and played every festival from Coachella and Glastonbury to SXSW and Sziget. My music has been used on commercials for Rihanna and Fenty, Mercedes, Adidas and BBC’S olympics coverage – as well as in shows like Netflix’s The Gentlemen.

I’m most proud of my solo rap records. They are are my diary – full of very authentic, very sad-boi music. They’ve helped a lot of people and myself, and I hope will continue to do so for the rest of all time and throughout intergalactic travel for all the emo-thug aliens.

I’ve recently begun releasing short films as an actor and screenwriter, with a series called Tiny Romances (tinyromances.com ) featuring incredible talented directors and actors – and I am extremely proud of how well they have done.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

That there is a monopoly on the things you can and can’t do depending on your training, or who you know, just because gate keepers try to belittle you. Honestly, I’ve had so many people in both the worlds of music and film tell me what I can’t do – when in reality, that comes from a place of their insecurity. Which is fine – we are all insecure sacks of meat – but never discourage anyone from chasing a dream or just being inspired to try something new.

I started a lot of things too late because I thought people were laughing at me. That’s my own regret. So now if anyone says to me ‘i love your writing, i want to screenwrite too’ – i tell them – DO IT. Literally – just start,mate! There is no difference between us and successful people except they decided to bloody do the thing and therefore were in the race to do it.

I remember mastering engineers gatekeeping until I learnt how to do it myself. I know screenwriters or actors who scoffed at me for not having formal acting training. It took a lot of self talk to ignore them and do the fucking things anyway.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Being able to share your work and it fundamentally magic it’s way in to creating a reaction from people. Making people laugh, cringe, cry, reminisce, anger – whatever it is. If it is powerful enough to evoke some kind of feeling then my job is done.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://tinyromances.com
• Instagram: @thelastskeptik
• Youtube: tftrecords

Image Credits

Jeff Lawrence