Q/A: Dylan Tenorio

Posted by Sam Podio in Music

Dylan Tenorio speaks about his music

Continuing the series of interviews with SFUAD musicians, Jackalope Magazine spoke with Dylan Tenorio, a solo electronic musician. Tenorio is a studio art major who has been producing his own music for six years.

Jackalope Magazine: How did you get interested in music?

Dylan Tenorio: I remember when I was into Led Zeppelin, and then I got into Pearl Jam, so there was an ominous feeling that they gave me, like a story was behind it. And I wanted to try to replicate it for myself. So that was why I got my first guitar.

JM: Why do you make music?

DT: I think one of the main reasons I make music is to have a sort of second world phenomenon. Art is one world and my second world is music. Instead of just focusing on one thing, I can focus on multiple things, like music or writing.

JM: What kind of music do you make?

DT: I’m really focused on a lot of electronic genres. Though I could only tell you that I don’t particularly fit a genre. I don’t make music for a genre. I just like to make music.

JM: Why do you like electronic genres the most?

DT: In the analog days of my work, I was working in guitar and bass guitar, as well as vocals. That really got my composition ideas going. So I think one advantage that I love to have is the ability to compose it the way I want it to be. It makes me a bit of a control freak sometimes, but other times I’ll just do random stuff and be happy with it.

JM: Why are you a studio art major if you love music so much?

DT: I’ve been an artist for about 12 years now. So I’ve been doing art longer than music and I call it my second love in the order of doing things that I was doing—writing was first, art was second and music was third. But art has always picked me up every single time I fall out of interest. It’s always been there for me.

JM: Why aren’t you more open about your music?

DT: I’ll do work in the background of everyone and I won’t tell anybody about it. And other times I’ll show friends certain things to test it on them first. Right now I’d say my music is not completely ready. Some people might argue that it is. But I’d rather try my best so that I enjoy my own music so that others can enjoy it.  But it’s almost ready to be viewed by my friends and the rest of the world.

Dylan Tenorio creating his music

JM: Do you only work solo or do you collaborate with other musicians?

DT: I work with singers. However, when I work with singers, I’ll write the songs for them to sing. I haven’t gotten to collaborate with any other musicians yet, but I think I will be in other projects.

JM: Why do you prefer working solo?

DT: I think it’s my creative control over everything. Everything I do has a deep meaning to it—there’s a story behind it and I feel like having someone there to share those ideas with won’t exactly get my true point of view across.

JM: Do you have any big projects coming up?

DT: I just finished up an album that I’d say is the one that I’d like to release called Elicit the Wonders. The other album that I’m working on right now is called The Spirit of Infinity. I’ve also been working on two EPs called Colorscream and A-300. A-300 is really a collaboration with my hall mates in my dorm.

You can check out Dylan Tenorio’s music here!