Deno Michael | Extraordinary Life Stories

0:00Schwalm Thank you.

0:38Hello, my name is John Reynolds. Welcome to Extraordinary Life Stories. On this episode, I'm talking with Dino Michael, aka Dino Driz. Dino is a dynamic force in the music industry, boasting two platinum singles and millions of YouTube views. From viral hits to sold-out performances, Dino's meteoric rise to fame showcases his unparalleled talent and unwavering dedication to his craft. Dino started singing to camera from the age of 13 and went viral with his obvious talent Shining Threat. He's since collaborated with numerous artists and been mentored by Stormzy and worked with Idris Elba. All of this achieved by the age of 21.

1:15Let's get into it. Can't wait to talk with Dino. Dino, thank you for joining me. Thank you for having me my my brother. Absolute pleasure. My pleasure. Tell me, who's Dino Michael? Dino Michael is... Dino Michael is really me, in terms of young boy, Eritrean roots, mother and father from Eritrea, grown up in a single mother household, South London, school in Brixton, influences of people like Stormzy, Ed Sheeran, Chris Brown, Drake, musically anyway. I've got so many inspirations of people I look up to and stuff in the entertainment world because you already know, I like my movies, I like my music, I like all of that stuff.

2:02That's an aspiration for you, is that right? That's a big aspiration for me. The movie thing, I've always been into the music, everyone knows me for the music, but I've always had this passion for acting and film and drama. I've always been great at drama and stuff in school so it makes so much sense to go into that and it's something I really want to do and it's something I enjoy as well Do you know what I love about this chat is I normally always go take me back to when you were a youngster and you were 21 I mean that's really cool but actually in context take a generation off you you've got going so young I want to know about those early years you talked about the inspiration the influences but then to take the action so that kind of 13 year old Dino that ultimately got the camera in what made you do that?

2:52I mean it all started really when I was in school freestyling on the playground singing I was always serenading girls and all my friends would just come and be like oh can you sing for my Snapchat? and I used to just be like you know what I was never shy to just do it to actually just do it because I had so much confidence and I was just like you know what let's just do it to be honest I didn't want them to post it online at first because I was just like, oh, no, no, no. I don't really want all of that attention really. And then once, you know, my friend put on Instagram, kind of without my permission, but people were loving it.

3:25I was seeing the comments and everyone was just like, oh, this guy's sick. Oh, he's really good. And I was just seeing so much positive kind of feedback. So I was just like, no, this is actually kind of cool. But why? So if you're that confident and you're doing it, you don't want to give the attention. Why don't you want the attention? I don't know. I can't, I don't fully know why. I think, I think even processing I didn't know what that was going to turn my life into so to me I think it was like there's no point of me having just random videos of me just going everywhere at one point no purpose?

3:55yeah because there was no direction or plan with it I was just doing it you know what I'm saying that gets you noticed yeah all of those things but I didn't really think about it too much really but when I saw him posting and I saw the feedback, that's when I was like, you know what, okay, people like it. I've always known that I've wanted to do music and pursue a career in, you know, entertainment and stuff. And I was like, I've got the opportunity now to do something like that. So many things were coming to me, like people like Stormzy, that my inspiration was saying, came out and, you know, retweeted my videos and said, yo, who is this kid?

4:30I really want to meet him. So I went, I even got to like have the opportunity to go in with him in the studio. Like even when he was making Big Feer Boots, I was just there, just sitting down and watching it. You're learning, right? learning from the master. 100%, I'm just sitting there just, you know, like absorbing everything and just kind of like, all right, cool, like really like, this is really what I want to do. Almost like a mentor, because I mean, at that age, right? And without the, you've got, now you've got the purpose, I want to, I want to do this. 100%. But you haven't necessarily got management or, you know, your, your, your parents weren't doing, you know what I mean?

