We were lucky to catch up with Dalton Corr recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Dalton thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.
I studied Music Theory at NYU and spent about eight years living in New York. I was writing songs, leading a small indie band, scoring films, playing a few shows a month, and working at a record label by day. When the pandemic hit, the band’s momentum came to a halt. It felt like I had lost my chance right as we started moving. Coincidentally, right around that time a friend in L.A. started production on a feature film and asked me to write the score. With the band on hiatus, I decided to move to L.A. for this job, which was wild, considering it would only cover my expenses for about two months.
All summer before my move, my friends in New York were full of horror stories about L.A.. Like, every single person who knew I was moving told me I was making a mistake. It was wild. No culture, traffic sucks, I was “selling out”. I really started to believe them. I was second-guessing my plans until a really strange and profound synchronicity that happened on my last night in the city.
On my last night in the New York, I watched “Paprika,” the brilliant Satoshi Kon film. A friend and I projected it onto a big bedsheet in our apartment in Brooklyn. There’s a scene toward the end of the movie where the main character goes into a movie theater. Right away, we noticed that in the lobby of the fictional theater there’s a calendar that displayed the date Saturday, July 17. The exact day and date we were watching the movie. I’ll never forget that date. We paused the movie and pondered for a while about how statistically unlikely that is. It gets stranger. We continue watching as the main character enters the theater and watches a movie. The movie he watches is a surrealist film about himself moving to a new city to work on a movie with a friend, and what horrors would unfold if he didn’t make that move. Here I was sitting in this dark room with a movie projected on a screen, watching a movie about a man sitting in a dark room projected on a screen. A movie about himself moving to a new city to make a movie with a friend. The night before I was set to move to a new city to work on a movie with a friend. On Saturday, July 17. I felt the hand of fate reaching out from the screen. It felt too coincidental to be coincidental. I was honestly kind of frightened by the experience for a while. But it felt like it was the universe giving me the green light to pursue this dream.
The next day, I left New York. I put my essentials in my car and drove to L.A., landing a week later in a studio apartment I had never seen in person. A mattress on the floor, some clothes, my laptop, phone, and a small piano. That was it. I dove into scoring the film and started meeting other musicians, writing and producing songs, playing gigs. But it was a chance encounter at a party that really ramped up my career.
I met someone at a party who mentioned they needed a designer for a film festival. Having done some graphic design for the label back in New York—and having a lifelong passion for drawing and painting—I went for it. I learned in realtime and began designing graphics for a small comedy film festival. Over the next three years, that gig snowballed. Now, this past August, I was the Art Director for the 20th Anniversary of HollyShorts, one of the world’s biggest short film festivals. I’ve met dozens of artists and started receiving commissions for my paintings and design work on other projects. Next year I’ll be art directing projects in Asia, Europe, and across the U.S.. And I’ve been lucky to continue working on my music with film scoring, songwriting, and touring with a wonderful band called dreamTX (Nick Das’s project).
Now, I have a nice apartment and studio by the beach, finally got a bed frame, and the beginnings of new career as an artist. If it wasn’t for that scene in “Paprika”, I’m really don’t know if any of this would’ve happened.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I’m Dalton Corr, a musician, composer, and designer based in New York City and Los Angeles.
I grew up in a small town in Pennsylvania called New Hope. I studied in conservatories and played in bands from a young age, developing a love for classical music, instruments, music theory, and songwriting. I attended NYU to study Music Theory. Moving to New York from my small bucolic hometown blew my mind wide open and exposed me to cultures, ideas, and arts I never considered in my sheltered childhood. I formed a band in New York and wrote and performed for many years before moving to L.A. My classical foundation has become a key part of my creative process, allowing me to compose intricate film scores, produce electronic tracks, and perform live with various bands.
As a designer, I specialize in art directing for brands, creating commissioned paintings and illustration, movie posters, web design, and most recently, I’ve been working with some clients to design iOS apps. My visual art is driven by my passion for simplicity, collaboration, and experimentation.
I think one thing that sets me apart is my drive to experiment with new technologies and methodologies. I’m always researching and experimenting with emerging technologies. I love incorporating AI, AR, VR, and spatial computing into my process, exploring how these tools can push the boundaries of artistic expression. While some see AI as a naughty word in the arts, I see a massive new opportunity for artists to explore entirely new forms of creativity. The next generation of artists won’t have the same reservations as my generation does when it comes to these technologies. I believe these technologies, in the right hands, can open up modes of human expression that were never possible before. I think its essential for artist to engage with new technologies so they are part of the conversion, rather than being controlled by it. This doesn’t mean just opening AI image generators and spitting out lazy images, it means deeply considering and experimenting with new lanes of creativity to find the authenticity. An artists role is to hold a mirror up to society. Well, AI is here. So artists need to acknowledge and engage with it, or become irrelevant.
I’m most proud of my adaptability and my dedication to innovation in both music and visual arts. Potential clients and fans should know that my work is all about merging new technologies with my classical arts background. I want my brand to be about authenticity, boldness, and the fusion of tradition with the cutting-edge.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
I’ve always been inspired by game-changing artists. Artists so bold, unique, and undeniably talented that they change the very art form they practice. Miles Davis, Henri Matisse, John Cage, Marina Abramović, Agnès Varda, Steve Jobs. I want to not only contribute to the success of my clients and collaborators, I want to contribute to the progression of music and design themselves.
Have you ever had to pivot?
I’m currently in the midst of a significant pivot in my career. I’ve spent my entire career thus far as a proudly free-spirited freelance artist, focusing purely on the creative side of my work. Moving around the country to wherever the next gig is. Saying yes to everything and figuring it out late. However, I realized that to build a sustainable career, I need to approach things more strategically.
Now, I’m transitioning into launching a proper creative agency. This pivot is all about balancing my artistic vision with business savvy, establishing myself not just as an artist, but as a business owner who can grow and sustain my creative endeavors long-term.
My agency is launching in 2025.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.daltoncorr.com
- Instagram: www, instagram.com/daltoncorr
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daltoncorr/
Image Credits
Charlie Nguyên, Remington Long, Mallory Corr, Nick Deveau, Lea Winkler