Everything is changing. And at great speed. Not long ago, there were only professional, academic jobs, or the so-called “lifelong” jobs. But now, almost anyone can create content and find an audience anywhere. Thousands of people have already tried, some successfully, others not so much, but everyone is trying to live differently, following a similar dream of becoming their own personal boss.
Here is this Irishman called Dwayne Nolan (Enniskillen, 1990), better known as Dwayne Muffin, who has been living in Ibiza for years and has become one of the biggest references of the island.
-How and why did you end up in Ibiza?
-The first time I came to Ibiza was in 2008, and to be honest, I didn’t really wanted to come. I had the typical image that many people have, which is just the bad side of the island [laughs]. But then one of my friends crashed his car and couldn’t afford to pay for the trip, so we decided to fill the gap. I meta lot of people in San Antonio, and I did the classics such as sunset at Mambo, and in 2009 my friends wanted to go somewhere else but I siad “no, let´s get back to Ibiza”.
-That trip changed my mind, and I decided to move to Ibiza in 2010, to work the summer season, just like many people do.
-And what did you do then?
-I started out doing with digital marketing for beach clubs through a website called Ibizaclubs.net, which became a fairly large and successful platform. Then, businesses started hiring me to run their social media. I used Facebook to reach tourists, competing with other promoters who worked independently. But over time, I became stronger in content creation and realized that my real passion was creating videos—not just for them, but also for myself. If they could me too, I thought. Specially going around the island as I do all the time.
-But have you always been focused on the nightlife scene?
-No, at some point, I discovered Ibiza beyond the nightlife, and I felt in love with it. I decided that I would focus on promoting the island’s natural beauty and the local businesses that shapes its charm.
-But then, covid hit and everything stopped but me. I started doing interviews like for example, to the owner of the Alpaca´s farm in San Carlos or restaurants in Santa Gertrudis. I realised that a lot of people comes to the island but know nothing about it besides the clubs and I wanted to show them the other side. And one day started going better and better until right now… I got 68k followers in Instagram, 48k on Tik Tok, and 27k in YouTube, and combined, around 5 million views per month.
-Which countries do you think your audience comes from, mainly the UK, I would presume?
-Yes, mostly from the UK, but also from Germany, the Netherlands, it varies a lot, but I was surprised to see people from South Korea, Indonesia… It’s incredible and really weird.
-You are on all platforms, do you design content for each platform differently, or do you take what you post on YouTube and break it into shorter clips to match others?
-I try to create different videos for each platform. I understand that the people who watch my YouTube channel are families or older viewers who find my content almost therapeutic. On the other hand, TikTok and Instagram audiences are younger, and the format is much faster and shorter. A lot of my Instagram videos are the same as my YouTube Shorts, but on TikTok, I feel like I can be talk more.
-Do you write, record, edit… do you do everything yourself?
-Yes, I do everything.”
-And the translations?
-I use Google directly. Then, I ask my Ibicenco friend to take a look and make sure everything is correct, just to be sure.
-What software do you use for editing?
-Final Cut Pro. For short videos, I use TikTok’s built-in software.
-Do you make a living from this, or is it just extra income?
(thinks for a moment, says ‘hmmm’)
-Yes, I do a lot of intermediary work as well, and I take a commission. People always ask me where to rent a boat, where to stay, where to eat, so I set that up too.
-What I earn with YouTube is okay; I can live off it, but just barely, because everything is so expensive here that I’m even considering going back to marketing.
-Open an OnlyFans, that’s the only platform you are not in yet!
(laughs)
-I don’t think I have the body for OnlyFans…
-How many views do you need, for example, to earn a thousand euros?
-One hundred thousand. But even with everything I do, I barely cover my rent [laughs].
-So, with a million views, you earn 10,000 euros…
-On YouTube, yes. But you have to offer a very interesting video to reach a million views.
-How do you decide how long a video should be? Because right now, the viewer’s attention span is very limited.
-If you’re on YouTube looking for videos, you’re willing to watch longer content than on other platforms. Some people prefer 15-minute videos, others go for 30, but for me, 30 minutes is the maximum.
