Join us as we get to know Dinley Jones, the young Sydney performer who recently premiered his debut single with us.
As promised when we lifted the lid on his addictive debut single ‘Radio’ a couple of weeks back (HERE), we shot across a series of questions to Dinley in the hope of getting to know him a little more.
Naturally, he was champing at the bit to shoot back his answers.
So join us as we get to know Dinley Jones.
01. Name : Dinley Jones.
02. Where are you based? Sydney, Australia.
03. How did you get your start in music? I started singing lessons when I was around six or seven after watching my brother perform in school musicals.
04. Give us five words to best describe you as an artist. Fun, Colourful, Funky, Electrifying, Energetic.
05. Tell us a little bit about your sound and how it developed. Well originally I started out writing a lot of slower songs, and as I developed more as an artist I started wondering the sort of emotion that I wanted to convey to my audience as a performer. I realised I just wanted to make people feel good. So I started working on more up beat and funkier material that I and everyone else could get down to.
06. What’s your earliest musical memory? I used to watch my older brother perform in the musicals at my school growing up. Every musical. He was always the lead. And growing up we would always sing musical theatre songs in his room together for fun. I never really realised the influence this was having on me at the time but looking back it was massive.
07. Who have been your musical influences? Michael Jackson, Prince, Bruno Mars, Justin Timberlake, Queen, Billy Joel, The Beatles and Elvis.
08. What are your favourite songs of all time? There are so many to choose!! ‘Uptown Funk’ – Mark Ronson ftg. Bruno Mars, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ – Queen, ‘Purple Rain’ – Prince, ‘Burn This Disco Out’ – Michael Jackson.
But there are genuinely so many songs that have had a massive impact on me directly, to try and compact that into a small list is seemingly impossible just because there are so many different songs for different moods.
09. Where’s your favourite place to listen to music? I listen to music easily the most when I’m travelling somewhere. I take my headphones with me everywhere and usually dance on my way to wherever I’m going. Kind of like that LMFAO video where everyone’s dancing in the street.
10. Who are your go-to artists when you’re feeling :
Happy : Bruno Mars, Stevie Wonder, The Beatles, Michael Jackson, Prince, Queen, Justin Timberlake, Billy Joel.
Sad : Adele, The Beatles, Queen.
Introspective : The Beatles, Queen, Bob Dylan.
Exhausted : Anything slow. Generally I’ll listen to anything with just a piano or guitar and vocals when I’m tired. Or the Beatles. The Beatles just have a song for almost any occasion. It’s baffling.
11. What was the first album you ever bought? ‘Thriller’ – Michael Jackson. It’s a classic.
12. Give us a little fun fact about yourself that people might not know. I work as a mascot for sporting events. Meaning sometimes, when you high five that rooster or lion, I’m actually the one feeling that high five.
13. What would your chosen career be if music wasn’t an option? I would probably still be playing football as much as possible. That’s not to say I was any good. But I’d still be doing it!
14. What’s the best advice you’ve been given in your career? Don’t let anyone else tell you who to be. Especially in the performance industry, there are so many people telling you how to dress and how to act, and the best thing that you can do to shine as bright as possible is to just live happily, be confident in who you are, and don’t give up.
15. If you could trade places with any artist in the world right now, who would it be? Bruno Mars! He glides along the floor like a magician, sings like an angel, and dresses like he runs the world. He’s just an all rounder.
16. Tell us about your latest release. ‘Radio!’ is my debut single. We made it because we wanted to make something fun and silly, to make the people dance! We wanted to put a smile on peoples face and hopefully make their day just that bit better with this song. And in the best case, inspire them to really be themselves without fearing how other will perceive it.
17. What do your future plans involve? Just performing, touring and making songs with the hopes that you all can listen to them, and feel good. Because who doesn’t love to feel good?
18. Where can our audience catch you live? I am in the middle of a high school tour in NSW, so if any auspOp readers go to these high schools, you can catch me and my awesome live band, rocking out lunch time.
September 05 : Bonnyrigg High School (Sydney West)
September 06 : Strathfield Girls (Sydney Inner West)
September 07 : St Mary’s Cathedral High School (Sydney Metro)
FACEBOOK : https://www.facebook.com/DinleyJones
INSTAGRAM : https://www.instagram.com/dinleyjones
YOUTUBE : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_uOKXd91ajwcxncfRie3Mw
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