Episode 251
MUSIC PANEL: Kevin Dorin, Gabe Furtado, and Teedeevee
MUSIC PANEL: Process, Inspirations, and Collaborations
with Kevin Dorin, Gabe Furtado, and Teedeevee
In this episode, host Mark Stinson brings together a panel of talented singer-songwriters, musicians, and producers to discuss their creative processes, inspirations, and collaborations. Joining the conversation are Kevin Dorin, Gabe Furtado, and Teedeevee, who share insights into their current projects and the multifaceted nature of their creative pursuits.
Current Projects:
· Kevin Dorin: "I've been focusing on performing and writing, but I also work as a music business consultant and manage a beautiful venue in northern Idaho called The Hive."
· Teedeevee: "I'm working on a collaborative project with a fellow Nigerian artist, aiming to create a unique love and loss story through our music. We're dropping an EP next month and working on promotions and marketing to create a niche for our music."
· Gabe Furtado: "I just released a collaboration with a Nigerian artist called 'Green Lights' and have an upcoming release of the Lux version of my album 'Flowers.' I'm also launching my book 'Living Flourishing' and music videos."
Inspiration:
· Gabe: "I draw inspiration from a wide range of music genres, allowing me to write about self-love, losses, and romantic experiences. I believe in writing about anything and everything that inspires me."
· Kevin: "I always try to serve the song and its intent. Whether it's producing my own music or working with others, I focus on bringing out the essence and connecting with the audience."
· Teedeevee: "My lyrics are deep and meaningful, touching on topics such as love, hope, and not giving up. I strive to deliver powerful messages while also creating music that makes people move and feel good."
· Gabe Furtado: "I find that dancing around the house gets me in a more creative spirit. Movement and embodiment play a significant role in connecting with the music and enhancing the creative process."
Collaboration:
· Kevin: "Collaboration has been crucial in shaping my work. Living with fellow musicians during my music school days exposed me to different styles and creative processes, influencing my own approach."
· Teedeevee: "Collaborating with others helps me explore new perspectives and bring fresh ideas to my music. It enriches the creative process and expands the depth of my artistry."
· Gabe: "Collaboration allows us to tap into diverse influences and create something unique. It's a reminder that while we may be individual artists, the collaborative spirit brings out the best in our work."
Conclusion:
In this engaging panel discussion, Kevin Dorin, Gabe Furtado, and Teedeevee share their experiences and perspectives as singer-songwriters and musicians. From their diverse inspirations to the importance of collaboration, their stories offer valuable insights into the creative process and the path to success in the music industry.
Tune in to gain a deeper understanding of how these artists unlock their creativity and connect with their audiences.
Music tracks are copyrighted, provided by the artists, and used with permission.
Transcript
auto generated transcript
Mark Stinson, host: [:I'm so glad to create a panel discussion among. Singer, songwriters, musicians, producers, the, these guests have a lot of slashes in their titles. They combine a lot of creativity into their work, and so we're gonna talk about what they're working on and their processes and how they collaborate. I'm so glad today to have Kevin Doran, Gabe Furtado, and Teedeevee.
Welcome to the show folks. Hi. Thank you for having us. Hi. How you guys doing? Yeah I can't wait to compare notes. Maybe we'll just start by a little foundation about what you're working on now. Kevin, could we start with you?
n Dorin, guest: Yeah, thanks [:I've been trying to take some of those slashes out of out of how I present myself. I went to music business school about 15 years ago in Toronto. I got into the management side. I had managed bands. I did almost every other role. I worked for some producers who had some fantastic careers with artists on Atlantic Records and Big Machine.
I managed some bands that won a ton of money. $200,000 in grants. And then I kept hearing from people like, you should be on stage. Why are you doing all this backend music business stuff? And I've been focusing on that for the last 10 years and although I perform, and that's predominantly what I do now, and I write and I produce for people I am a music business consultant.
tually the deadline for this [:We've already got 50 submissions and musicians are generally procrastinators, so we expect a hundred and 150 more submissions at least. And that's really cool. I've just been enjoying listening to those songs this week. Oh,
Mark Stinson, host: fantastic. Teedeevee, welcome to you.
