Dom McLennon on Creativity, Community, and Hacking Music Tech

This week, Dmitri is joined by Dom McLennon, artist producer, and creative strategist from Hartford, Connecticut. Best known as a lead vocalist and assistant producer for BROCKHAMPTON, Dom also runs COURTVISION, a creative agency connecting artists and brands across gaming, education and community. 

We cover a lot of ground on this one, from treating music technology as a sandbox, to bringing music-making tools into public libraries, to why community outreach is actually a smarter marketing play than chasing virality. 

Along the way, we dig into gesture-based instruments, creative strategy for independent artists, music education, and how the history of Black artists reimagining technology laid the foundation for modern music innovation. Dom also shares how he has been integrating the Orchid by Telepathic Instruments and the Tembo by Musical Beings into his creative process in ways their makers probably never imagined (To see Dom demo these instruments, check out the video version on YouTube. 

It’s a wide ranging conversation you won’t want to miss. 

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Episode Transcript

Machine transcribed

[00:00:00] Dmitri: Born and raised in Hartford, Connecticut. Dom McLennon is an interdisciplinary artist exploring creative mediums as a vocalist, a performer, producer, visual artist, writer, educator, and storyteller. You'll see what I mean. Dom's career as a musician has developed an extensive discography, most notably with his contributions to BROCKHAMPTON's extraordinary run as a lead vocalist and assistant producer from 2014 to 2022.

And Dom continues to release independent records, some spotlighting local musicians and producers from Connecticut where he is from, as well as developing COURTVISION, which is his creative agency, linking creative peers with brand partnerships, including with the University of Wisconsin Madison, gaming companies like Electronic Arts and Criterion Educational Brand, Skillshare and the Hartford Public Library.

All sorts of cool stuff. Dom continues to challenge and push boundaries for what independent spirited, community-minded creativity can be. I love that. Dom, welcome to Music Tectonics.

[00:00:59] Dom: Thank you so much for having me, Dmitri. This is awesome. I really, really appreciate you having me here. For real, for real.

This is, this is so cool.

[00:01:05] Dmitri: I can't wait to dive in with you. In fact, let's do that. How do you think about your connection to music tech specifically?

[00:01:11] Dom: Oh my goodness. so I have a really, really interesting kind of like origin point with a lot of this stuff because, um, it starts in education for me. I was fortunate to go to, essentially like a, a early STEM school.

Um Oh wow. And. The classes that I had from like sixth to eighth grade, um, we were given like complimentary laptops to be able to do our studies with things of that nature. This was like pretty, like this was pretty novel at the time. I know this is like, kind of like more of a normal thing now. Like, you know, students like get their Chromebooks and stuff like that.

But this was like back in the days of like IBM ThinkPads and whatnot. So this is like, what year are we talking about? Like 2002 to like 2006 per se.

[00:01:55] Dmitri: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

[00:01:55] Dom: Um, so from like, you know, ages, maybe like. 11 to like 14. I was like really pushed to try and see what I can do with technology as a young person and just like I was informed on so many different things through like, you know, my computer tech classes, but also through having just like a, being a young person with access.

That early internet at that time.

[00:02:21] Dmitri: Mm-hmm.

[00:02:22] Dom: And, um, just spending a lot of time in like message boards and forums. learning about how to produce and learning about all the different techniques from like, all of my favorite musicians and stuff like that through message boards, like, sound Click, and like, you know, all the different types of forums that used to exist back in the day where, still have like, relationships with artists to this day that are like, you know, those like my day ones, if that makes sense. You know?

[00:02:44] Dmitri: That's cool.

[00:02:44] Dom: So, in that relation tech, um, is really like the, foundation of communication for how music works for me. And then also it's my main platform for how I create

Music as well too is all, it's all indirect relationship with technology in some way, shape, or form. I play instruments, but I think that my best instrument is definitely the computer, you know what I'm saying? So in that regard, I'm very much so just like, it, it, it's kind of ingrained in every way of my being.

It's not just necessarily tech and music, but it's like tech and culture at this point.

[00:03:18] Dmitri: Mm-hmm.

[00:03:19] Dom: And, um, a lot of the things that I'm into culturally and also like creatively, like, you know, when it comes, just the idea of creative expression, I'm always finding some sort of relationship between technology in.

Either sound, art, visual art, you know, we were, I was showing you some of the visual stuff that I've been like messing around with before we, before we started the, conversation. So,

[00:03:43] Dmitri: yeah.

[00:03:43] Dom: You know, just in, in that type of regard, those are there, there's so many different ways where I can kind of point to how it's not just the music, but it's the, the tech that's like given me the access to be able to try in the first place, but then also the ability to be able to.

Really just be a nerd and like do crazy research on these very, very specific details that like no one know, it might not really matter to anybody else, but like, it's like once you synthesize that information and then you can make it culturally relevant in some way, shape, or form. That's when it matters to, to other people or to a specific group, you know?

