We recently connected with Dylan O’Bryan and have shared our conversation below.
Dylan, appreciate you joining us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?
Ever since I was a freshman in college, when I first started learning how to write my own songs, having a growth / beginner’s mindset has helped me learn to do so many things in my goal towards self-sufficiency as a recording artist. Timing of worldly events had a lot to do with it at the start. In fall and winter of 2019 I became obsessed with writing songs. Something changed in me and I started to allow myself to deal with the embarrassment of writing corny or cliche songs. I wanted so badly to write good songs, and I could feel deeply the discrepency between what I liked to listen to and what I was capable of making in my college dorm room and Garageband. But then a few months later in March of 2020 I was forced to move out of my dorm and move back in with my parents in my old childhood bedroom. Going to a studio and paying to make my songs sound good in that sense was out of the question because of the pandemic. So began my journey of learning how to record in my bedroom with a few mics and a newly aquired Pro Tools recording software subscription. It feels like the rest is history from my perspective now. I learned how to use synthesizers and drum machines to accompany my guitar playing, got more confident at singing in a pop style, eventually even learned bass guitar and got a bit better at mixing my recordings. So I started to release music in late 2020, and throughout 2021 and onward. Things really started to pick up when I moved back to my college town in Fall of 2020 and slowly by late 2021 I became acquainted with my city’s music scene and started playing shows live. But eventually I saw what other popular bands had, what they were doing, in all of the non-music senses, to promote their image. How multi-modal being a band is, between having a logo, making posters, having a general aesthetic, getting photographed, making t-shirts, etc… And the heart of my music has always been doing everything, or as much of it myself as I could, and so eventually I started to learn photoshop, and adobe illustrator, and still with my beginner’s mindset I was learning how to make visual art that I liked, again something I always wanted to do, but never did until I allowed myself to be new and bad at it. Cut to years later and now I have released two full length albums with my record label and am in the process of releasing my third right now. I make all visual design elements, all the album art, show posters, even an artist logo that has evolved with each album release. Now after doing it for five years I’m in a place where I feel proud of most all modes of my work, but with each new thing I learn to do, I have more practice sitting in that uncomfortable zone of mediocrity. This has manifested in my current album release with the additions of two new tasks, two of the only ones previously outsourced to friends and colleagues, those being mastering the songs on the album overall, and making music videos. Mastering because I moved to a new city recently and couldn’t afford the industry rate of $100 per song to have someone professionally master, and music videos because my old team that helped me in the past is also moved to other cities chasing bigger and better things. So I think the most essential skill is always thinking of yourself as a beginner, never ever as the master. I’m a firm believer in growth or “success” as an artist (hate to use that word) is directly tied to how in tune you are with a sense of childlike wonder for the world, that is beaten out of us in adolescence,
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?
Ok yes so my name is Dylan, and I make music under the name The Housing Crisis. I chose that name because I like for people to believe that it is a band when they hear my recordings, but really I play most all of the parts except live drums or strings. I started five years ago and in that time have released 2 EPs, and after this summer 3 albums signed with a local record label. So it’s been a busy five years. For work, I am a freelance live audio engineer and am paid to mix shows and do lights at music venues, often working weekly with professional touring bands and artists. This allows me to always be surrounded by live music, whether I’m working, or performing in a live show myself, or going to see a friends band play somewhere. I’m always immersed in it, and my work and my music have a symbiotic relationship in that sense. I get better at my job by knowing what it’s like to be the artist on the stage, and I get better at performing live on the stage by understanding the audio engineer and what they need from me to make a wonderful show happen.
When I am feeling burnt out from making music, which happens each time I finish an album, I enjoy having an off season from music by taking film photos, and developing and printing them in a DIY at-home darkroom. Making a physical print from a photo I took without anything digital or any computers involved is really beautiful to me, and scratches my artistic itch when I am tired of making music.
I also enjoy every type of analog media format other than film photography, including collecting VHS tapes, cassette audio tapes, recording straight to a cassette 4 track, vinyl, etc…
And lastly I enjoy making posters and visual sorta things for my music as well. And I’m a bit of a homebody or hermit, but in my defense it’s because there’s a lot of fun things to do at home, whether I’m in my music studio or darkroom. But thankfully I live with my two best friends who are also amazing artists and musicians who experiment in mediums that I’m no good at, so we all inspire each other I think to stay on the path.
Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?
Yes one point that I suppose is a bit of pet peeve is regarding the use of the word “talent.” I’m hesitant to describe the type of people that use it in the way I’m about to describe as “non-creatives” because I think that term reinforces the point I want to make which is this: so much of our lives is self-defining, you say you are something or say you are not something and it becomes true.
Take something a lot of us have heard before, which is someone who wished they pursued the arts more at some earlier point in their life, and use the excuse of not being talented for not having done it. I’ve never been talented at nearly any artistic craft at the start. Sure there are some virtuoso musicians who are naturally more inclined as a child to be really good at piano, or violin or something, but even they are putting in thousands of hours in practicing, and would not be anywhere near as “talented” as they are if they didn’t put in the hard hours and work.
Maybe what we mean as “talent” is simply one’s brain enjoying putting in the work required to be good, but I think most people use this term almost dismissively, to feel some relief in the idea that they could never have been artistic, when in reality the great news is that they still can, there is always still time.
This is why I am hesitant to refer to these kinds of people as “non-creatives” because it’s like thinking of yourself as a “smoker who is trying to quit.” If you still fundamentally describe yourself as a “smoker,” then it’s going to be a lot harder to quit than if you don’t think of yourself that way.
Have you ever had to pivot?
Yes so for my music, The Housing Crisis, it has always been my total-creative-control project, but once upon a time we performed live more as a rock band, enlisting the help of my musician friends to play my parts, sometimes loosely with their own flair. Sonically my first album was “rock” in this sense, but when two of my bandmates had to move to different cities, and not being sure where to take my music next, I decided to pivot and make my second album more electronic pop than rock, using drum machines, samplers, synthesizers along with guitars to perform live. It was a harder transition than I imagined, as there are some difficulties with electronic music that aren’t as big of a thing with rock, for example performing live, it makes a big difference what kind of speakers the audience is hearing you through when it’s all electronic, because there is no big live drum kit or big bass amp to power through in for example a less than ideal house show setting. But some of my favorite artists are ones whose albums all sound quite different from the last in some senses, taking things in different directions, and so I had faith that my songwriting and inner voice would shine through, and that ended up being the case.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/thehousingcrisis
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thehousingcrisis/
Image Credits
the one where I’m wearing the red sweater was taken by Amanda Laferriere, and the double exposure rock n roll black and white pic is by Jeremy McGuire