Music Saved Me.
The only way I can describe is that when I walked up to the microphone, it literally felt as though like I don't know I was there and I was completely naked, and everybody was like, oh my god, this guy.
You know, it was so like, it's so shut Lily nervin, you know.
I'm Lynn Hoffman and welcome to another inspiring episode of the Music Save Me Podcast, where we explore it the transformative power of music and its ability to heal, uplift and connect us all. Now, if you like this podcast, please share it with your friends and make sure you follow us and subscribe so you never miss an episode.
And boy are you lucky. Today we are thrilled to have with us the incredibly talented and dare I say absolutely adorable Dylan Cartilage, a rising story in the music world on Glass Note Records, whose unique sound and powerful storytelling and the biggest smile you can hear it when
he sings, are making waves in the music industry. Hailing from redcar which is a small town in the northeast of England, Dylan's story is one of hope above adversity for Sure, which is the title of his debut album from twenty twenty one and his newest single, which is so catchy. I dare you not to listen once and you will never forget the song. It's called New Day, a wonderful song of hope and redemption. Welcome Dylan cartlitche to Music Save Me. It's so great to have you here.
Oh my god, I don't think I've ever had a better introiler. Thank you so so much. I really appreciate that.
Well, You're welcome, and thank you for being here. Can you start by telling our listeners about your early experiences with music and how how it originally became a source of healing for you growing up in Red Car one percent.
So you know, I guess you know, my musical kind of journeys, you know, is impacted very much by my life experience. You know, it kind of like goes hand in hand. So I've first started out like rapping when I was like, you know, thirteen fourteen, But it really came from like I had a very very electric matic upbringing. I was in and out of foster care. You know, I had lots of things going on at home, you know,
and I was really faced with a decision. You know, it's probably the hardest decision I've ever had to make, which was kind of moving away from my town, my hometown, everything that I've ever known at the age of you know, fourteen fifteen and starting a brand new life with a foster family, or you know, staying in everything that I knew at the time, which was trauma, you know, addiction, struggle,
these kind of things. And although it was a really really difficult decision, I made the decision to move away and to really begin, yeah, I begin again and to start again.
And it was really really difficult.
When I first came to Red Car it was it was like it was almost it was beautiful but terrifying at the same time, because it was sort of like, yeah, just a totally clean slate, but there was lots of people that I cared deally about that had to kind of leave behind in a way or not be as you know, locationally close to. And yeah, a lot of
healing to be done. And so that really was a process of going from living in a kind of inter city circumstance where you know, my school percentage was like thirteen percent, to like living in a very rural coastal area where I was the only black kid in a school full of three hundred kids, and I went to school ninety nine percent of the time and began this musical journey. I started, you know, kind of burning CDs
at that time. I was writing albums, you know. I'll go in between the lessons with a you know, a piece of paper on like the break, you know, in between the classes and be.
Like, hey, guys, I've written these lyrics. Can you read these and get back to me?
You know. And I was doing the school talent shows and stuff like that. But yeah, that's really where where it kind of began for me. Is really that transition which is the biggest point in my life, you know at that time, which was to kind of you know, to start that process of healing and really begin to yeah, begin my life really now.
You you had mentioned you grew up in the foster care system and then you were adopted by a family. You said somewhere I think I saw on this beautiful documentary piece that you wrote songs to speak to your brothers because you couldn't do it verbally, so it was easier for you to explain or express your feelings. Can you talk a little bit about that.
Yeah, one hundred percent.
So the hardest thing about moving away is that, you know,
I had I have a younger brother. But at the time when I moved away, my younger brother was eight years old, and you know, to kind of paint a picture for the listeners, it was kind of like, you know, I was really struggling, and there was times where it was me and you know, in a house with no electricity, with a new born baby in my arms, you know, trying to find a way through, you know, and no matter how bad things have gotten on, regardless of what
I've been through, like when my brother was born, like that was a ray of hope that was like, this is something pure and innocent that needs to be protected, and I can't allow what's happened to me so far to happen to my brother, you know. And so I took this real responsibility, this real sort of like you know, I guess parental type of role or that was you know, a kid myself. You know, it's like it'd been eight years old to kind of make sure that that didn't
happen to my brother. And I did everything that I can. But the biggest factor of moving away was to have to leave my brother, you know, with an uncertain life himself, because it was only myself that was able to move away into this adoption and that was the most gut wrenching,
heartbreaking experience. But I really told myself that if I could move away and make something better myself, that ultimately being a role model for my brother and showing them that we can escape the circumstances and you know and kind of like make something better of our lives would be a better thing than to sacrifice any opportunity I might be given just to stay, you know, in the
same situation as my brother. So a big part of my early songwriting was kind of making sense to that and trying to, yeah, make songs really to speak to my brother, to speak to family members of a children like us, you know, other children that would face you know, crazy adversity, trauma, addiction, and kids you don't hear from. It was really to you know, to give a voice to the voiceless.
