10 Within 10 Recognition
Andrew Dost '05
Andrew Dost, ‘05, has walked on award-show red carpets and heard his songs played on the radio hundreds of times.
Ask him about success, and his answer might surprise you.
“I feel like I made it long ago,” Dost says, “when I realized I could play music as my career. It was on a small scale, but it was enough for me.
“Success is enjoying what you’ve chosen to do and not regretting it or treating it like a burden. If you have that, I think you’re wildly successful.”
Dost is a keyboardist with the Grammy award-winning band fun. The band’s huge hit, “We Are Young” hung out for six consecutive weeks atop Billboard’s “Hot 100” and set singles sales records. The band performed at President Barack Obama’s last inauguration gala.
“When those good things started to happen, it felt very surreal,” Dost says. “Almost like it was happening to someone else.”
None of the band members expected to hit it big, he says.
“What we tell ourselves is to be as honest as possible with our music,” Dost says. “To love it, love the process, love each other. I think if you’re trying to make a pop smash, it changes its purity. I hope what people connect to is that we’re trying our hardest to be honest and write from that.”
Playing in a band is about human connection, Dost says.
“Initially, all I wanted was a way to spend time with friends and feel a little less alone in the world,” he says. “In college, I learned how to be a good friend and a good bandmate. I needed a band for personal reasons. It’s still about that, to a degree.
“It’s about my place in the universe,” he says. “My sense is that humans can use music to reach out to each other through time and help each other out a little bit.”
Ask him about success, and his answer might surprise you.
“I feel like I made it long ago,” Dost says, “when I realized I could play music as my career. It was on a small scale, but it was enough for me.
“Success is enjoying what you’ve chosen to do and not regretting it or treating it like a burden. If you have that, I think you’re wildly successful.”
Dost is a keyboardist with the Grammy award-winning band fun. The band’s huge hit, “We Are Young” hung out for six consecutive weeks atop Billboard’s “Hot 100” and set singles sales records. The band performed at President Barack Obama’s last inauguration gala.
“When those good things started to happen, it felt very surreal,” Dost says. “Almost like it was happening to someone else.”
None of the band members expected to hit it big, he says.
“What we tell ourselves is to be as honest as possible with our music,” Dost says. “To love it, love the process, love each other. I think if you’re trying to make a pop smash, it changes its purity. I hope what people connect to is that we’re trying our hardest to be honest and write from that.”
Playing in a band is about human connection, Dost says.
“Initially, all I wanted was a way to spend time with friends and feel a little less alone in the world,” he says. “In college, I learned how to be a good friend and a good bandmate. I needed a band for personal reasons. It’s still about that, to a degree.
“It’s about my place in the universe,” he says. “My sense is that humans can use music to reach out to each other through time and help each other out a little bit.”