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

Dezmond-Dane, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

It took me a while! I initially would just listen and write along to any and everything, with my brothers and friends in my youth being the truly gifted ones. After seeing how relieving it was for them to create, I took the advice of my peers & mentors and found a way to create that fulfilled me. Started as lines, which turned into poems that turned into songs!

Honestly, I wish I understood the business of it more, as well as the importance of creative discipline. Having that as an extra cushion of knowledge would have been crucial, but hindsight is 20/20.

Patience & malleability were integral to advancing my skillset, as well as furthering my understanding of music as a whole. Leaning into situations that challenge your status quo, creating opportunities out of disadvantageous points, doing whatever it takes to get to the end goal.

Again, I think the business has always been my Achilles heel. A fear of failure due to a lack of information, I tried avoiding it as much as I could, as often as possible. But now that I understand it clearly, I can see the future for what it is, which is a breath of fresh air.

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?

Of course! I’m a 26 year old creative – with a focus in all reaches of music! Be it writing, singing, rapping, producing, engineering, I’ve done as much as I can (to varying degrees of success) to widen my understanding of the field. I always reference my music as an extension of myself, as a medium in which I can freely articulate my feelings and frames of being in real time. So if I’ve been of help to anyone in things that lend themselves to introspection, working through emotionally taxing stages in life, anything that requires us picking ourselves back up, I’m eternally grateful.

While my COLORSxStudios performance definitely comes to mind as far as things I’m most proud of, I’d honestly say my devotion to this craft is my greatest achievement. As someone who spent so much of my formative years trying to be someone I’m not, music has been an ever present constant. Through thick & thin I’ve remained resolute in my desire to make this my full time…. Everything, truthfully. So being in a position to create period, and having that drive in me is really my proudest achievement.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

In my case, it’s the feeling you get when someone who listened to my work feels the exact feeling i worked so hard to convey. I think with music being such a lucrative opportunity in a lot of cases & ways, the impact music can have on people can really be lost in the swell of things. So being reminded that your words, intent, and creative outlet matters in a deeply empathetic way, is really reassuring.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

Outside of the obvious “doing [insert creative outlet of choice] full-time/making a living out of it”, I just want to be happy. It seems super simple & really corny, but truthfully that’s all I want. Whether that forms itself into a career with x amount of albums & tours, or if it has a particular dollar amount attached to it, or even if it’s something that is a moment of absolute peace, I just want to be happy with the life I live, curated by the choices I’ve made.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @bydezmond
• Facebook: @bydezmond
• Twitter: @bydezmond

Image Credits
shots by Nehemiah Brent (@planetnehemiah)