[Exclusive Interview] Dylan Dunlap on Recent Debut EP, Growth, Activism & More
There's a lot of things that are hard to explain, but Dylan can explain a few for us...
I met up with California-native, singer/songwriter Dylan Dunlap at Swork Coffee located in Glendale, CA. It was later in the evening and the location was cute. I spotted a light sea blue sofa in the back with a round coffee table by a window, which ended up being the spot I chose to host the interview. I ordered my cappuccino and waited for Dylan to arrive. When he does, I am greeted immediately with a hug and smile. There’s something about Dylan that’s just really charming. From the way he warmly smiles at you and chuckles at his own jokes, to the way he makes sure to tell you that he doesn’t know everything but that he’s willing to try to learn and understand.
Those are rare human qualities you find in a lot of people today, smiles and empathy, and yet Dylan manages to cover it all. My interview with Dylan was so natural, as if we were two friends who hadn't seen each other in a really long time and were finally catching up--I appreciated that. Though I had questions prepared to guide the conversation, he added onto the discussion in areas that led to really fun tangents.
Before I get into the interview itself, here is a little bit about him.
Dylan Dunlap is born and raised in Los Angeles, CA, but has been all over the place throughout the years. He is internationally recognized, and is not only a singer/songwriter, but is also a producer and multi-instrumentalist. From street performing to touring extensively through North America and Europe, opening for acts like Howie Day, Juice, and One Republic, to performing on The Voice, Dylan has brought his pop/indie rock music to a powerful place. He has written songs for pop, country, reggae and even hip hop artists.
Another thing that Dylan is best known for aside from his music career is his activism. As someone who has struggled through his own difficulties of mental illness, Dylan has made music the outlet to help him reach others who are also going through the same hardships. He plans to use his music to help break the stigmas and to raise awareness. He has been awarded the "Fighting Stigma Rising Star" award from the National Alliance on Mental Illness and has worked along side Global Citizen, Autism Rocks, and Various other organizations to help spread the word and the fight.
Recently, the artist and activist released his debut EP 'Things I Can't Explain.'
I saw him perform the project at the Hi Hat this past month and to see the energy he brought to the stage and the happiness on the crowd's faces were exciting and refreshing. He sang each song with such confidence and had a smile on his face throughout. He got real with the crowd, describing the inspirations behind many of the songs, hoping to connect to someone out there.
His music could be described as cinematic from the instrumentation he produces and as uplifting from the melodies he fabricates, but overall it is profound from the way he connects with you through the lyrics. Every song has a purpose that makes you realize a little bit more about Dylan and a little more about yourself. On this 6-track EP, the songs included are:
The Weight
Here For Me
Runnin
Do We Need to Go Out?
Goodbye
Up to Your Standards
My favorite is "Up to Your Standards." Every track has a beat that keeps you bumping along, each melody has you humming, and then somehow you find yourself dancing no matter what. His voice is raspy and it matches the harmonies so well, hitting a large spectrum of octaves. "Do We Need to Go Out" is a fun song while "The Weight" makes you feel the emotions that Dylan is feeling and enduring. He has also released a music video for his song "Runnin", which you can watch here.
Now, for the interview. We sit down and start chatting, he grabs his coffee and we begin. We’re accompanied by classical piano in the background which feels all too fitting.
So, tell me how did you get started in music and all of this?
Ready to go, he answers, "I started playing piano at the age of 5 for therapeutic reasons. At that age you don’t really know how to vocalize how you’re really feeling, even adults struggle with that themselves. Music is so therapeutic that I’d just hide behind a piano, nothing else. I’d sing, play guitar--it was solely just to take a minute out of myself."
His dad, who is a film composer/scorer, had a bunch of keyboards at his disposal, to which Dylan very much used. He was inspired by all of it, enough to pursue it as a career, even leading him to going for a year to college at the Berklee College of Music. When I learned this fact, I immediately chimed in, being from Boston myself! We then went on a tangent discussing our respective colleges and the chaos in the city from the Red Sox winning one year.