[00:04:22] Dmitri: Wow. I love your answer because I actually didn't know what you were gonna say, Dom, but I feel like what you're really saying is like these are all tools for creativity, for learning and creativity.

[00:04:31] Dom: That's correct.

[00:04:31] Dmitri: And uh, and it's cool to hear that because I think a lot of people see the, things that are emerging in music tech and they think of it as a product or they think of it as.

It's purely like, well, if I wanted to make that sound, I would use it, but I really see you as like just using it for exploration, which is, which is super great place to start from, and I love that you started off by talking about going to the STEM related school in the early days of those STEM focused schools, because it all comes from like somebody, some education.

Institutions, some educators like instilled in you like curiosity. Yes. Curiosity is a good thing. Keep going kiddo. Keep going.

[00:05:05] Dom: Mm-hmm.

[00:05:06] Dmitri: Like, keep diving in. And I can see that in your setup, in your studio, and in the, in the work that you do online and, and all that kind of stuff. And, you know, you've worked with a variety of music gear companies and music education organizations.

I mentioned some of them in the intro. Tell us about a few and what your role was with them. I'm hoping you'll tell us a little bit about the orchid from telepathic, but any, anything that's like.

[00:05:26] Dom: Absolutely.

[00:05:27] Dmitri: Just, just in terms of those, those categories.

[00:05:28] Dom: Yeah. it's been so fun to be able to just find ways to like, really what it was for me was I got to a point, you know, following BROCKHAMPTON and stuff like that, where I was looking at the things that I was doing creatively and artistically and expressively, and I was like, how can I like incorporate into my creative lexicon like.

This explore, like this desire to explore in a way where it's not necessarily about like directly making a. Like a product in the sense of like, this is an album that we're doing a marketing rollout for. Like, and then we're going on tour, and then we're putting out merch. Like I, I know that layout, if that makes sense.

[00:06:11] Dmitri: Mm-hmm.

[00:06:12] Dom: But I wanted to like, expand what was possible for me and how like. I'm seeing myself and also how my part, like my peers and my partners are seeing me because I had found so many creative partners in the world of like doing music and stuff like that, that like they weren't just making songs, they were making, you know, instruments.

They were making tools. They were like doing all these different interesting things. And also just, you know, scrolling on the internet and being like. I think this is really interesting and I want to try this, but the way that I want to try it isn't necessarily specifically for like, you know, throwing it into my album rollout.

It might be, oh, I'm working on music for a film score and this is like the perfect tool to be able to articulate the idea that I'm looking to get across for this specific type of project. And it's like people who are like musicians. Sometimes we get put into like this box of like this like format of you know, you are either making albums or your content creator, but it's like there's a lot of people who are, you know, doing soundtracks for video games and film and there's people who are doing like commercial music and all these different types of things where it's like, it almost feels more like these tools can be kind of geared towards being able to like.

Show people what's possible with sound for real.

[00:07:31] Dmitri: Mm-hmm.

[00:07:32] Dom: So in that sense, what I've been able to do with some of the music brands that I've worked with, um, the first one that I worked with a couple of years ago, um, was actually with Adam and it was this company called Artiphon that he was working with a while ago.

[00:07:44] Dmitri: Right.

[00:07:45] Dom: And, um, we used the Orba. We did like a really cool brand campaign with that, where I made a song with it, and then after making a song with it, I had this mailing list that I had set up. So I went through that mailing list and I found 50 people from the Hartford County area.

Mostly students from different universities and things of that nature. We actually had them come to my studio and then they were able to like experience the product, mess with the song and stuff like that. And then we let them keep the product afterwards as well too. So that was like how we like, you know, pushed that piece out.

But then in accompaniment with that, I happened to be working on a video game at that time. doing like the music and helping out with like the score on a soundtrack and stuff. So I was just playing with the Orba and I'm like, just did a gesture with it and I was like, oh, this gesture based music stuff is really, really interesting and really cool.

Adam and I started talking about it and I recorded that and I sent it off to my friend who was making this video game, and he was like, yo, can I use that for the collectible sound effect? And I was like. Oh, why not? Absolutely. So like, you know, it's like the Orba now finds itself existing in this like ecosphere of

[00:08:47] Dmitri: Oh, that's cool.

[00:08:48] Dom: You know, like people, like people may not know that I use that instrument to make that, but like the people who have been watching me know those types of things, you know what I'm saying? So that's like really cool to me, like being able to like throw those types of things into the mix. And then like in a similar vein, when I was like given the opportunity to try the orchid out.

I was like, okay, how can this become part of like, my studio lexicon outside of just like a toy that I'm using, like here and there, which is like how a lot of gear ends up. It ends up kind of just like in the corner, like after you use it for like a month or so, and it's not really like, you know, it doesn't have that much like staying power for like a lot of different, like different types of folks with various different types of gear.

