Meet Dylan Sage | Rockstar / Musician

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

Hi Dylan, do you have a favorite quote or affirmation?
“A shop at the top of a hilly street, where few customers passed”.

Paulo Coelho is a Brazilian novelist widely recognized for the masterpiece titled “The Alchemist”.

The Alchemist is a story about a shepherd named Santiago. Santiago is a dreamer.

Being a dreamer, Santiago is driven by that unspoken intangible energy that carries a soul along it’s path through to it’s fullest completion. It’s that thing that never desists. Always singing, playing, dancing. It pulls at your heart and holds your head as you traverse the ins and outs of daily life.

Santiago finds himself in a strange land with nothing but the riches in his heart and the dreams in his head. He has to make money and finds himself working at a little crystal shop at the top of a hilly street.

This shop is run by a man who is a dreamer, but who never chases his dreams for fear of those dreams falling short of being as fulfilling as he imagined.

Santiago arrives and immediately gets to work without asking. He shines some glasses and suggests selling tea in these shiny glasses. It’s a hit and business is booming. After a year, the shop owner is more successful than he could have ever imagined.

Our shepherd nearly gives up on his dreams during this year. In the corner of the room he sees his shepherd sack, untouched for that whole year.

The owner then insists that the boy get his senses straight and continue to follow his heart and his dreams. He says basically that dreamers are dreamers because they will do nothing but dream, and will spend every ounce of energy and thought in the pursuit of those dreams.

I love that quote because of the possibilities.

“A shop at the top of a hilly street, where few customers passed”.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
My name is Dylan Sage of the upcoming band Cherry Sage.

That’s it right there.

My name is Dylan Sage.

Sage is my middle name. It’s fitting and makes for a killer stage name.

I’m a musician, I’m a singer and a songwriter, I’m the fire that burns inside all of us creatives yearning to make the impossible become possible.

My first guitar was a gift when I was about 10 years old. I can’t remember if I asked for it or not. Could you guess what my introduction to playing guitar was?

If your guess was “Smoke on The Water” then you are 100% correct.

It was lame.

At the time, having a guitar was much cooler than playing it.

Fast forward about five years and you find yourself with teenage Sage, a rebel without a cause and a kid just searching for a purpose.

I didn’t hang with the most wholesome crowd for a chapter of my youth. When I wasn’t stirring up trouble I was exploring my inner self seeking out whatever thing that could set me apart from the rest. Just plucking away at those strings and looking deeply into things.

Fun fact, I can write some killer raps.

I would spit freestyles with the goons in high school at the lunch table or at the skatepark, way too late and way too lit.

I had rhythm, I had flow.

This all tied together. I started to experiment with chord progressions and writing lyrics. These songs sat with me, unrecorded at the beginning of their lives. The most anyone would see were clippings of ideas on social media.

I would play covers for friends and for the camera on my phone.

Classics such as Glycerine by Bush, Landslide by Fleetwood Mac, Simple Man by Lynyrd Skynyrd, Creep by Radiohead, Mr. Brightside by The Killers. Hurt, the Johnny Cash version.

These songs are not only great songs, they are also fun to play. The covers never sounded like the original. They always had a very defined flare. My flare. My eagerness and my enjoyment of writing original songs to share began to grow.

The open mic scene is where I discovered myself and my sound.

I would play anywhere that I could.

I still do.

Places that had nobody in them other than the bartender and a few people that really wanted to be there.

Places that have given the space to make connections with likeminded individuals.

Places that offer up a stage to stand on and ears to sing to.

Places that I will remember as the places grow larger.

To be seen and to be heard. What more could a daydreaming artist desire?

I am a dreamer. I have been my whole life. I have taken the road less traveled and I have hit every bump along the way.

Coming from little Providence Rhode Island to Los Angeles at 25 years old was expectedly life changing.

The first year was the hardest and most revealing year of my life.

A year later I’m standing here at the beginning of the next chapter of the story of a young man’s dream. I have put together a band, a band called Cherry Sage. I have found love underneath a golden sun. I have met people, my people. I have gone through this darkness and have found myself not only confronted by the light but reaching for it.