5:02So you've got to find, so did Stormzy step in and kind of help you with that mentoring and other people around you? Yeah, she was definitely like the first person to get me in the studio i was never in the studio before that never ever went to the studio before didn't have no at the time no management i had no ties to anything industry nothing like i was just a kid just like trying to say i i'm going i'm going with i'm going with it you know yeah and yeah so i'm really lucky to have um i'm really grateful to stormzy for like you know even inviting me to studio and letting me like hang around him and talk with him and stuff like that because that's that's big for anyone but you created that you made that happen and this is this is a really interesting point for me right i've got two two daughters as you know who think you're awesome and that whole fear of posting because you had the confidence you obviously but for whatever reason you must have had all the great comments but people in there that are giving you some hate or some negative comments and those are the comments or the fear of those comments that stop my girls posting yeah other kids doing it so that where how did you override it from a confidence point of view to do it in the first place yeah and then to just see past the people rather than saying you're rubbish or anything that could be.

6:08It seems like you see past that. Yeah, definitely do. But I think even coming to think of it now, I think that was probably one of the reasons I didn't want it posted in the first place. Okay. But once I did see the good few comments, then I was like, okay, cool. So you focused on it. Because there's an expression, watering the weeds. Don't water the weeds. Concentrate on. That seems like it comes naturally. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It does. Because some people will get a thousand positive comments. And the one. And the one. The one. And they stop. Yeah. Crazy. I can't say I've never been there. I've been there before, where the one that makes you think, it starts making you question yourself.

6:40But really and truly, there's 100 people saying it's good and one person that I don't know saying it's good. And then it's having the belief that you're good. Yeah, you got it. It comes from you first. It comes from within first. I've never, ever doubted my abilities and myself in life. Never. To me, that's crazy. When people say, oh, I don't think I can do it, I'm just like, I don't get it. I don't understand that. And do you spend time on that? Because a couple of people I've actually spent today on this program, the inspiration you get from these guys where they spend time on themselves, self-development.

7:11And then their point that they made to me is, why do people spend their evening watching Love Island and worrying and wondering why they're not achieving anything? Life's not fair. And yet actually it's get out there and make some stuff happen and be the best person of yourself. Do you spend time on that? 100 % every day. Because for 21, I think that's so impressive, let alone the fact that you've obviously, did that come naturally to you to then seek out the mentor, seek out learning? And how are you doing that? Where are you finding that? Like I said, because everything was coming to me in a way, like the opportunity of people like Stormzy and all these kind of big figures coming and just approaching me and like showing me love, it's made me want to be like, all right, cool, I want a place here.

7:57I like being the young boy that everyone is like a little bro to, but I want to be in the conversation as well. So to me, I've got a point to prove. It's like, I know I'm just as good. I know I've got the capabilities to do it. To me, I'm just so fixated on just doing it and just making my dreams happen because I don't want to live this life and not achieve what I want to achieve. I can't live like that. I can't. I don't want to live with myself knowing I could have tried. If I tried, I could have done it. I can't live like that. And that's one thing I don't want to do. So many people do. And then potentially they find out through self-development or potentially something that's gone wrong.

8:35And then they focus on being a better version of themselves later in life. And then they realize what they could have done. And then they've got to live with that. And I think a key part of that mindset is keeping physically fit. And I know that when we first met, you were really open about the fact that you'd struggled with your weight. so talk to me talk to me about that as a journey what you've done to then lose the weight whether there was a part of you that wanted to do that to get the mindset right as well because it goes hand in hand if you're physically fit you're mentally fit 100 % for me with the whole yeah the weight thing I've always been a chubby big kid I've always been that guy so did it bother you?

9:15yeah I'd say it did it wasn't like it wasn't I wouldn't say it's like a major factor issue for me. I wasn't like, oh, I'm this guy, but naturally it's going to make you be a certain way, personality-wise and stuff, because it's just what you are. I wasn't overly fixated on it, I don't think. Obviously, it was always a thought for anyone that's a bit self-conscious. It's always going to be a thought, but yeah, it wasn't something I was overly thinking about too much, I would say, but I didn't like the way I was, and I honestly didn't I didn't want my health to go in a bad way, especially being that young as well.