So with the orchid, I was really like. Very focused on figuring out ways to. Utilize it in the studio and also out of the studio. So in the out of studio way that I found that was really interesting. You can kind of see my DJ gear here and stuff like that. when I spend, sometimes I'll throw the orchid in as an external instrument.

Into my DJ software, my DJ hardware, so that I can use it as transitions in between songs. So like what I've been doing is learning all of the sounds specifically and all of the different characteristics of the sounds.

[00:10:08] Dmitri: Can, Hey Dom, can you describe the orchid for folks who don't know about it?

[00:10:12] Dom: Absolutely.

I have it here if you want me to. If you want me to.

[00:10:14] Dmitri: Yeah. For we, we have video watchers. We also have audio too. So you could show it, but also describe it for those who can't see it.

[00:10:20] Dom: No worries at all. So the orchid by telepathic instruments is this really, really, really cool synthesizer. And the interesting thing about it is it's a core generator.

So as a core generator, the the cool thing that you're able to. Have happened on the fly with this is you can do different voicings, you can do different types of modes of chords on the fly by just hitting one button and then like one note, and then pressing these buttons here that have diminished major, minor sustained like intervals and things of that nature on them.

So. What I was doing with this is there's a mode in here, there's a key mode on here where you can lock it to a specific key and then when you lock it to a specific key, you don't have to press these buttons as much to like get it to play full chords out. You can like program it essentially so that it's just like a one, A one button chord player, you know?

[00:11:07] Dmitri: Oh, that's cool.

[00:11:08] Dom: Within that, within making it a one button chord player. Then you press this, like if you press this, but then you like move the wheel, the wheel will start to arpeggiate the sounds for you in real time because it's going through the voicings. It's taking the lowest note and bringing it up to the high, like to the higher octave.

If you move it to the right. It's taking the highest note and bringing it to the lower octave. You move to the left. Sorry. If this is like a, I'm, I just figured I'd give like a comprehensive explanation of like what's actually happening here.

[00:11:34] Dmitri: Yeah.

[00:11:34] Dom: So then I can like kind of explain how I'm applying it to my setup, you know,

[00:11:37] Dmitri: Uhhuh?

Mm-hmm.

[00:11:38] Dom: So if I'm DJing and I know that a song that I'm playing, for example, is in. G Major, right? And the next song that I'm playing is also in G Major, for example. Just just to keep it simple, right? What I can do is I can use the orchid to essentially create like an audio flourish that transitions between.

One song to the next. Instead of it just having to be, you know, a filter, like a high pass filter or like a reverb or a delay, which like, you know, your traditional effects. It's like, actually these are like melodic transitions that I'm able to create in real time with this instrument. And that's not necessarily something that I can do with like a keyboard.

Like I can't like be spinning and then also like play chords at the same time. And like, so being able to do this with one hand. Gives me the freedom to be able to essentially have this on the side of my setup. Do this while I'm doing this, or while I'm doing that. Yeah, so,

[00:12:36] Dmitri: so like with

one, one hand, you can do a lot more with that device while you're still DJing basically.

[00:12:40] Dom: Exactly. You know?

[00:12:41] Dmitri: Yeah.

[00:12:41] Dom: So that, that's like a really cool application of the synth that I've been able to find that like then puts it in a place to where it's like, okay, cool. Once I run it into here, there's onboard effects in this DJ controller. So I start playing with those onboard effects while I'm doing the transitions.

And then I'm like, wait a minute, these don't have to be transitions. This could just be ambient music. And now I'm making like ambient music in real time with the orchid.

[00:13:10] Dmitri: Oh yeah.

[00:13:10] Dom: And my DJ hardware that can exist in maybe like art gallery space or in like a different type of social third space setting that like creates connection in some sort of capacity.

So it's like, you know, that's how I like think about this type of stuff.

[00:13:25] Dmitri: Yeah, yeah, totally. What I'm hearing, Dom, is you do these partnerships with some of these instrument companies to do the thing, like to focus on it, to learn it, to share it, to amplify it, whatever. But then it's making its way into your creative process in ways that.

Are not necessarily scoped out or planned or even envisioned. It's just like, let me learn this instrument. And then it integrates into your daily creative flow in other ways. And so with the orba, you went from doing this community workshop basically to get young people into playing this. And I know the Orba from Artiphon, like this little handheld device.

[00:14:04] Dom: Yep.

[00:14:04] Dmitri: Many people who got it, it was the first instrument they ever played or they ever owned.

[00:14:07] Dom: Exactly.

[00:14:08] Dmitri: And then you're messing around with it and you do this one circular gesture with your hand that all of a sudden creates a sound that then gets put into some sound design for a game.

[00:14:17] Dom: Yep. And then that, and then that game is like A pretty successful indie title as well too. I like, is it cool if I shout the, the, the game? Yeah, of course. Okay, cool. Yeah. Team Reptile, this incredible studio based out of the Netherlands, really, really cool indie game studio. They put this game out two years ago called Bomb Rush, cyber Funk, and it's, um, a spiritual successor, like one of my favorite game franchises, jet Set Radio.

