Actor and DJ. One would presume that is an unusual pairing; however, Duncan Anderson, a 21 year-old Los Angeles native with a sharp clean appearance, happens to be an established actor and a DJ/Music Producer. I call him Idris Elba 2.0 because he is also an actor and DJ. Duncan has gone through trials and tribulations growing up in the state of Ohio, and overcame those challenges by carving out a career within two different realms of the entertainment industry. The curiosity becomes bigger when it comes to the work life of an actor, DJ, and a student at Woodbury University.
While he’s away from the DJ-ing nightlife as a student, Duncan is one of the most humble, professional, humorous, and passionate people that I've known and met. He is humble because as an actor and a musician, it is easy to become addicted to fame, but Duncan understands that the reality of fame can be problematic. Duncan is able to be professional in and out of the classroom environment because he understands the privilege of being an actor and a musician. By being able to stick true to his words, Duncan is able to translate his music and acting into a way to keep chasing your dreams, even if the outside ambient noise can distract you from fulfilling them. Although Duncan has done a lot of DJ gigs in the past, he didn’t get priority on where he wanted to perform while he was still a minor. Duncan would have a team and a mentor help him find places to perform. He mostly did gigs at typical parties and small venues in Hollywood. His genre is specifically rooted in Progressive Trance, House, and Hardstyle music.
I met Duncan in the first week of school, and remember the fascinating story he was able to share. When I first met Duncan in the patio of the Woodbury University cafe, he looked like a normal student pursuing his bachelor's degree. However, the passion Duncan demonstrates in his love for electronic dance music is off the charts. Since we both love that genre, we began to talk about different artists we listen to, and he passionately began to show me all the music projects he made. He educated me further about dance music and the great deal it takes to curate an uptempo song filled with soul and style. His multiple talents do not just include being able to produce his music, but also vocally performing on them, which heightens his image holistically. He also shows a humorous and friendly side to his personality whenever he sees his peers. Duncan is always smiling genuinely and showing respect.
“Everything is relative, and perception is everything. You learn from absolutely everything if you allow yourself to.”
While he’s away from the DJ-ing nightlife as a student, Duncan is one of the most humble, professional, humorous, and passionate people that I've known and met. He is humble because as an actor and a musician, it is easy to become addicted to fame, but Duncan understands that the reality of fame can be problematic. Duncan is able to be professional in and out of the classroom environment because he understands the privilege of being an actor and a musician. By being able to stick true to his words, Duncan is able to translate his music and acting into a way to keep chasing your dreams, even if the outside ambient noise can distract you from fulfilling them. Although Duncan has done a lot of DJ gigs in the past, he didn’t get priority on where he wanted to perform while he was still a minor. Duncan would have a team and a mentor help him find places to perform. He mostly did gigs at typical parties and small venues in Hollywood. His genre is specifically rooted in Progressive Trance, House, and Hardstyle music.
I met Duncan in the first week of school, and remember the fascinating story he was able to share. When I first met Duncan in the patio of the Woodbury University cafe, he looked like a normal student pursuing his bachelor's degree. However, the passion Duncan demonstrates in his love for electronic dance music is off the charts. Since we both love that genre, we began to talk about different artists we listen to, and he passionately began to show me all the music projects he made. He educated me further about dance music and the great deal it takes to curate an uptempo song filled with soul and style. His multiple talents do not just include being able to produce his music, but also vocally performing on them, which heightens his image holistically. He also shows a humorous and friendly side to his personality whenever he sees his peers. Duncan is always smiling genuinely and showing respect.
“Everything is relative, and perception is everything. You learn from absolutely everything if you allow yourself to.”
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How did you make the transition from an actor to a recording artist?
