Exploring the 2030 Revolution with Dylan Fraser
Photo by Ho Hai Tran
[UNPUBLISHED:] For any readers who may be new to your music, can you give a quick introduction of yourself and tell us how you got started in your music career?
[DYLAN FRASER:] Hi readers, I’m Dylan Fraser. I just turned 21 years old and I’m from Scotland. I’ve loved music since I was 3 years old and always knew it was something I wanted to do. My mum was musical and played in bands with her friends in high school, so I guess I got my love for music from her. She gave me a hand-me-down guitar when I was 11 or 12, and taught me my first four chords – from there, I started writing songs. Fast forward to age 15, I dropped out of school because I just wasn’t enjoying it, and I felt like a bit of an outsider, so I decided to try and pursue music. I went to college for a year in Edinburgh, and then dropped out after the first year because I’d started my own social media marketing business (that sounds way fancier than it was – basically, I ran meme pages on Instagram). I started using the money I was earning online to go to London, where I was taking any studio session I could get and crashing on couches for a while. In October of 2019, I met Jonah Summerfield, who is my main collaborator, and the rest is history, I guess!
[UNPUBLISHED:] Do you think being from Scotland has influenced your music?
[DYLAN:] I think that being from a small town in Scotland influenced my music in the way that it gave me a lot of free time (ha). I didn’t have many friends, and most of the time, I isolated myself in my bedroom and fell in love with the internet. The internet was my escape from reality; it’s where I discovered all of my favourite artists. I had a bunch of online friends, and found that I shared the same interests as these people – it was crazy to me that even though we were from all over the world and lived such different lives, we could relate on both a friend level and a creative level. I wrote so many songs confined in the four walls of my bedroom in my childhood home.
[UNPUBLISHED:] I want to wish you a major congratulations on the release of your 2030 Revolution EP! How are you feeling now that it’s out?
[DYLAN:] I feel really good. I worked really hard on this project and I’m just excited that it’s out in the world.
[UNPUBLISHED:] The EP follows you through the uncertainties of next steps and forward directions as you struggle to find purpose. How do you handle discussing such personal and vulnerable topics in your music?
[DYLAN:] It’s honestly the only way I’ve known to let out my thoughts/feelings. It doesn’t feel scary to me, somehow. I wasn’t always good at talking about how I was feeling, so that’s why I gravitated towards songwriting – it sort of became the outlet for me to express myself. I just love the fact that you can write little worlds into songs and people can interpret them in so many different ways, relating them to their own lives.
[UNPUBLISHED:] 2030 Revolution traverses various styles to create a sound that bends genres and explores new forms of musical artistry. How would you define your music style?
[DYLAN:] I think I don’t have one. It’s just a big experiment really (haha). I think that up until this point, all of my EPs have been an experiment in trying to find myself as an artist. I guess it’s been a bit all over the place, but in a good way! However, I’m working on a new project right now and I have four words that come to mind – but I will not disclose them yet :) Ask me again in a few months!
[UNPUBLISHED:] What was the process of creating 2030 Revolution?
[DYLAN:] It was me coming to London and working with Jonah. We used to block out a week at a time in his studio in North London and just have fun, seeing what ideas we could come up with. The reason I love working with Jonah is that there’s never a pressure to write a song. Some days, I just don’t feel like writing, so we’ll try, and if I can’t get anything, we’ll go on a walk, grab food, or just chill and do nothing. Then, usually, after taking that space and time to just live, inspiration will hit and we’ll make a song.
[UNPUBLISHED:] Do you have any favorite songs on the EP? If so, why is it your favorite?
[DYLAN:] “It Took A Lot To Get To This.” I love this song because it was one of the first times I truly just had fun in the studio. I used to take the studio so seriously, and I’ve realized that the less I can take it seriously, the more fun and actually creative it becomes. I wrote this song with Jonah Summerfield and Rob Milton. We just messed around on synths and guitars until something stuck, and – well, I think we made a Joni Mitchell x Nine Inch Nails lovechild?
[UNPUBLISHED:] Your music has received major support from artists and press alike, including co-signs from Sir Elton John, Sam Smith, Imogen Heap, and more. What does it mean to you to have such an outpouring of support?
[DYLAN:] Any recognition from another creative will always mean so much to me. It’s like a pat on the back – “You did good, kid!” – and that always feels great. The names listed above, however, are kind of crazy – I still don’t know how to process the fact that they like my music!
[UNPUBLISHED:] The video for “Apartment Complex On The Eastside” features you being quite literally covered in trash by others. Can you tell us more about the inspiration behind the video?
[DYLAN:] I just feel like there’s so much information being thrown at us all the time, and we don’t have the physical capacity to store all of this information – it can honestly feel suffocating. The past few years, there have been so many huge historical moments, and honestly, it’s been super overwhelming for us all. So, the trash was meant to represent that feeling of over-consumption and suffocation. Also, climate change is obviously a real thing, so you could take that into the message, too.
[UNPUBLISHED:] As you’ve grown and changed throughout your music career thus far, is there any advice you wish you had been given when you were first starting out?
[DYLAN:] Honestly, no. I think I’m glad I got to figure it out for myself. Advice is great, but I feel that the best kind is the advice you can give yourself through experiencing it. I don’t like the idea of following someone else’s ideology of how they see it fit to live their lives. Do it your own way.
[UNPUBLISHED:] With 2030 Revolution now out, what comes next for you?
[DYLAN:] Lots of new music. I feel like I’m finally making the project I was always supposed to make, and it’s so exciting. I feel so inspired right now, and have this whole visual world in my head, too.
[UNPUBLISHED:] Is there anything else you want the reader to know?
[DYLAN:] I want to live in a toadstool house in the forest. I have ever since I was a kid.
Photo by Ho Hai Tran