Teedeevee, guest: Yeah basically like you said earlier we wear the suit in and,
but I've been working on couple of store. I've been working on a project over the years, over, I think I've been working on this project for about, about many months now. And is the collab, is the collaboration of songs. Is the collaboration between myself and from Nigeria, my fellow Nigerian artist.
. We are, we're dropping the [:Everything is set. We are ready to go. Trying to work on Promotionals, trying to work on marketing and trying to work on other stuffs like that that, that's going to measure up with the music and trying to create a niche for the kind of music we want to draw. Cause it's not something that comes out every time.
It's not something that comes out every year. Something that comes out once in the blue moon. So we're trying to create a unique experience. We are trying to create a unique experience through the album. Cause it's an album that, that will puts in a lot of sweats, a lot of money, a lot of label, a lot of everything.
So I, that's currently what we're working on and I think of some other stuff I'm working on aside from music as you all know as Mark knows I'm a lawyer so I'm working on my leg up profession from currently. I also ink some motor induc. I'm putting that into all my plans, and basically I'm just good like everyone
Mark Stinson, host: else.
ight. Great to have you. T D [:Gabe Furtado, guest: Oh my gosh. So good to be back. Thank you. And I have a lot going on, which is surprising cuz I was like, I don't think I do have a lot. And then I was like, no, actually I do. I just released a collab with also Nigerian friend, Ru Trus, it's called Green Lights.
ew years, and I have my book [:So I have the golden number one, which is the one that people were like asking for and I was like, okay, I'll give it to you. So that's exciting. And it's coming out this Friday, the 26th.
Mark Stinson, host: Fantastic. Yeah. All of these are great songs. Gabe, you put together a nice collection. Yeah. Super. Gabe, continuing on that thought, you were talking about some of the life experiences that maybe contributed to your music.
What do you feel like from a creativity standpoint has influenced your style or your lyrics or your story the most and what could we learn from that?
p bangers, like on the radio [:Self love experience and about like my losses too. So not just like romantic ones, like when I lost my dad and I like literally started my music career because of that, like with last Goodbye that my debut be single. So I learned that I can and I will write about like anything and everything that will inspire me somehow.
Yes. So I just channel it and I. Play the chords and I'll sing whatever comes out of my
ed singer songwriter, ballad [:How do you blend all these influences and what's come up for you in terms of producing the music?
Kevin Dorin, guest: I always try and serve the song that's I had some really fantastic mentors when I was going to music business school. Some of 'em have written, billboard charting top 10 songs.
And I listened to their advice and I took it to heart. And the number one consensus I got from multiple different influences was to serve the song. And so that's what I've always done. The best songs that I've had, one of my favorites that I've ever written is called Sunshine. And it's one of these that you just reach up and grab it in a moment, from whatever you consider e either, some people call it the, either, and and that one came to fruition in two or three minutes.
s the topic of it. And so we [:We've got two different versions. I have one that's on my latest sort of Americana EP called Invisible Lines, and we also produced another version on our bigger Fish and guns alt rock record. And that song's done really well. I think it made the finals in the singer songwriter section of the Unsigned Only, which is a big songwriting competition.
And when I play that song live for People I survey the crowd and it seems like people aren't engaged, during the disease that cha not be named I started playing more restaurants and coffee shops than I'd ever played in my life. Cuz I prefer to play ticketed shows where people are coming to listen specifically to me.
And so I had to learn to grab the crowd and serve the venue. And if it seemed like there's a little bit of depression going on, I would just. Play that song and attract people and get them out of their shell a little bit. And I looked at the essence of that song and that was the essence as musical antidepressant, and I just produced around that.
t's certainly something that [:Great
Mark Stinson, host: insight. Teedeevee, you introduced me last year to a genre called Afro Pop. I love the African beats. I love the pop influence. And it's funny, Gabe, I listened to that collaboration of yours and it does have that nice driving drumbeat underneath it all. But T D V when it comes to the range of your music, you've written what I might call a cause.