So like, it's, it, it's so sick. The aesthetic, the style is just like. Absolutely. So on point, they got some of the folks from the original soundtrack to be able to compose for the game. So it's like a really, really, like, it's not just like, you know, a rehashing of it. It's like it's taking it and bringing it, it's like a new evolution.

And I was like really grateful to be a part of it. Like on a, on such an ingrained level because I was able to, you know, not only provide music through like songs, but also provide like, sound design for the collectibles and whatnot, you know? So,

[00:15:09] Dmitri: yeah. That's fun.

[00:15:10] Dom: That's just like really, really, really cool experiences that I've been able to have with like, these types of instruments that like, I'm, I'm looking to continue to have.

So it's really fun. I actually just used a timbo in a film score, and like, you know, like, it's like one of those types of things where it's like it continues to just kind of evolve and expand itself.

[00:15:24] Dmitri: Wow.

[00:15:24] Dom: Where it's like, oh, okay, cool. The application for this stuff is like endless, you know?

[00:15:29] Dmitri: Right, right.

And Tembo is this, forthcoming instrument. It's, it, it's wooden. It has magnets. it's like a beat maker where you move the magnets around. It's not out yet. I think there's a Kickstarter coming up from a company called Musical Being. So you got your hands on that early. Some people at Music tectonics got to play with it.

 it was at the carousel, at our, at our demos and, and things like that too. So I, I just love hearing your process, Dom, because it's. Just, it feels like, you know, I'm coming in here asking about like, what kind of brand deals did you do and what, you know, what'd you need to have to do, have in place in order to do these brand deals?

 and you're really just taking each one as just like that kid at the STEM school that's like curious, just experimenting. And then before you know it, you're not doing the assignment. You're no longer doing the assignment, but you're totally engaged with just creating new art, new music, new process with whatever you stumble upon.

[00:16:17] Dom: Absolutely. My goal in a lot of ways is to make the assignment what my discoveries in the sandbox are.

[00:16:25] Dmitri: Mm.

[00:16:26] Dom: And for me, even when I look critically at the history of music technology, in a lot of ways, especially when it comes to African American art and black art, specifically discovery and sitting in that sandbox is what?

Took a lot of musical instruments. Post the disco era out of obsolescence. You know what I'm saying? Like,

[00:16:55] Dmitri: yeah.

[00:16:55] Dom: These things that were sitting in pawn shops then became the backbone for hip hop because somebody was willing to try and experiment. Somebody was willing to, like if you read Dilla time, somebody was willing to read the entire manual and understand how all this shit works so that then they can use it their way.

Not so that they could use it in the way that it's written, in the manuals, that they can understand every individual component of whatever it is that they're being blessed with the opportunity to use so that they could use it to its maximum potential. And like, that's the philosophy that's like really, really important to me.

And I think that it's what it creates is this environment to where. Like, you know, I, I was having a conversation with a couple of folks about this not so long ago because I brought the Tembo as well to, um, with me, to my music distribution office when I went to go visit the orchard in Los Angeles.

Just for fun, just to show them what I'm like, what I'm up to, and what I've been like working on and stuff like that. So I'm with my partner rep Jordan, and we're just like, you know, playing around with it and I'm giving her a walkthrough of it. She's like, this thing is brilliant. I'm having so much fun, and I'm like, the thing that I've been trying to like get.

To synthesize and really break down. It's like, how do I get this interpersonal experience that I'm having one-on-one with people to like translate to this guy because the phone, the thing about it is, even for me now, I've gotten to a point to where I'm seeing really dope synthesizers, really dope, vsts, really dope applications and utilities for them.

But I'm like, that's cool. Scroll. That's cool. Scroll. That's cool. Scroll. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. I'm, think that in a lot of ways I'm looking to identify much more in an experiential side how I'm getting people who might not even make music at all the opportunity to try to be creative and express themselves here.

Like, I've got all this gear here and I've had all this gear here for a couple of years now. This is essentially my life's work, right? The Tembo was the first musical instrument that I've had that my parents played with when they walked into the room.

[00:19:00] Dmitri: Oh man, I love that.

[00:19:01] Dom: So like, for me, that's like a such a, a intrinsic special exp experience, like a different special experience for me because now my mom knows what a step sequencer is.

As much as I may have tried to show her FL Studio or I might have tried to show her a TR8S, et cetera, cetera, et cetera. Like I like. And then that makes me look at all of the stuff that I have in my room a little bit more critically. 'cause the Tembo is right next to the TR8S. The TR8S on three. On three sliders on three channels has more knobs than the entire Tembo does.

And like I didn't really like identify that because I've been so in it.

[00:19:37] Dmitri: Right.

[00:19:37] Dom: You know? And then when I was able to like look at it a little more objectively like this, I'm like, oh, okay. That's the thing that makes stuff like the Tembo special is it's. Remarkably less intimidating if I bring that to a YMCA versus my Ableton push.

