Moraine Valley graduate Dylan Lloyd, ’09, is continuing to make a name for himself in the music industry with chart topping songs and performances at well-known venues.
One of the popular venues at which he’s performed is the South by Southwest Music Festival, one of the largest music festivals in the United States. “Performing at SXSW (South by Southwest) is one of the biggest accomplishments of my career so far,” Lloyd said. “The atmosphere while performing there is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. I performed as a solo act and had a guest appearance from an incredibly talented singer-songwriter from Nashville named Kayla Nettles. I’ve performed on TV many times, but never have I performed in a festival, so I soaked up every second of it. I can’t wait to perform there again!”
Lloyd, who is realizing a dream he has chased since a child, is working on three new records to be released throughout 2018.
He’s also climbing in the charts. “Having seven consecutive Top 100 records on the iTunes Charts is a difficult task. You’re blessed to even have one record chart on the iTunes Charts, let alone seven. So I definitely don’t take any chart position for granted,” Lloyd said. His most recent record was released by Universal Music and charted Top 20 on the iTunes Charts.
He’s also very proud of having his own Pandora station. “That’s a huge accomplishment for me. I mean to hear me sing my music, then [hear] Bruno Mars or Ed Sheerin and then go back to my song. That’s just—wow,” Lloyd said. In addition, he plays piano, something he began teaching himself when he was 5 years old. “I started to listen to pianists like Ben Folds, Elton John and Stevie Wonder and just copied them,” he said.
A love for music drove Lloyd and some friends to play together while they were in high school. “When you’re in a band in the Beverly area, the gig of a lifetime is Fisher Fest. You do that; you’ve made it. And we did Fisher Fest. I was doing a lot of different things just to get music into my life,” Lloyd said. Upon graduating from Mt. Carmel High School, he enrolled at Moraine Valley, a decision he said was right for him. “The best for me? The smaller classes, which were crucial to my learning. They were just so engaging,” he said.
“My teacher at Moraine Valley, Tammi Carlson, was a wonderful influence on me. I actually learned to semi-read music because of her,” he said. “Tammi opened the door for the theoretical aspect of music. She made me understand the logistics of what I was creating as opposed to ‘Ok, this is this chord or that chord.’ She was teaching me how they were inter-related. She saw what I could become today.”
