MY PAST LIFE
off the record:
“TOP TEN VOCAL ALBUMS OF 2008.”
— Talkin’ Broadway
I sang professionally for 12 years before moving into this work. I started age 5 (quite terribly, I might add), eventually earned a scholarship to Pepperdine, and spent my post-grad years performing & travelling the world.
I wrapped it all in the late 2000s with an album I'm really proud of: 12 acoustic covers of songs that meant something to me.
That album landed better than anything I'd done before. It got reviewed by The Stage in the UK, played on BBC Radio by Dame Elaine Paige, named a top vocal album of 2008 by Talkin' Broadway. Wicked's Stephen Schwartz called it terrific. David Zippel — who wrote 'Go The Distance' for Disney's Hercules — said my rendition was touching & the collection was marvelous.
And I think it worked because I finally stopped trying to fit what I thought my industry or peers wanted and just made something that felt true to how I hear music.
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“This album is too good to be simply played in the background.”
— The Stage (UK)
“To quote a Billy Joel song from his debut album, Dwayne Britton ‘has a way about him… and he’s got a way of pleasin’,’ especially on a beautiful ballad. His sensitivity and sincerity shine through in each song…”
— NY Daily News
“Dwayne Britton’s debut CD is terrific. His vocals are expressive, emotional and beautifully sung. He has put together a marvelous collection of songs with intimate, elegant arrangements, and I am delighted that his touching rendition of ‘Go The Distance’ is among them.”
— David Zippel, Composer (City of Angels, The Woman in White, Disney’s Hercules & Mulan
“Please thank Mr. Britton for his excellent rendition of my song, ‘More Than This.’”
— Stephen Schwartz, Academy Award-Winning Composer (Wicked, Enchanted, Godspell, Pippin)
“I can understand why Stephen Schwartz, when he first spoke to me about Dwayne Britton, was reaching for superlatives to describe his talent. I’ve played ‘More Than This’ for many, many friends and visitors and have created, I hope, a few more fans to add to his legions — of which I am one.”
— Dean Pitchford, Writer (Fame, Footloose)
“TOP TEN VOCAL ALBUMS OF 2008.
— Talkin’ Broadway“WINNER: BEST MALE DEBUT 2008.”
— Cabaret Hotline
“Britton’s delivery is precise and powerful, as best exemplified in his winning rendition of Tori Amos’s ‘Baker Baker.’”
— OUT.com
“Dwayne’s interpretations come out as communicative rather than navel-gazing self-involvement… He sounds equally convincing on songs that hark back to simple child-friendly innocence and hope… to the more complex, like the very grown-up ‘Baker Baker’ by Tori Amos… Sincerity is the key word here all around, but it isn’t insincere sincerity that feels like artificial sweetener… an intimate introspection… an impressive first album.”
— Talkin’ Broadway (full album review)
“Earlier this year, Dwayne Britton released his impressive debut album on LML Music. (He was equally impressive at The Duplex this past May.) What jumps out first is his unadorned interpretations that are compelling. Starting with a lilting ‘Pure Imagination’ (Bricusse-Newley), the listener is swept on a journey of story songs by this weaver of dreams.Then, there is the voice; an expressively warm, lyric baritone that he uses tenderly, recalling balladeers of another decade like Judy Collins, Gordon Lightfoot, and the late Dan Fogelberg. Britton has a tendency to twist melodies just enough to personalize them, giving each lyric an imperative that fuses gently into something bucolic. This is his strength, and the end results are spellbinding interpretations from a singer who is emerging as one of today’s serious new male vocalists.
Superb highlights include ‘Run Away With Me’ by Brian Lowdermilk and Kait Kerrigan. This folksy ballad builds with a frenetic intensity. A wistful reading of the Annie Lennox classic ‘Why,’ devoid of its usual histrionics, was risky. It is the album’s strongest cut. Accompanied only by a guitar, he draws out crucial words that almost bring the song to a halt. It’s an exercise in drama, restraint, and minimalism that is hard to top — as is this debut album.”*
— Cabaret Scenes
**Fun Fact: I was cast as the Walt Disney’s Company’s first live “Young Hercules,” singing as the awkward underdog (and as myself) on stage and in special events. His song, “Go The Distance,” is the last track on the album.
As interesting and kind of cool as it is, I rarely lead with this chapter of my life with teams I work with. And that’s because so often people’s first response is, “Oh, so facilitating is how you satisfy the need to be on stage these days?”
And the answer is a big “NO.” Listen to my approach for just a few seconds and you’ll see nothing about my style is really about jazz hands or “Look at me! Look at me!” It’s always been about connecting with people and sharing an authentic experience together.
Even then, I was a union deputy during my time as a performer at Disney—my first real experience representing team members in conversations with big brand leadership.
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More than this, I’ve been the person whose idea got dismissed because it didn't fit conventional wisdom. In music, I was told these acoustic covers wouldn't work because it’s a very small genre and my collection included some vague tracks — I could feel folks get uncomfortable when I described the project because they couldn’t really classify it in their minds. As an employee, leadership couldn't imagine a new approach to framing learning at our company through a brand learning philosophy. Even now in L&D, I can see people hesitate when I share something unconventional - usually because they've only worked in narrower contexts.
I've trained hardware, software, onboarding, small groups, business skills, brand culture, sales enablement and product. I've led teams of trainers, designed train-the-trainer programs, and built Global L&D programming at a major brand. At iconic companies, I’ve presented to VPs, partnered with CEOs to build leadership onboarding, and led steering board meetings with cross-functional, multicultural teams across APAC, EMEA, and the Americas.
In combination with my creative past, that breadth changes what I notice. More importantly, I know when things really matter and when we still have room to explore. That judgment - knowing when to push for alignment and when to give space - comes from navigating the highest-stakes rooms at some of the world's most successful brands.
So when I'm facilitating, I'm listening for the ideas that might get dismissed or perspectives that don’t always match the room's current thinking. The possibility that requires imagination. I help people see what they can't initially picture, and I give participants the benefit of the doubt that there's something real in what they may be sensing, even when others can't see it yet.
I've been there. I know what it's like to fight for something you see clearly but others dismiss. That's the space I work to create today.
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My early journey changed how I approach all of my work. I've found that projects that resonate aren't the ones following someone else's approach, but the ones that trust what we uniquely see & build from there.
When we integrate our full experiences from our life journey into our work (instead of compartmentalizing them), the results just sound different, feel different. People respond.
That part of my life feels distant now. Sometimes I even forget it happened. Friends still message me when one of those songs comes on the radio or gets played in a theatre somewhere. It's been more than 15 years, but they're still out there in the world.