[00:19:58] Dmitri: Hmm. Yeah. Yeah. I wanna talk about that, bringing things out into the community. We have to take a quick break, but when we come back, let's talk a little bit about that. All right, we're back. Dom, you're blowing my mind here. I mean, everything you said in the first part of this interview just really has my brain going.

I'd love to hear about, how you're taking these various new form factor instruments and not only integrating them into your. Life's work. Your creativity, whether it's game design or um, community partnerships and, and working in educational settings and so forth. And I really love what you said earlier just about how what really resonates for you with a lot of this equipment is not necessarily playing it the way it was meant built for, but really like.

 hacking the use of it for whatever becomes creative. It's just like you're, I'm sure the inventors of all these instruments are like, I want to get this into the hands of Dom because Dom's gonna do something we didn't even expect with it. We were more creative when we built it than we knew because Dom's gonna show us how it's gonna be used in the future.

And I love how you tie that to sort of like the history of music and the, the impact and importance of black artists who have. Done that from the beginning of time. We don't need to know the rules necessarily. We just need to be creative with it. Like, I mean, like what I heard you say in the first part of the interview in a sense was like black artists were the first hackers.

They were literally hacking how things are getting used and made into new creative things, which was super cool.

[00:21:22] Dom: A thousand percent, you know? and we can have such a incredible. Like, like there's so much anthropology that like can be like broken down in sociology that can be broken down for like this whole like concept and thesis.

But you're absolutely right and there's like so many different ways where like you see applied from, you know, the concept of buttermilk, to the concept of. The retweet button on Twitter, because that was a social engagement that was not created by Jack Dorsey. That was something that the users created on the platform, interacting with one another, and they were just like,

[00:22:02] Dmitri: mm-hmm.

[00:22:02] Dom: Oh, we need to quote each other. You know, and like, so like there's so many different ways where you see it happen on a microcosm, on a macrocosm, and it's like, you know, it can be. Rooted in survival. It can be rooted in creativity, it can be rooted in expression, but like it's all rooted in like identity really at the end of the day.

And that's like something that I personally am like really, really proud of. And yeah, like sometimes I think that there's been situations where I've been approached essentially. Where brands are looking at me like, oh, okay, cool. This artist can be a great content creator. But then after we have one conversation, you're like, oh, he's a better consultant.

And that's like, I, I love that honestly, because like, I think that there, like, and, and even in that world and in that role there are like. Creators that I know where it's like, oh, pass it to this guy if you're looking for this thing. You know what I'm saying? And like, you know, being able to have that autonomy to create opportunities for my peers and for my community is just like really, really, really, really essential to me.

So that's just like, you know, I guess like to, you know, just add on to that point of how it kind of all feeds and folds itself back into each other. I, I tend to say that like, you know, the greatest. The greatest successes in my life have come from being a part of something.

[00:23:16] Dmitri: Mm-hmm.

[00:23:16] Dom: like greater than, like, greater than just doing it on my own or trying to do it myself.

So, you know, I try to create opportunities and situations for myself where I'm a part of something more than I'm just taking the onus of it being, this monumental individual task.

[00:23:32] Dmitri: Yeah, I've seen you talk about this idea of world building. I, I think specifically digital, native world building. And, um, what you're describing really sounds like I'm seeing Dom's world building of your own world, like you're creating your own world.

And I'm hearing this real fluidity between intertwining music, technology, community. it could be working with a corporation or a platform, or it could be a really grassroots initiative. So like when we look back at what your partnerships were, you know. Companies like Electronic and Arts and Criterion are, are sitting right next to the Hartford Public Library.

Right. And, uh,

[00:24:06] Dom: that's for a reason. Yeah,

[00:24:07] Dmitri: yeah, yeah. Let's talk about that a little bit. How does this idea of world building and the this intertwining of things, come together for you?

[00:24:15] Dom: Yeah. So the thing about it for me is, so the reason why those things are next to each other, I'll be very specific about that, is because they're equally important to me.

 like as the person who engineered the bio, if that makes sense. You know what I'm saying? Um, there's, there's many other brands that I could have put right next to electronic arts, if that makes sense.

[00:24:34] Dmitri: Mm-hmm.

[00:24:35] Dom: But I didn't wanna put a brand next to them. I wanted to put. A community entity. Mm-hmm. And the reason I wanted to put that community entity is because, like I said, they're of equal importance and of equal value to me.

So it's like if, one catches your eye, the other will get you to stay. That's my personal opinion.

[00:24:51] Dmitri: Oh, I see what you're saying. Yeah.

[00:24:52] Dom: And the, and for me, being able to do the project that we did with Hartford Public Library was awesome. So they have a incredible media program that they've developed there.

 specifically an incredible youth media program called Their U Media project is incredible. They have. Full fledged studios, like students are recording there, they're making songs, they're making art like they, they're learning how to use Pro tools. They learn how to use Ableton Logic Pro, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

 and they approached me a couple of years ago because they were looking to expand the U Media program. So that it could incorporate like, essentially like an 18 plus like section for folks who may graduate out of the student system specifically, but they still want to be involved with the music at Hartford Public Library.

