Meet Pàppa D.

We were lucky to catch up with Pàppa D. recently and have shared our conversation below.

Pàppa , appreciate you making time for us and sharing your wisdom with the community. So many of us go through similar pain points throughout our journeys and so hearing about how others overcame obstacles can be helpful. One of those struggles is keeping creativity alive despite all the stresses, challenges and problems we might be dealing with. How do you keep your creativity alive?

Creativity for me stems from all external places. A walk in nature, sitting down for coffee in a busy street, is an instant creativity fuel for me. I believe we are our experiences, the things we do, the movies we watch, people we interact with, but it takes openness. Our inspiration is like a portal, and it has to stay open in order to funnel whatever idea is floating in the universe.

The beautiful thing is that you never know when something is going to inspire you and gravitate you towards a certain direction, so you always have to stay open. This is what has worked for me for the 19 years I’ve been writing songs. Inspiration is everywhere and I sometimes see things others don’t. Sometimes stopping and staring at the world once in a while ain’t too bad!

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?

Being here in California for almost 4 years, it’s been a constant process, this whole making music thing. Hundreds of songs, hundreds of shows, collaborations, recording sessions and events, smiles and laughters, but also failures and disappointment. The whole package basically. I have been making music since I was ten years old, so it’s been going on for a while now. (I’m 29 so the math don’t lie, 19 years strong) This journey is a long one, and there’s no instant gratification to it. The most instant thing I can think of is finishing that lyric or that chord progression that you stop for a second and wonder “whoa, what was that? This is gooood”
We know when we have something special. And if we don’t, we still keep working on it anyway, cause something special is always underway

In these 4 years in Los Angeles I’ve had the pleasure of being a part of a wonderful community (helping it grow as well too), very supportive one and a very talented one. The tools, space, opportunity and recourses to build a career in music have been given to me through some of these incredibly talented supportive people.

The inspiration to come up with a folk/acoustic guitar driven album came after coming from my last tour in January and watching the movie “a complete unknown”. 20 songs were born in 3 weeks and the rest is history. I think major inspiration for me was not just the movie, but this whole folk/acoustic/Americana scene that’s happening in LA the last 4 years I’ve been around.

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?

The three qualities that came to my mind almost without a second thought are simple:

1. being really good at what you do, so when people come across your path, they cannot but not notice you,
2. be open to opportunities, energy, flexible and able to trust something without always seeing it, take that phone call, go to that session, or house party or show, even if you’re tired, be open and willing to be open, and the third thing is to
3. be of service. Find ways in which you can contribute to the community, to an artist who is struggling with that chord progression, the one who needs a bass player last minute, although you barely play bass, the bandleader who cannot pay you, but has really cool music.

All these things come back to you (it has come back to me x1000) so that’s what I would say :
Be really good, be open, be of service.

What has been your biggest area of growth or improvement in the past 12 months?

The biggest area of growth by far for me in the last 12 months has been the production of my music in a full-arranged-thorough demo/finalized version of it. You have to understand this: when you write for 19 years, material accumulates, and this is exactly what happened to me. The few songs turned into hundreds, and now thousands! What was so beneficial about this year was the ability to finally take these songs that already have words and rhythm and melodies and chords to them and bring them to life! Now, for this to be coming from a person who did not even know how to press record on logic without it crushing 4 years ago, we’ve come a long way family, we’ve come a long way!

The most important part is the fun of the process doing that. These songs getting life, pulse and colors, is the most gratifying part about the last 12 months. The album that kickstarted this was my debut record “A friend, A lover, now A clown”, recorded at my apartment, fully under a bunk bed loft studio with me playing every instrument and mixed mastered and brought to life by my dear brother and partner in musical crime Danny Scheer.

This last year has been challenging, but also wonderful and fulfilling on all the new opportunities, music, people and experiences and I’m super excited for the album to be shared with the world soon and for others to experience all the joy I had creating this one in the first place!

Love,
Pàppa D.

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Image Credits

Patrick Tsotsos

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