Meet Daniel Rechichi: Goodbye Plumbing, Hello Music Studies
Catching both the sunrise and the sunset in one day isn’t as glamourous as it sounds.
That’s been Daniel Rechichi’s life for the past five years, doubling as a plumber and DJ, where thoughts like ‘why am I doing this?’ riddled his tired mind on drives home from 12-hour working days.
In 2022, he’s ditching the plumbing tools for Pro Tools, and finally chasing his dream to study Music at Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts.
We chatted to Daniel about taking this big step toward his passion to round out our January series.
What's your plan for this year?
After five years in plumbing, I’ll be starting at WAAPA in February, studying Composition and Music Technology. It covers anything from composing electronic or classical music all the way through to learning how to record in the field, how to set up a studio, how to record a score for movies, and recording live stuff.
With that, I’m also DJing for my full-time income on the weekends to pay the rent!
Is this something you've wanted to do for a long time?
Definitely. I've been a DJ since I was 16 in my bedroom. Music has always been the passion, but it hasn't really felt like something of a reality until maybe the last couple of years when my DJing has picked up.
Photo by @greaterheightsevents
Can you paint a picture of the past few years?
My day-to-day was to wake up anywhere between 5 and 6 am, head to work for a 10-12 hour day, come home exhausted, look forward to the weekend, repeat…
It was a lot of late nights, early mornings and that would roll on for the whole week. Like, I’d play a late gig on Sunday and that would hurt all the way through to Wednesday with my sleep pattern.
I remember feeling like I could do last night a million times, but I couldn't do today more than once.
It started to affect my work as well—trying to be on the hunt for music, thinking of ideas at work and my mind wasn't there.
Did you ever really have time to focus on your music creation then?
Nope! I did a short music production course a few years ago and after that, there was a lot of trying to make it happen, but forcing creativity after a day of work didn’t really fly.
Weekends were busy and I was more going out to network/DJ rather than focusing on creating.
I didn’t really allow time for it, until the last year or two when I really clicked that this is what I want to do and doing a job I didn’t love wasn’t going to get me there.
Photo by @zacwhillier
What made you decide 2022 is the year you’re going to study music?
2021 was a pretty stressful year. I had decided that these two industries weren’t going to work together, they're completely different lifestyles.
I'll always be happy I've done it, but I knew I’d had enough with plumbing. I’d given it a good go, and it was time to finally give music a shot.
What is it about music that excites you, and what are you excited about this year?
Creating something from scratch and putting my ideas down on paper.
I really look forward to being in that space full-time and being able to see how much it grows in a year!
What would you say as a kid when people would ask what you wanted to be when you grew up?
Even when I was too young to be making music, I would say I wanted to be a sound engineer or an artist.
What got you into plumbing?
Pretty much a Q&A with my dad. We ruled out uni ‘cos I was pretty done with school at the time. A lot of my family are in trades, and I wanted to feel handy and useful.
So, we narrowed it down and it ended up being electrician or plumber… I'm color blind so it had to be a plumber!
Who inspires you?
I’m really inspired by people that work in more different aspects of creativity, like Donald Glover and Ta-ku.
I’m also really inspired by my peers.
My friend Callum is a big influence. I used to catch the bus to his house after school in Year 9/10 and we’d try make music like Ta-ku. He was the first person to show me a music program, and we’d just go crazy on his little beat machine for hours. He’s gone down the WAAPA path himself and is doing amazing things now with the Sydney Orchestra!
Where do you see yourself at the end of this year?
This is hard, because in the best years of my life, I've never seen myself be where I am at by the end of that time! But I’d say I want to be able to play my own stuff out at my DJ gigs and link the two worlds, and for opportunities to come up from that.
I want to be able to produce music that sort of reflects my ideas and my own sound a lot better.
I’d love to be working in and learning about, not necessarily just producing music or DJing, but more creative fields like soundtracks for movies and ads.
What advice would you give to someone who is in the place you were last year, who wants to change their pathway?
I know my parents, and I'm sure a lot of other parents, want you to be safe and secure. But if you love your job that much, you'll be secure from how much you put into it.
It might seem like a risk jumping out from a job, but you have no idea about the random opportunities that can come your way from just meeting people.
Just putting yourself out in different experiences will make you better, there's no such thing as wasting time.
You can follow Daniel and his music journey on Instagram.
Photo by @locksmithphotography
Header Image: @zacwhillier