Song, for the people. And you've also written the can I Be Your Lover, song. What are some of the influences that drive your songwriting and the topics that you feel like you wanna write about?
Teedeevee, guest: Mark.
One thing that is very common about my music is the fact that my lyrics are very deep. You get what I'm saying? My lyrics are very deep and extremely meaningful.
the love songs I've written [:You get what I'm saying? So I'm trying to preach to people. It's very hard to be able to. The difference between lost and love. You get what I'm saying? These are inspirations that actually come together and make my music. Sometimes there are music, about, about giving people hope, about giving people the chance, about people not losing hope, about people not giving up on life.
And at the same time, you find me writing songs about how you have to love your partner very deeply. How you are not ready to, let's go of your partner. It's just a combination of different inspirations I've got from myself, personal stories, or from people that are very close to me .
message course. I still want [:And making people feel good at the same time. Cause at the same time, you don't want people to feel good and they just start thinking about their life and be like and become sober and just become sad. So at the same time, you want people to feel the message and why feeling the message.
You want them to move their body. You want them off their seats, you want them shaking their head, moving their hands and stuff like that. So I guess that's how I come about my music. Yeah, that makes
Mark Stinson, host: a lot of sense. I think about a psychologist friend of mine who says that stories and these messages as you described, do get in.
ocial media, I have done it. [:What do you think It debate? Yeah. Yeah. You've got the body movement. I love that. We've also talked about in almost every episode of this podcast, the concept of collaboration, even though that we may be individual creators and individual artists, and our name, is on the cover. There's so many influences and collaborators to get the work produced and certainly then, pressed or posted or, distributed out there.
What are some of the influences, Kevin from a collaboration standpoint, do you think really put a mark on your work?
I was lucky to be surrounded [:Were all writing songs, going to study engineering, to study production. And I was forced in living situations. We all lived together in these townhouses in a row. And you would just go to a different house and you would have people with different styles, whether it was hip hop, whether it was funk, americana alternative heavy metal.
And you could sit in there and just listen and see the process. And so that's always something that's really stuck with me. Having the privilege to get that much exposure to so many different systems and so many people evolving their creative systems. And What I do right now I have standpoint songwriting competition, and we reach the whole North Idaho, east wa, east Washington regions.
. Really trying. This can be [:I always try and tell people have multiple brains in your recording process. Because the best records that I've ever heard and the mentors that I've had and watched them make great records that have been successful and have reached audiences of millions, they've all had multiple brains in the process.
So if you write the song on your own, that's fantastic, but if you're also. Recording that song, tracking that on your own, mixing it on your own, and then mastering it on your own. It's difficult to perceive that perspective is gonna be as broad and is gonna reach as many minds and ears as if you'd had three or four minds, especially if those minds are professional trained minds.
usands, tens of thousands of [:Same with the producer, but a mastering engineer will go through five artists in a day, mastering tracks. And so they have this immense perspective. And so I'm always trying to get people to branch out and just have different eyes and ears. Hear your product, hear your song. And then be able to take that opinion and that criticism back to the original creation moment and see if you're doing service to the original creation, to whatever it is you grabbed out of whatever you know, or if you're two or three songwriters who wrote it have that conversation at some point in the creation process, like what is the essence of this song?
And then check in with it along the process.
Mark Stinson, host: Good insight. Gabe, I know you've got a lot of people that help you bring your vision and you've got that vision. You say, this is how I want to express it. Now I gotta find the people to bring that vision to life, right? Yeah,
Gabe Furtado, guest: [:They're so good. Like I work with like producers that I'm like so happy and honored to work with and especially Sandra, which, like I mentioned her on my book a lot cuz she's like top 1% of the bass musicians, like in the entire world. And. It's just an honor, like to work with her and like the other ones too, high Five, Jordan, Eric, and all the other ones that I have collaborated with.
