We were lucky to catch up with Dylan Dynasty recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Dylan thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I initially taught myself how to play drums by watching YouTube videos. I would watch drum covers of my favorite songs over and over again until I could play them. Once I learned the basics and could carry a simple rhythm, I began to take drum lessons and have continued to do so for the last 7 years. My drum teacher has been such an incredible mentor for me, not just in my instrument, but in navigating the music scene and writing songs as well. I can’t thank him enough, he’s taught me everything I know.

I really feel the most essential thing you can do after learning the basics of your instrument is to play with other musicians and surround yourself with people who are into the same music as you. In hindsight, I wish I had been able to do this sooner. It took a long time for me to find people in my area who shared the same love for music that I have. I can’t state enough how helpful it is to not only jam with other musicians but also to just bounce ideas around and talk about things you’re into. Together, you discover a lot that you wouldn’t necessarily have found on your own. Being around others who share your passion for art energizes and pushes you to want to grow, learn, and be better in a way that is hard to replicate through any other form of study.

The two skills I consider most essential in growing as an artist are patience and consistency. I know that every hour I put into my instrument or working towards a goal, I am learning more and chipping away at something far bigger than immediate results. Oftentimes, I set such large goals for myself and get discouraged when it doesn’t happen immediately, but I have to remind myself that every moment put into working toward something is essential to being able to take the next step. I believe there is no straight road or guarantee for success, but if you’re always trying to grow while pursuing your goals, then you can never fail either.

I feel obstacles are the most effective way to learn more, instead of stopping you. When everything is going right, it’s easy for me to get comfortable and potentially lose focus. That’s why I need those challenges. It’s the drive to overcome roadblocks and learn from my moments of failure that pushes me to work the hardest.

Dylan, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Dylan Dynasty Lowe and I am the drummer of a North Carolina-based, hard-rock band called Pageant. For as long as I can remember, I’ve been attracted to the arts, When I was younger, I grew up around theatre, and that led to acting in movies as a child. I have been very fortunate to be surrounded by people who are passionate about their craft, so I never saw the arts as something unattainable. I always knew I wanted to be an artist and express myself. For me, music became the ultimate form of artistic expression. I decided when I was 14 years old that I was going to be the drummer of a rock band, so I put one together. Now I travel the country playing music every weekend with my best friends.

Our goal as a band is to make pure rock music with a soul that speaks to us and others as well. I want it raw, emotional, and with all the rough edges present. Roxxi (lead vocals & bass), Dezzy (lead guitar), and I strive to make music that connects with you and engulfs you in the emotion we felt when writing it. As we work on our next songs, this is at the forefront of our minds. We don’t want our songs to be perfect, we want them to be real.
I believe that there’s something special about rock n roll in its purest form, free of overcomplication and impurities present. Rock music from the ’60s, ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s continues to be held as the peak of the genre for many because of how the music makes you feel. There was far less effort to make it sound perfect, they left little mishaps in the music and let you feel the emotion in the words sung to you. I feel that it is now considered common practice to take these imperfections out, leaving some songs a shell stripped of what once made them a form of human expression. This is something that we want to avoid moving forward. We don’t want our songs to be perfect, we want them to be real.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My dream of being a musician has always included having my friends and family beside me the whole journey. Roxxi, Dezzy, and I are not just bandmates, we’re brothers in everything but blood at this point. Our friendship outside of the band is something that I feel enriches the music and can be seen when we’re on stage together. Being able to create music together and work towards a common goal of making meaningful art allows us to stay close to each other. Our best friends Tanner and Cody come to almost every show we have as well, and do everything from helping us load in to running the merch table and taking photos, We literally could not do this without them and this band has allowed the five of us to stick close to each other. Making something with my friends that allows us to hang out and experience adventures together is something I’ve always wanted. My dad, mom, brother, and all of my other amazingly supportive friends have always been super supportive of our dream too, and that sense of community is what drives me the most.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

“The Creative Act: A Way of Being” by Rick Rubin is one of the best books I have ever read. As a creative, it’s easy to get overwhelmed and overthink your art or compare it to other people’s work. Rick Rubin encourages you in his book to be true to yourself and look at art in a way that is incomparable to anyone else, which is an extremely freeing mindset. Getting out of the headspace of art from a “good or bad” perspective allows you to try things that you never would have before and has led me to growth in areas that I was too scared to focus on in the past.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.officialpageantband.com
• Instagram: @official.pageant
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/officialpageantband
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@official.pageant
• Other: My personal Instagram: @xdylanlowex My band’s TikTok: @official.pageant My band’s
• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6L7cjRNr6BTSK4FSyAZGgc?si=14hDupmQSqC9jB-ScXC_WQ