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

Dree, appreciate you joining us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

Man I gotta say, throwing these listening parties have been the riskiest but most rewarding part of my journey so far. Any of the events could’ve gone left at any moment but luckily I got a great team around me. This last one we was attempting the biggest one yet, keep in mind the venue was like a 2,000 square foot condo in a residential neighborhood and we wanted to fit 100 people in there. Throwing these parties, you never really know who’s actually gonna pull up so we really hit the ground running and invited damn near everyone we knew. Promoted it as much as we could, then the day of the party comes and I knock on the door and the owner of the house says “hold up the party is today?”, it threw me off fosho but we moved past it and we started setting up. By 10 pm there was probably about 20 people in there, keep in mind we planned for 100, it was lookin like the risk wasn’t gonna pay off, so I went to the bathroom and my phone started ringing crazy, everyone was hitting me saying they here “can I open the gate”. Within like 20 mins there had to be 120 people in there and more coming. I looked at G and said “imma say this was a success”. Then 10 mins later I hear *woop woop*, the cops were here. My DJ, champ, gets on the mic and says ” alright everyone we about to play the quiet game”. Imagine how hard it is to keep 120 quiet for more than 5 seconds. My homie Trips goes out to talk to the cop while I keep everyone quiet. Now I don’t know what magic Trips got, he’s a charming guy for sure, but somehow within 5 mins the cop leaves and I see GBaby slide to the middle of the party and yell “he gone turn the music up we good!” and we kept the party rolling til 1. The next day I had people hitting me all day saying it was lit and they really liked the album. Coming soon by the way. I’m grateful everyone had fun and got home safe, and got to hear some music a little early.

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?

I’m an artist first and any way that I can deliver my ideas to the world I do. If that means learning a new instrument to get a song done then I’ll figure out a way. With that being said most people probably know me as a musician. My goal is always to create a world with my music, I don’t want it to just be a song for you but a full experience. I’m proud of what we’ve been able to build so far just through these ideas that could’ve just stayed as ideas. Not even just the streaming numbers we’ve been able to reach but the people that have benefited from listening to what I have to say. I love making art because I feel like it’s the only way to truly bottle and deliver an emotion. You can tell someone how you feel a thousand times and they can be sympathetic but they won’t truly be able to feel it. Now play them a song that evokes that emotion, and people will feel you.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

Most rewarding part of being an artist is seeing people connect with what we created. It’s one thing to see the numbers go up but it’s another thing to see it affect people in person. I create music to I can provide a soundtrack for the memories of others, so when I see my goal being achieved, it’s the most rewarding thing in the world; There’s nothing like it.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

A lesson I had to unlearn is not to only create for myself. It’s really a balancing act from being happy with what I produced and making sure people resonate with it. In the beginning I would tend to create to impress other artists or musicians, like “wait til they hear this chord progression”. But none of that matters, I’m creating for the benefit of others and as long as it’s a vibe it doesn’t have to be the most musically impressive thing. Do people resonate with it? if the answer is yes then I’m doing my job

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/savedree/
• Twitter: https://x.com/dreerivers
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@savedree
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/dreerivers

Image Credits

1st image: shot by @Suslando
2nd image: shot by @derrezzll