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Name: Dominic Balli
Genre: Soul/Rock/Reggae
Hometown: Carpinteria, CA
Sponsors: Cobian Soulwear
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Dominic Balli was born in Los Angeles. Lived there for a couple of years (he doesn’t remember), and then moved to Yucca Valley. His parents got divorced when he was three, and both of them got remarried within two years. The middle kid of six girls and two boys (yours mine and ours), Dominic grew up listening to his older sisters’ music: C&C Music Factory, Paula Abdul, Boys to Men, Mariah Carey, and any other soulful “girl music” from the late 80’s/ early 90’s.
When he was eight, his Mom wrote a kids album called “Learn Something New” and the whole family performed on the album. Dominic’s mom had him rap on a song called “The Reading Rap”. He performed so badly that after two hours of rapping the same seventy second song, the engineer finally said to his mom, “Well Teresa, I’m sorry but I think that’s as good as it’s gonna get.” They let him sing on all of the other songs, but he found out soon after that they turned his mic off in mixdown. His mom told him later, that he couldn’t even tap his foot in time. But he still loved the music. A year later Dominic got his first dose of reggae when he heard the song “Informer” by Snow. He had no idea what the music was called, he just knew he was down. Dominic says, “I listened to that single every day for probably a year strait”.
When he was twelve he moved to his Dad’s and really wanted to play the drums. His Dad told him that he would buy him a drum set if he played the guitar for six months and took lessons. His response was, “Only country singers play the guitar”. He recently recalled, “Here I am 13 years later and I never did get a drum set”. His ear was so bad that when he called his Mom to tell her about the guitar lessons, she responded by saying, “That’s great honey, I’m really excited but… you know you’re totally tone def and don’t have any rhythm right?” He says he couldn’t even tell when his guitar was out of tune, much less sing a note on pitch. When Dominic was sixteen he started a ska band that he played guitar and sang in, but claims he, honestly, still had no sense of pitch. “I just loved the music. I remember one day, bringing a tape from practice home and playing it for my Mom. She said, ‘Dom, the melody’s pretty cool, but did you know you’re singing like a step higher than the instruments?’”
The following year his family moved to San Diego, and their Church asked him to start singing at the Youth Group. He was scared to death, but agreed to do it. “It’s pretty crazy, but as soon as I started to sing songs that gave attention to God, I began hear pitch.” Over the next few years, Dominic played in a couple bands, and sang at Church every week. After high school, he fell in love with a girl that sang with him at Church. A year and a half later he and Emily Crosthwaite were married. Their daughter Selah Eden just turned two.
Recapping his life and music he said, “This music thing is funny. There was a time when I thought this was why I was created... to play music. It took me several years and some really hard times to realize it, but I wasn’t created write songs, or be somebody, or make money. I was created to have a relationship my Creator. My relationship with God is my life, the music is just an expression of that life. It’s like a canvas. Hopefully I can convey with a lyric, and create with a melody, a painting of what’s going on inside my heart, mind, and life. Someday my hands will weaken, my voice will fade, and my mind will fail me, but my God will never leave me. And when I die and stand before Him, I long to hear one thing…, “Well done son.” The more I grow up, the more I realize how much I’ve got to learn. I aint got much, but what I do have, I’ll sing for you. I hope you like the sound.”
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