Dylan Lloyd Interview

This podcast is being brought to you by WXAV 88.3 FM and WXAV.com. WXAV, bringing the best podcasts to you. WXAV 88.3 FM Chicago, your escape from ordinary radio. My name is Pete, and that was the smooth, smooth sounds of local artist Dylan Lloyd with The Wheel.

And we have Dylan in studio with us right here right now. Dylan, man, how are you? I'm so good. That's so awesome to be back here with you.

You know, it's funny because I have known you, what, 20 years now? Yeah. Something like that. Old friend, old friend.

Old friend, indeed. Back from your days when you were in a local band by the name of Pangea. But man, I mean, it's so great having you in. How's life been?

Life has been, obviously, like, it's just, I mean, for me, it's been, like, at the top right now. And it feels like every time I come back to XAV, there's, like, a new milestone I've done. But, like, this feels really different. Yeah.

I mean, you just had a sold-off show this past weekend. Yeah. Which, you know, how'd that go? It was amazing.

It was amazing. It was my first ever. So it was really sick. Oh, that's really awesome.

And it was at Uncommon Ground, right? It was at Uncommon Ground. Yeah. It was just a great venue, and everyone came out.

It was amazing. Big shout out to Tudepress Kids and the Flips, who are also a Commonwealth Greenwood-based, Beverly-based thing. Yeah, yeah. But, yeah, man, it was an excellent, excellent show.

And it's just been this amazing upward trend for me recently that kind of started with TikTok. Yeah. So tell me about that, because, I mean, you're massive on TikTok. You have over 101,000 followers on TikTok right now, which is insane.

You know, what is it about TikTok that has helped you just catapult yourself? Right. Yeah, no, before we got on air, brother, you were saying, like, what do we do? You're like, I'm 37.

You're almost like a four-year-old trying to figure this game out. So, you know, for me, it's like, I just was trying to follow the formula initially. And the formula was, you know, trends and all that other stuff. Yeah.

But then that wasn't working. So I actually took some time off about a couple months. And I said, you know what? I'm going to come back to this platform.

And I'm just going to do whatever I want. Nice. So when I got back to the platform, I just thought to myself, P, I was like, I have this idea in my head. It's not even finished.

It's completely raw. I'm just going to put it up. Let's see what happens. And I put up this raw idea on piano and me just humming a melody.

It wasn't even lyrics. It was gibberish. And it went viral. So I just followed that format every single time.

I just post once a week or a week and a half. And it's just either a finished product, unfinished product, beautiful looking, not beautiful looking, just whatever I want. It just worked. Yeah.

The thing that I really dig about it is you're kind of like peeling the layers of the onion back. You're showing the follower your creative process and everything. So there's a part of you being really vulnerable on this. Totally, bro.

Yeah. And I feel like a lot of the TikToks I see, whether it's entertainment based or not, there's this like genuine, genuine element that seems to go along with videos that go viral with TikTok. I mean, not every one of them, but a vast majority I see, like whether they're just going to home around somebody's phone or it's just like, you know, real life stuff. It just seems like most of the videos I see that have thousands of likes, thousands of views, they are usually just real simple, real ordinary, everyday life type situation, whether it's entertainment or not.

So I just figured, okay, well, that's probably the trend, quote unquote, I should apply. And it's working for you. Yeah. God willing.

Yeah. It's been amazing. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, not only that, like you were in the top 30 of iTunes over the last month or so with your latest song, So Caught Up. I mean, this has been a killer month for you going on. Yeah, bro. Appreciate you, man.

Yeah. That was out of complete nowhere because I released that record in February of 2022. Okay. Which, you know, obviously in the scheme of things with social media, that's like ancient.

Yeah. Yeah. But if you're looking back at just a, you know, a, you know, a more practical perspective, that's not that old. No, it's not.

It's two years. It's two years old. Yeah. Like just two years.

So, you know, it just got big on TikTok and then all of a sudden it just, there was on the chart. So it's like, I'm sitting here going, okay, sweet. Yeah. That's like amazing.

Yeah. It's like you're left going, where do I go from here? Just keep posting. So I'm just kind of sitting here going, okay, God, just show me what I got to do.

And I'll keep doing it and see what, you know, like I'm just here just trying. No, does it kind of freak you out a little bit? I don't know if freaking out is the right word or that, but I mean, you're an operation of one. It's really you doing all this.

Do you ever get like really overwhelmed with what you're working with or do you kind of feed off the energy? No, for sure, bro. Yeah, no, there is definitely an element of one of one, for sure. And it's even more so in this music business it is too.

