Drawn To The Sky
Dustin Gill brings us back to the golden age of music. The artist known best as Drawn To The Sky combines pristine 2000’s esque songwriting chops with modern R&B trap beats, giving him an undeniable sound. His small-town roots in Le Sueur, Minnesota encouraged the passion and creativity that heard in songs like “MAGICK” and “Dear Rose I’m Haunted.” Three years after releasing his first songs, the artist has exceeded expectations – with millions of Spotify streams and over 60k monthly listeners, Drawn To The Sky continues to grow his greatly devoted fanbase. We recently spoke to the artist about his musical style, means of inspiration, and more!
Tell us a little bit about yourself!
My name is Dustin Gill and I’m a singer/songwriter, producer, and recording artist known professionally as “Drawn To The Sky.” I grew up in a rural area outside the small town of Le Sueur, Minnesota. Being an only child for most of my life, I spent a lot of time with just me and my imagination. Juggling multiple passions, most of my early days focused on my love of the electric guitar, staying up countless nights trying to master the ‘art of shredding’ like it was still the late 80’s. Once high school hit, I became obsessed with weightlifting and the discus and shot put throw in track & field - eventually pursuing the sport at the collegiate level. But nothing comes close to the love I have for songwriting and releasing music from my heart for others to hear and relate to. After graduating college in 2018, I moved out to Los Angeles to pursue that dream full-time and never turned back.
How did you start making music?
I started making music at 11 years old when my mom bought me my first guitar at Christmas. I spent the next eight years of my life dedicated to mastering the guitar in every way I could, from soloing “Eruption” by Van Halen on the electric, all the way to playing a finger-picked nylon-string for my classical guitar quartet in college. It wasn’t until I was 19 years old that I realized I wanted to start singing and writing my own music. Within a few years, I started to learn music production and how to put what was ‘in my head’ into a tangible form. This led me to eventually start my own musical project “Drawn To The Sky” in 2018.
Much of your work seems to deal with heartbreak. Is it ever difficult opening yourself up for such a large platform?
It was never my intention to write so many songs about heartbreak, it just kind of happened by accident. It's probably because those experiences were some of the more emotionally dramatic things I experienced growing up, so it's still very etched into my psyche. It’s not easy opening up to the world with those experiences and intimate feelings, but it can also definitely be a form of therapy for sure.
Between your intimate lyrics and the timing in which you’ve released your music, have any former flames approached you about if songs were about them? What went down?
As awkward as it is, yes that’s definitely happened. For some reason, a lot of my high school friends always seem to think they know who my songs are about, when in fact they’re mostly dead wrong. Sometimes I’ll make hints here and there in my lyrics, but most people really don’t know the full story of things or who I’m referencing in my lyrics. Sometimes it's just fun to sit on the sidelines and hear what people come up with.
You’ve got a very unique tone to your music, one that penetrates any genre you tackle, from the mellow “Dear Rose, I’m Haunted” to the more rock “Demons.” What’s the secret behind it?
No matter what genre I feel like making on a particular day, it always seems to have some element of ‘emo’ or punk to it. I guess that’s just a product of what I grew up on. I spent most of my teens listening to hardcore, metal, and alternative, so my own music can’t help but reflect that.
How do you recommend other artists go about maintaining tonal consistency?
I think it’s important to always stay true to who you are and make the music that you like and want to listen to - opposed to just morphing into what’s trendy or what you think people want to hear from you.
Congrats on the release of your newest single “Dopamine Death Dream”! Can you tell our readers a little bit about the song?
This song definitely hails back to some of the more electronic music I’ve made in the past. I wrote the song mainly about my frustrations with the current digital landscape and always feeling pressured to maintain relevance on social media, along with a bunch of other random unrelated things I was feeling at the time. I just kind of felt like blending a bunch of different emotions into one song for whatever weird reason.
There are definitely hints of hyper-pop, the newest genre to grow in popularity, within the single. Is hyper-pop an area you can see yourself continuing to make music in?
I’ve always made electronic and dubstep music for fun, so hyper-pop seems to be a great way to bridge some of those elements into the alternative pop/hip-hop space. I like to make music that most authentically represents how I feel at any given point in time, and I definitely think this vibe of music really hits the spot for me right now. But I’ll always continue to make stuff in my other favorite genres alongside it.
What are some musical styles you’d love to tackle that you’re yet to?
I definitely want to make some alternative rock-style music with a traditional drum set and heavy guitar riffs. Some of my favorite bands growing up were “Pierce The Veil” and “Sleeping With Sirens”, so I’d love to pay homage to them by creating something in that style at some point in time!
When I look at the playlists that you’ve been discovered on, the playlists range as wide as “Punk Unplugged” to “Sad Hip Hop.” Where do you think your music falls? Why?
I make whatever style of music comes to me on any particular day and don’t really care what category it falls into. Whether that’s a smart ‘business’ decision or not, I could really care less. I just really love all kinds of music and don’t stress about being categorized in any single genre.
I love your cover art. Each release has some really magical work to make it not only sound good but look good too. Do you work with the same artist?
I really like bright vibrant colors and anything with a mystical or magical vibe to it. I pretty much do all of my cover art myself, although once in a great while I will hire an artist who can tackle an idea I can’t quite execute myself.
What prompted you to put so much effort into having such impressive cover art?
I think the visual aspect of music can be equally as important to adding context and emotion as the music itself. That’s part of the reason I do most of my own cover art. And to be honest with you, I pretty much do everything when it comes to “Drawn To The Sky.” Whether it be the writing, engineering, instruments, production, mixing, mastering, artwork, filming, video editing, and marketing/business - I do it all. Although I do greatly value the importance of working with others at times, I think being a “100 percenter” helps represent my brand as uniquely “me” as physically possible.
Believe it or not, it’s been a long while since 2018 when you first made it onto the music scene. What do you think has changed? What’s stayed the same?
In 2018 my craft was still in its infancy. I think I’ve learned a lot since then and have further developed all aspects of my musical toolbox. Listening back, I think I’ve most noticeably improved my vocals and engineering skills. What’s stayed the same has probably been my obsession with that alternative emo sound I can’t seem to ever get away from :)
If you could give 2018 you one piece of advice, what would it be?
I would say “don't let the world pressure you into doing things a certain way, or to be disingenuous from your true self just to get more attention.”
What does 2021 have in store for you?
This year I plan to ride the good vibrations of the world opening back up and to start touring the U.S. with other artists I love! I also want to keep spreading love and connection with the people around me, and continue to put out music that people can resonate with and have alongside them through whatever situation they are experiencing in life, good or bad <3