“It happened so suddenly,” Dale tells PEOPLE. “We turned on the news and they were climbing the fences at the Capital, and there I was calling my boss and they didn’t even know what was going on. And then, all of a sudden, I heard helicopters and sirens and ambulances, and it was chaotic for a few days, quite frankly.”
But on one of those chaotic days, Dale decided to write a song of peace.
“I had sat there and watched the democracy that I believed in, and I fought for…fall apart,” say Dale. “I felt numb and scared and lost and frightened about the future of our country. And the only way that I felt I could convey my feelings was through a song.”
Renee Miskell
That song turned out to be “One World, One Love,” which he wrote in the middle of the night when he could not sleep. It’s a song about unity and peace that speaks of the importance of putting aside our differences.
And it’s a song that just might change Roger Dale’s life.
The North Carolina native, who also serves as a member of a Native American Lumbee tribe, grew up on the angelic sounds of the music that would float from the rafters of his church. And while the music of country artists such asTim McGrawandJohn Michael Montgomery also enticed him, it was the music ofGarth Brooksthat ultimately made the biggest impression on him.
“I will never forget when Garth Brooks wrote ‘The Change’ for the Oklahoma City bombings,” remembers Dale, who began performing at the age of eight years old. “I still read those lyrics and it resonates with me. I mean, it was such a profound moment in the world, and that song still brings it all home to me.”
While music remained in his heart, Dale made the decision to attend NC State University, majoring in public communications before ultimately attending law school after becoming quite drawn to the “huge disparity for underrepresented communities in different sectors of academia.”
“I wanted to be a representative for unrepresented communities, and I found civil rights to just fit me perfectly,” says Dale. “And I’ve been doing that for eight years.”
At the same time Dale has been chasing a country music career, he has also been working as a civil rights attorney.
“Music has always been integral to my life,” says Dale, who recently released his debut EPPhases and Stages. “About three years ago, I went back to my music and got a vocal coach and a writing coach and last year decided to put some music out there in the world.”
Certainly, the pandemic played a role in that decision.
“There was a time when I had no idea how I could do it all, because I was working 40 or 50 hours a week as an attorney,” says Dalee. “But then the pandemic happened and all of a sudden, I went from working five days a week in an office to zero days and completely mobile. I just kind of thought to myself, it could be a silver lining.”
Now, as he transitions from full-time attorney to full-time musician, he believes that his music will make a difference.
“We still see that there’s this huge divide between us, but I want us to find a way to bring it back together. And that’s what my purpose in music is, to bring people together and find the beauty of the world around us,” he says.
Dale’s EPPhases and Stagesis out now.
source: people.com
