Exposed Vocals just caught an exclusive with ‘Dolo’

Exposed Vocals: So tell us your story. Where did you grow up? What made you decide to become an artist?  

Dolo:  We grew up in both central and south Florida. We lived in separate households growing up but have spent enough time in both parts of Florida to call anything south of Flagler home. When we were teenagers  is really when music started coming in to the picture. We hung out in a crew that was made up of the local artists from our area. During that time we were just hanging around the music but not really creating it. In the room freestyles over online beats ended up turning into the creation of actual songs. When we made our first song is we knew that we had something special and couldn’t let our talent go to waste.

Exposed Vocals: How did you come up with that name? What was your inspiration behind it? 

Dolo:  Dolo Music is a name that was just thrown out as a suggestion while we were thinking and we immediately agreed on it. Yes, we are a duo; but we are also our own solo artists….Dolo. Adding music after Dolo is kind of just another way of calling us who we are. We believe we have our own sound, our own type of hip-hip sound…Dolo Music.

Exposed Vocals: What do you think about online music sharing? Do you ever give your music away for free? Why? 

Dolo:  Online music sharing is crucial if an artist wants their music to be heard. We live in a time where communication is mainly run by social media. If you don’t share your music online, than you really won’t see any progress into becoming a star. All of the music we have made so far is free non-profit music. We have only been making music for a year now and are still building on our fan base. When we do think it’s time to start charging, we will. At the end of the day, you have to know your worth.

Exposed Vocals: Since everyone was a start-up once, can you give any smaller or local bands or artists looking to get gigs and airplay some tips? 

Dolo:  Grind, grind, grind. Stay consistent and always keep moving forward. Also any new artists needs to realize they just need to be themselves and love the music they are creating. If not, the music will suffer because of it. We believe as a young artist, you should love your own music more than your fans will love your music. A good tip for getting your music heard is having a great marketing team. Shoutouts to IVMM!

Exposed Vocals: Do you ever make mistakes during performances? How do you handle that? 

Dolo: Haven’t made any mistakes performing for a large group of people but while working with other artists and engineers we have made some mistakes. In the studio mistakes behind closed doors aren’t career threatening so we don’t really get hung up on them. People make mistakes though. It’s how you react and learn from those mistakes that actually define you.

Exposed Vocals: Do you tour? Anything interesting happen on tour that you think our readers would enjoy hearing about? 

Dolo: We actually haven’t been on a tour yet. It is something we are working towards doing. You have to add a face to the music to be successful. Besides music videos, live shows and touring is the best way to show the face behind the music. Definitely something we are excited and pushing towards doing at any possible moment.

Exposed Vocals: Where do you usually gather songwriting inspiration? What is your usual songwriting process?   

Dolo:  We gather inspiration for our songs from a couple different places. Most derive from experiences we, or friends and family, have been through in life. But we also gather ideas from travels we’ve taken, memorable nights, and we even find ideas within the actual instrumental itself we are working on. Producers these days have created instrumentals that give off vibes of what the song should be. Any good artist can create an idea for a song by just listening to beat and gaining a feel for it.

Exposed Vocals: Do you have a band website? What online platforms do you use to share your music? 

Dolo: We do not have a Dolo Music website yet! We do however have social media pages on just about ever major platform. Look for us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, and Youtube. Usernames are either Zayman45, Mungoo1, or DoloMusicProd. Our pages contain everything you’ll need to find when it comes to Dolo.

Exposed Vocals: What are some really embarrassing songs that we might find on your mp3 player? 

Dolo: We wouldn’t say you could find any embarrassing songs on our music players but you’d probably be shocked to see some old school r&b and soul music. The black culture of music has inspired us, even the music before hip-hop and rap. MJ, Prince, Earth Wind & Fire, and Boys to Men to name a few.

Exposed Vocals: If you were given half a million dollars and a year off, what would you do? How would you spend it? 

Dolo:  We are pretty intelligent and have business mentalities, so with 500 stacks we would probably invest and try to double it. To make money you have to spend money. Just have to know that what you’re spending it on will not go to waste. Most young people would see half a mill and would probably be broke again within a few years. Not us.

Exposed Vocals: Any planned studio upgrades? What are you working with now?  

Dolo: We actually are looking to upgrade our home studio and film equipment with higher grade equipment. We mainly create all of our music at the house in our rooms. We started in our own room studio and still create there. Recently, we have been going to various studios and working with engineers to upgrade our production sound. Normally we create a full track at home and then go to a studio and bang it out. Saves time and gives us the isolation and concentration we need to create a hit.

Exposed Vocals: How do you find ways to promote your music? What works best for you? 

Dolo: We promote our music through social media mostly. Also word of mouth is still such a strong platform to use; whether it is us ourselves or friends and family spreading the word. We also have connected with a good marketing team that is all about getting their artists heard. Shoutouts again to IVMM!

Exposed Vocals: If you could perform anywhere and with any artists (Dead or Alive) where and who would it be with? Why?

Dolo: We could name a whole list! From Pac and Biggie to Jay Z, Kanye, Weezy, T.I, Chris Brown, Wiz Khalifa, Young Thug, and Gucci Mane. We grew up and were inspired by these artists. It would be a dream come true to perform with any sort of inspiration. Give us chills just thinking about being on stage with one of them.

Exposed Vocals: So, what’s next? Any new upcoming projects that you want to talk about? 

Dolo: We are in the works of a new project. The project will not be dropping in 2016. We are saving it for 2017 cause we believe that is our year and also really wanna spend time in putting it all together. Can never rush perfection, especially in the music industry. Until then, we will be throwing out visuals and singles to keep the fans updated with the Dolo sound.

Exposed Vocals: If you weren’t making music, what would you be doing?   

Dolo:  If we weren’t making music, we could see ourselves living a life that doesn’t allow us to share our creativity. The amount of time we dedicate to the music now would be wasted. Honestly that is a lot of time throughout our days that would go to being out spending money or  hanging around the crib. A boring life.

Exposed Vocals: Do you remember buying your first album? Who was it? What was going through your head?  

Dolo: The first album we think we bought had to be Lil Wayne’s Carter 3. Such a great project that placed Weezy as one of the best to ever do it. He’s an inspiration and hell of an artist. We were already big Wayne fans before this album, so we knew we weren’t wasting any money. What we didn’t know was that we would be listening to that project over and over for years to come because the project was that good.

Exposed Vocals: How do you juggle the rest of your responsibilities while trying to stay ahead in your music life?   

Dolo: It is actually pretty simple. We know where our priorities lie but ALWAYS have time for music. Creating music is something we love to do. A nine to five won’t get in the way of that. School won’t get in the way of that. If you let a job or school take away the joys in life, you won’t have as a happy of a life at the end of it all.

Exposed Vocals: What should fans look forward to in 2016?  

Dolo:  In 2016 fans should look forward to seeing growth in us as artists. Our songs are coming with more meaning and we are really focusing on perfecting the production of each and every track. For the rest of this year, we plan to be releasing three to six singles and even a visual or two. We have had some adversity to overcome this year, but 2017 is our year. No one can stop what Dolo Crew is gonna do!