NAME. dima dessner.
NICKNAMES. dessner (the common way in which he prefers to be referred, by his surname. some think he prefers it as a sign of respect, and yet, in reality, he only likes it best as a result of a few miscreants who have made fun of him for having a 'girl's name.')
AGE. twenty-one.
GENDER. male.
SEXUALITY. bisexual.
APPEARANCE. alessandro bedetti.
OCCUPATION. full-time university student at a renowned school for music, whose primary job is naturally, to study, as he majors in music theory which is a highly consuming major, as well as to play in the university's highly renowned jazz band as a drummer. as a side gig, he works part time at the university's local record store, as he knows just about every single record within by name— and he often spends more time studying music in there than selling anything, as the shop is not very lucrative to begin with.
PERSONALITY. dessner is a bit of an enigma, some say. he's jazz's premier bad boy, clad in those torn jeans and hoodies and graffitied shoes, coming with a thick accent and a tendency to omit articles when he speaks, at times. he's a genius, that can be said for certain. he has a certain capability to feel the music, along with an encyclopedic knowledge of music. every album, every piece, every composer he feels is worth knowing, dessner knows. he is certainly obsessive, and certainly has a sense of apathy towards everything else. he tends to answer honestly that he does not care about most things. (even sometimes when his siblings call him with family news, he will just bluntly tell them that he does not care). he is certainly blunt. he is a genius. and that does indeed make for a strange person. he is a perfectionist. nothing is ever good enough for him and he definitely drives himself a bit crazy over these things. dessner craves affirmation, confirmation that he has separated himself from his parents and their beliefs about his own future. and yet it's become a hedonic treadmill. no matter what he achieves, there's another, better goal in the distance. dessner is pretty unabashedly himself, not having much shame for his less common ways. he is insistent and persistent and a hard worker. he's unpredictable, and certainly a temperamental player-- sometimes he shows up ready, but even small things can throw him off. he is a private person, more introverted in the sense that connection isn't exactly something he looks forward to every day, but he isn't afraid of people. he can share his opinions and thoughts confidently with them. he is very creative, and yet very traditional. he is highly opinionated about music. you need to know the rules to break them, after all, and he will say when someone does not know the rules well enough. he is innovative, talented, and above all, passionate.
TRAITS. strict, scheduled, perfectionist, obsessive, temperamental, ambitious, intelligent, naturally talented, a hard worker, prodigy, irritable, creative, opinionated.
BACKSTORY. dessner, born to a working class family in novosibirsk, was the third of five siblings, raised with a twin brother dmitry (while not identical, they certainly looked rather similar, enough for some people to be unable to distinguish them early on). he was raised in a working class family, with two parents who worked at the local factory, just by their house, and from a young age, dessner and his siblings were expected to grow up fast. dessner was considered to be an unusual child, very different from his brother-- he was quick at school, smart, yet not saddled with a superiority complex, but a destructive sense of boredom and perfectionism. if he couldn't be the best at it, he didn't want to do it, and if it was too easy, he didn't want to do it either. he was labelled as a difficult child, initially. their parents were never very close to them. they had a sense of resignment about them, adults who had gone through heartbreak and extensive, loud arguments, and then finally divorced when dessner was seven years old. they didn't quite relate to the children well, and often seemed more preoccupied in their own sufferings than their children. dessner and his siblings were taken into their mother's custody on week days, and their father's on weekends. his mother was a devout russian orthodox believer, while his father was an atheist. this was how dessner discovered his talent at music-- he was always a wanderer as a child, and before the service, went up to the piano before the choir could tell him to stop. this happened a few times before finally, they seemed to notice him. he managed to replicate a piece without being told what to do, without much instruction at all, and even nicely-- it was impressive and drew the attention of the music director, who had him come to her in the mornings to learn each day afterwards, until he received an invitation to attend a well-respected music boarding school in st. petersburg, when he was twelve years old. his parents never quite encouraged his music, thinking that it was shallow, thinking that he would wind himself up in a spiral of failure. they shrugged and said that they were just factory workers, so why would their son ever become anything more? all that did was light a fire beneath dima. they wanted him to come home, afraid he would only disappoint himself with silly dreams. dima studied at the boarding school for several years, until he graduated high school and applied to the united states' array of music schools for higher education, determined to find better training, better teachers, to improve himself beyond what he had been able to do in his home country. during his time at the boarding school, however, dessner was consistently a top performer, one of the most talented students there. on the other hand, his social life wasn't good, as he was always focused on his work, driving himself to push harder and harder. he began to struggle more with his mental health (he had always been an obsessive person, and yet, this pressure-cooker environment made this aspect of his school made it worse. he had problems with lashing out at people, refusing to touch things that had been touched before by others, and overall, gained a reputation for a bit of a temperamental player. he was genius, albeit inconsistent. he was diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder when he was fifteen, but never medicated. he romanticizes it oddly, thinking it would make him a worse musician to address these problems. he indeed graduated and was accepted to one of the top music schools in the country, moving when he was eighteen years old in order to attend. he is now twenty-one and in his junior year.
LIKES. chunky headphones. hot tea. black coffee. (he likes it all flavored uniquely, like lavender or rose or chai). cats. indie music. rock music. platform shoes. black clothing. a more lite punk aesthetic. rings (he has a bunch and wears them on his hands all at once). his drumsticks (they're his. don't touch them).
DISLIKES. weak players. team sports. most academic subjects. crowds. sharing food with people. having to eat food other people made. skipping practice. sick people. dirty people. dressing formally. calls from his parents. being told that he has a girl name. being given advice by non-professors.
HOBBIES. listening to music. practicing. studying music. piano. violin. listening to podcasts. going on walks (read: mulling or pacing).
STRENGTHS. genius. creative. technically very skilled. hard-worker. can drink anyone under the table.
WEAKNESSES. obsessive. needs things to be done a certain way. inflexible. traditional. germophobic. temperamental. hates formalwear. competitive.
OTHER. dessner is germophobic, so he tends to have problems with being touched, or people touching his things, as well as being around large groups of people. he further has issues with some other things, like pre-performance rituals that are compulsions. dessner has a russian accent which is somewhat thick. he definitely has a reputation in the program.