And lead by example as a big brother, which is is very powerful too, but you're doing it with music is just it's like an extra level of example, which is pretty amazing. You've described your sound besides creating new musical genres, which I don't even know if you understood that you were doing at the time, but your described sounds hope above adversity. What does hope above aversity mean to you? And how does it reflect in your music?
I think, you know, I think hope of adversity and kind of like the style of music that I make and the vibe that I hope to get across with my songs. I really I'm a big believer in kind of music encapsulating more than.
Just what's on in MP three.
Like I absolutely love whenever I work people at big people, small people, whatever it is. You know, I might just collaborate with somebody I just met the other day, Like, you know, there was a t where I got a cab one time and that I ended up working with a cab driver and he was taking photos and whatever it is, and You're like, it's genuinely like a I am that guy, Like I will talk to anybody anytime and they're like, let's try something.
I'm game, man.
I'm just like, I'm a very people person, and I really see those moments as being like snapshots. So it don't matter whether you're working in you know, Electric Lady or I've we road with the biggest studos and real smallert studies in your bedroom.
It doesn't matter.
Like I always see U, you know, collaboration and also just making music as like a time stamp, a little cap, you know, a frozen piece of time and where that person might be or where those people might be at
that time. Yeah, and I and I really get a real cavarsitism from making music, and I've very much blend that in so I try my best to think about, you know, I guess the landscape at the time and how I'm feeling in myself emotionally, but also in a broader context of all the music that's come before me, you know, soul artists, you know Rufa Franklin and Nina Simone, as Fronk calld Is, like Stevie Wonder, you know, just people who have laid the foundations for great musicians.
And it's given us.
Such a rich variety of history to delve into, like to be able to draw on that but also put it in the context of like, you know, I guess the way that you know Quentin Tarantino, Like I'm a big movie buff, and I feel like the way in which he talks about movies and talks about his influences in the old La cinemas and how he wanted to kind of do his own thing with that and kind of like, you know, take what had gone before him,
but kind of spin it in new way. Like I love, like I feel to do that in the context of the musicians that have come before me, but with my own story and my own kind of emotional kind of regulation. But yeah, in the context of like how I feel today in the world I live in.
You know, well, you know you mentioned a few names. They're pretty big names. Nina Simon, Stevie Wonder. I'm just curious when you would have a moment maybe that you weren't quite as happy or you were feeling down, what music did you listen to to help you to get out of that mood.
Yeah, I think definitely, I think that I think that would be that vibe. I think definitely Kick Cuddy was a massive artist for me. Like there, Nina Simon too, like artists like that, even like you know, Louis Armstrong. And what I would find is that, like, you know, when I was feeling when I was not feeling great, So everybody knows that when you're.
Not feeling so good.
I actually try my best to sort of like sit with that feeling and embrace that and trying to learn something from it. And I feel like, even like, you know, there's been times throughout history or you know, with artists where there's been, you know, horrific challenges that they've been facing, Nina Simone being a you know, quintessential.
Kind of point in case there and just the way in which way she.
Would encaptulate, you know, not not necessarily look away from those feelings or you know, the hardship that she was facing at the time, but actually would you know, express it in a way that felt kind of timeless, you know, and and and it almost gave a blueprint for people to listen to and and to kind of take take some solace in.
You know, you are an old soul.
And so when were you first introduced to some of these amazing artists that came long before you.
I kind of think it was, you know, very much
like in a mad way. My introduction was to music was a bit of a strange one because I grew up in a household that was very chaotic, and I would just find like random, like I don't know, there was a point in time where you know me, you know, my biological mum were living in like a kind of a rave house, like it was a state you know, it's kind of a state house type thing, and there was just like a house DJ and there's just tapes of like random trance stuff and weird eighties and nineties
sort of you know, British pop bands like you know, just lying around and I would just listen to this stuff and you know, figure out. But I think I've always been drawing to that stuff. I think the second that I would you know, listen to you know, particular radio station or you know, somebody would play. I always remember one of the funniest things ever I ever to remember is I remember going to my one of my
older brothers from my you know, adoptive family. I went to one of his wedding and I never forget the first time that I heard it's Tricky by run DMC.
