Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Dean Dooley. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Dean, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your creative career sooner or later?

The simple answer feels like yes but I can’t say that would be the correct answer. If this band were to somehow blow up and get wildly popular, then yeah, it would be nice to have already been playing these songs for years. That being said, the reality is that this band and these songs are where I’m at right now and with that thinking, there is no other time that I could have done this.

I’ve been playing in various bands for well over ten years and they were each a snapshot of that point in life. Some were more punk, others were more acoustic but that music was all reflective of what I wanted to do at that time. Now, I just want to have fun and write some grooves that will make people dance along. So again, any other time than now would not have worked.

Dean, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I started playing music as a kid. Growing up in the 90’s, I quickly fell in love with punk and rock and leaned that direction with my playing. I toyed around with the various styles and, as I got older, I settled on the style that I just enjoyed playing the most. I went back and began writing songs that had a punk/reggae feel to them because all of it just resonated with me so well. I guess we all just always have a soft spot for the music that we love as kids, so why not enjoy it now?

The only thing that I think sets us apart from anyone else is that we just try to make sure every song is as good as anything else that we’ve done. You might listen to us and have one or two that you like more than the others, but I hope you’ll notice that the other songs aren’t slouches either. We want people to listen to us and have as good of a time as we have playing.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

I’m sure everyone has a similar answer, but the most rewarding part of this whole thing to me is to see people legitimately enjoy what we’re putting out there. Even something as small as seeing someone dance along to it or even smile and nod their head to the beat is amazing to me.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

Society just needs to nurture it. Nearly everyone benefits from having a creative scene that thrives and I think that people just need to realize that and understand how important it is to their lives.

Support for it can come from all sorts of channels as well. The biggest to me is to not allow greed to swallow up artists communities or venues to display their talents. I’d love to be able to put protections in place for these areas and guarantee that there is a home for the scene.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vagrant_tide/
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/vagrant_tide
• Other: Feel free to check us out on any of the major streaming platforms!