Check Out Dezi Cartier’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Dezi Cartier.  

Hi Dezi, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I’m Dezi Cartier and my story begins in Illinois. As a kid, I was always really passionate and inspired by a lot especially movies and music. Being an only child, I had a lot of time to think and become friends with my imagination. My Mom and I moved from Illinois to Florida so the scenery switched up for us. I went to art schools throughout out my entire school life even bleeding into college a little. I started doing the school plays and community theatre shows. My mom knew I liked music so I started taking lessons after school. She really pushed me. 

I think I was like 10 when I got my first headshots done and then one thing kinda started to lead to another. I started going to auditions that my mom would take me to. I started getting a little traction through Heather Heinz of Heinz Productions in Orlando. I’m very grateful for her and her team. 

I got booked for MTV’s, “The Inbetweeners” back in like 2010 or 2011. At this time MTV was rebooting UK series like “The Skins” and “The Inbetweeners”. I remember my mom’s hairdresser running the sides for the audition with me ha. It was really cool there were a lot of good memories and friends made on that show. After that, I landed Telemundo’s, “La Voz” which was cool because I got to really see how a show like that is run. I actually made a friend named Chase years later who also had worked on that production. 

My mind was always elsewhere at school. My high school commute was an hour to an hour and a half. I would wake up at 4 am to get ready and be on my first bus at 5 am. Every morning on the bus I would watch listen to the Bieber or watch his movie on the way and try to find castings to submit myself to. 

Once I got to high school, I started to explore music more. I took music classes like theory with my film classes in high school. I’d always had a passion for music. I was big into playing drums at this time I had taken lessons for a while and really fell in love with the drums. I used to play in the guitar concerts though which was cool and I’m grateful for but that was as close as I got to rockin out at school. But I loved to play, at one point in my life, I really thought percussion or playing the drums was going to be what I did for the rest of my life. Since then, I’ve grown towards guitar, those moments really got me through the academic side of school though. Senior year I was applying to colleges and got accepted to Belmont University in Nashville, TN. 

I went up to Nashville in the fall of 2016 to start school at Belmont University. It was not very long before I realized it was not where I was supposed to be. I still have love for Nashville though. I dropped out before the semester was over and I came back to FL and applied to UCF for their spring or summer semester thinking it would be different this time around. I worked as a car salesman until school started. I went on to start the semester and unfortunately, I had that same feeling that haunted me back at Belmont. It just wasn’t me. Nothing against it I just wanted to put my time into my art. At this point, I dropped out of UCF. But I knew it was going to leave I was going to have to work really hard in life. As daunting as that felt in the moment it was liberating. 

I started experimenting and making my own music. One of the first things I remember doing was taking trips down to South, FL to see a really talented producer and writer named Marino. We worked on like 4 ideas that I never released or did too much with but more so it got my feet wet with recording and writing. South, FL is chill too so it was a good time. 

It was really over the next couple of years of where I really found my groove. I also experienced a lot of life in this time following. I kept shooting and working towards my goals though which led me to meet some amazing people along the way. These years were crucial to me getting where I am now. I was mostly independent throughout this time in my life. I was getting jobs through casting sites and agencies but majority of my work was coming from my friends in the scene. I think that is a really important part of how I’ve gotten where I am. These years blur together 

I am now getting to tell my story through my music and put out my first single called, “Starlight”. I wanted to begin to tell my story with this song and pay an homage to last couple years of my life and the people that were a part of it. This was fate that this song came together when it did. We actually recorded it like two days before my boy Prateek moved was moving out of the country. All of the people involved in Starlight are my really close friends so it’s a special song to me Herb Maximo shot and directed the video, in addition, the packaging, I am grateful for his influence on the project since we have been boys for so long. I knew he would really understand it. 

Music is crazy, I recently did a feature for an artist in France called Mav’. The song is off his album and called “By My Side”. He sent me the song and we got it poppin. I had just cut my vocals and I was doing some adlibs and said, “From Paris with Love”. I almost didn’t leave that in but I was nahhh keep it. When I sent him the track back, he loved it and ended up naming the album, “From Paris with Love”. 

I’m currently working on an EP and will be releasing a single off of it this summer. I’m working on this project with one of my best friends and producer Emerson Vernon. I love my life and those in it. This is me and my life and my sound. I’m looking forward to sharing it. 