9:50So I was just like, nah, I need to, I just need to fix up. I need to like fix myself. And then even the stuff like reading the stuff that you was talking about, like just reading and watching things and stuff to like self-improve. I'm always seeing things like, oh, working out helps. This helps. That helps. So I'm just like, why not give it a go? And that wasn't, I wouldn't even say there was a day where like, I know for a lot of people was like, I sat down and like, I saw myself in the mirror. I thought, no, it wasn't even that. I was just sitting down one day and I just thought, no, I should go to the gym.

10:20From there, I just did it. You're the sort of person, when you come up with something. Yeah, I just want to go for it. I just want to go for it. So I was like, you know what? Why not? So yeah, when I was at 19, I started to like eat better and stuff like that. Then last year, I was hitting the gym, some days even twice a day. I was going to the gym daily, boxing every day, just eating clean, even till now I eat clean. I'm not the best. I'm not like a no I'm not like a food guru or nothing but I definitely I definitely like do my best to like be health conscious and stuff and yeah but that's it it's a conscious effort right it's a discipline and it became a priority to you it wasn't a priority to you before lost about 40 kilos doing it yeah first play first play so for me that was a game changer you look fit thank you man even now I still want to do more I need to you know what I'm saying but that's the thing isn't it it's the journey right there's never there's never going to be a moment where potentially you're going to look in the mirror and go I'm happy you just keep part of, I guess, business and life.

11:16One of the things that I couldn't wait to bring up in this conversation is how we met. We were at an investment business event, the Master Investor Show, and you stopped me. And I was bowling in a hurry, whatever, and I'm often the one that will stop someone. I find that quite rare. And you can see the look when they stopped and then it relates to a conversation. You stopped me. You actually said, are you an actor? which is interesting because I know you've got aspirations so maybe there's a manifesting about almost hoping you stopped me, you wanted to talk to me and then with having this conversation, what do you do?

11:50Which leads to this I'm so impressed with that 21, you've gone to a master investor show to see what's going on, see what the trends are, see who you might meet and you're actually actively talking to people doesn't feel like many 21 year olds will do that and it feels like the generation coming through that is lacking in empathy, lacking in sort of seeking opportunities where they're just ultimately potentially scrolling and so on and that communication skills and it reflects as well how many collaborations you've done. You can name a bunch of people now. I want to know how you've done that. It feels like you've put yourself out there, you've reached out and kind of gone I like you, let's do something because that's working for you.

12:32100%.

12:39I'd say I'm not scared to approach something or someone. If I'm a fan of you or if I like your things, I will tell you that. There's a lot of people do it where they act like, oh, yeah, they'll be a fan, but they'll act like, oh, yeah, they don't care. They don't know who you are. For me, I find that weird. Yeah. If I want to speak to you, I'm going to speak to you. Whether the interaction is not reciprocated, then I'll be like, okay, it's not that. Then I'll just continue. But why not go and tell someone, I like your music or I like what you do or just have a simple conversation. Me, I'm a people's person.

13:15I like to think. Even when people come to me and they say, oh, yo, D, no, I'm not the type of guy to be like, don't speak to me. No, I'll be like, what's good? Like, I know you. To me, we're humans. We're here to, you know what I'm saying, learn off each other, just be cool with each other and just live, man. and even the investment thing, the event that we went to, that's something I've never been to before. So that was my first time going. So I was even eager to meet new people and stuff. Obviously my friends, Phil and Jay, I was the ones that invited me and they were like, you should come and definitely see what's going on here.

