Camping World Stadium for Shakira 2025

Ckwal is the pseudonym of Steven F. Dunn formerly known as SKMillion. I am a writer, musician, producer and dedicated vegan (nearly 9.5 years in March, 2026). I started at a young age doing talent shows. The first one I can remember was in the first grade singing David Lee Roth’s Paradise. My first electric guitar was a red Ibanez Destroyer II. I tried all sorts of guitars and even had a banjo.

2001 Boston, First Year of Berklee

That first Ibanez I played in a jazz band at Drake University believe it or not. That’s where I heard about Berklee College of Music where I would eventually transfer to after taking classes at Columbia College Chicago and another local college of the town I grew up in named Libertyville. Libertyville is also the town that raised Tom Morello and I definitely got into Rage Against the Machine’s music at one point. One of my first CDs I remember going against what some of my peers may have thought was the cool wave and bought Counting Crows’ August and Everything After. I have been in several bands, however the first one that produced a studio album was towards the end of my senior year in high school.

After graduating with a Bachelor’s of Music in Songwriting from Berklee in Boston, I toured and played in parking lots of Dave Matthew’s Band shows for the whole summer of 2003 supporting a classmate from school.  The finale was at The Gorge Amphitheater where I listened to the band on stage and was invited backstage with the band which has The Columbia River Gorge as a backyard. I wasn’t able to talk about opportunities with some of my heroes from high school because it wasn’t really my connect for the privilege, however I got to live my rockstar dream without any possible reality of the music business ruining it.

Alaska 2004

I had to leave the US after bankruptcy and found a job teaching English in South Korea. The members of Blackpink would have been in grade school at the time and Korean culture was still a hidden secret of the world. It was the time of my life writing and teaching around the world while it lasted. In addition I’ve also done DJ mixes while living in homeless shelters for two years after trying to be a truck driver. At one point I started working for some festivals and had an opportunity to take tickets for a Skrillex and Deadmau5 festival, however something offended me about that idea and I exited the scene without further pursuit. I’ve avoided fame and music jobs for most of my life and although not on purpose, usually I feel very blessed to do all that I could and still be somewhat unknown as well as still alive.