“I started off acting as you know, which is ironic to me as I never thought I’d amount to anything back then. I had trouble even standing on my two feet, but I wanted to learn. I was hungry to learn. I made a bet to myself saying that if I could learn everybody’s language, not physical language like Spanish, French, but more of an empathetic language, I wanted to be able to transcend the thoughts and feelings I could never have had the time to understand. Because that would have taken forever, I wanted to try to find a loophole so that I could be able to understand everybody empathetically and feel their energy. If I didn’t have anything in my attribute box like them, where I couldn’t put myself in their shoes by any means at all, it made me realize that I needed to extrapolate to manifest their energy to find their uniqueness and personality. I needed to be able to at least understand their acknowledged empathetic language in order for me to be happy. If I can make the character have undertones of the story as in like the rudimentary elements. Happiness, sadness, and anger; all the steps of different emotions, and mixing together in certain ways, then there you have the empathetic language. Making music has been a lot of fun while giving me more happiness, but it also is giving me a little bit of money. So, if I can make music, make my own feelings, put it out on a tabloid, and then show it to other people, that’s the ultimate goal.” |
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“The best type of story is a mirror image of the universe by its universal elements. A good story has the potential to change the trajectory of the world as we know it.”
How do you balance the work from as an actor to a musician, and to a student?
“I always grew up with the family that really valued education. Education is first. Now, in my circumstance, I'm trying to balance it all on like a triplane so I can join the education being student music and acting. Occasionally, you have some things that are weighing a little more than the others. However, without education, and the knowledge that the enlightenment of being a human in knowing things to get you through life, music and acting would be meaningless. But in my opinion, the acting and the DJing would not be as fulfilling and enriching. I wouldn’t understand what I’m doing if it wasn’t for education. My major here, I’m doing music business, and film marketing. I just want to be even more versatile because I’m really trying to make my footprint, and all this stuff I’m learning at school is going to get me where I need to be, and do what I have to do, you know?”
What kind of tips or advice would you give to people that want to become an actor actress or a recording artist?
“I’m going to split it up into three segments. One for acting, one for DJing, and one for music production. I'm going to make sure you guys understand what makes the best actors in one word. Life. If you live, you understand how life works which makes the best actors. You know when you can manifest the character through just watching them for five minutes, that's life. When you have sadness because, when you're growing up and your dog ends up passing away, your childhood puppy, that’s tough. To be able to mix and match and choose these different emotions and putting them together and you put them in your back pocket whenever you need them, that's life, right? Whenever you have memory, sense memory; that's life. That's all I can say for that."
“I always grew up with the family that really valued education. Education is first. Now, in my circumstance, I'm trying to balance it all on like a triplane so I can join the education being student music and acting. Occasionally, you have some things that are weighing a little more than the others. However, without education, and the knowledge that the enlightenment of being a human in knowing things to get you through life, music and acting would be meaningless. But in my opinion, the acting and the DJing would not be as fulfilling and enriching. I wouldn’t understand what I’m doing if it wasn’t for education. My major here, I’m doing music business, and film marketing. I just want to be even more versatile because I’m really trying to make my footprint, and all this stuff I’m learning at school is going to get me where I need to be, and do what I have to do, you know?”
What kind of tips or advice would you give to people that want to become an actor actress or a recording artist?
“I’m going to split it up into three segments. One for acting, one for DJing, and one for music production. I'm going to make sure you guys understand what makes the best actors in one word. Life. If you live, you understand how life works which makes the best actors. You know when you can manifest the character through just watching them for five minutes, that's life. When you have sadness because, when you're growing up and your dog ends up passing away, your childhood puppy, that’s tough. To be able to mix and match and choose these different emotions and putting them together and you put them in your back pocket whenever you need them, that's life, right? Whenever you have memory, sense memory; that's life. That's all I can say for that."
Who are some of your biggest influences that led you in wanting to become an actor and a musician?
“Michael J. Fox. Hands down. When I saw Back to the Future, I went upstairs to my room and tried to make like a paper car like the DeLorean. He changed my life and also, he had a really rough time growing up. He made himself who he was, and I was just happy to even watch him. If I met him now, it would be a whole different story because unfortunately, he has Parkinson’s disease right now. His body is not doing the best it could be, but I guess my dream right now is to meet him, and have lunch with him, and talk to him about what he loves before he passes away. He really changed my life. He gave me the inspiration. He was very goofy in Back to the Future.
That kind of reminded me of myself a little bit, as my true self because I put on a lot of masks growing up, and I wanted to see which ones worked and which ones didn’t, so I can you know pave my way to being myself, but then I realized that it doesn’t matter; especially the people who don’t like you or doing you a service, right? If they don’t like you, then you know your selfish and shouldn’t be hanging out with them. You shouldn’t have any connection with them. So, it’s all perception, right? Michael J. Fox really taught me that, even just in a movie, and if he changed my life, I can change one person’s life too. Otherwise, I’ve done my civic duty as an actor.”