So I was like, okay, cool. This is like awesome. That sounds wonderful to me. Um, and they were looking to acquire a grant and. With that grant, they were like, what we need is essentially like how we're going to like budget out what we're using this grant money for. And I was like, okay, cool. What I think makes the most sense is to get a suite of new MacBook Pros that students are able to use and adults are able to use, that they're able to, you know, podcast on, they're able to produce on, they're able to record on, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

And I'll. Actually create the list of all the required software and hardware. And I'll also put some of my own sound kits and like my own personal sound library onto those computers so that if anybody wants to just go in, pick up and play, they can pick up and play essentially. And then on top of that, we created a education program and I taught there.

I did, um, I think I did. Eight courses there. Um, and it was all like introduction to digital audio workstation stuff. So, I take a really foundational approach to my education, music, education based stuff. So I like to very much so start on ground zero with people. I'm like, do you know. Do you know where the play button is?

Do you know what DAW means? Even because a lot of the students that I had in my class, the HPO student is at HPO studios, were, older women of color.

[00:27:01] Dmitri: Mm-hmm.

[00:27:01] Dom: And within that, it was really cool to be able to have conversations with them where it's like, I'm like, essentially it was during the holiday season where we had these classes.

So after the holiday break, they came back and one of the, one of the students came to me and they said, saw my nieces and nephews like making music on like bandlab, and I was like, oh, what DAW are you using? And they all looked at me like I had six heads. And I was like, that's like, that's exactly like what we want.

You know what I'm saying?

[00:27:27] Dmitri: Mm-hmm.

[00:27:27] Dom: It's like we like it, like that connection that immediately happens because it's like, oh, you actually know what we're doing and you're invested and you care. Like, it's not just like, oh, get off the computer. It's like, oh, actually, like let's be on the computer together and try this thing and like see what we can make of it, you know?

Yeah. And then we had folks that were like, you know, doing podcasts like with their children, like in the class, and I'm just like, this is sick. Like, this is awesome. Like, being able to teach them and show them how to use Logic so that they could even potentially like, read books for their kids and have recordings of those books that they read for those kids and stuff like that.

So like, it was just, it was a very cool. Way of kind of taking my brain and reframing it as well too, and thinking outside the box of just like, oh, we're making songs in the studio. We're using these, this software to make songs in the studio and thinking about how everyday people can be using the software as well too.

[00:28:21] Dmitri: Mm-hmm.

[00:28:22] Dom: And how it can actually like improve their quality of life by giving them an opportunity to express themselves creatively, because that will always create an improvement in quality of life on a cultural level if people have the opportunity to express themselves creatively.

[00:28:36] Dmitri: I feel like what I'm hearing you say is that, you know, there's a lot of people in the music industry that talk about supporting independent artists and the importance of independence, but you're going to like a more community level, a more grassroots level, where it's like, well, how do you even become an artist?

You can't even become an independent artist if you don't even have access to the technology or the tools and you're really just bringing that stuff, you know, whether you're. Whether you're going to schools with a, an instrument company or you're in the public library with people who are like, I wanna make music.

I don't even know where to start. it's really interesting to think about that whole conversation around independent artists at this level. It's like at the entry level point, to be an independent artist, you have to have access to technology. You have to have access to learning about how to make sound and music

[00:29:22] Dom: a thousand percent.

[00:29:23] Dmitri: Yeah,

[00:29:23] Dom: and then like, and then in some ways also think about it practically on a marketing level. Put my marketing hat on for a quick second. The overhead of the investment that you have to make on a lot of community engagements is a lot smaller than these major city. Activations and installations that people do.

[00:29:41] Dmitri: Mm-hmm.

[00:29:42] Dom: And the reality of the situation is most of the people who are going to be your consumers are people who are not in those major cities. They're in the, they're in the flyover states, you know, and I'm from a flyover state, if that makes sense. So I, I, I kind of take that personally.

[00:29:59] Dmitri: Yeah.

[00:29:59] Dom: So totally.

I get that. Um, with, within that, like the, the way I look at it is if you, if you want brand loyalty. you find a way to reach the single mother of two that has to go to Best Buy and figure out what she's getting her kids for Christmas and she'll say, oh, I'm gonna go with the company that was at the Boys and Girls Club instead of.

You know, the company and if, and if there's a content creator that's associated with it as well too, even better. But the, the overhead of that is so much lighter than trying to go viral, quite frankly.

[00:30:40] Dmitri: Yeah. Yeah.

[00:30:42] Dom: And it just makes sense.

[00:30:43] Dmitri: Yeah, totally get it. Awesome. Well, this has been so much fun. I've got one more question I think for you.

 if we could widen out a little bit

[00:30:51] Dom: Totally.

[00:30:51] Dmitri: What music, music tech trends, excite you the most right now?

