Meet Brandon Dominguez

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

Brandon , we are so deeply grateful to you for opening up about your journey with mental health in the hops that it can help someone who might be going through something similar. Can you talk to us about your mental health journey and how you overcame or persisted despite any issues? For readers, please note this is not medical advice, we are not doctors, you should always consult professionals for advice and that this is merely one person sharing their story and experience.

I’ve long struggled with some pretty loaded autoimmune conditions and complications that have chronically affected my life to varying extents and challenged my capacities for hope and perseverance. As cliche as it sounds, I truly believe that “what kills you makes you stronger”. Having to fight for my own health and maintaining peace among the chaos is always a beautiful cycle that inspires me, allots the opportunity to exercise heightened discipline, and keeps me out of stagnation. My faith in God and the support of my amazing family have always been the main drivers of my traversal of these obstacles. Moreover, I think the realization and perspective that we own nothing in this world and everything that we have is due strictly to God and his abundance gift(s) and grace tends to be the most helpful in continuing this climb called life.

This is not to say it’s always easy or a walk-in-the-park to maintain a positive outlook or simply “flip on the switch” and automatically gain inspiration and some artificial. fairytale optimism every second.

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’m an independent artist; a writer, musician, and singer. I’m always seeking to capture the essence of my relationship with faith, God, and an amalgamation of both my personal experience and how I make sense of the world and those around me. I live by the motto,

“Genre: yes”.

I think there’s a beauty to all genres of music and stylings of expression. I always seek to incorporate the machinations of all of these art forms to best suit the songs I yearn to write and the stories I wish to tell.

I released my debut album, “Chapter 1: The Quarter-Life”, two years ago, and look forward to rounding out the next few projects (it’s a trilogy and an anthology of original songs and sorts). My next project will be “Chapter 1.5”, an EP that bridges Chapter 1 to Chapter 2. I look forward to releasing this later this year and Chapter 2 next year.

Instagram is my primary communication platform and I handle nearly all of my business correspondence there:

@someguybran.

I also have a website (someguybran.com) and am in the process of re-hauling it. Stay tuned!

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

My Mom, a vocal coach and vocalist and musician herself, had some of the best advice for starting my music career in my teens:

“Play to express, not impress”.

I’ve kept this to heart seriously and I always want to remain authentic, but also self-aware and honest about “why” I do what I do and how I want that to come across.

I also think both consistency and learning some basic music theory have been instrumental in my artistic walk.

Nowadays, I find a lot of young people or Gen Z-ers like myself are fascinated with a scrappy, templated approach to music. That is to say that we as a society don’t seem to be phased by virtuosity or “technical” stuff as much (in my opinion). Yeah, we COULD get by with cowboy chords. Yeah, we could keep sampling the same stuff over-and-over because “it gets the job done” (this isn’t to say I’m hating on sampling because I love myself a good sample). I think a little bit of theory retention, “effort”, and application goes a long way and we shouldn’t shy away from basic study and theory cultivation because “The Beatles were largely self-taught and didn’t know theory”. I just love learning in general and, while I obviously have so much more to learn and so much more to practice, think that the peaking of curiosity and simultaneous desire for applying for knowledge has been a helpful tool on this wild ride.

What’s been one of your main areas of growth this year?

Definitely exercising gratitude, authentically enjoying spending time with others I love (and being open to other connections), and treasuring the current moment. Unfortunately and, I can only speak for myself here, I believe we often don’t really “get” the whole “the journey is more impactful than the destination” thing until it’s too late or we really go through the wringer with something related to profound loss or a negative event in life.

Master Oogway (I think it’s technically Eleanor Roosevelt, but that’s where my Gen-Z mind goes) spoke this banger in Kung Fu Panda :

“Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift of God, which is why we call it the present.”

It’s true. And I feel this more than ever in the best way, Especially in the context of art and creating rather than consuming.

Contact Info:

• Website: [email protected]
• Instagram: @someguybran
• Other: Spotify:

  someguybran artist link (/https://open.spotify.com/artist/31LbfrOXAKcNFk4s4hOzqX)

  Debut Album: Chapter 1: The Quarter-Life Crusade (https://open.spotify.com/album/5BuGR9yD7HmXeg4xYbmmeu?si=Juc235vkTVKsZB-QKld2Yw&nd=1&dlsi=9958d6f860804b33)