Paul Dateh
Costa Mesa, CA USA
"If I let myself worry about what people are going to think, and my reputation, and try to prove myself-I've done that before, and it's exhausting. At the end of the day, the real person you want to make sure is happy is yourself."
Career Roadmap
Paul's work combines: Film, Music, and Being Creative
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Day In The Life
Skills &
Education
Here's the path I took:
High School
Bachelor's Degree
Music Theory and Composition
University of Southern California
Life & Career Milestones
My path in life has been direct
1.
Started playing violin when he was very young, says it's been with him his whole life.
2.
Says that although it was his idea to start playing, his parents really pressured him to keep it up.
3.
Went USC for classical violin, but on the first day, he walked out of the practice room and into the admissions building, changed his major to jazz.
4.
Following this switch, he lost a lot of the support from his family and his peers in the classical school, who thought he was "just rebelling."
5.
Now he's known for his classical/hip-hop mashups, covering music by the likes of Kanye West, The Roots, and Kendrick Lamar.
6.
He'd been taught that he couldn't mix the classical techniques with modern playing, yet here he is, building a career off of that fusion.
7.
Says it's a challenge to survive in the entertainment business, especially for Asian-Americans, a group that is especially underrepresented.
8.
Luckily, he's been able to use the Internet to build a following and craft his own image without having to go through traditional channels.
