Welcome to the world of Damien Styles, a one of a kind artist whose music transcends mere melodies. A true renaissance soul, Damien Styles craft revolves around infusing poetry into his compositions. His music is evocative narratives intricately woven with unparalleled attention to detail. Each lyrical line and haunting melody effortlessly invite listeners to connect with raw emotions. Driven by an ardent desire to inspire and reveal his soul, Damien Styles artfully transforms past loneliness and isolation into a beacon of hope. Through his music, he showcases the transformative power of channeling anguish and anger into healing and forgiveness. Even in his music videos and cover arts, Damien Styles meticulous attention to detail constructs immersive worlds. Dive into our interview below to discover more about this compelling artist.
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RIPDAYDREAM: I am super excited to do this interview and was showed your music from an artist named YungSlipup. I was first drawn in from your visuals, but stayed for the music. Before we discuss your songs will you dive into who Damien Styles is and what you're all about?
Damien Styles: Damien Styles is an all around artist. It's not just about the music. It's the poetry within the music, the world building in the music videos, attention to detail with the cover art, all that. I was put here to create, and specifically to create HONEST art that others could relate to. Dark, light, and everything in between. Damien Styles puts his whole soul on display piece by piece, and that's what the fuck I'm about. I want to inspire others who felt like I felt as a kid. Alone as fuck. Far from God and far from people, and I want to help them grow from that state of rage and sorrow and learn to forgive, heal, and become better. So that they can play THEIR role on this planet to the fullest extent as well.
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RIPDAYDREAM: I always like to learn more about themes or subjects that often inspire an artists songwriting. Do you draw from personal experiences, hardship, or just let it flow when you get up to the mic?
Damien Styles: Everything I write is real shit. The majority of it is personal shit I've been through because music has always been my outlet to blow off steam, but it can also be something I saw one of my friends go through or something. And there's probably times where it's a made up scenario in my head too, but who's to say that's any less real? Why is our outer world thought to be so much more "real" than our inner world? I don't think that's the case. But to be honest, since 99% of my music is off the top of my head and not premeditated, I don't know exactly what I'm talking about a lot of the time. I just allow the words to flow as they want to, and then a few months down the road I'll listen to the song and it will all make sense. It's been sorta prophetic in that way. Either speaking things into existence, or it's like my subconscious is admitting things that I don't consciously understand to be true until much later. Shit's wild.
RIPDAYDREAM: I am in awe with your voice. I like to call it a "magic voice" and you just hit every pocket flawlessly in your music. How do you feel your music has evolved over the course of your career or from your earlier works?
Damien Styles: Man that's actually really crazy, I super appreciate you saying that. I used to believe I couldn't sing at all. And honestly I was kinda right. That's not something that came naturally to me. For the majority of my music career I was strictly rapping. But I've always been inspired by bands like My Chemical Romance, Nirvana, all that type shit. I just didn't think I could do what they did even though I really wanted to. But around 2016 I started playing with heavy autotune and doing more melodic rap, and I just kept pushing it further and further until I liked my singing voice. Which really only started happening this year for me. When I listen to a lot of my old vocals I cringe so hard. But it's also really beautiful to see the progression. Beyond just the transition into singing though, my music has evolved in so many ways. When I met my producer Gabriel Alexander, it was like I met my match. No ideas I had were too crazy for him, and that's something I'd been searching for for a LONG time. So we really started bending the idea of genre together and pushing limits, and there's so many songs both released and unreleased that are just fucking crazy. I wanted to see how far I could push music. And now I'm at a point of dialing back and being more precise with what the SONG wants to be. But I feel like I can only do that because of how much I've experimented.
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RIPDAYDREAM: What challenges have you faced in maintaining your artistic identity while experimenting with new sounds or styles?
Damien Styles: To be honest that's never really been a challenge for me. I feel like as long as I'm honest with whatever I say on a record, I can maintain my artistic identity even if it's a fucking disco song. The genre is the least important part to me. It's more about whatever captures my feeling or emotion best. I will say though, there's been a couple times throughout my career where I compromised on my morals and lessened my artistic integrity that way, and I'll never do that shit again. The main example would be Condom Song. I fucking hate that song. In the Studio, Sueco was really pushing for me to say the line "Met her last night, same night piped down." And every time I would try to rework that line, he was like "bro you should say this" and I ended up folding and saying that shit even though it doesn't apply to my life at all. The only girl I've ever fucked is my wife. But yeah, you live and you learn.
RIPDAYDREAM: I have a background in directing music videos and every visual you have is so creative. Do you use a lot of your own ideas or work with specific creatives?
Damien Styles: Thank you!! I creative direct, direct, color, and edit all my music videos. It's low-key my favorite part of all this shit. I get to express myself in such a beautiful way, but I'm definitely only able to do that because of the talented motherfuckers I have around me. The main one is my homie Payton Lewis AKA Requiem Shoots. He's been doing almost all my videos ever since 'Bad Bitch Energy', and beyond being one of my best friends, he just really understands and is willing to do WHATEVER it takes to bring my vision to life. We always say "anything for the shot", and we both mean that shit. We've broken into places, stood on sketchy ass platforms, and done all types of crazy shit to get the right shots. One time Payton laid across the hood of the car going 40MPH blowing stop signs to get a shot of me hanging out the window for 'Ink Therapy' because we didn't have a car mount. We're always working with no budget and having to innovate. I also really appreciate the fuck out of him because he believes in me so much dude. Like he will pay his OWN way to travel just to get a shot for a music video. Shit like that. I can't wait to blow up and give him a fucking BAG, but other than him there's also my homie Jacob Clark who we call for help on almost every shoot. He's insanely talented and knowledgeable about camera gear, settings, lighting, all the shit we know nothing about. He's also crazy with the color grade. And there's my homie Cody Morgan aka V3 who is an all around fucking genius. He's cold with VFX, and he's just one of the most innovative thinkers and creative people I've ever met in my life. He's a true DaVinci. So having those three people around me really really makes this shit special and allows me to bring my vision to life. I'm insanely blessed and grateful.
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RIPDAYDREAM: What do you hope listeners take away from your music?
Damien Styles: I hope by the time my song is over they understand that everything is gonna be okay. That even if shit feels fucked up right now, it's just a season. Just like every other dark season before that eventually ended. I hope they feel less alone, and more understood. Like somebody cares. Because I do. I hope they believe in themselves more. I hope me sharing my story and my struggles inspires them to believe that they can overcome their own adversity. I hope I inspire people that take this shit way farther than I ever could.
RIPDAYDREAM: What can fans expect from you in the near future? Any hints at upcoming projects or collaborations?
Damien Styles: I got a couple dope collaborations about to come out. I don't do too many of those at the moment. I'm definitely open to it, but I don't believe in collaboration for the sake of collaboration or monetary gain or whatever. I only want to have someone on my song if they can make it better than I could alone. I only want to feature on someone's song if I can make that shit better than it was before. But there's definitely a few artists that I dream of working with one day. I don't think I'll mention them though... When it happens, I'll just nod to this interview haha. But yeah, I'm working on a very special album right now. I scrapped an entire 17 track project to work on this new one because I had to follow my heart. So just know, when this shit drops, it's gonna be pure. It's gonna be honest, and it's gonna be me.
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