I want to be an example of someone who was so determined to burn up and fade out, someone who went into the black and refused to look back for so long. Someone who held the faith in a dream and believed in the light at the end of the tunnel. Someone who took that light in his hand and made beautiful music with it.

I am Dylan Sage of Cherry Sage.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Favorite spots in the city?!

I’ve been here for a year!

Though I do have a few in mind.

Living in the valley and not having a car has kept me a little isolated from the other side of the hills.

Wonderful connections have been made that have expanded my horizons, those who are close to me and want to share their favorite spots in the city and outside. I’ve seen so much simply by invitation and exploration.

Let’s start in the valley, a couple places of solace that I found myself retreating to within a realistic vicinity.

Sepulveda Basin State Park is a beautiful space. Find yourself taking a walk around the lake, observing the many kinds of water fowl and passing birds, laying in the grass reading a book or writing a song.

I played the guitar there and sang covers once for almost three hours.

I had a tip jar, though I realized after that the money I made that day was not what mattered. The park really wasn’t bustling with spenders, though that doesn’t mean they weren’t listening.

I made 7$.

I can’t count all of the faces who stopped and smiled, the children who were in awe. The people who gave a thumbs up or took a picture.

I walked home that day and bought a beer. I was in between jobs at the time during one of the struggle phases.

The park is a close escape and has a place in my heart.

Next is the El Caballero Canyon hiking trail.

What a view of the valley. It’s a moderate hike through an environment that makes you feel like you’re just out there.

Let’s talk about a cafe.

Humble Bee cafe takes me home. It takes me right back home. The comfy setting, delicious farm to table food, fresh baked breads and desserts, attentive and friendly staff. The best of all is it’s less than a ten minute walk from where I live.

L

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
“Who doesn’t deserve credit?”

is a much easier and super cliché response to this question.

How deep does one go?

I’d like first to thank the city of Providence, Rhode Island. It’s a blanket statement, but for a state and a city so small it covers the whole.

My first journeys into the world of performing were at small venues in Providence that offered open mics.

I played covers until this lovely woman at The Parlour ( best open mic in Prov. ) named Nicole Purcell suggested strongly that I play my own original stuff. So I did.

See where I am now, I jumped the gun.
Jake Menendez aka Digital.Papii.

I can’t speak of this man without saying “mentor”.

The Sundays we spent together in the midst of music were such necessary moments of belief and possibility.

This dude is just cool, and he’s going to do huge things.

I’d like to thank my brother, Austin, for putting up with my rockstar-who-hasn’t-made-it-yet lifestyle. It was all for something, believe me.

There’s a special place for the people in life also who have contributed in ways that reassure and validate. Saying things like “I can see it in you”, “you have it”, and “keep going”.

Those words mean everything. It’s nice when you can believe what they see, because sometimes it’s hard to see it in ourselves.

It’s a strange place to be. I’m here very much at the beginning of my dream and I’m in the midst of my gratitude.

I’d like to mention the community I’m finding myself becoming a part of, especially when I have spent so much time before off in the shadows alone with myself and my moods.

Ollie,
Meghan,
David…

Dallas and her kin,
Zach T,

Pappa D,
The whole Kulak’s Woodshed community.

I’d like to shout out Francis and Erika of the Kava Bar and Botanical Lounge on Reseda Boulevard.

They are grinding to bring a comfortable alternative to the vices that many of us find ourselves facing on the daily. It’s a dope spot and I’ve found much solace and ease in their establishment as I continue to move forward through the trials of taking off from the ground.

Here’s one,
Thanks mom.

Thanks for the foundation. Thanks for the patience. Caring for a comet can’t be easy work.

Thank you especially once again to David AKA Melancholy for hooking me up with ShoutoutLA and Mike Bhand for taking a chance on me.

My gratitude will continue to be ever flowing and nothing will be forgotten along this road.

What’s that they say about it taking a village?