I mean, I have a wonderful label factory underground who's, my music is just wrote with Universal and Virgin and they do a wonderful job. And I have a licensing deal with a company in Pasadena who puts my music on film and TV shows. They do a wonderful job. At the end of the day, it is still like a one of one situation because, you know, we're in a music business now where, you know, major labels just won't give you advances like they used to anymore.

Publishing companies won't give you advances like they used to anymore unless you have a billboard hit, unless you have a number one, something has to be going on for them to have incentive to put their money into you. So if there is none in their eyes, then it is just you. So for me, it's just like this, charted on iTunes. That's dope.

Let's try and hopefully get somewhere else. Maybe not this song, another song. Let's keep trying to post TikToks. Let's just keep trying to do it.

Just I'll never give up, bro. Yeah, that's awesome, man. That's awesome. So we have Bill and Lloyd here at WXAV 88.3 FM Chicago.

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You can also follow them on Facebook and Instagram by searching Bookies Chicago. And we've got Dylan in studio with us right here right now. How are you, man? Man, so good, dude.

It's so great to be here again. Yeah, I mean, this is a little bit of a reunion. So, you know, I've known Dylan, God, what, 2004, 2005? Unbelievable, yeah.

You know, back in the Sun Palooza radio programming days when we would have local hours and just you would come in on a regular basis and just kill it every single time. So we've got to go back to the very beginning, man. How did you discover music? Oh, God, yeah.

Well, I grew up in Inglewood and grew up with my grandparents and they showed me Michael Jackson, and he's my all-time favorite artist in everything, business, music, songwriting, everything. And that's how it began. And then when I went to St. Barnabas for grammar school, which was a wonderful choice for my grandparents to make that because they didn't want me to go to school in Inglewood.

They wanted me to go out to a better neighborhood and try to get a better education, and I did. And that really launched my music into another spectrum because I was then introduced to other types of genres that other kids were listening to. So there was one style I listened to when I was a kid and there was another style I listened to as a teenager, and then there was another style I listened to in college. So it just kept evolving as I would go to different places in my life.

Yeah, it kind of became like a little bit of like a melting pot and everything. Oh, yeah, for sure. Because hearing that song, Prisoner, I mean, that's you at the piano singing, and it's very, it's almost kind of like a folk element to it and everything. But then you have something like The Wheel, that's pure Michael Jackson, like off the wall, vibing, you know, just absolutely fantastic.

But yeah, no, it's really been cool seeing like your musical evolution and how it's evolved and things like that. How do you approach writing now? Like, do you go in with a melody in mind, or do you start with the lyrics first? For sure.

So for The Prisoner, that song was recorded and written in the early 2000s. That's a really old song, and the songwriting process then, the only difference between that song from the early 2000s and The Wheel, which was released this year, the only difference is just my vocals, my tone, and the production, and the opportunity. Because I'm a musician first, I'm a piano player first, so the piano comes first, then the chords, or I should say implementing the piano comes first in the sense that it's the chords, and from the chords there's the melody, so I hear the melody and the chords, so the chords attract me first, and then sometimes it's the lyrics after that, sometimes it's the lyrics before, either way, it's the piano always first. So that's always been the same.

With some deviations, sometimes I'll do guitar first, sometimes I'll do, sometimes even bass first, but piano has primarily been the mainstay from then to now, the connecting bridge. Yeah, I was going to ask you that, because you, as long as I've known you, you've always been the piano guy, you know, so that's really awesome that that's still kind of your go-to instrument, you're going home with the piano and everything. Still, no matter what, even though I have a guitar studio today, it's only because it's just lighter on my arms. Yeah, exactly.

And that's right, Dylan's going to be playing in just a few minutes here on the X883 FM Chicago, your escape from ordinary radio. Now, Dylan, if anyone out there is listening, they want to follow you, how can they go ahead and follow you? Absolutely. So, yeah, I'm Googleable, so just put my name in Google, you can find a lot of things, you can find my TikTok, you can find my Instagram, you can find my Facebook, but mainly follow me on TikTok, and follow me on Instagram, you can just put my name in.

Dylan Lloyd? Yeah, I'm verified on Instagram, I should pop right up, and on TikTok, I think I have the most followers over Dylan Lloyd, I think, last time I checked, so you should be able to just find me there. So, yeah, Dylan Lloyd, I think it's Dylan Lloyd 1 on Instagram, and Dylan Lloyd underscore, I believe, on TikTok. Yeah, so that sounds about right.

So, it's just about 3.30 here in Chicago, which means we're going to have to take a short PSA break, but when we come back, Dylan's going to bust out the guitar, and he's going to play for us, so don't touch that dial. You're listening to the XWXAV 88.3 FM, Chicago. Support for WXAV 88.3 is being provided by Northwest Community Credit Union. The credit union helps members bank on their futures by providing competitive loan offerings to help them achieve their financial dreams.

