Authenticity and storytelling are two traits I look for in an artist when deciding who to interview next and Dylan Owen checks those boxes and more. His honesty in his music, specifically in his new album, is refreshing and brings you into his life while you are listening. His approach to music is not one you hear every day. I was able to sit down with him in New York City and get to know more about him and the work he put into his new album, Holes In Our Stoires.

Matt: Is Dylan Owen your government name?

Dylan Owen: Yeah, it is.

Matt: Why did you choose to I guess go as your real name?

Dylan Owen: It was probably around the ninth grade when I first did an official release under Dylan Owen. At the time, that wasn't really a trend. Now it seems like a lot of people do that. Nobody was doing it back then. I thought it was something different, and I felt like it went with that my music is autobiographical about my life. It's so honest. I was like this should be just coming from the real person rather than an MC name. In an era when everyone had names like Acrobatic and others.

Matt: Okay, cool. At what age did you start creating music? Did you start playing an instrument first, or was it always.

Dylan Owen: First, it was just writing song lyrics, and that was in the fifth grade. That was probably age 10, but it was just writing. No music at all. Then, over the next two years, is was when I just started rapping over beats. It was "Shook One's" instrumental. That kind of thing. My older brother always played guitar, so I was kind of around his music, but never played an instrument on my own until I was 15. It was really just lyrics first. I think the first things I wrote were of poetry.

Matt: What was your household like growing up musically? Was there any influences in your house?

Dylan Owen: Yeah, there was. Mostly from my dad. My dad would have these mix tapes and he would play Beastie Boys. That was a big one that we would listen to. Then, a lot of just random bands like the band Cake was a big one we would listen to, and Bob Dylan was another big one. I would say Bob Dylan and Beastie Boys definitely inspire me. At my mom's house, there wasn't really too much music. Just my older brother playing guitar. He would play hardcore and punk. I was going to see his shows of hardcore and punk music. Kind of this weird, diverse mix.

Matt: Yeah, I find that really interesting, and especially with a lot of artists. Having those contrast music genres as you're growing up. Then, you create your own unique sound out of it. I think that's so cool. Almost crucial to be so diverse in the music now.

Dylan Owen: 100%. I also think it was 'cause I grew up in such a small town where there really was no music. It was like you really had to use your imagination. It was in the Limewire days, too, so I was digging on Limewire and finding underground rap on there. That was where I really fell in love with making my own stuff. I remember finding a freestyle with Aesop Rock and Sage Francis and someone else. Maybe Slug was on it, too. That group.

Matt: Who are some of your favorite artists growing up when you started to really get into music?

Dylan Owen: One of my favorites was Sage Francis for sure. I still love his music. I loved Atmosphere, Brother Ali, Eyedea was a really big one. A lot of the Rhymesayers guys. Then, I listened to the band Brand New. Do you know them?

Matt: Mm-hmm.

Dylan Owen: I listened to them a lot, and Coheed and Cambria was a big band I loved. I really listened to such a crazy variety. I remember going to see this band Minus the Bear, kind of technical rock band. It was guitar rock, but then this group Subtle opened. This group Subtle, the programmer in it was this guy Jel who was on Anticon, the underground hip hop label. I just remember being super into that. Anything that was experimental and weird. Mr. Lif and Grieves early on. A lot of random stuff I would find on the internet. I had a phase where it was like the weirder it was, the cooler I thought it was.

Matt: Yeah. That's what's up. One of our writers I was telling you about that lives in Minneapolis, he interviewed Eyedea's mom.

Dylan Owen: Wow.

Matt: He got to see the home studio, and she gave him one of his mics.

Dylan Owen: Oh my God.

Matt: Yeah. He was so happy.

Dylan Owen: Yeah, I followed his mom online 'cause I bought a shirt, a Rest In Peace Eyedea shirt from Crush Kill Records, and tagged her in it or something. Yeah.

Matt: Let's fast forward to today. Holes in Our Stories is out. What does that title mean to you?