13:46And I was like, you know what, why not? And I'm glad you did. I came up to meet you. I mean, you're a friend now. I mean, the banter and the, but that is the, and also just outside of anything that's captured on camera, it's being able to help and do business together. And that comes from taking that action and being curious you know it feels like so many people yeah always yeah I can tell always I don't understand something I want to know yeah I'm going to ask yeah and so so sitting here now you've got two platinum singles you've had nearly 60 million views on some of your videos on YouTube what's your goal what's your if you sit because I'm fascinated to follow your journey from here sitting here right now you've got ambition aspirations what's the what's the North Star the North Star for me is to make Dino I want to carry on the story of Dino from being a school kid to being a successful artist to being a successful actor to being a successful entrepreneur.

14:39I just want to be a whole mogul in this thing. Like for me, it's just... So it's Oscar winner. Why not? Multiple Oscar winner. Yes. Multiple Grammy winner, Brit Award winner, everything. Helping the community that I've come from. Everything. I want to... For me, it's just... It's just... Yeah, man. I just want to be the light, man. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? For me, that's all it is. and just doing good. That's such a great mission to have. And how important do you think sitting here now is having purpose? Because so many people seem to lack purpose and it's rippling through you, right? You want to make a difference.

15:13You want to be the best version of yourself. I'm not trying to come from a preaching point of view of either of us, but there are people that clearly seem to wake up in the morning and just don't want to get out of bed in the morning. And then when they do get out of bed in the morning, they don't know what to do with themselves. Yeah, because it's like, if I tell you to meet me, I don't know somewhere in Yorkshire yeah like forget about the road signs forget about ways how are you going to get there if you don't know if you don't have the direction to get there you're just going to be driving you're going to be lost so you need to I feel like as a person you need to kind of put your mind to something I'm not saying it's easy I'm not saying like it's going to just come to you one day but you've got to be you've got to be willing you've got to be willing in life you've got to go out there you've got to find things that's for you not everything's going to be for you you're going to fail you just got to continue and you just got to just try something else and keep looking for things and find what you're passionate about and just go for it and make that your purpose and just enjoy and i guess the reality is if you're trying to get to yorkshire you're not trying to get there just start walking yeah and then it might be that you do something that gets you some money to catch an uber for a bit of the way then someone gives you a lift and then you might be driving that that's it or flying that flying yeah no i love that so it's taking action it's it's uh just gotta go for it yeah just gotta go for it can't think too much even me i find myself in places where i'm overthinking you can't you can't get in your head too much it's easy to get in your head so easy but you just gotta just ignore and just gotta continue totally so there's gonna be loads of kids that look at what you've done already and are inspired by you what advice and things have changed from from even you know when you were doing your first with ai yeah you know yeah but what advice would you give to any any anybody that's sort of watching you and watching your journey on how they could get started how they could potentially be on the trajectory that you've gone on and are going Yeah, I'd say do your best in terms of making the best things, whether you do music, whether you make films, whether you're a model, whatever it is.

17:09Yeah. Just get better at your craft. Do your best at becoming the best version of yourself in that craft. And from there, everything else will come to play if you just keep the right mindset, stay hungry. Don't let small wins overrule your life because they'll keep coming. You're going to have your good days. You're going to have your bad days. just keep going stay focused on what it is for you and then it will just the universe gives back to those kind of people but if you put the effort in but you've got to put it in of course I love that sitting here now at 21 you've already had a lot of success the two platinum singles one of the things that when we first met you told me was that you bought your mum a house with the sort of first chunk of money that you got if you like that says so much I can see it in your eyes you can see it when I was talking There's such a lot of good and humbleness there, as well as having that ambition, which I think is pretty rare.

18:02But just sitting here now, what is your definition of success? For me, it's providing for people, for my people. I want people around me, whether it's my friends, whether it's my family or just anyone that I just like and respect and hold value. I just want to be able to just make their lives better. whether that's that's not even just like financially or nothing like that just like I have a friend that loves Chris Brown just being able to let him go to the concert like those kind of things I've made a lot of my friends that went to school with meet people that they look up to and their favourite artists and stuff like that so to be able to do that for me that's a win for me it's achieving my dreams I just love what I do so even when you're saying the two platinum singles and that now even in my head I don't even it's gone yeah done.

