Interview with Music Artist Dioneesus
Bio:
Dioneesus is the work and artistic evolution of Dennis McGrath. While rooted in hip hop with shades of avant-pop, Dioneesus will keep you guessing from release to release. McGrath pushes the boundary of what a track can be, how it can sound, and how you experience it. There’s no one out there who sounds like him. Based in Pittsburgh, the goal of Dioneesus and the music that comes with it is to make individuals look at situations differently, take in varying perspectives, and inspire deep thinking.
Q1 Who are you? A tagline for Dioneesus, if you will.
I am an artist first and foremost. I consider my art outside of my ego-self as a free expression of my innermost dreams and interpretations. I am not afraid of sharing those with others authentically and it’s been refreshing to remove that societal mask and not worry about people accepting me or not. It’s nice for people to appreciate the music and art but I don’t let it get me too high or too low. The opinion of any critic is at best secondary. I know the inherent and unique value in what I create and there is no opinion that can sway that. It’s a great place to find myself in and I don’t plan on leaving it anytime soon. I consider myself an artist first and foremost and a songwriter and producer/arranger as close seconds. The product I put out is a smorgasboard of many elements; art, poetry, sound design, visual interpretation, ritual, social commentary. There is a major storytelling element to it as well.
Q2 Who/what are some of your influences, musical or otherwise?
Lately, it’s been Jeff Lynne/ELO, Bowie, Leonard Cohen, and Kanye West. For sure the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Floyd, the classics. Dr. Dre and Snoop were big influences. I have too many to name. My tastes are really eclectic at times but I always seem to return to the classics in between. Outside of music…Warhol, Picasso, Maya Angelou. Anyone who pushes the boundaries of what it means to be an artist and makes the audience see things in a new light.
Q3 How did you first get involved with making music?
I picked up guitar piece by piece in high school when I was 15 and started playing in a band when I was 16 or 17. I didn’t start to write many of my own songs until I was about 23 or 24. I spent a lot of time soaking up musical influences around me and getting comfortable using my instrument as an extension of myself as I had no technical musical background. I moved to Nashville when I was 24 and that really made an impact on my focus on songwriting and the recording studio. Pittsburgh has been a real music haven for me personally. It’s a community where I have thrived since arriving and continue to make amazing connections with some truly special people. I moved here a year ago and it’s been the first time in my life I decided to pursuit music full time. They say better late than never. It’s clear what I have been put on this earth for. Life is short. When I am on my deathbed, I want to go knowing I left it all on the table and pursued my purpose and gave my gift to the world. I am not a man that wants to look back and say “oh, I sure regret not doing that” or “if only I stopped working for XYZ Corp a few years earlier I could’ve made a music career”. I approach my art that way every day at this point. If I die tomorrow, I die happy and at peace.
Q4 What is your favorite track off 2024 Side A and why?
Hard for me to pick at the moment. COVID-23 and Illuminati Chessboard are right up there. Talk to me about it in a year and we shall see. For now, I am already focused on writing the follow-up which releases in October 2022. Once the art is created, I tend to move forward and let the pieces fall where they may. I am massively inspired by the world around me and can write a song about nearly anything. It’s like being a kid again. Writer's block is something I can confidently say I will not experience. There’s a lot of writing left in me at this point.
Q5 Any weird or interesting concert experiences you’d like to share?
Hundreds maybe thousands of them…but I’ll pick one. Back when I lived in Nashville…2015. I spent an evening hanging out with Alex Turner from the Arctic Monkeys. A friend of a friend was childhood friends with his model girlfriend at the time who lived in the Nashville area. He is literally the biggest modern rock star on this planet as far as I’m concerned. The dude was super down to earth. So much for rock stars being divas. We chatted for a while about music and he was just a regular awesome dude. I was not as big into the Monkeys as I am now…I was only a little familiar with them at the time, to be honest. I thought I recognized him as someone else to which my buddy Mike said, “No you don’t…you don’t know him”. I must’ve mistaken Alex for a guy that played in a local Nashville indie band. I bought him a drink which he kindly reciprocated. I even gave him and his lady a ride back to their hotel a few hours later…the Union Station in my Mazda. Fuckin Alex Turner!
Social Media Links
https://www.instagram.com/dioneesusmusic/
https://open.spotify.com/artist/lurw3rRW10a89jjFZqlIAm?si=kX2ppxcgQjavu0CmvXWsuw&nd=1
