Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Daniel Johnson. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Daniel, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.
I knew I wanted to make music the rest of my life, when I went to my first music festival called buku. I was sitting there with my brother and I was amazed by everything that was going on. Im from the country and we never had anything close to that where I was from. Soon after getting home I started to make music and I have never looked back since. Its been a journey I knew I wanted to go to school for it but I also knew it would be hard to just get a loan and use it for that because it is a very risky career. So I took the next 7 years saved up money and taught myself until I was finally able to have the money to go to ICON! Honestly I feel like the person I am and the person I was becoming before music are two solar opposite people. I was on a bad path and having something to put my energy into that is timeless has given me an outlet and allowed me to become a part of society instead of an outlier. It has given me an outlet to be able to communicate with people on a level I have never been able to with my words. RIP Nima he was a very import key to all of this happening for me.
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?
Im kinda of a quite and keep to myself type of person. I don’t like to go out and rage I get anxiety when I meet new people. Im more of a chill in the basement with abelton and my instruments. Music has given me a way to go out and meet new people and too not feel the negative side affects that I normally do. For example when I go out and I am playing a show or an event I don’t feel the pressure and constant thought that I should be home working on music. It allows me to express my self to people and to show them my soul without having to try and put that into words. I make bass music and I also mentor new music producers. I am currently a teachers assistant at KMG and I offer mixing and mastering services to anyone that needs it. I typically do the mentoring for free because it honestly makes me feel good and I wish that I had someone to mentor me all those years ago when I first started. It was hard to get to where I am now because there is so much information out there and at the end of the day music is subjective but there are tricks and tips that can help you get to a professional level in about a year and a half vs the 7 years it to me to figure out how to make my music reach that kind of a level. I enjoy what I do and it keeps me moving forward I feel like I have a purpose with my life and before this I was honestly just getting into a lot of trouble. Nowadays I spend my time building three brands working a full time job and focusing on learning everything about music that I can possibly retain. I love mentoring producers throwing shows(which by the way im throwing my first Too tru takeover here in colorado in march!) and putting my version of the meaning of life into the music that I make. LostHood!e is my solo project, then I have a duo project with a classmate from ICON called Marsh Voyage and finally my artist collective called Too Tru which was started with my brother Hunter aka masta shake. I would say that I am most proud of the Too Tru Krew which is all of the artist in the collective and how far they have all came in such a short time of entering the collective. Some of the artist have only been making music a couple of years and they are already churning out music at a professional level of quality. The whole I dea behind the collective is to give artis the tools that they need to make music at that level and it is working great. Not to mention the work ethic everyone around me has and the faith that they have in me. I would not be anywhere close to where I am now if it wasn’t for the people in the collective and in my life. I am truly grateful for my life and were this journey has led me. I will never stop making music and I know its just a matter of time and we will take the brand global.
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
If society would just give artis a few min to take a listen to their new song. Instead of scrolling past their post give them a like and comment this goes along way. Instead of spending their money on the big brands buy some merch from an independent artist, 20 dollars for supreme goes less of a way than 20 dollars for someone that could fill up their gas tank to get to their next gig. For shows we need to stop letting the same 10 people play all of the gigs over and over again. Id rather go to a show and not know anything about the artist and be surprised than listen to the same songs over and over. Instead of making new artist and up and coming artis play for free/exposure we need to pay them. That’s why I pay my artist and I don’t usually take anything even when I put on the show. Your friend that is a creative is worthy of your help than the artist and celebrities that you don’t know. Giving their brand a share could be the difference from someone making it or not. This is not a easy thing to do as most artist are introverts. I can tell from experience it is painful for me to post on social media it takes up so much time that could be spent on my actual craft that it is frustrating that it is such an important part of this process. Supporting local artist is important, Giving artist a few min of your time instead of commenting on a huge artis that will never reply to you could mean the world to someone even if you don’t think it is that big of a deal. Instead of going to see someone you have seen a thousand times go and see your friend play their show. Thats why Too Tru shows will always house local artist we want to give producers a platform to get their music out into the world!
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
The most rewarding thing about being an creative person is being able to see people smile when you play a song that you made and they have never heard. Not to mention being able to bring people together and giving them an escape from the 9-5 robot world, social media addictions and any other pressure or problems that they have been going through. being able to express myself has always been a tricky issue for me I felt like I never had away to express my self before music. I was always frustrated and felt alone. Now being able to express my self in a healthy way and being able to communicate with people on a personal level through music has changed my life forever. I truly believe that without music I would probably be in jail or dead by now. It has given me a purpose with my life in a way I never had before. Thats why I do everything in my power to help other artist that reach out and need my help via mentoring or mixing or mastering etc. sharing knowledge of music that I have gotten over the years makes me feel good.
Contact Info:
- Website: unfortunatley the website is currently down but I am working on restoring it
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lost_hoodie/ and https://www.instagram.com/marshvoyageofficial/ and https://www.instagram.com/too_tru/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/losthoodie and https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100086248161466 (marsvoyage) and finally https://www.facebook.com/tootrufanpage
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/losthoodiemusic
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vX_6X_hCxwE (marshvoyage)
- Other: https://soundcloud.com/marsh-voyage https://soundcloud.com/losthoodie https://soundcloud.com/tootrukrew https://open.spotify.com/artist/6FAhnXsHnbCWbwcd43JIHK?si=U_Ej9TKYSSKq-ev84d9Ibw (losthood!e) https://open.spotify.com/artist/7GRrmmpSY2WoCkdkWBNb7C?si=T-7tu1WASX-R2h6DfsWh0A (Marsh Voyage)
Image Credits
Image credits go to Marysa Ramirez and Bennet Riley