18:52It's boxed away. I'm on to the next. I'm on to the next, but I'm still, I don't even think I've even like fully rendered that because it's something I've wanted forever. No. And it's like now that it's happened and it's happening, it's like mad. You know what I'm saying? I like that. It's part of your story. You know, it can probably help get you to sort of other places moving into your career, but at the same time, you're not dwelling on it. It's like, you know, I've done that. I'm facing forward. Exactly. And that's the successful bit right so you can't have success or very few people have success without having failures yeah things that don't go right 100 talk to me about that because someone watching this now could be like well he you know he made he made those videos at 13 and boom he's off i've been doing it since i was 13 and i'm 16 now and it's not working for you this is an example or um you know i keep trying and i keep getting knocked down i know we talked about kind of trying to get to Yorkshire and take the steps and so on.

19:46But in context of your experience of failure and how you've learned from it, have you had those things that haven't gone right? 100%. Yeah? For me, things like even being signed to record labels, major record labels, not fully having my own say because I'm young, so everyone kind of thinks I don't know what I'm talking about when really and truly I do. So not being listened to? Not being listened to. That's not ideal for an artist. It's like a creative person, right? Definitely not. Definitely not. Just those kind of things. Just feeling, yeah, not being listened to is one of the worst things for me because it's like, oh, when I talk, I feel like I know what I'm talking about sometimes.

20:25And I'm not being stubborn. I'm not blowing my own horn. I'm always going to listen to critique. But, yeah, sometimes I know what I'm talking about. So those kind of things, yeah, can be seen as failures and stuff. But it just depends on, because now I'm an independent artist and now I'm doing my own things and now I'm releasing music myself, the more that goes up, that wasn't a failure now. I've learned from it. And it's just... I was just going to say, I remember a previous conversation where you were bashing on a door and they wouldn't listen. Yeah. That's why you went independent. Yeah. And then now you wouldn't be doing it.

20:58That's what I'm saying. I wouldn't have been doing it anyway. So you've got to fail to know where... You've got to fall to know where you stand. At the time, that was probably pretty demoralizing. Yeah. Some people, you could argue, would slink away and do other things and you're like, no, I'm not having it. I'll back myself. I'll find a way. And that's it. Yeah. I love that. Thank you. So in context, I just want to flip it back to when you were talking about the whole weight loss and the mental, physical, something. What works for you now? Because so many people that are successful, they're up at 4.30 in the morning doing a workout, meditating, going for a run.

21:31Do you embrace that? Have you got that mentality? Because you're super motivated and pumped, but I don't get that feeling. And yet you're bright-eyed. You're focused. so it's almost like an interesting one what works for you i mean i feel like one day i might start doing that i'm not i'm not against it maybe tomorrow yeah i'm not against it but come on man i need to enjoy my life i'm saying i get it but um no because obviously me like i'm still i'm still a young man i'm 21 so i go out like yeah i chill with my friends um i sleep late yeah but as long as i'm getting up the next day with knowing what i'm doing and i'm still productive during the day I don't need to wake up at 4 in the morning right now I still go to the gym I can go to the gym after this it doesn't make a difference really it's in your own time but one thing that flips that so 21 right that whole thing of routine which comes back to this sort of morning thing some people they need it you're an entrepreneur at heart that's what's got you to where you are you've made these decisions to do your own thing you're steering your own ship now which tells me you don't need a routine but some people swear by routine.

22:39Are you kind of, are there certain things you need to do? Are there certain pillars in your life that you're like, you know, could be family, seeing them a certain amount of time. Are there certain things that are really important to you? I mean, I pray a lot. I pray. I pray a lot every day. I say I'm quite spiritual. I've tried meditating a few times. I've not fully got the hang of it. I'll try it again. It takes patience, right? Yeah. For me, I feel like it's very hard to just zone out and just like, it acts like the world stops hard. I couldn't have meditated at 21. It's a bit hard. It is a bit hard.

