Meet Donald Plant

We were lucky to catch up with Donald Plant recently and have shared our conversation below.

Donald , we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?

In any industry, confidence and self-esteem are extremely important for success. This is especially true in the time of the digital age where we all use social media for so many things. Often, we use it to see other pages that may inspire us, but at the same time also pressure us into asking whether what we are doing and is “good enough”. For a lot of people, this is quite a daunting feeling, especially when you are at the beginning of a new venture, where you have so much to learn and feel like the work will never stop.

For me, this is where the importance of having good people surround you is vitally important. When starting out, I often felt that no matter what I could do, there was always going to be a “next level” or goal that I wouldn’t be able to hit. Fortunately, I was lucky enough to be working with people who not only had a strong work ethic and determination to meet goals, but also who I thoroughly enjoyed working with, even to this day. When passion is a driving force toward one’s work, it substantially motivates you to learn and feel excited about the steps you’re taking. In my experience working on music, a lot of this passion came from the fact that not only was I doing what I love, but also because the people I was working with also had that same feeling. Whether it was recording, writing, touring, or any other component of the work itself, we fed off of one another, learning quite a bit about an industry we were only beginning in. This has built so much of my personal confidence and self-esteem, where I know that in all the work I do now, both the successes and failures, I am supported, backed, and helped by these people every step of the way. Having this support makes an immense difference, and motivates me to keep learning and do better every day!

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

As a musician, my work revolves around balancing my time between creating music and sharing it with the world. On the creative side, this involves a lot of songwriting and recording, constantly thinking of new melodies or instrumental parts that could flow together to form a song. Although this can definitely feel challenging at times, I think the most exciting part about it is the fact that there is always something new on the go, whether it be writing, recording, or editing, and you get to balance between various projects at a time. This is a unique part of the songwriting process, where some pieces will come together quite quickly and be finished in a matter of only a few days, where other songs can move slower and take months.
Since we started the group, the best part has to be performing live, and sharing the music with all the people in a room together. From various tours, where people are coming to see our show specifically, to festivals, where we have the chance to share the stage with other talented artists, it is truly a surreal experience to put a live performance together and share it with the audience.
Currently, we are focused on finishing up our debut album, with the first single to be released in early spring, 2025. Having worked to complete this album for quite some time, it is exciting to finally be able to share these songs with people, showing what some of our new music will sound like! Following the album’s release, we are looking forward to performing the songs live for the first time.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

1) Kindness

I think that kindness is one of the most important qualities you can have because not only does it go a long way with other people, but also goes a long way in your work. When you are embarking on a new journey, it always feels, and rightly so, like an uphill battle. New deadlines, new workload, new commitments, and as you are only learning the “ins and outs” of that area, it can be a lot. When I was starting out as a musician, I was fortunate enough to have a mentor who was kind and assured me that no matter how much I may feel that I am not learning fast enough or taking the right steps, things were going to be ok. He showed me how to get involved with certain important organizations, and gave recommendations on what to do when I feel challenged. This kindness really went a long way, as it not only built a better connection between my mentor and I, but I think it also contributed toward better music and a better creative process overall. When speaking to people, or working with others, and even when working on your own, I suggest that we all take kindness as a first component in how we improve our skills and reach the goals we are shooting for.

2) Willingness to Learn/Adapt

It has been crucial throughout my experience as a musician to always be flexible and willing to learn new things. When starting out, I had an idea in my head of how things would work, what my tasks would look like day to day, and how this would lead to success and happiness with my music. In reality, this turned out to be very different from how things actually took place, At first, it can feel like things aren’t going your way, and challenging your thoughts of how the journey would go, but I truly believe this is part of the process of any success story. When starting out, for example, my plan was always to be a songwriter, focused on writing every song I would ever release. Over the years, I have increasingly engaged in songwriting sessions with other artists, something I thought would never happen, but has now become my favourite part of everything that I do. When collaborating with others, new ideas flow that would not take place if working individually. By feeding off of one another’s energy, the result is better because we were working together, and recognizing each other’s talents, to create something that we are both proud of. This willingness to adapt to something I originally did not anticipate proved to be a major part of what I do, and has led to countless releases that are now something to be celebrated as a group, where we all have the feeling of putting something together and sharing it with the world.

3) Work Ethic

The third quality that I really do think goes a long way no matter what area you are working in is a good, strong work ethic. In my opinion, this has to come from a place of passion, and loving what it is that you do. For me, playing music was something I started at a young age, which inspired me to not only write music in the first place, but also perform it with others, chasing that same feeling I had when I saw my first concert. You need to use this passion to motivate yourself to work hard and keep up with tasks, emails, etc. It is by no means easy, but that passion as a driving force keeps you wanting to do the work, and I think having that, based on my experience, contributes to the success of the project overall.

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

In the past 12 months, the biggest area of growth has been a new process of recording music as a band, where we now have a completely new system in place. Prior to this change, we would spend a lot of time moving around between songs, working periodically at one and then moving to another. Sometimes, this system was beneficial as it allowed us to get an idea of how one song would sound, and with this in mind, we would then work on another, creating a sense of cohesiveness in the instruments used and overall feeling of the pieces. However, our new system is one where for the first time we are able to play the song together as a group, performing parts live. We are quite excited to continue using this new recording style, as it allows us to bring an energy to the music that we previously did not have, incorporating a sense of live performance into the studio. For the first few tracks of the album, this has been a significant learning process, but one that is truly motivating us to keep growing and improving how we can put music together as a group.

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