Finding Culture Through Music with Shaun Day
No matter who you are or where you grew up, there is something that binds all humanity together: Music.At the heart of every traveler is a desire to experience other cultures. In that exploration, the music we discover helps expand our mind. The genres of music we experience awaken different parts of our souls.For musician Shaun Day, music was an every day experience in his family. With a father from England and a mother from the Philippines, Shaun grew up with an appreciation of diversity, which helped shape his future career.[powerpress]
Fulfilling the American Dream
Shaun’s parents migrated to America to chase the American dream. After meeting each other and creating a family, they raised Shaun and his brother Simon with an appreciation of diversity.Growing up in the streets of San Francisco, Shaun was constantly bombarded with different sounds and tastes. A cultural mecca laid outside his fingertips, and the more he learned about diversity, the more his music found its influence.Under the guise of his parent’s influence, Shaun picked up a guitar and let the music have its way.
Music Influences Growth
With the opportunity to grow up around so many different styles of music, Shaun learned a lot about music production.Experimenting throughout high school, Shaun found himself in a wide array of bands. The first, Blind Issues, took him and his bandmates throughout the high school years.After moving on to college, Shaun and front-man Joey Perotti introduced The Sex Effects, which took on a more alternative side.Once finished with California State University Monterey Bay, Shaun landed himself a job at both MHQ and Blue Rhode Studios in Los Angeles, where music production became his life.He now freelances with multiple artists, works in three different studios (including one with his cousin), and has a new band, Red Giant.
The Artist Mindset
Having grown up in San Francisco, living in Monterey, and migrating to Los Angeles, Shaun learned an important lesson:Your surroundings have a major impact on your daily life.Culture bleeds through the street cracks in San Francisco. Monterey boasts a more natural side, where oceans tumble into crashing waves.Los Angeles, however, is where everybody seems to go to chase their dreams.As everyone can imagine, there’s a huge competitive field in Los Angeles for music and movies and everything of the like. It takes a strong person to keep pushing through their dreams and recognizing they need to get their voices heard over the competition. For people like Shaun, there’s just no such thing as giving up.That being said, there’s a big community with all of the artists. They’re all they have sometimes, and they have to stick together. Everything is about auditions and gigs and building relationships.
The Importance of Believing in Yourself
Like so many others, Shaun has discovered the key to success is believing you can do it.Everyone has different struggles in this walk of life. Not everybody has the mindset of an artist, or a traveler, or a businessman, or whatever takes your interest.A lot of times, it’s more about who you know than what.A traveler could know someone in the town they’re in who will give them a roof, where an artist can know a producer in their field to help open doors.As long as you continually push yourself out of your comfort zone, you’ll grow.
Finding Home Through Travel
At the end of the day, you move where your heart takes you.Shaun took his cultural experiences from San Francisco, molded them into his time studying what influenced him, and chased his dream.Those with wanderlust understand that constantly moving helps you find what you consider to be “home.” No matter what, the feeling of “home” hits a nostalgic nerve that makes you feel like you’re where you belong.Music, in a lot of ways, is just like traveling. It opens your mind to different walks of life, it helps you find who you are, and it always provides a safety zone to fall back on when you feel out of place.
How has music impacted or changed your life? Has it influenced your opinions on culture? Let me know in the comments!
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