He circles back, "I owe a lot to my dad even though he wasn’t present. I think it's important to separate the two and realize you can find inspiration from people that you don’t necessarily have relationships moving forward with. I do owe it to the equipment that was available. So I bought pro-tools at an early age, and I just couldn’t vocalize with my words things, so I just made three hundred to four hundred compositions for no reason, just orchestral pieces, and that’s how I got my start."
That's awesome. Do you ever go back to those compositions and use any of them in your music today?
He laughs and says,"A couple of them, ya. I’ve ripped myself off a couple of times. Nothing wrong with that. Ripping yourself off is great. I always write the chord progressions first, I never do the lyrics first."
So, that's your songwriting process? Chords and music first, then lyrics?
"Oh ya! Voice memos every day, just playing something on the piano, playing on the guitar, and sitting with that for a minute, in the least choosy way and letting that speak for itself and then just figuring out how I can compliment that. What does that make me feel? What is it that I am trying to say? If it's a simple thought, how can I make it as descriptive so you can get to know me or as vague so someone can relate? How can I tell a story using these chord progressions? I’m a very analytical person in that sense, I just want it to make sense musically as well."
Well, that definitely all makes sense, hence why you probably titled your recent EP "Things I Can’t Explain".
He looks at me and smiles, thinks about it for a second and replies, "Ya, actually. It’s a lyric in the first song "The Weight", and that song is a cry for help to try and tell somebody you love that you don't know how to let them in, but you’re not shutting them out. People think it's so black and white..." He goes on to elaborate how sometimes you can't explain everything to people, and when you don't open up, people take it personally, "as if you don't want to talk to them, but the truth is there’s no words to describe what you're going through, so with mental health conditions nothing's ever visible. That’s why we say, 'Oh I had no idea.' We struggle with depression or something like that. So, I’m trying to figure out a way to make easy listening pop music but add a purpose where you could read these lyrics and go 'oh, he’s trying to say something that’s just different than what I’m hearing these days.' If I can reach just one person with that, that helps me so that I’m not alone. It's really all about community."
How hard was that for you to express these topics and your own personal struggles through your music and share that with the world?
"It's so interesting. I come from a street performing background, so I would play for one guy that didn’t want to hear me in Burbank. The thing is I think stage fright is this thing we’ve created. It's a term we made, and through those experiences I’ve realized what a blessing it is to play for anybody. I mean, I don't know. I tell myself that every day because obviously standing up as a public speaker, which I am in high schools or a musician on the stage in front of however many people, it's the hardest thing in the world, but I love what I’m doing more than I am insecure about it, so I’m able to prioritize, compartmentalize, and realize that if 1 in 5 people struggle, and I’m definitely one that struggles... I did a festival the other day that had about 7,000 people, and I think about that, and I think about the club you saw me at, and I think about the street performing and they all have something in common... that you don't know what people are going through, so the number doesn’t really matter to me, and my fears don't even matter to me, because I know that what I’m doing could help. That’s it. That’s how I conquer myself, I just kind of tell myself what are you gonna do? Are you gonna stay at home or are you going to try and challenge yourself?"
Wow. That's really such an incredible mindset to place yourself in. So, how would you say your music has changed, if at all, since you first started? Did it evolve you think?
"Definitely. I think it evolved emotionally." He goes on to explain how he, himself grew mentally, from the first year at Berklee before he left, to when he was street performing in the train stations of Boston repeating covers over and over again. He eventually got tired of that as he felt like he wasn't really showcasing himself or his talents. That's the turning point of when he chose to write for himself. When his dad left the picture, he felt many conflicted emotions. "I wanted to impress him, he was my god...and I wouldn’t change anything because what that taught me was that I shouldn’t be doing this for anybody other than myself." He also said that his music started with a more folk-like sound now turned Top-40. Since music was also his coping mechanism, he learned how to be more eloquent, how take his time, and how to find a balance between getting to know him and touching on your story.