Dylan Owen: It's that everybody has things in their life that they kind of fall into whether it's falling into writer's block or not moving on from an old relationship or grief of some sort. It's a title that's supposed to be universal. It's supposed to say that we all kind of experience something similar. But I wanted a title that gave you that feeling of things aren't perfectly concluded or complete. My other titles were maybe a little more uplifting. There's more to life. Keep your friends close. This one, I wanted to have a little bit of tension so that's what I was going for.

Matt: For people who haven't listened yet, what can they expect to I guess learn or experience from the album?

Dylan Owen: I think they can expect definitely my classic style, but more storytelling and a little more straight forward, blunt honesty on this album. I use a lot of personal names of people in my life. It's so autobiographical. I think they can expect for it to be just me spilling my guts out, and hopefully it's something that they relate to.

Matt: What was the creative process like? Did you write all the lyrics first, and then work with the producer, or it depende on the song?

Dylan Owen: Well, first of all, for all my music I just work with one producer, this guy Skinny Atlas, and he's my hometown best buddy. We grew up together. He's produced all my albums, and he did this one. But a lot of this, I just started on acoustic guitar and keyboard here in the New York City. I would write the lyrics with some simple chords, and then once the lyrics were pretty far along, and let's say I had a tempo, I would do a rough recording then bring it upstate and Skinny Atlas would build a beat out around it. It was a little less of him making a beat and me just rapping, and a little more of this mix of my instruments, and then him producing around it and then, us adding more instruments.

Matt: I feel like the lyrics are at the forefront of the music though.

Dylan Owen: 100%. Yeah. With some of them, we would record the vocals just over my piano keys, like the song "Mourn." I just played a demo of the chords to a tempo, and I recorded my final vocals, and then we just add everything around that so that nothing would be clashing with the vocal performance really.

Matt: You mentioned that this album was about imperfections. What is one imperfection you've had to overcome or learn to live with?

Dylan Owen: I think the biggest one that I'm talking about on the album and that's actually affected me the last few years is not being able to get over this old relationship with this girl, the character Annie, and it was kind of my first big, serious relationship in my life. I feel like I never fully got closure on it and moved on. It held me back when I was at college. Held me back from embracing new relationships there, going out, that kind of thing. I think that was the biggest thing I kind of regret over the last few years. Because I regretted it as it was happening, but you still don't really know how to act.

Matt: Actually get closure?

Dylan Owen: Yeah.

Matt: It's hard to see it as a whole thing.

Dylan Owen: 100%. So, me writing this I was like all right, this is the last time I'm gonna think about it basically. I just want to lay it down one last time, and admit that I've been not moving on.

Matt: I've just been really impressed by the album rollout. Everything from the graphics to the social media post to the bonus materials.

Dylan Owen: Thank you.

Matt: You're an independent artist, yeah?

Dylan Owen: Yeah.

Matt: How have you handled juggling all that? Do you have a team or do you do most of it yourself?

Dylan Owen: I'm not exaggerating that it's literally just me doing everything, and I don't do the designs or do the photography, but I just find friends who can do those things. It's definitely a lot of selfless friends who are really talented, but I put a lot of work into finding the right people, and having the ideas myself to begin with. Let's just say for the album artwork, right? There's a photo that I took with my buddy, Patrick, who's great at photography. Then, I got them printed out, I ripped them up, I created the physical thing and then brought it to my other buddy's house who scanned it with his high-quality scanner. We really piece by piece put it together rather than just hitting up one designer who can whip something up or something. I feel like I kind of do everything the hard way in that regard, but at least when it comes down, I'm like all right, this is 100% me. I did the coloring on the album artwork myself in Lightroom, and it was the most obsessive process out of anything I've ever done. It was like I removed all the little specs of dust from scanning it. Hours and hours doing that shit. If you can't tell, I'm super proud of the process.

Matt: I really liked the album art. Wow, that's crazy that you do everything yourself. At least then you have–I would say almost it might be a faster process, but maybe not because when you're working with someone … I worked with an artist and he's super picky. We're always going back and forth a million times. Whereas, you doing it yourself, you probably just sit down and knock it out until it's perfect.

