We were lucky to catch up with Dominic Romano recently and have shared our conversation below.
Dominic, thank you so much for taking the time to share your lessons learned with us and we’re sure your wisdom will help many. So, one question that comes up often and that we’re hoping you can shed some light on is keeping creativity alive over long stretches – how do you keep your creativity alive?
How do you keep your creativity alive?
I often get asked what my “main thing” is.
I am a recording artist, a producer for songwriters, and a mixing engineer.
Those are three different things and people want to be able to put me in a box so they can quantify and make a judgment, but one of my most essential tools for keeping my creativity alive is the symbiotic nature of inspiration between the three.
I grew up around music and creative thinking from a young age. My parents and schools always fostered a strong support of imagination and creativity in me and it’s something that carried forward when I took up playing the violin at age 6. During highschool I switched to guitar to accompany the songwriting I had started and started developing the skills of recording/editing/arranging on Garageband on my mom’s laptop. When it came time to apply for college, I didn’t know what else to do because music had become my passion so I applied to the Music & Recording Arts program at Bennington College and spent 4 years developing my skills and abilities with some incredible guidance from David Baron, Julie Last, and Scott Lehrer.
After graduating I have been working full-time as a recording engineer, music producer, and mixing engineer for 8 years now, helping artists bring their vision from concept into reality.
But I started to lose creativity.
Around 2019 I started to feel like I didn’t have enough creativity for all of these wonderful projects I was arranging and producing for people. And I was telling myself that I didn’t have enough energy to work on my own projects because “all of it” was going towards clients I was working with. I was also in this rat race of trying to do everything in the most “efficient” way possible. Efficiency mindset is the killer of creativity.
In 2020, during covid lockdown, I was forced to start creating for myself again which was the best thing I could have done. I got into the habit of giving my own writing and creation its own space – to give myself the time to experiment and come up with bizarre ideas and scrap them again if they weren’t working. Slowly I began to rediscover the reason why I want to create.
It’s to express. It’s to discover. It’s to lose myself into the beauty of something new.
Once I made this discovery, I was able to bring it back into my relationship with producing and mixing with an artist. Instead of prioritizing getting them a solid sound at the most “efficient” rate, I changed my priorities to getting them something that is as amazing as it could be and making sure that was built into the time/cost structure up front. I gave myself the permission to experiment again and I found that, in response, my creativity started to flourish again. I wasn’t just repeating what I know works like a less efficient AI machine, but I was discovering something new.
Then the most wonderful thing happened. When I brought my full creative self into projects I was producing, the artists I was working with responded by becoming more creative themselves. And so if I was working with 5-6 great artists at any given time, that is so many creative ideas flowing that it absolutely spilled back the other direction into my own work as a songwriter and recording artist. Things that artists I work with say and try absolutely influence or spark creativity for me solo (or perhaps as a collaboration with them if it’s a very direct inspiration).
Having that interflow of inspiration is essential to the way I work now. I can’t be just one thing that is quantifiable and nicely boxed up. Creativity isn’t that way. Creativity is a series of inspirations, an infinite chain reaction that needs space, time, variety, and collaboration.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I am a full-time producer and mixing engineer working with songwriters to create recordings they are proud of. I work primarily in the folk, indie folk, singer-songwriter, and indie pop genres and you can find me on social media @dominicromanomusic where you can connect with me and hear my thoughts on production/music/life/creativity.
I also regularly release my own music, the most recent of which is an anthemic cinematic folk single about the experience of a toxic relationship called “after we’re gone” and is available now wherever you stream music.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Listen more. Talk Less. Everything we do is a synthesis of what we’ve taken in, so start listening to the world around you with more detail, intention and thought. Find a way to drop your ego and learn from every experience you have with grace and humility.
Show the F*** up
I am not necessarily the most talented or even skilled person in my college classes on recording. But what I did have was the professional skills to show up in full force when opportunities came my way, and maintain forward momentum with persistence and tenacity. Raw talent will get your foot in the door, but to stay you need to work for it wholeheartedly.
Be authentic
Whether it’s with social media presence, working with other artists, or networking, it has been absolutely essential for me to maintain an authenticity to who I am and what I love.
Tell us what your ideal client would be like?
The artists I love to work with are: – Authentic with their music
– Driven/ambitious
– Have taken the time to develop their skills
– Open-minded and have checked their ego at the door
– Want to create something incredible together
Contact Info:
- Website: www.dominicromanomusic.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dominicromanomusic/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@dominicromanomusic
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@dominicromanomusic
Image Credits
Photos by Sierra Farquhar Photography