I must have.
I must have been about six years old, right, and I was I was allowed to go to the party my brother, you know, it was his wedding, and so one of my over brothers like, okay, we're gonna look after you and you can stay till late. So I like get in No Bedtime today and then that song I just requested over and over again and was dancing and dancing and dancing. So just anything that I've always been drawn to that kind of stuff, you know where it's people just playing it on you.
Have you heard this.
I've always been drawn to that kind of old soul stuff, you know, a lot of the northern soul stuff.
A big Frankie Valley fan too.
Wow, fron DMC to Frankie Valley, that's amazing that that truly is amazing you you really you know your stuff and all just sup such uplifting stuff. Run DMC was a huge band for me too, so I totally I can hear that song right now.
It's okay and then just that yes, that's d MC, actually believe it or not. Between us.
On a side note, I'm dear old friends with with Darryl Darryl Mack and I bet it would just make him so thrilled to note that he influenced you and and you're coming up through the ranks. Can you share a specific moment or an experience where music saved or helped you through a difficult time.
I definitely think I would say at the time when you know, I did have to kind of you know leave you know, kind of leave my hometown and really kind of you know, leave everything behind. I would say that for me, that's a you know, a big part of you know, my kind of life. And I would say that would definitely be one of the moments where you know, it was sort of like there was so much going on. I would say, you know, such hardship.
It's such such a young age, and I just really remember, you know, listening to Kick Cuddie, who was an artist like you know who I been into rap heavily as you know, starting out as a rapper myself, and listen to even like people like Common or Lupe Fiasco or rappers that were maybe off the beaten track and kind of did some kind of like more conscious hip hop. But Kik Kuddy was the first rapper I heard that kind of was like wrapping about depression or mental illness
or you know, all these types of things. And I was the first time where it felt to me like, you know, it was kind of safe to just like, oh, you know, it isn't just jay Z that I'm looking at or can you wess and these people who were kind of like, you know, they are having a great time, they're in the club, you know that you know, whatever it might be, which is great and there's something to
aspire to. But then there's also this guy that has all of that seemingly, but it's also you know, talking about how low he is and and you know, and how he's feeling and in you know, in some dark topics,
you know. And I think that that really for me is when I felt really music touched me, like really really touched me and really made me feel in those moments that I wasn't just observing somebody having a great time or observing an artist living the best life, but I was actually getting an insight into who that artist was as a person.
It maybe really discover myself too.
You know, how important is it to you to reach people with your music?
I think as much as I hope to. Obviously that's something that's outside of my control, but I definitely would love, like my wish, you know, for my music is, you know, if I have any sort of bearing on that is to be able to offer something that is kind of musically a stude hopefully that you can listen to, you can group to, you can dance to without you know, or get something from without necessarily having to be a music buff or like, you know, something like that, you
could just anybody could listen to it, you know, and get something from it and be like, Yo, that's really cool. But also if you have you know, something else going on, or you're really going for a tough time, or you're just not in a great place, that you can also get something from it too, you know, but it's not necessarily exclusive to that. So I hope would be to offer something that, like I say, sort of stands up in its own kind of musicality and has something interesting
to offer to music. I mean, as crazy grandiose as that sounds like in whatever capacity, but also you know, has something to offer the soul, you know, if you need that.
If you need that, well, how does it make you feel when you witness someone who has experience into that joy from your music.
I think it's a really humbling experience For me. I think that is more important than anything else. Like if somebody just, oh my god, dil you know, this song just did this many streams, Oh my god, look at the analytics on this or this just did this, Like that stuff is great or you know, if oh, he's an award for this like whatever, that stuff is great.
But I really feel like the one message or the one DM I get from people like, oh my god, listen, I've just been going for a really a tough time and I heard this song and I can't even like begin to tell you how that's connected with me or how it's made me feel, because I feel like I
can relate to that. I've been been in that dark place, you know, and I've been yeah, and really that has been my whole kind of mission with my music, and what I'm doing is to be able to give back what music has given me, you know.
So that's how I respond to that.
That's such a beautiful sentiment.
And you're just you're just so uplifting in person, let alone all of your music. What role does live performance play in your musical journey and how does it differ from the studio experience, you know, in terms of healing and connection with your fans and and with people.
