We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Dennis Corolina a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Dennis, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?

Yup! I’ve been working in sync, music for ads, films, and TV, full-time for close to a decade now.

The short story is that I made a lot of mistakes and even more bad music but there were a lot of people along the way that helped me get better. Haha. As far as sync goes, at first I started out by composing / producing music for reality TV and sports programming. Eventually I started catching the ear of the libraries I worked because of my consistency and the sheer amount of music I was submitting. By the way, this was all still happening while working a full-time job. As the months went on, I started earning more money and expanding my relationships and just being of service to the people I work with in general. At this point my full-time job was getting in the way of my music so I took a leap of faith and went full-time with my music. I figured worst case scenario, I could always find another full-time job.

Sync was something I wasn’t aware of when I started making music. I randomly fell into it after attending a music conference. Like many in Hip-Hop, my music goal was to be the next Neptunes / Dr. Dre / RZA. I originally had my eyes set on selling beats and producing for major label artists.

Knowing what I know now, I would have spent much more time researching the music that was getting sync’d and using that as a guideline for the types of music I should make. Success is repeatable if you can figure would why a piece of music is being used and it’s purpose. This is the mindset I have now and is working wonders for me.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am a music producer, composer, songwriter and audio engineer. I’ve produced music for a wide variety of television networks: HBO, Showtime, ABC, NBC, MTV, VH1, Fox Sports, CBS, and more and have worked with such artists as Damien Marley, Method Man, Gyptian, Estelle, Easy McCoy, City Wolf, Janae E, and Kima Otung. My accomplishments include music placed in a worldwide Maybelline ads, Nissan, TJ Maxx, Dyson, Afterpay, Hunkenmoller and ads, Ring Promo as well as TV shows Shameless, Power, All American, 4400, etc, and a variety of reality TV, NBA, NHL, MLB and NFL programming and TV promos.

From a business standpoint, I’ve made a career of making people’s lives easier. I am quick and reliable and always of service to my clients, tailoring my process to each individuals needs. On the creative side, I’m the guy that glues your theme to a beautiful musical backdrop.

I’m proud of being me. I’ve always done things my way and have found success doing myself, genuine, and honest. I’m proud that the music I make has the ability to motivate and inspire, uplift and energize. I’m proud that not fitting the norm has been the exact reason I’ve made a career in music.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Freedom. I have the freedom to create, express myself and do what I want as I see fit anywhere in the world. I’m no longer stuck in a rat race because I’ve created so much music in my career that I’m making money every second of the day, even if I’m not making music.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

My whole music career is a story of resilience. I have absolutely no music background and didn’t start making music until I was 18. I like to joke with people that I’m only still in music because I’m too stubborn or too stupid to quit. Through the years I’ve been surround by tons of people with more talent and somehow I’m the one that’s been able to make music a career. I’ve always been a problem solver and I use that skill to overcome any shortcomings I have in music. Don’t know music theory? Use technology. Don’t have perfect pitch? Use technology. You can always find the answer if you look far enough.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.soulplusmind.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/soulplusmind
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/soulplusmind
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/Soulplusmind
• Other: https://linktr.ee/soulplusmind

Image Credits
None.