Music is without a doubt the language of the soul. The way we perceive the world, our innermost secrets and desires are all exposed through music, and the journey begins with a desire to express what lies dormant with the hope that others will feel identified with the work.
For Dirk Bornhorst, a young and passionate Peruvian singer and songwriter, music has always been the driving force behind his creative endeavors; Like a flame that never fades, the true artist is always searching for something. While developing his newest body of work, Dirk granted us an interview that allows our readers the opportunity to take a peek inside the mind of a naturally gifted storyteller.1. How did you begin your journey as a singer and songwriter?
All of my life I was into music but not in a consistent way. I learned how to play the classical guitar, then the drums, then ‘DJ-ing’, but wasn’t quite obsessed with any. I listened to John Mayer’s music for the first time when I was 15 years old and was absolutely astonished by his guitar skills and songwriting, and thus the fever began. I started practicing on my own, playing songs and solos by ear since I didn’t know any music theory and with YouTube videos for around 4 hours a day every single day and started seeing results very fast. I liked to cover songs and was thinking of starting a YouTube channel to post some covers but felt very unmotivated since there are already millions of singers and guitarists way better than me uploading high-quality covers daily. I wondered “what is that ‘thing’ with music that makes me ‘feel’?”. I wanted to create something new, not playing songs that already existed, so I simply sat down, grabbed my guitar and wrote a song: A standard verse-chorus song. I wasn’t a good singer at all but tried my best to at least sing a melody in tune and in a matter of hours, I wrote my first song, Cold Summer Night, the second track of my upcoming album. After that moment, I found this very intimate space where I could explore my feelings and get to know me better which made me feel better too. I wrote songs also because I was kind of bored of always listening to the same music over and over again, so at least I could write something that I liked and could enjoy playing it with friends or for myself. And kids, that’s how I met your mother. Just kidding.
2. Is there a particular topic you like to explore in your songs?
Out of all the topics I write about, the one always gets me right in the ‘feels’ is love. I’ve always been quite amorous and have found that love and passion is my way to go. I think that’s my strongest topic, though I like to give it a twist when I write about it. You can say ‘I love you’ in so many ways, and that’s a topic I’m still exploring. I’ve also found that it goes hand in hand with honesty. You have to be honest and fearless when writing about anything. When you think your lyrics too much or take it too literal, it becomes cringey and awkward, but the magic in music is that you can say anything you want, and it sounds good when you apply a melody to it. I bet anyone recognizes which song the phrase “Imagine all the people living life in peace” comes from, and even sing it easily too. You have to let the song speak for itself, no second thoughts. If you’re feeling extremely down, imaginably happy, curious, free, in love, sad, fed up, anything; just write it down. You will definitely feel better after speaking your truth in any of those cases, at least you created a song that can change someone’s life as your favorite song changed yours.
3. What has been the biggest challenge you’ve faced as an independent artist?
The independent music scene is getting better every day to be honest. There is lots of support for us available, you just have to look for it well, but being an English songwriter is quite a challenge living in a Spanish-speaking country. I managed to play some gigs here, though my music didn’t seem to connect as well as it did when I played in front of an English-speaking crowd. It’s not that the listeners here in Peru aren’t proficient on that language, it’s that everyone connects way better in their native language. It all flows much easier, and I realized that in an Open Mic at a bar called Hannah’s Bar in Liverpool. I sang three of my songs and covered an Elvis song too, and everyone was applauding and nodding and even dancing. A song of mine called Living in the Grey talks about how much I hated living in my monotonous Lima. There’s this thing in here that makes everything seem duller and colder in winter, but England wasn’t much different in a way, ha ha ha. The people loved it and felt it which made me feel way more confident that I was doing something great. Same thing, I sang an original song in Spanish to one of my best friend’s and she almost cried and hugged me, you know. It just makes more sense for each case independently.
4. Could you share with our readers some information about your upcoming projects?
Well, there are huge things coming, and the biggest one yet is my album. I have released only five songs out of twelve, and it has been the best thing I’ve created at the moment. Not only the songs, but the overall concept. As I mentioned before, I started writing songs when I was 16. I continued writing I realized there was a clear timeline which the songs could be put into. I could separate each one in three sections: Before, meanwhile and after a relationship which I had been in, and thus the name came up “Before, meanwhile & after” (B,m&a). I finished exactly four songs in each one of the stages (coincidentally, the relationship lasted 12 months too). The songs aren’t uniquely about love, but about various events that occurred in my life in each stage. Before the relationship, I was completely in love but insecure about her and myself, and quite energetic for how good everything was going with my life. When we were together, I was in peace and in love, getting to know each other way better in the best way. Parallelly, I finished high school and got in the most prestigious business and economics university in Peru to study economics. It was excitement and motivation at first, but I failed the first semester completely and straight after, we broke up. I felt like I hit rock bottom, completely lonely and useless, smoking and drinking a lot, but reached to a point where I noticed that I’m the one in charge of my life and my success depends on myself. I stopped smoking, got into singing lessons, wrote more songs and dropped out of college to pursue my dreams as a musician. Practically that’s the album, and I love it in every way. You can go to the stage you’re living in at the moment and there might be a song for you as there was for me.
5. Where do you see yourself and your music career in the next few years?
My life has spun around so many times in as many directions as you can imagine. I was so fearful of changing, thought that something was wrong with me, but with time learned how to embrace it and accept that we live in constant change. I want to live my whole life writing songs and playing them with my guitar in front of a crowd and hopefully make their lives better as they would be making mine too. One big change that will happen soon is that I will be releasing my songs in Spanish.I have been writing lately in my language and exploring various genres which I never thought I would, and things seem very exciting for what I’ve done to this point. Who knows if this or that project will blow up and make my career, but whatever I’ll do, I’ll do it because I love it.
