At kindergarten, Dreyn's teacher pulled him aside and told him he had something, a voice worth training. He didn't want to go. In his head, singing was for girls, and he wasn't about to be the kid who did that. He went anyway, eventually, and it turned out to be the first domino in a chain that would take him from a small institution in Brasov to studio sessions with a Eurovision winner.

ALWAYS MUSIC

Dreyn had always had music in him, in the way some kids do: singing without thinking about it, humming random sounds, picking things up by ear. But it was one teacher who turned that instinct into a skill. At Palatul Copiilor Brasov, a free institution for kids to study almost anything, a man named Mr. Pancea spent up to six hours a day with him, not just on singing, but guitar, piano, drums, and training his ear until he had perfect pitch.

"Big shout out to Mr. Pancea," Dreyn says now, and it's clear the debt isn't just politeness. Without those hours, there's no foundation for what came later.

The plan, at least at first, was the conservatory. Dreyn had studied trombone in high school, so continuing with the same instrument at a conservatory level seemed like the obvious next step. He calls it, without hesitation, the biggest mistake of his life. Not because the music was wrong, but because it ate every hour he had left for something he'd just discovered: production.

Right after finishing high school, Dreyn started watching YouTube tutorials on how to produce music, and something clicked. The pull was strong enough that he quit the conservatory after a single semester to chase it full time. He's since gone back, on his own terms, but the lesson from that first attempt stuck: sometimes the "safe" path is the one that costs you the most.

The Man Who Told Him to Stop Singing

The turning point had a name: Cristian Tarcea, a major figure in the Romanian music scene. Dreyn met him by chance, and describes him as one of the kindest people he's encountered in the industry. Tarcea's advice was blunt. Quit singing. Start producing.

Dreyn did exactly that. What followed were long stretches locked into the work, staying up all day and night building songs and demos, not knowing if or when it would pay off. It took two or three years before things started moving. Today, the man who told him to make the switch is his boss.

Stepping Into the Big League

Moving from Brasov to Bucharest, Romania's capital, marked what Dreyn calls stepping into "the big league." At Thrace Music's studio, the sessions started stacking up, and with them, a growing list of artists he's grateful to have worked alongside. Hearing people connect with music he helped build still gives him goosebumps, he says, even while talking about it.

In the Room With DARA

Ask Dreyn about working with DARA, now a household name after her Eurovision win, and the nerves come through even in hindsight. He admits he was tense going into that first session. It didn't last. The moment she walked into the studio, he felt it: she was, in his words, a complete vibe, energetic, warm, and quick to put people at ease.

Brianna, another artist at Thrace known for hits like "Lost in Istanbul," had the same effect. Dreyn was nervous ahead of that session too, intimidated by the scale of what she'd already accomplished. The nerves disappeared the second she arrived.

The lesson he takes from both experiences is one he repeats like a rule now: never go into a session scared of an artist, however big they are. They don't bite. They just vibe. They're human beings, same as anyone else.

Quality, Not Speed

Ask Dreyn to describe his sound today and he lands on one word: quality. It's a shift from how he used to work, grabbing any sound off any VST without much thought. Now he'll spend two hours hunting for a single sound that feels right. His theory is simple: a genuinely good sound gets recognized instantly, no shortcuts needed.

What's Next

Dreyn isn't chasing a single project right now so much as momentum itself, new collaborations, new songs, new deals, whatever the future puts in front of him. Pressed on what's next, his answer is almost stubbornly simple: music, music, and more music. All his time in the studio, building toward one dream in particular.

The Billboard. He says it half-laughing, like even he isn't sure yet if it's realistic. But the version of him who almost skipped his first singing lesson probably wouldn't have believed any of this either.

Dreyn on Instagram: @dreynonthesound