EvenRights Dutch Santana

A Bay Area native, Dutch Santana operates off of originality, old school work ethic and muscle. Over time gathering game from his environment, he’s definitely able to put up a perspective for not only the Bay Area, but from the perspective of a man who really knows how to use his creativity to go out and get it.

EvenRights: How do you feel creativity and optimism is important to our generation?

Dutch: I think that technology and social media have started to clog natural creativity. I think it’s important that people really find themselves and who they are in order to really tap in to that creativity. A lot of people don’t give themselves the time to figure out who they are and I think that also blocks creativity. It’s definitely important to remain optimistic throughout that process as well as everything else you do in life. You get the same energy you put out. As long as you think positively, you can accomplish what you want.

EvenRights : What are your beliefs of how we can all be characterized as equal beings? As humans we all have the ability to be creative and optimistic

Dutch: I definitely agree that we all have the ability to be creative and optimistic, but I don’t believe that we all use them equally or reach full potential. We all have the same 24 hours in a day but it all starts with your childhood and how you were raised. If you were bred with more or pushed to do more as a child, when you grow to be an adult you’ll be more likely to use those creative skills than someone who grew up in a less fortunate environment with adults who were fine with that. My son was accepted into private school and I’m blessed to be able to continue to send him there to experience that type of education and make those networking connections.

EvenRights: How hard is it to stay creative and what would you say to somebody experiencing this same issue?

Dutch: In my personal experience when I hit a writing block with my music, I’ve learned that it helps to take a step back and come back to it later because when you try to force it you’re not going to like the results. Like I usually come up with a hook and first verse pretty quickly, but there will be times when that second verse I just feel like the energy doesn’t match the first verse. I have a song that I’ve been working on for months just because I feel like they could be better than what I’ve been writing to it.

EvenRights: If there were three things you could have done different, earlier , or better while building your brand, what would they have been?

Dutch: Definitely staying more persistent. As long as you keep pushing towards your goals you’re going to accomplish them eventually. Secondly not being concerned with other people’s opinions. A lot of people are going to look down on you and what you’re doing, simply because they aren’t able to do it themselves. Lastly, being your own biggest supporter. A lot of us get caught up in being our own biggest critics and like I said earlier, you get what you put into the world. So if you’re constantly telling yourself you need to do/be better instead of praising yourself at times you’ll burn yourself out or remain stuck where you’re at.

EvenRights: Taking the time to cater to a primarily adult audience, what can we teach our adult audience to do in order to be examples of equality for our youth?

Dutch: Adults for sure need to listen more and be more open minded. The youth need to be able to feel comfortable communicating what they’re going through with us as opposed to bottling it in because they think we’re going to judge them or be upset with them. Adults also need to seek knowledge, wisdom, and understanding because without that we can’t guide the youth in the proper direction because we don’t know which direction we’re going ourselves.

EvenRights: Do believe in the right to bear arms and if so how important do you think it is to be able to do so in this day and age?

Dutch: Hell yeah I believe in the right to bear arms. Everybody needs to be able to protect themselves. I advise everybody who is over the age of 18 to get a firearm for their safety and the safety of their family because the world is crazy.

EvenRights Do you think educational tutorials for police officers of equality, creativity and optimism may be able to help officers in making better decisions in difficult situations in the field?

Dutch: Yes, of course they should have implicated that into the academy and training they have before becoming a police officer, maybe a lot of the issues we’re seeing today wouldn’t be recurring tragedies. It’s a little backwards how long lawyers have to be in school in order to just know and practice the law versus the length of the police academy which is generally less than a year and they’re given the ability to ENFORCE the law. It’s crazy.

EvenRights: The tobacco industry is constantly frowned upon in commercials. Do you think people have a choice whether to smoke tobacco? Or is there something that influences them beyond measure to even become addicted.

Dutch: I honestly think tobacco addiction just starts from someone, usually kids, who see somebody that they look up to doing it and they want to be cool like them. It’s so addictive with the nicotine that they just get caught up in it. They take so many puffs of the cigarette or whatever product they choose to use and the next thing they know they can’t stop.

EvenRights: How can we strengthen the curriculum of schools with more life awareness skills and strategies?

Dutch: I think they need to take out a lot of the classes that are unnecessary and never actually get applied to real life situations. I think they need to teach more life skills. I get why they don’t though, school is set up to program you to get up and work an 8-5. They don’t want to teach you how to be your own boss. That’s something that we need to teach our youth, to be able to break through that cycle and make their own dreams come true.