You know what, This is a really interesting, interesting question because I think as much as I can kind of like, you know, philosophize about you know, the kind of inner workings of my you know sort of you know ethical or like moral dilemmas with my music or you know, my artistic vision or you know whatever it might be, the cafarts of making music or you know, releasing music.
Actually it's quite quite funny because when I actually began, you know, doing a live show for the first time, you know, just before my first album, and I actually found that I was like terribly terribly, like like absolutely nerve shatteringly terrified of being on stage, like so so bad because not so not so much even performing, but actually like I feel like almost like you know, putting this in my music and putting that out there and sort of you know, putting up on on a you know,
on a DSP or kind of you know, putting up for people to listen to our streaming services or whatever. It is like there's something safe about that, but you don't have that same safety when you're in a crowd of people, you know what I mean. Even now, you know, talking talking to you here through the screen and being able to you know, say that is one thing, but you know, to be able to connect with people in the room and do that is something that I didn't even realize that I was. I was so I was
so so terribly scared of it. Actually felt like the only way I could describe it is that when I walked into the microphone, it literally felt as though like I don't know, I was I was there and I was completely naked, and everybody was like, oh my god,
this guy. You know, it was so like it's so shatter literally nerving, you know, but I kind of but yeah, I really began to kind of lean into that I had a you know, it took me a little while to get there, and it took me a while to really feel like I could have a live show that not only brought something to like the live scene offered something, you know, unique experience for somebody who's coming down and getting tickets, but also I feel comfortable really me as
a person, like sharing my experience as people on stage, you know. And I think a part of that began sort of like being less scripted and like oh.
You know the song one and welcome people, you know.
But actually just being me, pealing jokes, being stupid, like just connecting with people and being myself.
You know.
Yes, definitely I didn't really think about it, but yeah, I mean, you're so intensive in the studio, working with other artists or yourself, and then you hit this stage and there's thousands of people in front of you. It must be such a juxtaposition, I guess for someone like you to do that for the first time, But now, how are you feeling about it when you get on stage in front of people?
Definitely, I'm open with this second album, I can definitely get to the to.
The thousand stage.
Thousand stage not quite there yet, but I'm really excited to get there. And I do feel as though, like, yeah, it's something that I think now that I've done a little bit of, and I think particularly with this, you know, this next record and in this this new music, I think that it's been a learning experience for me as opposed to just kind of saying like, hey guys, you can do this. Hey, you know, there's there's you know, there's the grass is green, of things can be brighter,
you can get through these moments. But actually, now that I'm sort of somewhat there or of you know, kind of come from the circumstances that have come from that, I'm here, like what do I do now, you know?
And what does life look like today? Who am I today?
In the context of, like, you know, running away from my experiences building this new life. Essentially when the spotlight is on, like, you know, what do I have to say?
What do I have to offer?
And I really think that, you know, that's something that I've really become comfortable with and found a way to express.
You certainly have the single the newest is called New Day, and the first thing I thought of when I heard the song. I had to listen to it like five times because it was so cool. And my husband came and I said, you.
Got to hear this.
It's so good. And you know that doesn't happen all the time, just for real. You have to know that that's just a very special thing. But to have that ability and to do that is amazing, And I hope that you have many many more years of continued success
with everything you're doing in your life. And you have to call one of the big morning shows and tell them they need to use this song New Day as the opener to their morning shows because it's just the happiest song I think I've ever heard in my life, and I've heard a lot of music, because I'm all, I.
Don't believe that for one second, and early as old as you feel, girl, and how much energy you putting into this, I'm not buying that for a second.
But thank you.
But maybe we can.
Yeah, maybe this is something that's going to increase global, global production.
Every morning show is going to be made mandatory.
You have to listen to New Day with you getting up to work a construction job at four am. You can listen to this song and everybody's gonna feel a little bit better.
And the smile on your face I can hear it, and I can hear it now, and if you're listening, and if you want to know, he's got the biggest smile and you don't even have to see his face to hear it in his music.
Dylan, thank you so much for sharing.
Your story and best wishes to you in the future, and I really do hope you come back and share more amazing success stories with us. For yourself and for all of your fans who get to hear your wonderful music.
Thank you, Thank you so much, lind to you and your listen it's been absolute pleasure and not only to be a part of this, but also to be a fellow.
Will DMC not to take it?
Oh my gosh you we have to talk after this because I have to introduce you.
Please.
Yeah, he has to know you, if he doesn't already by now. Thanks so much for coming on. Music saved me.