Whether it's student or personal loans, NWCCU offers many products that can be of great assistance. For more information, please visit their website at nwccu.com or call them at 1-800-TO-BELONG. Now, you said that was on Temptation Island? Yeah, man, yeah.

What's it like when one of your songs appears on TV? That has to be one of the coolest feelings ever. Surreal. There's literally nothing like it at all, man.

It's just like, you know, I write the song, I have no idea where it's going to go, and then all of a sudden, it's on a show, and I'm sitting at home watching it on my laptop or my phone or on TV, and I'm just like, I'm like thinking about when I wrote it. Yeah, yeah, no, absolutely. So, yeah, man, it's a blessing. It's like insane.

Yeah, yeah, and just the fact where it's like, just knowing at the same time, like millions of people, they're hearing it. I mean, that's like, at the end of the day, that's got to be the goal. Yeah, it totally is, yeah. And no matter how it is, whether it's radio, it's TV, film, or all the above, that's always the goal, so yeah.

Yeah, now, since we're kind of talking media right now, I've got to ask you this, because I mean, you've been at this for a really long time. You know, college radio, you know, we've always been on the forefront of the underground and the local scenes and things like that. What does college radio mean to you? I actually want to really, really, really get more into college radio, badly.

I have been actually, you know, I'm really honest about talking about this from an honest perspective. One of my weak points that I want to get really stronger is getting more into the college radio scene. I'll just be real with you. Like, I don't have any idea, like, how to really break in.

I guess it's just kind of, it's kind of a different era in the sense that, like, everyone goes right to Spotify, but at the same time, I feel like college radio is still so important and it's still so alive and so real. And it's still, you know, to me, it's just as strong as ever. So I just feel like I need to still usher myself into it as much as I can figure out how to do it. Yeah, yeah, no, absolutely.

Yeah, I'm all ears and all open for every opportunity for college radio. Well, we got you, man. We'll help you out and everything. Now, there was some other big news that happened with you earlier, I think it was late last year, early this year, that you announced you got a book of poetry coming out this year, man.

That's awesome. Yeah, dude, thanks, bro. Yeah, I mean, that's wild. That's a whole COVID thing.

Everybody was trying to figure themselves out and what to do with themselves, you know, because, you know, staying safe and, you know, or just, like, not wanting to go out at all. But for me, it was just, I started writing short poems on, like, trips from my condo to Starbucks. Okay. And I would just tell myself, as long as it would take me to get from there to there and back, that's the poem.

That's it. Oh, interesting. So these poems are short. So this is the poem.

The book's called Coffee Walk Poetry. Okay. And, yeah, there's a bunch of Emily Dickinson-sized poems that are just real, real concise. That's awesome.

And a book publisher picked it up, and here we are, man. It's going to come out here soon. That's amazing. Now, have you ever, like, do you view your, like, your lyrics as poetry and everything?

Actually, that's an excellent question, because formulaic, from a formulaic perspective and from a format perspective, they're quite different. When I write a song, there's a different approach I take to it. Yes, there could be this synonymous approach creatively, but there is a different approach when I'm writing a poem. I feel looser and freer, not as confound to a musical structure.

There is no music structure. Although sometimes, you know, I can have a Bob Dylan situation happen where the lyrics can be just as strong on their own without music, and there's a poem in it. Yeah, yeah. But I kind of take them both separately.

I take the poems in its own structure, and without any musical intonation, then there's the lyrics that are just their own. You have to fit within a melodic parameter. Gotcha. So, yeah.

That's awesome, man. That's awesome. So that's coming out later on this year. Be sure to check it out.

I'm sure you'll be promoting it on your social. So that's why it's really important. Follow him on Instagram. Follow him on TikTok.

I just want to say thank you, Pete, for being an old friend, and thank you to you. Oh, God, it's our pleasure. Nothing but love for you, man, always, and I love seeing your success, and just thank you for having me. Yeah, no, my pleasure, man.

It's always great, like, catching up and everything. We'll probably end up filming this for social or something like that, but I have found an old flyer for a concert that we used to put on at a church in Beverly called Bethany Union Church, and Dylan's band, Angie, at the time, was listed on the bill and everything. That's wild. Yeah, it really is.

That's crazy work. That's crazy work. No, you know what's crazy? That was, like, 20 years ago.

That's what's the crazy part. That is insane. Yeah, and it just feels like we look the same. We literally do, yeah.

That's what's great. That's a good thing. I mean, I've been told I have a baby face. You do, you do.