Dylan Owen: Yeah. But honestly, it ends up taking way longer me doing it because it's like I'm hard on myself for doing it. I'll also procrastinate doing it for a long time, and I'll feel like it's not as good as someone else who really knows photography or art or whatever. I worry a lot about that. Oh, I don't have the most updated version of the program. For a lot of this album, I didn't even have a laptop making it. It was like I had to borrow my producer's laptop and do stuff in Adobe CS4.

Matt: That's crazy.

Dylan Owen: Yeah. One thing I feel like I've learned just as a creator is now when I work with other people, I'm a little bit more accepting … I'm not as obsessive with it. As long as it's 95% there, I'm good to go 'cause I feel like in the past, I was a little bit trying to get it to be so perfect. I try to lighten up with that more.

Matt: Would you ever consider … I don't know how to even phrase this question 'cause signing with a label could mean so many different things. Say you got full creative control or whatever you want, would you be open to it?

Dylan Owen: Yeah. Definitely. Yeah. I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with labels. I think of it as it's just about your team around you. I don't feel like I've ever found a label team that's been the right people. I have talked to labels and stuff, but I know artists that are so happy with it. It's like they're best friends. Let's say someone like J. Cole. It doesn't seem like he has any issues.

Matt: What if they hire you and your friends to do it. I guess that would be the perfect situation.

Dylan Owen: That would be sick. Yeah. I think the biggest thing I would still want is just distributing through my own channels. I love that it's my Instagram and my YouTube channel and all that stuff. I think that's really important. 'Cause it's like a lot of my fans now, one of my biggest fans found me on MySpace when I was 15 years old, and he's still following me. I feel like it's important to make sure you're being yourself with people.

Matt: Yeah. Of course. If it's not for the fans, it's gonna be a hard time being an artist.

Dylan Owen: Yeah. You can't overlook them just for more quantity of followers or whatever.

Matt: You released your lyrics. You broke down the metaphors as well as a letter. Why did you do that?

Dylan Owen: In the past, I've never done that kind of thing. Those meanings have always been there. This time, I felt like I wanted to make it really clear what I was trying to say in order to do something a little bit different. I guess I felt like it's important to put it out there, maybe to help people appreciate what I'm trying to say with the songs 'cause I think sometimes there might be a deeper context to it. It also just felt personally important to me for people to know what I'm actually talking about in my life. It feels kind of like there's some emotional investment there for people understanding what I'm trying to say. It's like I want to catch the world up on my life every album, and this felt like the big one in that regard.

Matt: I guess everyone interprets things differently, so you want them to interpret it the correct way.

Dylan Owen: There's also a lot that connects on the album that I wanted people to hear. The songs interweave together and everything.

What's the next adventure for Dylan Owen?

Dylan Owen: Well, hopefully a tour that I'm working on setting up now. Then, I want to do a small EP at some point later this year. I already have three of the songs recorded. Just looking for a fourth song, and then producing them and everything. I want to start just dropping more music, playing more shows, not taking four years on an album ever again. It's just too long of a process.

Matt: For the EP that you're working on, is it a similar sound or are you gonna try to switch it up a little bit?

Dylan Owen: It actually is a little bit different. It's a little more soulful with live instruments, I guess is the way to describe it. It's just kind of a little more alternative and experimental for lack of a better term. One of the tracks is just me playing guitar and smacking the guitar as percussion. That kind of thing. It's a little different, but lyrics-wise pretty similar. I'm singing a little more on it, too. Yeah. Yeah, hopefully, you like it. Hopefully, everybody likes it.

Connect with Dylan Owen
www.dylanowenmusic.com
Facebook.com/dylanowenmusic
Twitter.com/DylanOwenmusic
Instagram.com/dylanowenmusic
Youtube.com/user/DylanOwenMusic
Soundcloud.com/dylanowenmusic