And it's just like Kevin was mentioning right now, it's it's so much better when you work with like more than one other person. Cuz then somebody else will listen to it with like different in fresh ears and then will point something that maybe you haven't heard before. Cuz you were used to it and then you perfect that and you get better and then somebody else will see another thing and then it's it just gets better and better.
the power of the. Community. [:Mark Stinson, host: a village. And Teedeevee,. I'm sure that there have been a lot of influences on your work. What kind of collaborators do you like to work with? Who do you wanna attract to you to help bring your musical vision and your creative vision to life? .
Teedeevee, guest: I want to attract someone that has not heard that before in my life. ... someone has not heard my sound before because I think my sound can convince a lot of people, and once you hear my sound, it's something you would be interested in and cause of that, I want people that don't really like, that, don't really love that, that don't really listen to that kind of music, that don't listen to that type of music to resonate with it.
For example between:But cause of the fact that I bring my own. My Afro fuel, I bring it into their beats. It changes the same, it changes everything. And at the same time, once it changes everything, people now see the cause once there's, once, there's a collaboration. Now, as an Afro artist I'm collaborating with an r b artist over an with a country music artist.
really feel in your brings, [:It brings everything into fruition. And I've done quite good for myself in the last couple of years. Working with different people from different cultures. I like diversifying. I like going into different cultures with my style of music, apparently I use my style of music to infiltrate different cultures.
I go to, I've done music with an Indian, you get what I'm saying? So I've done music with an Indian, with the Lebanese, with all D, all cultures, different cultures, different religion, trying to. Bridge the gap, trying to make sure that music is music. You get what I'm saying? What? What religions between our music is to me is nothing.
Yes. Because music, once, once you listen, for example, I, you listen to an Indian music and I not understand what they're saying in the music, I don't understand the lyrics, but you see me moving my body. Cause music is a few, you get what I'm saying? It brings up emotions and once people feel it they enjoy the vibe.
Cause of my collaborations, [:Mark Stinson, host: That's terrific. Couple of episodes back. I had a chance to talk with Hennings Svoren of Oceanside recording. They're off in the middle of nowhere, island of Norway. Okay.
Creating this music. And he was talking like you did to Kevin about the role of the engineer. Not just to push the buttons and turn the knobs, but to have that idea and that contribution to whether it's a new instrument, it's a new beat, it's a new level of, which should be in the front and which should be in the back.
And it was very fascinating. Like you just said, Teedeevee, sometimes to get unstuck or to get inspired, just a new instrument. It's Hey, I've never heard a sound like that. So it was very cool to hear that. Thanks for sharing that about your process and collaborations. Before we go much further, I wanna make sure we know how to connect with each of you and get a sample of your work, get some visibility to what you're working on.
can we find you and connect [:Gabe Furtado, guest: can Google my name?
Mark Stinson, host: Yes. There's this new thing,
Gabe Furtado, guest: Gabe, and then you can find my Insta, my contact, my, my beautiful songs and my book. If you wanna read something nice and cool and fresh. And you see me in on TV soon.
So go watch Mayans, guys. I
Mark Stinson, host: love that. T d v what are your coordinates?
Teedeevee, guest: I think that I'm also everywhere on Facebook, just Teedeevee my name would with it sounds T - D - V but without putting the he the extra, he is not going to be possible to find me. You get what I'm saying? So anywhere you put Teedeevee with the extra, he, you surely going to find me on Instagram,, Teedeevee Facebook Teedeevee Official, virtually those two places.
all my beautiful songs. Like [:Mark Stinson, host: Fantastic. Kevin, where should we look for you?
Kevin Dorin, guest: I hid from social media for years because I got into the industry music industry right.
