Dermot is so incredibly humble, sincerely grateful for his fans, and so generous about sharing not just his music - which is intensely personal - but himself and his time. All that talent AND a really genuine, down to earth, decent person to boot. Not to mention easy on the eyes and a smile that can light up a room (just wish he’d show it off more). He deserves all the success in the world, and the world needs his music in it. I just hope fame doesn’t change him or his music too much, but he seems very committed to his vision and grounded as well, and he seems to have a support system of family and good friends to help keep him that way.
Because Dermot is more focused on staying true to himself and the vision he has for his music and his career, rather than being in a rush to get famous and make lots of money, I think he’s cultivated a fan base of true music lovers, and not just fans of a cute celebrity whose music is made with commercial success in mind, and/or who uses controversy to make a name for themselves. A lot of concerts are just scream-fests and you have to struggle to hear the music, but at his shows, people are listening to the music so intently, you can hear a pin drop. He didn’t have a label or even management for years, he was touring the world booking his own gigs and producing his own singles, which I think served him well. It was only after one of his songs was catapulted by the Spotify algorithm and his music blew up that he got a manager and signed with a label, which basically allowed him to write his own ticket, rather than accepting the crappy deals labels typically offer hungry new artists who don’t have the experience to know better. Now that he’s getting bigger though, he’ll probably attract more fans of celebrity who don’t truly appreciate the genius of his music, or care about him as a person, and aren’t respectful of the time he’s generous enough to give fans. That’s one of the downsides of fame.
This video popped up on RU-vid two years on, and it’s generally a very sweet thing even though he’s so obviously tired, but does he want to give any more detail about a bereavement ? ? God, no of course he doesn’t 😔
