Meet Dooney West: Musician

We had the good fortune of connecting with Dooney West and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Dooney, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
I’ve always been a very abstract thinker and individual. Starting a brand was something I wanted to do since high school, because I felt like there wasn’t anything out there that fully represented me and how I feel. Since I started making music in my teens, that was naturally the first thing that I wanted to go off, but as I’ve gotten older, so many of my other interests have started to fall in line with that music brand. I recently built out a website (dooneywest.com) and have started planning how to branch out and reach audiences that have similar interests to mine. It’s such a big task, so I just take it step by step and make sure that I’m not rushing anything. It’s such a beautiful thing when you’re able to do something naturally instead of trying to force it.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I started making music in high school. Now that I’m 26 and almost a decade in, I’m really excited about learning and understanding the music business, which is arguably even more important than the music itself. I’ve always been a good writer, but it took me a long time to realize how important balance is, not only in music but in life too. Having a good balance is what sets me apart from other artists. I hear so many incredible musicians who have mastered their niche, whether it be songwriting, style, appearance, social media marketing, rapping, singing, etc, but have only tapped into that one thing. Lately I’ve been thinking on a more global scale, so I’m trying to incorporate everything into my brand. I’ve been making music in all genres, engineering it myself to add my own flavor, designing merchandise, creating graphics, marketing over multiple outlets and starting a podcast. My idea is to maximize my outlets and output while maintaining a high level of quality. The balance is so important because all of that hard work will amount to nothing if I end up stretching myself thin, kind of like having multiple streams of revenue. If you put too much focus on one or two, your other 5 will most likely dwindle. At the end of the day, I’ll always put the most effort into music since I love it so much, but I’m having so much fun expanding into other fields and creating a true foundation.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
There’s so many cool places in the city! If my best friend visited for a week, there’s a couple places I would have to take them. We’d go to a bunch of food trucks to eat – I don’t think I’ve been to a bad taco truck in the city. We’d have to go The Palm one day and get surf and turf and Duke’s in Malibu to get some Hawaiian flavors. I’d have to base any other restaurants off of my guest’s personal tastes, but there’s literally hundreds of good spots around the city. For entertainment, we’d have to go see a game, either at Dodger Stadium or the Staples Center, visit Magic Castle, go to the Santa Monica Pier and the beach and check out the Portia Experience Center. My uncle works for Portia so he brought me there as a kid – they’ve filmed a bunch of movies there (like Ford vs Ferrari) and they have events and concerts, so there’s always something cool going on. Last but not least, I’m a big fan of bars. My favorite bar in the city is The Holloway. We’d get a ton of good beer and play corn hole and horseshoes. I also love breweries, so if my friend felt like it we could go on a few tours. The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I wouldn’t be able to have so much creative freedom if it wasn’t for The MilesWest Group. As my employer and family, they allow me to pay the bills and learn so much about marketing, branding and everything outside of the music that’s just as important.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dooney_west/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/dooney_west

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DooneyWestDenver

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXo5GTx8yH55Umy3fEgcKTw

Other: apple music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/dooney-west/1501060836 spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4nDcyeAlxWKIDf8xJ3zXLB?si=uA7TqTvyQLGkW7yzgphV_w&nd=1

Image Credits
Josh Miles, Dana West, Marques McDonald, Darian Simon-Toliver