Harley DiNardo: Two Record Deals, Two Drop-Offs, and the Fire That Changed Everything

So after that is when the lull before the second rush started to happen.

Yeah.

You know? That's where it started to, you know...

It was like band, band, band, and then it's like, okay, at that time I was in my late 20s, and I was like thinking I was old already 'cause I was in my late 20s, and I'd started when I was 21.

So it was like, okay, 10 years, and I've been signed twice, and this has ended the same way both times.

Maybe I should just like go do hair.

I'm tired of being broke, and I need to, you know, the married thing and have kids.

In my early 30s, that's what I did.

I just thought, you know, I failed to capture the brass ring.

That's the way I looked at it, and all these other people are doing it, you know?

Yeah.

And especially because I saw The Strokes and Interpol, all these guys that I knew from the clubs blowing up, like covers of magazines, playing arenas, like, um...

And I felt very disheartened, and I felt like I had been forgotten about and like I was lying to myself, you know? And I just thought, "Well, the proof is in the pudding.

If it didn't happen, that must mean that it's never going to," and all these negative thoughts.

And the interesting thing is I had a lot of fans around me, like, like friends, you know, or music producers that I stayed friends with, and they would just say like, "You know, I know you don't believe it," or, "You'd be the last person to believe it, but these, your songs are really good.

You know, just don't let, you know, some poor like marketing or circumstantial stuff get you down and make you think you're not good." You know, and over the years, you know, people kept telling me that, and I still have till this day, I'll get a person, "I saw you in, you know, 2004 in Denver.

Me and my son listen to your CD constantly." I get those probably once a week or from Japan or, you know, stuff like that.

And so that's what makes you think like just because you think that you dropped the ball or you didn't capture the brass ring, it doesn't mean it's over, you know? It's like I might be in the middle of my life right now and feel like all these years have gone by.

I wasted all these years.

But, like, don't waste more.

Yeah.

You know what I mean? [laughs] Like, now it gets to the point where you're like, you don't want it to be like where you become, like, an old man, and then you're really gonna regret it, you know? Like, I'm the same age as The Strokes.

They're out there making records, touring.

Or Oasis, right? So why can't I? You know what I mean? Like, they're doing it.

Well, people will say, "Well, because, you know, they made it when they were young already." Yeah, but they're still passionate.