“Michael J. Fox. Hands down. When I saw Back to the Future, I went upstairs to my room and tried to make like a paper car like the DeLorean. He changed my life and also, he had a really rough time growing up. He made himself who he was, and I was just happy to even watch him. If I met him now, it would be a whole different story because unfortunately, he has Parkinson’s disease right now. His body is not doing the best it could be, but I guess my dream right now is to meet him, and have lunch with him, and talk to him about what he loves before he passes away. He really changed my life. He gave me the inspiration. He was very goofy in Back to the Future.
That kind of reminded me of myself a little bit, as my true self because I put on a lot of masks growing up, and I wanted to see which ones worked and which ones didn’t, so I can you know pave my way to being myself, but then I realized that it doesn’t matter; especially the people who don’t like you or doing you a service, right? If they don’t like you, then you know your selfish and shouldn’t be hanging out with them. You shouldn’t have any connection with them. So, it’s all perception, right? Michael J. Fox really taught me that, even just in a movie, and if he changed my life, I can change one person’s life too. Otherwise, I’ve done my civic duty as an actor.”
Since you are a talented musician, what do you look for when your producing high-quality music?
“I look for a journey, right? For example, when you hear a rap beat, you know there is a distinct sound. You hear that it could have a certain feel to it, right? But, I like to have a little bit of everything in my music because I want the music with and without words to tell a story, and I want you to picture yourself somewhere, someway doing something, and when that's going on in your head, the story is being developed, right? It's all, and I'll give you like a (starts beatboxing) with a little pluck on top. Then you know that you have a certain picture with my imagination. So, I guess music in my opinion should trigger imagination for an individual.”
“I look for a journey, right? For example, when you hear a rap beat, you know there is a distinct sound. You hear that it could have a certain feel to it, right? But, I like to have a little bit of everything in my music because I want the music with and without words to tell a story, and I want you to picture yourself somewhere, someway doing something, and when that's going on in your head, the story is being developed, right? It's all, and I'll give you like a (starts beatboxing) with a little pluck on top. Then you know that you have a certain picture with my imagination. So, I guess music in my opinion should trigger imagination for an individual.”
What was your inspiration to become an actor? And was the process challenging or not?
“The inspiration was, if I could change one person’s view because let me put it to you this way, a powerful quote: “One of my mentors called me a “Phoenix” and anybody can be a Phoenix if they want to. Meaning, anybody could rise from the ashes. It doesn’t matter how you fall, what matters is how you get up. I didn’t even know I wanted to be a Phoenix. I didn’t have the education, the knowledge to understand or conflict this process with that men in my circumstance. My inspiration is that if I rose from the ashes in that way, I want to make everybody who’s following to be able to rise from the ashes even more than I did. Also, it’s not necessarily the viewpoints that matter, it’s the vibe in which they run on a frequency. If everybody is on the same wavelength, you have gold.”
What was your inspiration then to decide in becoming a musician?
“I value friendship, right? I value friendship by a relationship with any type of connection. The way I found my inspiration to be a musician was, I really took my friends music tastes and crafted them into my own and I don’t want to say I was making music for them. But I was making music for myself for them to talk about. I didn’t know it would ever make that I didn’t know whatever makes an impression in the footprint that it is doing right now, but ultimately it was one of those things where your like, “I’ll just try it out just as kind of a joke and then ended up being really serious like how to fake it till you make it”. I don’t want to say that was the way that it happened, but that’s the best way I could describe it to everyone right now. I’m extremely in a hard believer, that if you believe what you’re doing is to the full 110%, nobody else has a choice but to believe you too.”
To view life, and whatever your music you're doing inside you, in this weird thing we call Earth, life, and breathing, right? The best way to make music, where people gravitate towards is to visualize it with your auditory senses, right? Music is everything. Music is every single solitary thing. Music is me walking down the steps. Music is me sneezing. Music is everything. So, as long as you know that you can make the best type of song because people want to understand what you think as an artist. Music is a great way to illustrate that as if you were to paint a picture.”
