Diving Deep with Dovydas

This isn’t typically how we do our interviews at AMS, but we decided to make an exception for our YouTuber friend Dovydas. In true Dovydas fashion, we kicked off the video getting a glimpse of the Dovylife. He lives in a gated community in Calabasis, drives a gold car, and gets invited to… ”adult sleepovers.” It’s safe to say we have a rock star in our presence.

We all know Dovydos for being a high-energy, multi-instrumentalist, live-looping street performer — and of course his luscious platinum blonde locks. But we wanted to get to know the real Dovydas by diving into his upbringing, the new meaning of success, the myths of other’s success, what David Letterman taught him, and his tolerance for failure.

The internet has been good to Dovydas, but his life wasn’t always this spectacular. He dives deep very quickly into our talks and unpacks the struggles of childhood. “I come from Lithuania. I remember parents skipping meals so us kids could eat dinner. Or mom just making potatoes with fried eggs, and that was kinda it.”

Dovy described how there was no one to emulate as a kid. “In Lithuania there was no one to look up to, like ‘oh look they made it’ or ‘oh look they have a cooler car’ or ‘look they live in a bigger house.’” Dovydas found it hard to find anyone other than a mobster who was able to become successful in Lithuania. But perhaps there was a silver lining: Without someone to look up to and emulate, he could follow his own path to become the unique Dovydas we all know and love today! 

Before YouTube kicked off, Dovydas had a different idea of what being a successful musician was. It seems like the rockstar life is different for everyone, and his YouTube stardom seems to follow suit. He broke down the concept of what happens when he films his content and why it’s so successful.

Dovydas sets the scene playing out in the wild, and he either plays music for someone or asks them to join in. “They have this changed experience. Then the camera rolls, then people see it, and 2, 3, 4 million people saw that moment, and then they would attribute how they would behave in that situation.” It’s like a chain reaction of reactions! Now he always keeps the cameras rolling to never miss a life changing moment to share.

Dovydos reminds us that success in how it’s presented and how it actually happens are two different things. ”In the mythology of success making, however artists represent themselves or labels or companies represent their artists, they do create this mythologized version.

Dovydos thinks it's important to paint the road to success with reality, just in case someone at home watching can have hope in achieving something similar. Because when it comes to success it’s never really what it seems to be.

After meeting with David Letterman, Dovydas was shocked about how he impacted Letterman on an emotional level. Letterman seems to be a big fan of Dovydas — and not for the reasons you might think. It’s Dovydas’s sense of humor and how welcoming he is that makes David Letterman so enthralled.

Dovydas seems to never have been told this before. “I never practiced being welcoming. All these other aspects that make humans human, and for someone to notice that. I didn’t even consider that valuable.” It makes sense, especially with how he engages with his audience. He might have practiced a bunch of instruments, but he didn’t realize the people skills he developed along the way.

Dovydos is a doer. “I’d rather try and bomb than not try out of fear and failure.” He doesn’t want to wait to know what could have been. Dovydas said it best, “I never make the same mistake twice, I make it three or four times.”

This interview was like a Dovydas special. We had live music, deep personal stories, and inspirational messages. And, like us, if you didn’t get enough, make sure to check out Dovydas and American Musical Supply on YouTube. If you liked any of the products Dovy used during his interview, you know where to find them: right here at AMS!