Definitely. More people should think that way. Ok, so here's more of a fun question, if you could describe yourself with one word, what would that be? Word describe yourself:
"Giraffe"
We laugh and I spare him two more words to use, so he says:
"Transparent. And... God I’ve never been asked that, well done! Um... I just really care. You know? I care too much. Ya. Let's go with those."
If you could tour with anyone, who would...
"Coldplay". He swiftly responds before I could even finish. Dylan explains why saying he looks up to the band with all of his being, seeing that they are a band based off family and camaraderie. He discusses a documentary he saw on them and how the wonderful it was to see them just having the normal stresses of having a music career, not tainted by alcohol and drugs. He likes to view his own crew the same way--as best friends with the people he works with. He looks up to Coldplay for that reason. "That would be the immediate choice for me."
Ok, so now, what's your detour? What's something about you that's totally unexpected, different, outside of music, a fun fact/hidden talent or something you're passionate about?
"I am chipotle connoisseur — I just know where to get the good chicken. They've even helped me with tours." He recommended a few spots in LA for me to try, which I noted for sure.
"On a more serious answer, I see every movie that comes out." We go off on a tangent discussing movies we've seen, like the most recent being The Joker. We quoted some of our favorite scenes, and some other favorite Joaquin Phoenix movies, and then converse why movies are so great. "You have to put your phone down," he says emphatically. "You get to respect a different form of art." Then we discuss cinematography, film scoring, and I go off on my usual rant of why I love music because of how it is fluidly a part of all art forms from fashion to film to so much more.
He even excitedly mentioned how he has secured a placement in a movie of a song he has written! "I didn't write it for the movie, it just works well for a scene."
If you could start a fashion line, what would it look like?
“Ok! Story time!” He really did tell me a story and it was honestly so great, and it basically led to the realization that he really didn’t know what he was and is doing with fashion and that he likes to represent the cities he performs in when he can, but mostly baggy clothes is his brand and style. All I can say here is, thank you Summer. (I’ll save the explanation for another time.)
If you could choose any of the songs you’ve written to be the one you resonate most with, which one would it be? I know how tough that is because they're like your kids, but if you had to choose one!
"Oh man, it’s like my kids went off to college...'The Wait' and 'Up to Your Standards" showcase the cinematic sides of me. Something about those two have a dear place in my heart."
He explains how for those two songs, they describe a lot about the trials he has gone through from having to support himself in a lot of situations and how the truth of life is that sometimes you have to raise yourself emotionally. "I can't change what you think of me, your belief and all." Dylan tells me how sometimes in life, you have to be selfish and cut the negativity of people out of your life, because at the end of the day, you should know your own worth.
"Ok, but if I had to pick one, gun to my head, I'd say 'Up to Your Standards'." He also mentions how for that song he jumped on a random grand piano to create the re-harm that goes into the final version on the record, which I thought was a really cool fact to learn.
Ok, time for another fun question--if you had to be any beverage at all, which one would you be?
"For a tea, I'd be a medicine ball. For a coffee, a grande vanilla latte, you can never wrong with them." I respond saying that they are always reliable.
"And also a ginger shot..." Definitely a ginger shot! Another thing we went on about talking about how it’s just one of those things that slaps you across the face and wakes you right up.
If you could leave your fans with something to remember you by, what would you tell them?
"Social Media is deceiving...We’re all having a hard time...I don’t know what I’m doing half the time, I think its's so important to just reach out to and listen to each other, listening is a hell of a thing, to just not give advice and just listen to somebody that is struggling. So, I’ve created this platform where all I want to do is give out my email and read and listen. I don't want to tell you what to do... if it's one thing you can take away from me, it's just that I care, and I want to let you know that I hear you, and we don't need to relate. I'll never understand you, you’ll never understand me, but we can just work a little bit harder to sit next to each other metaphorically."
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Thanks, Dylan, for sitting next to me metaphorically and literally, and for sharing all of these stories and facts about the amazing work you do .Thanks for letting your fans in and for letting them know more about you. We're all excited to see you continue to climb this amazing creative ladder if you've set your path on.
Be sure to check out Dylan Dunlap's EP, see him while he's out there performing at a place near you, and follow him online to stay tuned for more news!