“The inspiration was, if I could change one person’s view because let me put it to you this way, a powerful quote: “One of my mentors called me a “Phoenix” and anybody can be a Phoenix if they want to. Meaning, anybody could rise from the ashes. It doesn’t matter how you fall, what matters is how you get up. I didn’t even know I wanted to be a Phoenix. I didn’t have the education, the knowledge to understand or conflict this process with that men in my circumstance. My inspiration is that if I rose from the ashes in that way, I want to make everybody who’s following to be able to rise from the ashes even more than I did. Also, it’s not necessarily the viewpoints that matter, it’s the vibe in which they run on a frequency. If everybody is on the same wavelength, you have gold.”
What was your inspiration then to decide in becoming a musician?
“I value friendship, right? I value friendship by a relationship with any type of connection. The way I found my inspiration to be a musician was, I really took my friends music tastes and crafted them into my own and I don’t want to say I was making music for them. But I was making music for myself for them to talk about. I didn’t know it would ever make that I didn’t know whatever makes an impression in the footprint that it is doing right now, but ultimately it was one of those things where your like, “I’ll just try it out just as kind of a joke and then ended up being really serious like how to fake it till you make it”. I don’t want to say that was the way that it happened, but that’s the best way I could describe it to everyone right now. I’m extremely in a hard believer, that if you believe what you’re doing is to the full 110%, nobody else has a choice but to believe you too.”
To view life, and whatever your music you're doing inside you, in this weird thing we call Earth, life, and breathing, right? The best way to make music, where people gravitate towards is to visualize it with your auditory senses, right? Music is everything. Music is every single solitary thing. Music is me walking down the steps. Music is me sneezing. Music is everything. So, as long as you know that you can make the best type of song because people want to understand what you think as an artist. Music is a great way to illustrate that as if you were to paint a picture.”
“In terms of the music production, every person has a beat. Every person has a rhythm. Every person has a melody.”
For people out there who don't know you, what kind of recording artist is Duncan?
“Say, I'm a recording artist who enjoys the process of it all. I'm a recording artist who, when I'm super tired of staying awake and I want to go to sleep, if I have a good idea I don't push myself, I force myself to get up and write it down or just have a recording on my phone. The part that gives me the most happiness and drive is that if somebody likes my music, if somebody likes a certain song that I have put out there into the world; after I put so much blood, sweat, and tears on it, that's like the best feeling in the world. Also, I am very anti-fame. I don't like being famous. I am not saying I am famous. But, my definition of fame should be, giving back. I am a very big supporter in putting the smallest little sparks of life. But, if it changes their life, hell yeah, I'll do it, no matter what. If it makes a big impact and they want to pay it forward and say, do something that I'm doing, then I've done something correct."
When you do get casted, what kind of roles are you typically assigned to?
“I’m assigned to the guy typically either the leading man for like smaller budget things. If not, the boy next door or support or the hard supporting. Currently,what I've been cast in right now is more like the quirky kid; that's not a serious or charming nerd.”
What are your plans after you graduate from Woodbury University?
“My plans are hopefully to make my own either my own record label or production company, and with all the business and marketing stuff, and then hear about that two-sided industry. It's probably something hopefully closer in the future after I graduate. But then I got to keep up open for auditions and I make time for my creative juices to flow for the auditions, and for the music. But, more or less, I'm probably going to take a year or two after college and just live my life. Maybe go abroad somewhere not to study, but just to see how the other places in the world are like. The more stuff you know about it, the more storage you have. to stop and think again stories of the most powerful elements in the universe. Can you tell a story? words to make somebody feel something. That's I guess, that's my overall. Maybe I can do stand-up. Maybe I can be a motivational speaker or anything.”
Nevertheless, with powerful statements made by Duncan about life and giving yourselves a chance, Duncan is not only an influential speaker but also demonstrates what class really is - and the humbling personality he manifests. Though the adversities he has gone through, Duncan continues to excel by appreciating every little thing that is thrown at him and taking those elements of good and bad into something he is passionate about - which are music and acting.
“Love yourself and give yourself the freedom to create. Only you can see 100% of yourself. You are enough.”
Listen to Duncan at SoundCloud: DunkModa
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