I've been told I have a face for radio, so, you know, you have that as well. Beautiful baby face. Oh, well, thank you. Right back at you, man.

So, but no, we got Dylan Lloyd in studio right now, and we're just talking and having a good time playing some music. Now, Dylan, what would you say is the state of the Chicago local music scene right now? I mean, you're in it. You're performing on a regular basis, things like that.

Like, how's it going so far? Sure, yeah. No, I mean, I'll be real with you. I need to get more out into the local scene, to be honest, because I've been in the TikTok scene so much, and that takes up so much when you're doing social media, and you're rising in that, you know, media, or in that area.

You just dedicate yourself a lot to that. Yeah. But from a local scene perspective, when I play my gig, you know, and talk to, you know, two depressed kids, and I talk to the Flips, and, you know, they're on the road a lot, and, like, it's as strong as ever, in my opinion, what they're telling me. Yeah, I mean, Chicago's always been a great music city, and there's always, I will always tell people, no matter what genre you're into, there's a show a night that you can go and you can check out and enjoy and everything.

I agree. It's strong. Now, do you ever get, like, a social media fatigue? I mean, so much of your energy is just going into it and everything.

That's going to be draining after a while. Yeah, that's why I only post one week to, like, between one week or two weeks on TikTok. Yeah. Just once.

And I, A, to do that to not saturate my fan base, like, to me, because sometimes, you know, I have respect for people that do this, but I personally won't post up a TikTok a day or three TikToks a day. Yeah. I won't do that. Yeah.

One week or one every two weeks to have my fan base, I'll have something to consume thoroughly. Yeah. And then they look forward to the next post. That makes sense.

And then when they're just scrolling through, they're seeing, like, concise, not the same post. Everything is different every time they're just swiping up on my TikTok. So there's a science I'm thinking about for just my TikTok personally. Yeah, no, that makes sense in everything.

What's that old adage? Quality over quantity? Quality over quantity. Yeah.

Completely, completely. And in a lot of ways, less has been more for my career on TikTok. Yeah. Well, I mean, it's doing great, man.

You got over 100,000 followers. And again, be sure to follow Dylan Lloyd on TikTok and go check that out. Support for WXAV 88.3 FM is being provided by Beverly Phonomart Records. Located at 1808 West 103rd Street, Beverly Phonomart has a large inventory of new and used vinyl records, CDs, and cassette tapes.

Beverly Phonomart also has record players, t-shirts, and tote bags. For more information, please visit their website at beverlyphonomart.com. That's beverlyphonomart.com. Now, Dylan, record store date coming up soon.

Big thing for us music fans, things like that. And we here at WXAV celebrate by participating in an event called Vinylthon. Oh, wow. So I'm going to throw a vinyl question out there for you.

Sure. You got three albums everyone needs to listen to on vinyl. Oh, what are they and why? Sure.

Should I name them? Name all three, name one, and then explain them, and then name another. Whichever way you want to go, man. There's Nothing Left to Lose by the Foo Fighters.

