We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Danny Kaminski. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Danny below.
Danny, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?
I definitely think about having a regular job often, but I just don’t think it computes with me and my brain. Having a regular full time school schedule is already hard enough on me and drains me like crazy! There are some things that I definitely crave from a steady gig like that though. The stability of a consistent paycheck and a place to live is definitely appealing. But I don’t know. I’ve been absolutely miserable in every job I’ve ever had so I just don’t think it’s the life 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?
My name is Danny Kaminski, I am a bassist / producer / singer in Boulder, Colorado. My background is primarily in Jazz, but these days I focus mostly on original music in the hip hop / soul kind of space. My main goal is just to make really cool music that really cool people will like! My music is a really major outlet for a lot of my feelings. I’ve always appreciated artists that are very vulnerable so I’m always trying to get there with my own music.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
Overall, my goals have changed a lot since getting into music. I first started playing bass in the 7th grade, and the name of the game back then was just getting into the jazz band when I got into 8th grade. Miraculously, I actually made it in! I was pretty ecstatic (I was the only one to audition). After that it was to make it into music school after high school. And for years that was the whole thing. Long practice sessions and a lot of missed hangouts with friends later and I actually did it! But I felt extremely empty, and in a lot of ways I still do. Music school hasn’t been the dream I thought it was going to be, which is okay, but it’s also been really hard. So recently I’ve been trying to reshift my focus. I don’t think I’m going to be, or even want to be, a famous jazz bassist anymore. I think I want to make really cool and hip music. I want to play really meaningful and personal music for people who will really dig it. I saw Billy Joel over the summer, and this packed stadium of people knew all of the words to his songs and sang along, and that was a really emotional and enlightening experience for me. It’d be such an honor to be the artist that people take the time to dig deep into the music for. Not that I think I’ll ever be as big as Billy Joel! But nonetheless, it’d be so cool to be able to do something like that.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
This is tricky because it’s had to change a lot. I think for a long time a lot of worth and merit as a musician was based on the reactions of other musicians I was playing with. In jazz, oftentimes you get paired up with people you’ve never played with, which is really scary. I used to take it extremely personally if I didn’t get a call back from the musicians I played with. Now I know (or hope at least!) that there are many more factors at play, but regardless it really affected my self worth. So since then, I’ve been trying to make the reward of music the music itself! There’s such joy in making music, whether it’s practicing countless etudes or sitting down with a laptop and making a track. Everyday I try and just be musical, whether it’s playing bass or even just journaling about awesome music I heard that day, and I think it’s been good for me.
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