Ep. 85: Donovan Melero (Hail The Sun / Kill Iconic) | Developing Projects From Natural Talent
Donovan Melero joins me to talk about Hail The Sun's new music, Kill Iconic, and everything else I listed in the timestamps. Do y'all use the timestamps? I hope so. They take a long time to write out. Timestamps: 0:00 - Intro - Who Donovan is and what he does. 6:03 - Balancing different projects at once and doing it well. 8:10 - How to develop projects out of natural core talents. 11:26 - Donovan's sobriety "obsession" and how that has affected his career trajectory. 15:35 - Early days of Hail The Sun and how it all came together to be what it is now. 25:00 - Hail The Sun + side project songwriting - what is the process? How to get from an idea to a good product. 28:50 - Donovan discusses the visual components of Hail The Sun and the importance of uniformity and quality. 30:44 - "The Kill Iconic Ecosystem" - building the magazine and the community that surrounds it. Donovan explains where the idea came from and how it grew. 44:26 - Integrity in Kill Iconic - chasing goals with your friends and coming up together. 47:30 - Distributing Kill Iconic - learning how to book magazines in record stores and other subscription methods. 53:47 - Money as the scorecard not as the end goal for new projects. 56:12 - Kill Iconic podcast and label coming soon. 57:20 - Donovan discusses how Episode 50 of the Short Story Long podcast changed his mindset for business and life beyond. 1:04:25 - The importance of thinking before you even write ideas down - start "working" in a traditional sense. 1:03:29 - Donovan discusses taking pilot lessons during these times to develop a different way of thinking. 1:04:27 - Where to find and contact Donovan. --- Donovan Melero: @donovan_hts Hail The Sun: @hailthesun Kill Iconic: @killiconic New Single: Parasitic Cleanse Andrew Cramb: @andrew_ftw Where Are All My Friends Podcast: Website