[00:30:55] Dom: Ooh, okay. What music tech trends excite me the most right now? I've been loving that so many things are going gesture based. I think that, um. The idea of music, like musical instruments, being human interface devices is something that I've been like talking with folks about a lot over the last couple of years and like wanting to see people explore more.

And I think that I'm seeing more and more things where it's like, if you press a button here, it doesn't play a c, it does something.

[00:31:25] Dmitri: Mm-hmm.

[00:31:26] Dom: And like what it does is relative to these. Different variables and things of that nature. And I think that that resonates not only with people who like.

Are deep into making music with people who aren't making music because like, we're all trying to articulate the intangible in a lot of ways with what we're creating. So I think that, um, that's a trend that I've been a big fan of is just like seeing things going a lot more gesture based, a lot more surface based in that type of regard.

Even like with this orchid, like, you know, the fact that there's like a rotary dial on this, like, it's very tactile, you know? Um,

[00:32:00] Dmitri: yeah,

[00:32:00] Dom: it, feels really, really good to be able to like. Click that wheel. It almost feels like scrolling through like an iPod like back in the day. Um, so like those types of things, like, like, it, it, there's like a, a sensory, like a sensory psychosomatic thing that's happening there as well too.

So that's really cool to me. Another thing that's been really interesting to, oh man. Um, man, I've, I've, I've been a big fan of the way that I'm seeing musicians. Present their work in so many non-traditional ways. Like everybody's just calling it the direct to consumer pipeline and things of that nature, but you know, people making their own custom USB sticks or people just delivering music directly through a completely alternative format, like a comic book or something like that.

[00:32:48] Dmitri: Oh wow.

[00:32:49] Dom: Those types of things have been really, really interesting and fun for me to see. A artist that I'm a big fan of, actually named Gum, they are making their first like anime and they're like doing it on Kickstarter and things of that nature as well too. So I just like supported that as a like co-producer on it and stuff like that.

But it's like the folks that. Like the, the ecosystems and the little micro communities that I'm seeing around these types of things are like really, really interesting to me. And like the trend of more independent hardware developers has also been really awesome. Yeah. Like when I went to NAMM and I got to see the Rock Paper Series Innovation Hub, seeing like, you know, Blipblox and like the, myTRACKS stuff there and, there was this one instrument there that was like, it was essentially like a stress ball that like, oh yeah, when you held the stress ball it like it played ambient sounds.

And I'm like, yo, this is brilliant. Like. I could see this in every yoga studio across the country, you know?

[00:33:37] Dmitri: Right.

[00:33:37] Dom: So like like I said, I think that the fact that independent developers are getting more of an opportunity to have like a stake in the conversation creates these opportunities for even people like me to try these types of.

Different cool things, you know?

[00:33:51] Dmitri: yeah,

[00:33:51] Dom: even, the, even the orchid from telepathic instruments, it's like, you know, that's like doing stuff like that is like a dream of mine. That's so sick that Kevin Parker is doing that at this point in his career with Tom Cosm as well too. It's like, that's a dream team if you, if you, when you really think about it.

So, and also the, I didn't speak to it specifically yet, but the drums on this, like, there's actually a drum machine on this. And the drum machine and the drum effects on this are like, awesome. They're like so, so sick.

[00:34:16] Dmitri: Nice.

[00:34:16] Dom: I have so much fun. I've sampled all of it and I like use it and I throw it in a bunch of my, my sets and stuff like that now.

So

[00:34:22] Dmitri: yeah,

[00:34:22] Dom: it's, it's really, really cool. But yeah, that's, those are some of the trends that I'm a big fan of right now. How about yourself, if you don't mind me asking, where are you in.

[00:34:29] Dmitri: Oh my gosh. Um,

[00:34:31] Dom: because I know you,

[00:34:31] Dmitri: I am,

[00:34:32] Dom: you're even deeper in it than I am. Yeah.

[00:34:33] Dmitri: Well, I don't know. I don't know. I mean, 'cause you're, you're a practitioner in a sense.

I mean, I know you're super creative, but you're hands on with a lot of stuff. Actually, personally, and I've mentioned this on the podcast, I'm getting into wind controllers. So I, I grew up as a woodwind player. I played the flute growing up, so I now have a small collection of wind controllers.

There's a new one that is based on the penny whistle and what it's called, the Warbl, W-A-R-B-L. And what I like about it is. It has gestural controls, actually. It's got an accelerometer and a gyroscope, and so you can raise the flute up, you can go side to side, and you can twist it.

[00:35:06] Dom: That's sick,

[00:35:06] Dmitri: so in addition, the fact that the breath is actually a very expressive input for music as well, right?

[00:35:12] Dom: Yeah,

[00:35:12] Dmitri: because it's not the same as pressing a button because you can. You can both control the intensity as well as the rhythm of it at the same time, right?

