We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Dillon Weiss a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Dillon, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?
To be honest, I always knew I wanted to pursue a career in music. When I was 6, I wanted to take guitar lessons. It lasted a couple weeks before I quit in frustration that I was too small to hold a guitar properly. That led to my mom getting me a drum set and showing me that I can play an instrument by simply smacking a large wooden cylinder and that my height didn’t matter. I learned that music was for everyone. There were no limitations. That was when I truly fell in love with music. From there, I kept learning. Throughout the years, I would go on to learn the trumpet and piano, and sprinkled in some very unimpressive guitar and bass knowledge. I didn’t see myself doing anything but music. Although it wasn’t easy, I knew it was the right path for me.
I was always told how difficult it would be to make a living in this industry and that I should consider other paths. At first, I listened and looked at either computer sciences or business, and ultimately ended up attending college for international business. Within a semester of my freshman year, I learned real quick it wasn’t for me and transferred to a college that offered a music program and made that my main focus. The rest is history.
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?
Throughout my life, I have always been fascinated by music. The history, the technological advancements, all of it. As a kid, my musical tastes were very much influenced by my moms musical tastes. Thanks to MTV, I started to develop my own likings and throughout middle school, really began finding myself. Linkin Park, My Chemical Romance, Green Day, the list goes on. Eventually, I discovered Daft Punk, most specifically, their album ‘Alive 2007,” which was the start of my love for electronic music. Over the next handful of years, not only did electronic music begin to grow rapidly, but so did my love for the genre. I began listening to the genre religiously and going to shows and festivals and, ultimately, decided that was what I wanted to do. I wanted to make music that people could connect with the way I connected to this music.
Although I am currently working on a project as a producer, I have always seen myself as a creative, a musician, and that is what drove me to pursue a career in the music and film industry. I always wanted to be a part of something fun and bring something new into this world that others haven’t heard or seen before. That lead to me breaking into the entertainment industry while I was a student in college. Having worked in just about every field possible when it comes to music, I have now found myself in fairly new territory, film scoring and orchestral composition. Blending the sounds of the classic orchestra with the sounds of electronic music, I’ve been able to hone in on a distinct sound that has helped drive my work, most recently being in the short film ‘A State Of,” which has garnered numerous awards and nominations (well done team!), including awards and nominations for best original score, which I am incredibly proud of.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
To be honest, there’s not really a specific lesson that I had to unlearn, but a mentality. Throughout my early years, I was taught there are certain ways things are done and that those are the only correct ways to do things. For example, in the recording studio, we are told that we mix a song a certain way, in post, we are told we are to master in a certain way. And to an extent, there is truth to it. There is a standard. But I found having that mentality also held me back. During my time at Berklee College of Music, I started experimenting with my mixing and my writing more and began doing things in much more unique ways. I started experimenting with sound design and making the sound really play with the listener’s ears and bounce around the spaces around us as much as possible. I started straying from the norm more and using more unique instruments (or objects) and sounds that maybe shouldn’t go together, but I made it work. This led to way more interesting pieces and slowly began to shape a bit more of my own style and sound versus mimicking what we are told is the gold standard. You’d be surprised at how many household items make for great instruments. Music is about having fun, so do that! Have fun and experiment and let whatever you work on take you on a journey as opposed to forcing the journey the way we are told to. There is no right way to do it.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
I think most people would relate, but seeing the completion of your latest project is beyond rewarding. After putting weeks, months, however long, into something you are passionate about and seeing it come to fruition is just, well, there’s nothing that compares. Getting to hear what people think of your work is always a great feeling and there’s so much you can learn and take away from that moment. As of my current experiences, I have slowly shifted from more individual work and moved to larger group situations and getting to share those experiences with a group of great people is such a humbling and amazing feeling.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.dillonweissmusic.com
- Instagram: @dillonkilan
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dillon-weiss-a6170b78/