We’re looking forward to introducing you to Derrick Credito. Check out our conversation below.
Derrick, it’s always a pleasure to learn from you and your journey. Let’s start with a bit of a warmup: What’s more important to you—intelligence, energy, or integrity?
It’s not easy to say which one is most important, because I’ve found they’re all essential to affecting change. I’ve always been told I’m book smart, which seems to suggest inexperience or naïveté in practical, real world settings outside a scholarly milieu. But I think there’s a lot more to me than just school smarts. I’m book smart because I had a high-pressure academic upbringing, and thankfully that part of my life is long since over. From an early age, I learned how to write, analyze, and pass tests, and thought that was what it meant to be intelligent. But intelligence is not only having knowledge. It’s also knowing how to use it effectively to communicate. Take away integrity, and then there’s no moral center, no clear sense of where one begins and ends. Integrity is reflected in how you treat others and also how you treat yourself, and that’s not something one should do without. At the end of the day, none of this would be possible without energy. I am grateful to have a high energy level for my age. At 47, I’m smarter than I’ve ever been and have a clear sense of who I am and what I value. But what matters most to me is energy, that chi or life force that makes everything possible. I’ve spent enough of my life analyzing, and so now I’m ready to start experiencing.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m Derrick Credito, and I’ve been making music in the Baltimore-Washington scene since the late 1990s. After years as a singer-songwriter, my solo approach to music has evolved into a band. In that band, which is aptly called Credito, I’m joined by guitarist Paris Thalheimer, cellist Bailey Dicus, drummer Jeremy Konstanzer and guitarist/producer Christian Alfonso.
This year, we released an album, “Irreverent Soul,” which has gotten some pretty sweet reviews locally and beyond. I’m a member of the Songwriters Association of Washington and occasionally play bass in a Baltimore alternative rock band, My Useless Self. I’m a founding member of the EDM band Let Go Echo, who was nominated in the 2024 Maryland Music Awards. Beyond music, I teach college English, and have published a literary fiction novel, “The Year of the Tsunami,” an international coming of age story based in Thailand, New Zealand, and Amsterdam: all places that I’ve travelled to extensively. I’m almost finished a manuscript for the sequel, titled “Lost In The Surf.” Set in Los Angeles, this novel will deal with themes like fatherhood, the concept of found family, and the enduring power of fragile ties in turbulent times. After many years of teaching and traveling, now I live with my wife and our two daughters in Columbia, Maryland, where we enjoy amenities such as cultural diversity, outdoor and indoor recreation, and a real sense of community and belonging. These are things I never had growing up in a small town. I’m grateful to have finally found a place to truly call home.
Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. What was your earliest memory of feeling powerful?
I was in the fourth grade. For an annual talent show, I sang “Faith” by George Michael. It was like nothing I’d experienced before or even since. As the song came to a sudden end, the auditorium erupted in applause. Hundreds of my schoolmates screamed and cheered from their seats, and it felt like an arena! It was then and there that I discovered how music has the power to move people in such a profound way. Prior to that, I’d never seriously imagined myself becoming any kind of performer. But the truth is, I have been chasing that same rush ever since. To this day, I’m not sure if any other show I’ve played can compare. While I didn’t win the talent show, my first onstage experience wasn’t about winning. It was so much more than that. But here’s the sad part of the story: I had attended a sheltered Catholic school from fourth to eighth grade. Now, some of the teachers were very kind and told me they enjoyed my performance, even calling it unforgettable. But the sexually suggestive lyrics of “Faith” did not go unnoticed by the administrative authorities at the school, who had permanently banned me from participating in any future talent shows. After tasting a little power, I retreated to my bedroom and became a stay at home musician for a long time. Finally in the eleventh grade, I was fronting my first band, a punk rock-inspired trio called Crowded Isolation. That experience was certainly empowering in its own way.
Do you remember a time someone truly listened to you?
When I was eighteen, I visited an uncle of mine, who had moved from where I live now in Columbia to Los Angeles. After a year of college, my life was full of question marks. My uncle took the time to not just hear what I had to say, but to actually listen to me as I shared my hopes, dreams, and fears. At the time, I was struggling with music, and not because I wasn’t good at it, per se, but I was socially inexperienced and didn’t know how I could possibly expect to connect with power brokers in the Big Machine — the people who turn near-impossible dreams of “making it” into a reality.
My uncle didn’t judge or criticize my choices, but he responded thoughtfully and with a clear sense of compassion and understanding. Coming from a family of type-A personalities where emotional intelligence and empathy were in short supply, I wasn’t used to this treatment at all, and really didn’t know how to respond to it. What my uncle in California did for me was transformative, and not necessarily because of anything I’d directly gained from it. Unfortunately, he and I grew apart. But that one week we spent together back in 1997 became a template for how I strive to positively interact with the people in my life. With others, I always try to focus on positivity and empowerment, just as my uncle had done for me. He helped me to appreciate what little experience that I had in my life at the time, and made me feel like I could go on to experience much more. Experience is what gets you the job, the role, or the opportunity. I believe that everyone is more experienced than they think.
Sure, so let’s go deeper into your values and how you think. Is the public version of you the real you?
A lot of people see me in different public roles. As an English professor, I tend to speak in a more measured and guarded way than when I’m rocking out with my band. Every once in a while, these two very different worlds I inhabit spill over or intersect. The public version of me is real but it’s also full of variety. Being both a college educator and a musician sometimes feels like I’m traveling on two different roads at the same time. In my private life, I’m a middle-aged suburban dad who prioritizes family above all else. I’ve taken on many different roles in my personal and professional life. And while I’m kind of a late bloomer in some regards, I feel like the chips finally have fallen into place and I’m no longer treading water. It’s nice to be on solid ground and to finally enjoy a sense of balance in all my roles and responsibilities. All of it is a part of who I am.
Okay, so before we go, let’s tackle one more area. What is the story you hope people tell about you when you’re gone?
Life rarely happens in a straight line. When I was young, I had visions of a very linear path to where I wanted to go in my life. I’ve been through many personal upheavals and paradigm shifts. While I’m no longer religious, the most significant change for me had been growing up in a conservative Italian-American family and then converting to Judaism later in life. Having grown up in a sheltered and insular world, as a young adult I set out to travel broadly and avidly. My traditional upbringing gave me a lot of examples of what I didn’t want out of life, of how I definitely didn’t want to be. I wanted to be well-rounded, worldly, and welcoming to new people and experiences — all which I would have missed out on if I’d stayed the course with what my birth family had laid out for me. Artistically and personally, I’d like to be remembered as someone who understood the art and mystery of their craft, and who treated people with dignity and respect but also didn’t take any crap from anyone. I’d hope to be remembered the way a friend in Thailand (where I lived twenty years ago) had summed me up on a post-it note: “you’re the great traveler who always brings the love.” To me, that sounds like a life well-lived.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://wanderingbohemianp.wixsite.com/my-site-2
- Instagram: @creditotheband
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1FdYJXWhuX/?mibextid=wwXIfr
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@CreditoTheBand
- Other: Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/artist/0B4ekOH86N9bIaJTi65spe?si=53nhjd_XRG65V1OTj59_Hw
Image Credits
Photos: Scott Homebrew Photography, Emily Adolph, Studio Seven Photography.
