We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Dylan Disaster. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Dylan below.

Dylan, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

I’ve been a bit of a risk taker for a large part of my life. The first time I rolled the dice was when I was 20 years old and moved to California with a stranger to pursue my musical aspirations. In the short term, it did not pan out. I was however, able to start a band and play some shows and feel somewhat accomplished in that brief period in my life, but truthfully, I was too young and too green in the world to have any self awareness. In the long term, the risk did pay off for me as it opened doors that otherwise might not have been opened. It showed me how to be adventurous and live my life to it’s full potential; although at the time I felt like I was just a wild man running amuck all over Hollywood, in retrospect I was a kid trying to find his way. Eventually, it led me to the early stages of my solo career after my L.A. band broke up and I began learning about proper songwriting and discovering my own personal sound, which led to the solo artist, Dylan Disaster.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I started playing music when I was 11 years old, music was ever present in my life as my mother was a lover of rock and roll and my dad was/is a Dead Head through and through. Punk rock came around in my freshman year of high school and like most awkward, uncomfortable and insecure teenagers, I was mostly confused and unaware of myself until punk rock came around and it gave me an outlet and showed me what it meant to be passionate about something.

I’m most proud of the records I’ve brought into the world, there’s something special about taking a little spark of an idea in your brain and working on it tirelessly until it manifests into the physical world and you can hold it in your hands. My most prized accomplishment to date is the last record I put out in 2019 titled ‘Remission’. I spent the better part of three years methodically writing, shaping and planning it’s release. My intention with the record was always to make something uncompromised and entirely true to my being, which is something I failed at on previous records, but absolutely accomplished with this one.

‘Remission’ is now 3 years old and it still holds a place in my heart even as I’m finishing writing my next record!

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

I think people who aren’t particularly “creative” or at least not pursuing something creative regularly (I believe there is creativity in all of us somewhere) might not understand the drive and the never ending stream of thought revolving around creation. For me, I wake up and I think about music, I go through my day thinking about song ideas and things I can do for my band and solo career, I get home and work on music until I go to sleep and then I’m thinking about music as I’m falling asleep. I get excited about the monotony of band practice, vocal practice, tediously writing lyrics and shaping/cutting/adding little parts and bits to new songs until a song is finished. Once a new song pops into my head, I’ll think about it for months or years until the song fully reveals itself to me and it becomes apparent what direction the sound needs to go in. Aside from never ending writing, voice memos, guitar riffs, vocal melodies, lyric ideas and song themes, there are other streams of thought revolved around what to do with a song when it’s done. Like how to release a song, showing the band how to play it, possible music video ideas, recording, perfecting the song and letting it evolve when other musicians come into play and repeatedly practicing it until it becomes second nature, and then if you want to write an album, you need to do that (in my opinion) at least 12 more times with 12 different songs! And sometimes, you write even more than that and some of them don’t even make the record, or sometimes you write way more than that and they all make the record! Then it’s thinking about releasing a record or a song in a proper manner so it’s exposed properly. That’s making music videos, artwork, timing, social media, band photos, digital distribution, physical pressing (it’s vinyl or nothing for me these days), more practice, booking a release show, setting a release date, more promo photos, more artwork, booking a tour around the release (don’t even get me started on everything that is involved in booking a tour), and then keeping momentum going up until at least a year after the record is existing and growing on it’s own out in the world, and if you think all of this is free, it ain’t. Every step of the way you’re spending money for a place to practice, musical equipment and tune ups, travel for shows, recording, mixing, mastering, pressing, graphic design, photos, merchandise, video production, marketing and PR, the list goes on, all the while trying to maintain a job so you can live and support your craft. Me personally, I’ve bankrupted myself several times making music and touring and I wouldn’t change a thing about that, but that’s just a learning curve for which I have since figured out how to overcome. But to bring it back around, most people who aren’t musicians don’t understand how music happens and how much goes into making it happen, it doesn’t just appear, it’s an obsessive task performed by passionate, brilliant, maniacal and ambitious people who will do just about anything to bring that little sound in their head out into the world for people to hear. It’s madness.

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

My rant about the process of releasing material aside, I absolutely love creating music. I love the entire process of everything I previously described, the journey is certainly the destination for me and once you reach the end of that particular project, it’s on to the next, because after that last record has been written and you’re doing all the back end stuff, you’ve already started writing the next one and it’s time to catch up! But when a record is released and it’s taking on a life of it’s own, it finds it’s way into other peoples hands and lives and it has the ability to connect with them in unexpected ways. Creating is rewarding for me, but having fans tell me how much my music (a song or record) helped them through a hard time is always an unexpected, welcome, and magical bonus. When people tell me they’ve been moved by my music because it relates to something they’re going through, it lets me know I’ve got people out there who get me, and that can be pretty rewarding too.

Contact Info:

• Website: dylandisaster.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/dylandisaster
• Facebook: facebook.com/dylandisaster
• Twitter: twitter.com/ddisastermusic
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeAI-VtRjIny5XRrmQ2Sjhw
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7uxk8tWyhjpnO5PE6dB7fs?si=DCJce5RgR6K05a43CV8ahQ

Image Credits
Promo photo by Jim Mckay, Revelry logo by Jeremy Parker, Dylan Disaster logo by Christopher Klinck