We were lucky to catch up with Dylan Heidt recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Dylan, thank you so much for opening up with us about some important, but sometimes personal topics. One that really matters to us is overcoming Imposter Syndrome because we’ve seen how so many people are held back in life because of this and so we’d really appreciate hearing about how you overcame Imposter Syndrome.
This is a funny question, to me personally, and I say that because up until last year I didn’t really understand what imposter syndrome meant when it was said out loud, or brought up in conversation around me.
I don’t know if it was an irrational belief in myself, the things that I was doing, or something else entirely…but I (thankfully) never dealt with imposter syndrome on the same level, or to the same degree, as so many of the creatives that were and still are around me on a daily basis.
It wasn’t until I was in my mid-twenties that I actually began to experience some of the telltale signs and symptoms of imposter syndrome and when I did, I experienced them in full haha, believe me…I was not shorted on my share of feeling like a fraud.
It’s fairly simple, but what helped me the most when I started to feel those signs and symptoms of imposter syndrome set in, was to make a list of everything that I had said that I wanted to (or was) going to do when I first began my journey within the music industry; coming up as a young musician, I think the two biggest goals that I had for myself were to play the mainroom at First Avenue (the iconic Minneapolis music venue that was predominantly featured in the film Purple Rain) and to get so good at the guitar that someone might actually ask me to go on a nationwide tour with them as their guitarist; as it turns out, I was able to make both of those things (and so many more) happen for myself throughout my career as a musician, music producer and songwriter.
Being able to visualize, or put some sort of visual element to, and remind myself that I’ve tackled so many of the things that I had said I was going to do early on in my career as a musician, producer and songwriter helps me immensely in the fight to keep those feelings that are so commonly associated with imposter syndrome at bay.
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?
To really delve into my career as a music producer, songwriter and musician as a whole, I always like to start at the beginning and tell people that I grew up in a home that probably valued music a little more than most others. Some of my earliest memories are of my parents playing records around the house; everything from what most people would call Classic Rock of the 60’s and 70’s, to the iconic Motown sound that essentially shaped the R&B/Soul genre as we know it today, Reggae from the likes of Bob Marley and Peter Tosh, all the way to Country classics from Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Marty Robbins and more; there was never an absence of music in my life as a child.
In elementary school, I began playing the guitar and shortly thereafter I taught myself how to play the bass guitar as well. I don’t really recall when the first time that I got behind a drum kit was, but once the drums entered my life, I knew that as soon as I felt comfortable as a drummer, I needed to become at least semi-proficient as a pianist as well…and that’s exactly what I did.
Fast forward now to high school, I had already discovered and fallen deeply in love with both Hip-Hop and Electronic Dance Music (EDM), but I had yet to try my hand at learning how to produce (electronically), or sample and I knew that if I could do both of those things well, I might actually be able to make a go at having some sort of career within the music industry as a songwriter and producer. Through much trial and error, I eventually reached a point (shortly before graduating from high school) where I felt comfortable with what I was doing as a producer in both the Hip-Hop and EDM genres and began to release some of what I had been working on (tirelessly) for months on end…thankfully, many of those releases were incredibly well received and some of them were even picked up by media outlets like EDM.com, ThatDrop.com and some others.
Realistically, without those first handful of EDM releases getting the attention that they did, I don’t know what the trajectory of my career within the music industry would look like today. The opportunities that I was presented with and the doors that were opened for me, based solely on the success of those early EDM releases, was invaluable.
Present day, most of my work is that of a music producer, studio musician and songwriter, although I have been on nationwide tours in the past as a guitarist as well. I’ve produced for and co-written songs with artists in nearly every genre under the sun, but my most well-known work lives within the realms of Neo-Soul, R&B, Reggae and Hip-Hop.
In 2023, I launched my very own solo project (artist name Lost Gold) which lives exclusively on the BandCamp platform at the moment. I’ve released 20 records to date and am aiming to release another 20 (at least) throughout the course of 2024.
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?
Reflecting on my career specifically…I think my resilience in the face of adversity has helped me greatly over the years, along with a thirst for knowledge that is never quenched and my ability to network and maneuver within and around so many different circles that contain people from every walk of life that you can imagine.
As far as resilience and the ability to network go, you have to put yourself out there and become comfortable with the feeling of rejection in order to really hone both of these skills. Along with that, as it pertains to networking, you have to realize that every room (even the ones that you’re welcome in) may not be for you and what I mean by that is that just because an opportunity presents itself, it doesn’t mean that you have to take it.
The thirst for knowledge bit I believe comes down to staying hungry, right? I’m inquisitive by nature, so I like to learn as much as I can about anything that interests me, or captures my attention. If you’re not someone that is on a wave of constantly trying to learn, I would encourage you to start setting goals for yourself (they can be daily, weekly, monthly, etc…) and begin reading, watching documentaries about, or talking to the people that are already involved in something that you’re passionate about, or interested in learning the ins and outs and inner workings of.
What’s been one of your main areas of growth this year?
I actually just celebrated one year of sobriety on February 4th (2024) and I think that making the decision to remove alcohol from my life entirely is one of the greatest things that I’ve ever done for myself (and probably for the people around me as well).
I should preface this by saying that I was never the dude that woke up and needed a drink in the morning to feel normal (thankfully), but I definitely did my fair share of partying throughout my 20’s and as I entered what I would consider the tail end of my 20’s, I realized that all of the drinking that I was doing was, without a doubt, doing me more harm than it was good; the hangovers were getting worse, my level of anxiety started to consistently and without fail spiral to an almost unmanageable level in the days following an episode of heavy drinking and most importantly, I realized that my drinking had started to get in the way of my ability to write and produce music.
Looking back on it now, there’s a part of me that wishes that I would have quit drinking sooner, but I had some pretty incredible outings while I was still in the thick of my drinking, so I wouldn’t take anything from that time period back if I could anyway.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://lostgold.bandcamp.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/prodbylostgold_/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/prodbylostgold_
Image Credits
Kirk Cedric Brayden Mills