Classic. I think that that record is one of the greatest records ever made. You know, if you look back into history of the Foo Fighters, if you're a Foo Fighters fan. that was probably the most relaxed record they ever made yeah they had left their label they just built a studio i think in their basement did cookouts every single day after studio and had no care in the world but hey we're this indie band quote unquote unsigned and we're just making a record and it's beautiful it's just him taylor hawkins got rest his soul and nate mendel just making a record that is the most melodically entrancing record they've ever put out and in my opinion the best rock album of the 90s yeah totally in my opinion it's so underrated still yeah it was the first time i've won a grammy so there's my that's backing up my opinion on that yeah um the second is michael jackson's bad oh interesting choice yeah that you know it's funny you know i understand you know um you know off the wall completely understand that yeah uh of all the records he ever made but the thing with bad is that michael was trying to push the envelope sonically yeah knew he couldn't go all the way he wanted to with bruce hudin who was the engineer then and quincy was a producer he knew he wanted to do more he could hear in his head but the the state of production then just couldn't hold what michael was doing in his head so he had to i feel like he had to compensate as a songwriter yeah and those songs bro there's a reason that i think five or six of them were top one on the chart yeah it was the first album to ever have five number one singles yeah it's because even though he couldn't he had to compensate for the lack of production he wanted to get to which is the state of the art for the 80s yeah and have to really knock out the part with part with songs i mean there's some killer jams on there from bad uh smooth criminals on that one too yeah criminal uh leave me alone which is actually only released in the uk not in the u.s and that was also i think number one yeah so technically i think six number ones if you think about it but anyway there's that one and um i'd say on vinyl the third record i would pick this god this is gonna be really difficult but it's gonna be on record forever i'd say chris cornell's euphoria morning oh nice choice another 99 record yeah 99 you can see is my year i just love that year 99 is a really interesting year for music it is um i mean the the the underground specifically is just off the charts completely i mean we're two years outside of okay computer but radiohead's working on kd at that time right you know there's a lot of good stuff i think green day's warning is 99 99 or 2000 i forgot which year um but yeah solid stuff yeah because see 1999 it was a transitional period for not just you know production but also i think pop music in general but something about alternative rock kind of stayed in this like place just for a little bit it wasn't like a long time it didn't extend into the 2000s no it didn't it was just a really like quick shot comet type of across the sky quickness of beautiful melody beautiful production they just were i guess it was like you know chris he wasn't in sound garden he did his first solo album that was it you know then it was foo fighters they didn't have you know a record label there was just this freedom in rock with particular artists and they made music the way they wanted to make it yeah absolutely i just pulled it up right now these are just some of the albums that came out in 1999 sure yeah uh blink 182's enema of the state an iconic album great pop punk right there nine inch nails with the fragile totally uh one of the most underrated back albums midnight vultures dude his funk album is unbelievably great it is you have david bowie with hours unbelievable you have uh moby finally making a big with play right which is only right people forget how big that album was that was a huge album you also have slipknot's debut you have the writings on the wall by destiny's child insane right absolutely insane um and then also you have some female apple you have blurb with 13 um brinny spears or anything christine aguilera christine aguilera was uh genie in the bottle yeah you had that you had issues with corn you have first m&m album slim shady first m&m right yeah yeah we're old man but you see how you see how uh pivotal and important that year was yeah so many different at least the most important genres to hold the music business up oh yeah because without those records i don't feel like 2000s would have shaped the 10s would have shaped now the way it is yeah no that's a great point and i forgot a massive album uh jay-z's volume three lifetimes of uh s carter totally i mean that's another huge record that came out um yeah 99's a good year i also saw an argument too 1999 is like the greatest year of cinema like ever really yeah you have like being inside john malkovich you have a couple other ones like critics will argue like 99's like this golden age of film and everything yeah really interesting that isn't interesting maybe because it's just the turn of the millennium kind of thing people are just like you know they were just on their y2k faces like this is gonna be it that was the thing that people don't realize that people were afraid like the internet was gonna crash and we were gonna go back to the dark age yeah they're going to the wall with it so we're doing it yeah exactly they did across all media yeah they really did and everything um and you almost did wxav 88.3 fm we did that big in 1999 but we're gonna take a short break and we're actually gonna play the flips who you played with uh on saturday night at uh uncommon ground up in wrigleyville right yeah yeah it's on clark and the cubs don't one of my fellow south side cup fans excited for the season absolutely yeah number two farm system number two farm they're gonna win it yeah we're just gonna happen again yeah it's not this year it's happening again it's gonna happen i have faith i mean it's the cubs it's the eternal optimist of course actually one of the greatest things ever was i was out at my sister's house with my nieces and nephew and i got to show them for the first time ever rookie of the year oh sick loved it loved it yeah i'll convert anybody absolutely and one of the last ever john candy movies god rest his soul so but here's the flips with uh beach uh bastards here on the x 83 fm chicago and we're back here on the x wxav 88.3 fm chicago my name is pete and i'm in studio right now with dylan lloyd dylan how are you man so good so good man it's been great catching up with you hanging out playing thank you so much for swinging by and taking some time um just a couple final questions for you um any full-length albums on the horizon coming from you honestly a lot of songwriting and some singles coming out actually have a single that i um wrote and produced with taylor swiss producer his name is christopher rowe oh that's awesome yeah he worked on um all of taylor swiss re-releases well with jack antonoff and all of them so um it was an honor working with him such an amazing person and uh i the song's called home and um release date will be soon uh the label will be releasing here soon so you'll have more information on that but yeah just singles for the time that's awesome that's awesome and then uh any forthcoming shows coming up if people want to go and check you out um there is no confirmation yet but because i saw that on common ground there's a metro-ish thing in the works oh that's awesome news so but we will there's no confirmation yet that's kind of in the background but i am trying to play out a lot more chicago trying to get my fans out more because they're wanting to see me now so i think it's time that's awesome that's awesome uh wonderful news going on be sure to follow dylan lloyd on tiktok and on instagram just search dylan lloyd and uh he will pop up and everything man it's so great seeing you and getting to spend some time with you again honor bro thanks for being a friend thank you very much for listening to this wxav 88.3 fm podcast be sure to visit our website wxav.com for more information on your escape from ordinary radio