It’s now the first week of 2018, but I had lunch with David Young in the middle of December on a particularly bleak day filled with ash, smoke, and fire. David’s optimism was — pun intended — a breath of fresh air. This Santa Barbara maverick has reinvented himself many times, and his was the perfect story to hear while heading into the new year.
Born and raised in the hills of Goleta, David attended Dos Pueblos High School and grew up playing in bands around Santa Barbara. “This was before any bands got record deals,” he recalls. “I thought it was an impossible dream.” So he headed south to San Diego State University to major in advertising.
But the music business kept calling and he gave it a try after graduating, working his way up the ranks in the Urban Music Department at MCA Records. “I thought I could discover bands,” he says, but he was never given the chance.