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.

1:05:29​ - Donovan discusses taking pilot lessons during these times to develop a different way of thinking.

1:07:27​ - Where to find and contact Donovan.

Donovan Melero: @donovan_hts

Hail The Sun: @hailthesun

Kill Iconic: @killiconic

Andrew Cramb: @andrew_ftw