Daily Inspiration: Meet Iris Dunn

Today we’d like to introduce you to Iris Dunn.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started? 
I’ve always known my purpose was in music and the arts. Ever since I was a little girl, I have been fascinated by movies and music, especially pop stars like Miley Cyrus, Ariana Grande, Rihanna, Taylor Swift & Lady Gaga. I learned to play a variety of instruments at a young age, including the guitar, piano & drums and loved to sing and perform all throughout my childhood and teen years. I began writing songs with my friend at the age of 10, and it became a huge passion of mine. I entered songwriting competitions in my high school years, and I was able to travel to Japan for a songwriting scholarship, which was an amazing opportunity. This trip inspired my decision to pursue music as a full-time career. I studied commercial music at Massey University in Wellington, New Zealand, in 2017. During this time, I learned how to produced my own music in Logic and Ableton and would stay up til 3 am every night making demos that I would upload to SoundCloud. I had a fun time at university but decided to leave after one year because I had always had my sights set on LA. So, the following year, I moved back home to my parents’ house in Napier, NZ, and committed to busking and weekly gigs performing songs to save up enough money to travel to the US in September of 2018. This same year I was offered a record contract with Universal Music New Zealand. I was excited and considered signing, but one of the terms was that I signed right away before testing out my options in LA. I felt like I truly needed to stick to my intuition and follow my childhood dreams, so I turned down the record deal and flew to LA with my friend in September. We booked a three-month trip and stayed in a few different Airbnb’s whilst budgeting every dollar. I guess you could say this was definitely my ‘starving artist’ period ha-ha. I started posting videos of my songs and content on Instagram while I was in LA and started making a few connections online. I used an app called ‘Vampr’, which helped me meet a few different producers in the area. I also knew a few mutual friends who were artists. One of whom I worked with goes by the name ‘Promnite’, and we made a demo during this time, which three years later actually got picked up for a Tiffany’s commercial starring Rose from the K-pop group BlackPink. 

In the final two weeks of my trip, I connected with filmmaker and producer Charles Lutman through Instagram. We met up and made a few songs and somehow recorded 6 songs together that were ready to be released by the time I left. I was really happy with my time spent in LA and definitely knew it was the right move. Charles showed a few of his friends the songs and I was lucky enough to be sponsored by him for my O1 visa so that we could continue working together on my music career. The next three years were a lot of back-and-forth trips to LA and back to NZ. While I waited to apply for my O1, I had to abide by the Esta visa laws. 3 months in LA, three months out of the country. Every trip to LA I felt like I was in a time bomb, and I made sure that I worked as much as I could on recording and filming music videos so that when I left my main priority was focusing on social media and marketing myself. 

In 2020 we decided to meet in Costa Rica, and I recorded my debut album ‘Unlocked’ and filmed a few of my music videos on the fly while we were there. A few of my songs from this album got some traction, especially my single ‘Lay With You,’ which has over 1.5M streams on Spotify and YouTube respectively. 

Costa Rica was an awesome experience, but while we were there, this is when we found out about covid, which made traveling very difficult. I flew back to LA, but I only had a matter of time before I needed to return home to make sure I didn’t overstay my visa. I tried to book flights to go home to New Zealand, but my country had instilled quarantine hotel laws and they were all booked up for months. I had no option but to fly somewhere and chill there until I got admission into the quarantine hotel in Auckland. A lot of places were in lockdown, so I ended up traveling to Antigua. This was a whole experience in itself, but throughout this period of quarantining myself, I started posting singing videos daily and live streaming on Instagram and TikTok. Boredom was somewhat of a blessing because it really pushed me into growing my social media platforms. Finally, in 2021, I got my O1 visa and moved to LA, and we continued to make songs and film/edit music videos to release. This is something I am very grateful for, as well – the ability to do everything in-house. Basically, our film and music studio production team is just the two of us. We edit all my music videos in Final Cut Pro, and we co-produce my songs in Ableton, which I then record my own vocals in ProTools. It definitely has made it easier to put out regular music on a budget. It’s also a luxury to have the time to make sure the song/video is exactly how I envisioned it. 

In 2022, Charles and I decided to do something a little different, and instead of making regular format videos, we set up to film a movie with my album as the soundtrack. The film is titled ‘Amygdala,’ and it is a fictional take on my own personal struggles with a mental illness. We filmed it all in the first three months of 2022 and took turns editing for the next 3 – 6 months. I really am so stoked with the outcome of the film, and I can’t wait for it to be out in the world eventually. I hope it connects with people who may be battling with something similar. Amygdala and its soundtrack will be coming out this year. 

Now in 2024, I am continuing to work on my music and acting. The film unleashed my other passion for character building, and so I will continue to mesh the two worlds together and hopefully create another film or series in which my music will be interweaved. I am working on my third album/music project currently and I am very excited about where it’s heading. As an independent artist, I really feel blessed to be able to do what I love without restrictions. Although I look back and think my earlier music wasn’t as good or whatever, I’m still glad that I put out the music when I did and didn’t wait for the ‘perfect song’ or ‘perfect time’ because if I’ve learned anything in regards to my music career, and life itself for that matter, it’s that everything is about perspective. What someone likes, another might hate. Some of my songs/videos that I think are the most cringe actually have garnered the most attention. So now my mantra like Yoda – there is no try just do. 

We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I mentioned some of the challenges in the earlier segment, but no, it has definitely not been a smooth road! Being from outside of the US was the biggest hurdle. Every time I entered LAX, my heart would beat 100 miles an hour, so having my visa now has been a huge relief and excavated any further potential hiccups. 

If I’m honest, though, my biggest hurdle has actually been myself. Although I am proud of how far I’ve come as an independent artist, I always wonder what if I had done this differently, etc., etc. I am one of the biggest overthinkers on planet Earth, so I try my best just to focus on improving every day instead of on things I cannot change. 

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am an artist. To me, that means I am creative. I have been and always will be someone who is just obsessed with artistic expression through music, film & design. Through the development of my career, I have taken steps to more so ‘world-build’ if you will, as opposed to just releasing single after single in the music space. It excites me to really dive into a project from the ground up. Because identity can shift at any moment we choose, I like to think of it as stepping into the mind of a different character. Like acting. For my next project I will be creating the soundtrack for this particular character. She will have a certain style & aesthetic. A demeanor, an accent, a mindset, a color wheel, all of which will come through in the visuals that are produced. 

This has been a natural step in my career path, and I think it is different from what others in my field are doing. I think, especially with the short attention spans of people, it is tempting to just throw things at the wall. But I care too much. My art is my life, and out of all the things we can’t control in life, art can be that one thing that is totally unique & infinite. It’s escapism but also the most real fingerprint that someone can have. 

I am most proud of the risks that I have taken to chase my childhood dreams. I will always believe that as children, we have this unequivocal sense of self that is in its most pure form. And as we get older it is harder to tap into it as much. I hope I can hold onto that little bit of magic forever and continually evolve. 

Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the COVID-19 crisis?
Plenty. I learned that sometimes, being stuck indoors is the most productive thing you can do. I’ve learned that we really can’t predict what tomorrow will bring, so do what you love. It also reinstalled the importance of spending time with the people I love because they are the biggest gift in my life 

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/irisofficialmusic?igsh=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/irisofficialmusic?mibextid=LQQJ4d
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@irisofficialmusic?si=vPGBu-Ov5Gqd1E9k
• SoundCloud: https://on.soundcloud.com/4J9QqZ6ekz6p8sx97
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@irisofficialmusic?_t=8kp5gV9vtsf&_r=1