We recently connected with Dillon Dunnagan and have shared our conversation below.

Dillon , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your creative career sooner or later?

I started playing music around 12 or 13 years old.. Taking guitar lessons and locking myself in my room learning and trying to perfect my craft as a guitar player.
At 17, I joined my first band and started traveling around the St. Louis area playing bars.
About this time, I got the inclination to write songs after being inspired by Green Day. Their songs spoke to me and I related with their subject matter and emotions greatly. I then formed the first version of The Winks, we recorded our first album, and then started playing around St. Louis.
At 21, alcohol became readily accessible to me and I started seriously drinking. Almost a decade went by and my substance abuse killed and real drive or direction I had for what I wanted to do with the music I was creating. I’m happy to say that I’m 3 and 1/2 years sober now , and more clear and driven than ever before.
If I could go back, I would have tried to start sooner, and I would have kept my focus on the music and not the lifestyle. I feel like I lost a lot of my formative years personally, and didn’t get to lay a real foundation with The Winks. So now we have more work to do.
But, at the same time, it’s made me who I am today.
I’m more kind, open, empathetic, and understanding than I used to be. It may have set me back in the long run, but I feel like it’s also the path I needed to take to become the person, musician, and friend that I need to be today and in the future.

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

As a child, I always loved music.
I can’t remember a specific instance in which it “clicked” for me. It was just always there and I couldn’t get enough of it. And I still can’t get enough of it. It’s something that I just understand completely.
After begging my parents for years, I finally got them to buy me a guitar and got lessons. I went through instructor after instructor until I met one that finally clicked with me. He and I developed a friendship and he taught me the core of everything I know. Eventually, I would sit in and play with the bands he was in over the years.
He taught me everything from heavy metal to country music, and I’ve taken that to The Winks.
We are a band with no limits or restrictions. If we write a song that we like, we work on it, we make it %100 us, and we play it. Because of my guitar instructor, The Winks have a wide diversity of sound and style. We don’t write the same song twice, and I think that sets us apart from everyone else.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Being able to reach and connect with people.
Being able to write a song that can resonate with someone that you don’t know is a feeling unlike anything else we’ve ever experienced in this life.
We have people at every show that show up to see another band on the bill, but end up following us too. It’s so incredible to be able to meet and connect with people that way.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

Buy merchandise from your favorite creatives.
In the music world, Spotify is great, but it doesn’t help your favorite small band survive.
Pick up that cd, buy the shirt, put their sticker on the bumper of your car, tell all of your friends about them and bring your friends to their shows.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/thewinks

Image Credits

Dillon Dunnagan
Jessica Weidhass
Sean Thiessen