Craft footnotes: Dmitri Winters, music, and politics

you call me Dimitri this is a good this

interview I would say it's anything that

comes from your imagination that you

were able to turn into a reality and I

mean everything starts with the idea a

lot of people have ideas but it's the

craft are you able to execute the idea

are you able to turn it into something

real and that's fine if you're not

initially able to do something you know

you shouldn't feel you shouldn't put

yourself down if you're not able to

execute that perfect craft I think

that's a lot of that's a struggle that a

lot of us have because we'll have idea

for something I mean I don't have idea

for a song but I'm trying to make and

once I try to bring it into real life it

just won't come out how I thought it

would in my head and that's fine

everything starts with the idea you got

to give it a million tries before you

can execute the idea I feel like you

should never feel done because your song

didn't end up working out you should

just move move right on

maybe ree-ree visualize it if you want

but you don't even have to you just

sculpt a new idea I mean that's not

everyone is that's how Steve Jobs

function that's how I'm pretty sure all

of the people who have really created

something throughout our history have

functioned roars the response of your

friends and fun how did they when you

start making music how did they respond

to it did they support you did they give

the criticism what what was that like my

mom tried to hide my equipment away at

some points because I was getting behind

in school I always found it though so

rahowa just hold her you and you started

high school when I was in middle school

when I started well I really like

started seeing history using throughout

high school actually I wrote my first

song I would say I was about seven years

old when I wrote my first song but it

was more of a alternative alternative

type of song um it was I was just

influenced by rock music always but like

rock stars out here I would hear a few

of them through my friends through their

like Guitar Hero systems because

at my own at the time and not had an

uncle who put me onto Michael Jackson at

the time and after that I would be

always trying to like moonwalk in

everything so feel like that's where I

got some of that inspiration from I

started I didn't start anything until

eighth grade because I didn't really

know I didn't have any family doing

music I didn't have any I didn't know

how to make a song I didn't know you

love to make this on a mic I didn't know

any of that

so it wasn't until later that um I

really just started asking around asking

people how how you get into it

so then had ninth grade on freshman year

I told the same friends that we should

get a mic and we should start doing this

for real but we should have some kind of

message behind our songs we should make

something like poetic because at that

time we were um I was really into toss

at that time so I have all these faces

I'll just be into I'll be like super

into someone at one point right now I

just take influence from all those

people from all the people from that

time and I love some of the new artists

as well but at the time I told my

friends we should get a mic and we

should start doing this ourselves

so I asked my mom to drive me to Best

Buy and to pay for my mic I told about

pay her back I don't think I ever did

pay her back but so she bought me the

mic and I told my friends like alright

just give me one third of the cost it

was $100 um for a few weeks they told me

they won't give it to me they never did

that's how I kept the mic I feel like

that's like a great like credibility to

some how I started because I just always

force to keep them my sister on the

garage band it was on audacity oh that's

so I learned how to use that I would

have to one take the songs cuz I didn't

even know how to like double track them

or anything so it's like in the song you

could hear me like gasping for breath

but some new equipment is still the same

equipment I have today it was a rode

nt1-a Mike and I just been using that

process no I just be recording songs

right here so you learned how to produce

your own beats or do you use YouTube I

use YouTube meat and the time you ever

get called out for it that's cool

nobody really knows nobody knows I'm

using you to be

originally produced we were you known as

the ya-ya rapper guy yeah it's because I

was doing rap battles over in school

that's how I started so you started

freestyling yeah how was that like um

it's kind of scary because you know like

in a suburban school whoever would be in

the rap battles like um they were people

would be surrounding like the whole

audience like though everyone would be

like gathered up around some people

rapping or whatever I remember there was

some other other dudes that were like

good like they knew what they were doing

then that continued into high school

that was in high school that was nice I

was in high school when I get up in

front of people it's like not really

natural for me I don't really feel like

I'm in my habit I review like that you

know it's like with me it's like I'm

thinking about all these people watching

me right now so it's like am I gonna do

and well I look like a fool if I do this

well I look like a fool if I dance along

with the beat something like that you

know that's why I prefer um I just

preferred like being in the studio but

if I get the chance to go up in front of

people that I definitely got something I

want to work on did you ever think you

were in the deep mo movie at any point

little bit yeah yeah how would you

describe your music I can go from

anywhere from like the 60s and combined

that kind of kind of take that energy

from like a 60s vibe and combined it

with the energy of like a 90s vibe so it

would be something like that I can do

modern stuff I would want to infuse all

that with the modern sound because it's

constantly evolving I think in some way

we do have to keep up with the trends if

we want to see our music really succeed

but I think there's really no boundaries

as far as your process do you can droid

Wade you type it right you're always

Kendra oh yeah worries though um you

know when you're on when you're typing

it's like a million

things that you could be doing with your

phone or your computer when your hand

right it's more natural I would say it's

just um you know you don't feel like

you're attached to a screen it's like

time can just go by and go by you will

really be distracted by whatever

notification you're getting anything of

that sort I wouldn't limit myself to

just writing songs I would be writing

everything all over the place I like

writing stories and poems and everything

so I would always look forward to that

what are the non music influences that

influence your music not music

influences public Umaga dolly in there

mom and I leave out the mics why Malcolm

X and earlier America I feel like it's

something very mama but mom would I'll

leave her for specifically because

Muhammad Ali was a boxer and when the

influence he carried II was able to

really make a difference in our country

without holding some type of like

political position or anything of the

sort I believe that we make up the

country so it always it doesn't need to

be necessarily somebody who holds power

somebody who holds some kind of position

we need who can make a political

difference in our world because mama

dolly was able to shift all of our

attitudes which is something I hope I

can do in the future do you ever get

pulled over with your music

I wouldn't say I'll write political I

would say more of I would describe it as

more of a animal farm type situation so

I don't think I'll ever like blatantly

say anything if I have something to say

that would disguise it or manure just

frozen

it's just um I don't want to be like

forced into a category anything in this

work I would disguise it so that you

could maybe um and if I were to disguise

it put it on a smaller scale something

that's more applicable to your life as

in metaphors then I think I could appeal

better to somebody than just going out

right against someone or going out right

political with it it's either your right

or your left is it's kind of like nobody

is really even considered

like middle grounds anymore I think it's

just too much division between the left

and the right and this always gonna

cause problems and it's a lot of the a

lot of the scenarios are things that are

created within our own cultures within

our own societies I mean we don't really

need to argue as much as we do over

things that are so blatantly visual I

would say I mean we have a lot of

arguments over we have a lot of

monuments over things like I'm not gonna

get political I'm not gonna give an

example because I don't want to hold

some type of reception but like I feel

like we're fighting just to fight just

divide each other does music have a

place and solving that conflict between

the right and the left absolutely

um I mean it's always been something

it's always been filmed it's always been

I don't think we had too much political

music in the early development of I

would say the break of American culture

where you had where you got all the

film's in music coming in that one same

you got so much politics and that but

you can always see it through films or

you could always see it through writing

books poetry anything of that sort you

can always see some kind of political

input so I think nowadays I mean

especially went the Motown went Motown

came about there was a lot of politics

in music you can hear and doing Marvin

Gaye here at their Stevie Wonder that's

something I think plays a very large

part because ultimately the government

would be nothing without the people's

opinions America would be nothing

without the people's opinions so to have

positive forces and positive light

within entertainment is very important

in directing people to think a certain

way thank you

three three of course thank you for

having let's gear up

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