[00:35:20] Dom: Yeah,

[00:35:20] Dmitri: you can. You can staccato, you can trill and you can also blow hard. You can also blow softly, and so at the same time you're doing all these other gestures.

So I mean, honestly, like from when I talk to somebody like you, Dom, the trend that I'm thinking about is wind control is because I grew up. Playing flutes and whistles. I'd go out in the woods and play my penny whistle improvise. I could do crazy stuff on those. And I have collections of flutes from all over the world.

That's so cool. But you couldn't do these things. I mean, even the, the holes themselves have infrared readers on them. So you can slide, slide the distance of your finger from it. And this is, this is built by a guy in Oregon here where I live, that is a luthier. He builds. Guitars. You know what I mean?

[00:35:58] Dom: That's so sick.

[00:35:58] Dmitri: And then

[00:35:58] Dom: sick.

[00:35:58] Dmitri: He's like, you, right. He decided to just like hack something together and all of a sudden he's got a very cool, a very cool instrument. Sick. So

[00:36:04] Dom: that's,

[00:36:04] Dmitri: I mean, when it, that

[00:36:05] Dom: so sick

[00:36:05] Dmitri: when it comes to music creation, that's a, that's a trend I'm looking at.

[00:36:08] Dom: You're reminding me of one other thing as well too, that I'm like super stoked about.

I'm sorry. I'll, I'll stop after this. Okay. Have you heard about the, uh, the demon box from maternal research?

[00:36:16] Dmitri: Oh yeah. Oh yeah,

[00:36:17] Dom: dude, I saw that at NAMM and that's something that I'm like, what I'm interested in with that is like, you know, the whole electromagnetic frequencies sending out to midi CC controls.

[00:36:27] Dmitri: Mm-hmm.

[00:36:28] Dom: And then there's a bunch of visual programs that I've like been diving into. This is one program, this is one really old, obscure program that I found on Steam called Cathotomer, but it has like midi CC controls in it. And it's essentially like an emulator of like the retro like. Analog video synthesizers like, like just the color, like being able to generate a color and then throw a color on top of that color and then have them run like this.

[00:36:53] Dmitri: Mm-hmm.

[00:36:54] Dom: So it just does like weird visual stuff.

[00:36:56] Dmitri: Oh, that's fun.

[00:36:56] Dom: But it's like, I want to like be able to like see what I can do with stuff like that, running into things like that, and then running that into something like OBS and using it as a layer in like all these like visual things. So. that would be nuts.

[00:37:09] Dmitri: So speaking of that, where can people see you in action? Do you have, uh, live streams going on or where, if people wanna find out more about what creatively you're up to Dom, where should they find you?

[00:37:19] Dom: So I'm streaming traditionally on Twitch right now. Um, Twitch.TV/DomMcLennon. That's like where.

That's where you can find me in between the Instagram comments and, you know, the Instagram posts and the social posts and things of that nature. Like I'm actually hanging out on there doing a bunch of different random fun, creative things with my community and whatnot. We also have a Discord server.

It's, uh, Discord.gigi/thebl0ck. Um, and then in block, it's BL number zero ck. So like one of those types of things. but. Those are, those are the two spaces that I tend to find myself in the most at the moment. Um, I'm in the process of actually redeveloping and rebuilding my website right now, and I'm super stoked about it.

I'm kind of keeping it under wraps, but I have, I'm really, really excited about where it,

[00:38:03] Dmitri: all right.

[00:38:03] Dom: Directing that we're taking with it right now. 'cause it's very like old internet and a lot of the things that I've been talking about that were inspiring me being able to kind of create a platform where it can exist that's like.

Platform agnostic, you know?

[00:38:15] Dmitri: Yeah. Yeah. Amazing. Dom, this has been an absolute blast. We could probably talk for hours at this point, but, uh, we should probably wrap for now. I really appreciate you taking the time. I love learning about your vision and just hearing about how you operate. It's, I mean, like, even without even playing a lick of sound, the music on this whole podcast, I feel like my creative juices are flowing with all sorts of ideas about how to restructure, how we operate in the industry, how, companies and artists.

Work together, communities, the role of community and all of this. but it's just been great. Thanks so much for sharing all your creative ideas.

[00:38:46] Dom: Likewise. Thank you so much for having me here. Like I, I really feel like my purpose on this planet is to be able to do as much as I can to show people what they're capable of.

So you saying that in response to this conversation is just like, really making me feel like I'm living in my purpose. And I really, really appreciate that.

[00:39:02] Dmitri: Congratulations.

[00:39:03] Dom: Thank you. Thank you so much. We'll talk soon.

[00:39:05] Dmitri: Sounds good.

[00:39:05] Dom: Alright.

Let us know what you think! Find us on LinkedIn, and Instagram, or connect with podcast host Dmitri Vietze on LinkedIn.

The Music Tectonics podcast goes beneath the surface of the music industry to explore how technology is changing the way business gets done. Weekly episodes include interviews with music tech movers & shakers, deep dives into seismic shifts, and more.