23:12So I'm not fully in it, but I've tried a couple of times. For me right now, it's not like, yeah, but I feel like eventually I'll get into a bit more. I like traveling. I feel like traveling is a good thing for me. It definitely gets me better head spaces. I like learning things. So I like picking up new cultures and seeing the world. It's a big world we live in, man. A big world. So I just don't like being tied down to just being at home in London. Well, hence how we met. It feels like you will just keep putting yourself out of your comfort zone. And that's where the opportunity sort of is. That's where I get my thrill.

23:41Yeah. Yeah. I kind of find it fun. Yeah. I love that. So on that, sitting here now, who would you most like to collaborate with? Which artists that inspire you, you could almost do stuff with, work with, who would they be? I mean, I've worked with them before, writing a song together. Yeah. But actually on a song together, Ed. I feel like that would be such a great collab. Me and Ed, going back to back, we make a... Ed Sheeran. Yeah, Ed Sheeran. He's cool. Yeah, he's the coolest. You've got to make that happen. Definitely. There might be a plan there, actually. Yeah. We'll see. Do you know it's Ed Sheeran?

24:17No, that's very cool. That's very cool. So in context with Ed Sheeran, what would you actually do with him? Because he's got his own style, you've got your own style. Yeah. So blending that, you've got an idea on that, how would you take that for? Low key, yeah. I feel like if it's like pop mixed with like, you know, the culture in terms of like hip hop and a bit of R &B, which Ed kind of does anyway. Yeah. But it would just be merging the two, like the kind of Gen Z youth kind of vibe with classic Ed Sheeran. And then we just have to just blend it and make it just sound mad, greasy. That would just be so sick.

24:51I love that. Do you know what I'm picking up as well, which I love, is the opportunity to do that and the opportunity to ultimately achieve what you want feels like the purpose. You're not sitting here and don't get me wrong, 21, right? So, I mean, you've probably got to want this, but it doesn't feel like it's all about the shiny things. No. You know what I mean? So you get that collaboration, you do your thing and you're worth a fortune and you've got your gongs and your... Yeah. How important is all the shiny stuff to you in context of the fulfillment and that kind of fulfilling the passion of what you want to do?

25:23The fulfillment and the passion side of things, 100%. That's what holds it. But like you said, I still like the shiny things. I like driving nice cars. I like wearing a bit of jewellery sometimes. I like wearing nice clothes. I like going out with my friends, doing fun stuff. So in those kind of aspects, it's lit. I like it. But it's definitely more about everything else for me. Yeah. We talked about my two daughters knowing who you were, enjoying your music. I wonder if this is because you started at 13 and literally at the age of 21, and you're still making music but moving to different phases of your life.

25:57But it feels like every song that they put on, they girls put on, The Weeknd, Drake, cool songs, but it's every 10th word is swearing. And it doesn't feel like that's been a big part of what you're doing. Is that deliberate? Is that because you've come through an age situation where, dare I say, more recent stuff, you're in that zone where you will and can swear. But is there a deliberate kind of steer away from that? Because it's gone so far that way that there are certain songs where you just listen to it. Normally, I just like to hear the music. Yeah, yeah, yeah. With the lyrics, but there's, you know.

26:29Yeah, I definitely wouldn't over-saturate swear words in my song, but I do have some songs where I say, yeah, like the F word or the N word or whatever. I don't shy away from it. But maybe, yeah, maybe it's because it's relevant to the passion for the song. Yeah, it depends on how I feel with the song. If I feel like it not needs it, but it's giving me the vibe to say it, I'll say it. But other than that, most of the time, it's not that, so I just don't. but I think maybe it is because I grew up making music and stuff. It's never been a thought to include it a lot. So, yeah. But now, like you said, I'm more older, so I can say those kind of things.