Meet Cort Dingman

Today we’d like to introduce you to Cort Dingman.

Hi Cort, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I was born in Kansas in 2002 and raised in Minnesota in 2004. I first began music when I played saxophone in my 5th-grade band. Shortly after that, I picked up piano, and a couple of years later bass, drums, and uke. After branching out into different kinds of music

I picked up the guitar, and that’s when I knew it was my instrument. It was around this time that I started making “lofi-jazz” beats on my laptop. This eventually turned into a mix of Indie Pop/Alt, Jazz, Funk, Rock, Psychadelic, and more. At the top of 2020, I had a TikTok of me playing the solo from santeria by sublime blow up. After that my music started getting lots of streams, and my TikTok following continued to grow. Since then, I’ve moved to Nashville to work on music. I attended Belmont for a year but am now taking a gap year to focus on music.

I hope to play lots of shows, and hopefully tour in 2022 following the release of my upcoming album.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
One struggle I’ve experienced was that it’s been somewhat difficult to direct my TikTok audience to my original music. sometimes my views will be really low on a video for the amount of followers I have, especially if it’s related to my music, rather than a trending song cover. Another minor struggle is not having the money for top-notch equipment, but I’ve been able to make do with what I’ve got since I’ve started making music, so I’m kind of used to it

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I make music. My main instrument is guitar, yet I also play bass, drums, keys/piano, saxophone, and uke, as well as vocals. I love being able to sit down in my bedroom on my laptop to create something that is completely unique to me. It’s a way to express my emotions and viewpoint of the world, whether I’m writing about the beauty of life and the universe, my uncertainty, fear, and excitement of the future, or an interesting experience.

I think one thing that sets me apart from others is that color is another big part of my music. I have color synesthesia, and due to this, I correlate colors with different notes. C is blue, A is red, F is purple. When I write my chord progressions, I choose chords that display the colors of the emotions/vibe I have in mind. This makes writing a lot of fun, as I have a canvas in my head of the sounds I’m hearing. I think I am mostly known for my guitar videos on TikTok/Instagram reels, but my hope is that my original music becomes more of what people see of me in the future.

I am most proud of the songs I’ve been working on over the past six months. They hold a lot of value to me and I’m very excited to release them and perform them.

The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
Covid-19 began the same year I graduated high school, so this made my college experience kind of difficult. I attended Belmont University as a songwriting major, and I was really excited to meet people and hopefully start a band. It was hard to meet new people considering we couldn’t be in each other’s dorms to jam.

Luckily, I did meet a lot of cool people/musicians that I’m still in touch with. One interesting thing I’ve learned during this time is that things are always changing. I remember my last day of high school and have no idea that was going to be my last in-person day. It felt like Covid was going to last for a while but it’s already starting to look up.

Seeing progress and growth in the world showed me that everyone is always learning and growing, and this gives me hope for my future.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: https://linktr.ee/cort.d
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/cort._d
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1PgGClBjTm7Gxk99m7s3sK?si=ab8DukvPTg-97ViOf_3ITQ&dl_branch=1