Sort of before streaming took over. And Just in the last couple of years I've started to really focus on Instagram. So you can find me at Kevin Dorin. D o r i n is how you spell my last name. And on YouTube at Kevin Dorin. And I'm even doing TikTok. Ooh,. KD makes music is me on there
but I've got hundreds of songs that I've I've been working over last couple of years. And so I'm gonna be releasing those all on those platforms. You can find me on streaming services. I would prefer that you don't, because they are, in my opinion, borderline the devil. But if that's where you wanna discover me and listen to me a couple times, that's really cool.
he best content and where my [:Mark Stinson, host: Ah, fantastic. I know everyone on this show embraces what you just said, the positivity of social media.
So we're gonna keep it high and sun shiny, that's for sure. It's been so great to talk to you all. We've talked about creative process and we've talked about influences, but I'd like to hear as we close, what you might say to other creatives other people who've been in your shoes as a word of encouragement and maybe even inspiration, the get their work out into the world.
Gabe, what would you tell someone?
and then just re repeat the [:Mark Stinson, host: Very good. T d v, based on your lessons that you've learned, what would you tell other creatives? It's noisy.
Teedeevee, guest: That's the first thing. It's not easy. It's not easy Being an independent musician, it's not easy being an because it's not easy. You're going to have less opportunities. What do I mean by less opportunities?
You're going to you have to take the bull by the horn. You what I'm saying? You're gonna have less people contacting you. Cause you have to go out there yourself. You have to push yourself. Without pushing yourself. Look, body's gonna push you. That's just the point. Cause it's not easy being an independent musician.
sometimes you can be at your [:Sometimes you can be at a very highest level. So the most important thing, like Gabe said, is to keep going, is to never give up. To always think that there's always, like at the end of the tunnel, some would say, why don't you bring the lights at the beginning of tunnel? Why should
stick with headache and say that there's always like a of tunnel. So the most important thing is just how to get to the end of the tunnel and how do you get to the end. Perseverance. Lots of you get lots of news, lots of rejected, but at the same time, once you keep moving, once you keep moving, once you keep moving, it might just be one.
Yes. It might just be one accepted that work for you. You get what I'm saying?
Mark Stinson, host: Very good. Kevin, you shared a lot of your experience, but what's the wrap up kind of motivation that you could offer our creatives?
Kevin Dorin, guest: I love this question actually. I've been thinking about this specifically for the last couple of weeks.
I'm doing a [:Those are both really passionate answers. And the question is, how do you know your value? And for me, from the business perspective that I've had and the opportunity to perform and to play with some of my heroes and have songs on the radio and things like that social media is a challenge in the way that it makes you often feel isolated.
unity because you may not be [:And if you can balance the willpower with the talent, you're gonna start to see results. And you're gonna see social media and the algorithms and all these things that people can demonize start to help and accept you. Because what you're doing is you're streamlining what people actually need at the times.
Like the word, the zeist, the spirit of the times, right? So know your value and don't measure your value by the social media results. Don't measure your value like td TDB said about the nos that you're getting as someone who's managed bands and worked for music business companies and promoters and things like that, I've been the person on the other end giving the no many times, and I need people to know, from my experience, it's not often because I didn't like their music.
lf, grow from seeing how the [:You're gonna get that. Motivation to go through those nos to wake up, make a list of things. I have a list of things. I've got a single, I am not afraid out right now that is targeted the zeitgeist to the time. There's so much fear out there. I go through that list every day and it's find blogs to submit to it's work an hour.
y hard on that provide value [:And that gives me mo the motivation. Go through the nos. Know
Mark Stinson, host: your value. Wonderful insight. Guys, what a terrific conversation. I have just really enjoyed it. Thanks for coming on. Thank you so much. Nice to meet you
Kevin Dorin, guest: guys.
Mark Stinson, host: Yeah, it's nice to meet y'all. It's always fun to get other friends together.
This is like the virtual coffee shop meeting, meeting friends from all over the world. So thanks for coming on. And listeners, thanks you for coming by because I know this is the kind of worldwide experience. We had Six or eight countries represented just on this podcast alone because of where people have been born, raised, living, working.
d how to gain the confidence [:That's what it's all about. So see you again next time, and until then, I'm Mark Stinson and we're unlocking your world of creativity. See you soon.