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It’s been a ride in more ways than one. Whatever job I had I worked but I worked hard for myself too if not even harder. It can be an art in it self-trying to manage that aspect of life but it’s something to be conscious of. It’s taking that time to keep thinking about the dream or working when you get off and are tired. There have been a lot of mini hurdles that could have been much larger hurdles to my career had I let them be. The more true to myself I am the better things seem to turn out in my life. I’ve had agencies tell me my hair is too unnatural and things of that nature. What one person might not see in you somebody else will. 

Life can have been super confusing at times but you gotta roll with the punches. I lost my grandmother this last year to Covid and almost my mom as well. My mom has multiple myeloma, she was diagnosed my senior year of high school. Which made it a really hard to leave FL to go to Nashville for college at the time. That was a very hard and confusing time in life. It’s really hard to think clearly through those waves of life and feelings but that’s all part of it. 

Being an artist is a lot of life sacrifice and believing in yourself so much so that others do too. I’ve had to show up excited and ready to work even when I’ve had no idea what I was doing or was nervous. I’ve learned how important the setup is by the adversity faced in trying. If you have a good set up it goes a long way in the delivery of what you are trying to achieve. The more you do something the more you learn about the process and the more comfortable you become maneuvering it. 

If you want it you gotta really let the world know. 

“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” – Seneca 

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
For most of my life, I’ve been in the entertainment scene. I’ve been heavily involved in modeling and acting which has really crossed over nicely into my music career. I still model and act however my main focus has been putting that same attention into my love for music. With music you make you get to make the rules. Fashion has always played a big role in my in my life and I think that has added to my sound and brand. I’m super big into integrity with art so I often make something and won’t release it till everything about it is perfect. I’m human and flawed I accept that. I have gotten better at efficiently working through that cycle. Even when I go to the studio or am on set, I always approach it as human first then an artist. 

I really think my childhood played a role in my mentality. I was fortunate to start working in an industry I dreamed at a pretty young age where it’s kind of quickly became all I knew. For most of my life though I’ve been conditioned to only think you can be one thing. That’s far from how the world is though. I always have looked at anybody I worked with or met as a human first. I’ve made a friend before a connection and I’ve always tried to reciprocate any opportunity I’ve been given. Those are things I really value. 

My background in the entertainment industry has helped contribute to my sound and story I tell through my music. There’s a lot of real-life that happened that’s going into this EP. I have dived deep into myself for this project and a ready to share that. I’ll be releasing the first song of this project this summer. 

It’s taken a lot to get to here but I’ve loved the journey and the people in it. Everyone’s path is different to get to where you want to be but I’m grateful for mine. 

Life is crazy though. I’m also an Account Manager at a company called AKT. We do e-commerce and merchandising for a lot of artists, bands, and businesses. This ranges from client relations to e-commerce management. It’s a world that I never thought I would find myself in but’s gave me an edge in career as well. It’s cool because it’s a mix of all my worlds. I actually before I had even worked there was modeling for some of their clients. One of our clients is a band I grew up with in my youth and I actually got cast to be in their music video separate from work. It’s been cool and very full circle. 

Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs, or other resources you think our readers should check out?
Music is at the top of that list. My music taste is all over the place. As of late, Caskey’s new album “Nobody.” Jesse Rutherford’s solo projects contributed a lot of influence to my inspiration. I really fell in love with his album “&” and just the aura of the project. But I really listen to what I feel so that is always changing. Music has played a major influence on my style as well. 

The three books that have helped me the most in life are “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion” and “Pre-Suasion” by Robert Cialdini. Then also, “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill. I came across these around 18 and they all really impacted my mindset going forward. I for a while would save parts of them on YouTube before I had the book and listen to these every morning during my routine. I then purchased the books and have referenced them ever since. 

I actually have a Podcast with one of my best friend Mark Alex. It is called, “Day by Day with Dezi and Mark” it is kind of our fun side project. But it’s been cool cause we have gotten to bring a lot of our friends and local creatives on the show to talk about what they do. It came a long way from where it started and we learned a lot in the process. I also like Deepak Chopra which I usually listen to after I leave the gym, in the mornings, in the sauna. I listen to his albums on Spotify and it really centers and gets me right for whatever I got to get into. 

Contact Info:

• Email: DeziCartier@gmail.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dezicartier/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/Dezicartier
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBVYddwe-EC88P9Sa2Q6F7w
• Other: https://linktr.ee/dezicartier?utm_source=linktree_profile_share

Image Credits
Herb Maximo
Raphael Loquellano