Today we’d like to introduce you to Peter VanDusartz.
Hi Peter, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I have been a singer-songwriter, my whole life, and I’ve been writing songs and singing them for as long as I can remember. But I have never truly shared my music with the world until recently. In many ways, I am the poster child for all of those artists out there who believe in themselves, believe in their songs, and truly are inspired to create music, but have only dreamed of releasing an album. My dream has always been to release a full album on vinyl with a full gatefold album jacket complete with original artwork, credits, and song lyrics included, just like all of the albums that I cherished in my youth. I have now been able to make that dream come true, but it’s been a long and complicated journey. I am the true example of the do it yourself artist the self published, self release musician, and I slowly learned all of the steps and hoops to jump through along the way, many of them that I was completely unaware of and unfamiliar with. My message of inspiration is, if I can do this all of you can too.
In many ways, creating the melodies, chord, progressions, rhythm, and writing the lyrics was the easy part. My songs come from true inspiration, and all of them result from me trying to tell a very important story. I’ve always been a storyteller. In fact, my professional career was focused on teaching and connecting with others through my role as a psychologist, therapist, counselor, and teacher. In those roles, I found storytelling to be the most effective way to communicate an idea or concept and make a lasting impression. People relate to stories and create strong engagement that they remember long after a counseling session. In making music I have found storytelling to be powerfully engaging as well.
However, being inspired and telling a story is a long way from having that story be heard. I am a self-taught musician with no formal musical training. Once I decided to record my album, I had no idea where to start. I connected with a local musician that I knew and began to ask for help. The first major challenge was inviting others into the process of making this music, which included accepting their input, their changes, their perspective and ideas. All of this eventually led to improving, developing and building my “pretty little songs” into beautiful album worthy releases, but letting go of complete control was a very difficult and important part of the collaboration process. Even though I consider myself an independent solo artist and my music is self released, those definitions are misnomers. No one accomplishes the kind of project that I am now sharing with the world completely alone, and frankly in many ways, the collaboration and connections has been the best part.
Producing and recording includes instrument arrangement, music and lyric editing, multiple tracks of performing, both as a group and on solo tracks, as well as many, many recording decisions. Then comes had mixing and mastering. I learned about registering myself as a publishing musician, and then registering each of the songs as publishable works of art. I then taught myself about the music distribution system, including online streaming in multiple formats, as well as how to sell physical recordings online. I created my own artwork by painting a self portrait, oil on canvas, and then carefully photographing that painting, and added photography for other parts of the album cover and jacket. I worked together with my son to layout all of the printing for the album cover, as well as layout for lyrics and credits. I then established and began to build a social media presence for my music. For me, this included writing essays about my songs and the creative process. I found a record pressing company that would allow me to visit and witness the actual pressing of the vinyl albums myself. I chose to assemble the albums by individually placing each into the inserts and album jackets, and then printed download codes that I created so that all recipients could receive the music digitally along with their vinyl album purchase. I also created “Muscovite videos” of individual songs. I then began to gather musicians to create the band that would perform the entire album at the “album release celebration show”. This included multiple rehearsals over many months to re-create the sounds that were on the album and were now appropriate for a live show. I enlisted the help of a PR professional to promote the release of the album and the live show.
Most of these steps along the way were completely new to me, but I have found that in today’s world, with the help of technology and tons and tons of determination and buckets and buckets of patience, you can learn to do just about anything.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The most difficult obstacle was not knowing how to get there, but moving forward anyway. Not only did I have no experience, I didn’t even know what I didn’t know. This can be daunting and used as an excuse to not proceed.
The next largest obstacle was the patience required. It’s tempting to just want to “get it out there”, but each step and each part requires thought and intention. Again, this can feel too burdensome and overwhelming. The key is to just do the immediate piece well, and trust that it will all culminate towards the goal.
Many of these processes require financial expense, but individually, with planning, these costs are not prohibitive.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
As I have said, professionally, I was trained as a psychologist, therapist, substance used disorder, and addiction, treatment, counselor, and as a program director for a variety of behavioral health services. I worked in that field for 40 years and recently retired. My main passion was always in addiction, treatment and recovery, and I excelled at teaching both on the individual level and in groups. I continue to contribute in these fields in my retirement as a member of the Board of Directors for Kinney Falls treatment program in River Falls, Wisconsin, and continue to speak publicly about recovery.
As a singer and songwriter and musician, I have mostly been a solo artist or performing in small collaborations until becoming devoted to this multidimensional creative project. I am now collaborating with a band to perform the songs from this album in a full concert format.
What’s next?
As a group spike, and the Gandhi dancers plan to continue performing, live shows and creating music. We will more than likely be creating new music as a group rather than as a solo artist who collaborates with an ensemble cast.
Pricing:
- My album, Spike and the Gandy Dancers “What You Gonna Be?” is $20 at most local record stores and available at BandCamp.com
Contact Info:
- Website: http://spikeandthegandydancers.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spike_and_the_gandy_dancers?igsh=Nnp4MWQ5dmR4ams5&utm_source =qr
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61583335747982
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kyNUGWW6_pY8v0-L7QK_3GW0PgcciqKxA&si=KAqHV-0_CtCVvYDR