-30 minutes or more is entering the realm of documentary…
-Yes, I’d love to get into the documentary genre.
-But if you did, you’d lose your personality—you’d take a back seat.
-Yes, totally.
-I don’t know if it’s a good idea because documentaries are often sterile and already formatted, like Netflix—they have a factory-style approach to making them. And you do the opposite, you are the narrator, and I think that social media users leans towards something more personal, where ‘a normal person’ like you tells the story, and they can relate to you and because people are… just… nosey [laughs]
-Thanks to my work, I was able to get access to famous people like Paris Hilton or Armin van Buuren, so at first, my videos included collabs with celebrities. But then, the ones I made with just myself were more succesful which is funny since I did it in reverse—first collaborations with celebrities, and then videos of just me going places.
-That’s what I mean, like a Big Brother syndrome in a way. Maybe deep down, the world is one big lie, and we look for ‘real’ people who don’t pretend but rather show things from a raw or relatable perspective.
-True, in my videos, I always show myself as I am. If I have personal problems I talk about them even though some people sort to negative comments. But deep down, I think people understand that I´m just a nomrla personal like them, showing off this beatiful place we live in.
-What kind of comments do you get from the audience?
-There are people who have told me, for example, that they are battling cancer and that watching my videos helps them escape from their reality, or that they were feeling depressed, and my videos lifted their spirits in wishing to come back one day. Many left the island because of the housing crises and watch my videos with nostlagia. A lot of people also come to the island after watching my videos.
Do you collaborate with public institutions?
-No, but I want to. I don’t know if they would take me seriously, some still calls me “the english guy that makes video” even though I´m Irish. Another outlets also call me the english youtuber and is not funny.
When you start something like this as an adventure, as a hobby, but then it grows into something bigger, it becomes a sort of beast that you have to keep feeding. Do you feel that pressure?
-Yes, I feel it. When you start to build an audience, demand is created. If you post once a week then once a week always is expected and you can’t fail so I absolutely feel the pressure and anxiety sometimes. Specially because is all on me. The feeling is that you owe it to them and if you fail you have to apologise even though they are not paying for the content.
-How do you deal with haters?
-I have a lot of haters but I have learned from celebrities advice that it’s not really about me, but rather about them. It could be their own frustration about not being able to come to Ibiza, or others who live here and question why I, as a foreigner, am promoting the island and tells me to go home, a lot [laughs].
-But then, when they see other videos, like the one I did for the food bank, they start to understand better what I do.
-Have you made an Ibiza guide?
-Yes, as I told you, people ask me all the time about information on the island, so I made a guide on PDF format and uploaded it to Shopify, and everybody finds it useful, and also I make some money out of it to pay production of my videos. Just to get out of home means like 100€ on fuel, food, coffee, etc.
And let me tell you that institutions on the island don’t support people like me. There are so many people who want some many freebies – influencers, you know—so it’s not easy to get collaborations.
-Is the island still very payesa or traditional when it comes to these kinds of deals?
-Obviously Ibiza relies a lot in tourist coming in but I noticed that there many busniesses that were very succesful are not any more, and a lot of that has to do with this new companies hopping up marketing and becoming popular. I went to same places – amazing restaurants – and I m the only costumer there and they don´t feel like they need to do it because thay have been always busy.
Also happens that I find a restaurant that have just opened, but already have 20,000 followers, and that’s considered a success.
-You’ve been on the island for 10 years, the decade that has probably seen the most radical changes in recent times. What do you think about this transformation?
-I feel like the whole world is changing, not just the island. I think a lot of top earners realized during covid that they coul work remotly and came to the Island massivly taking all the options for housing rising rents. People that earns 5 to 15k a month and probably they don´t live here anymore but kept the appartment or house.
People ask me about houses 5 times a day, and for the first time, I have no idea what to say. Plus, it seems like everybody is now a landlord. I don’t know if I’ll stay here long-term—I love the island and nature, but I hate the hypercapitalist side of Ibiza. I don´t think I could afford a house in Ibiza any time soon.
-Here or probably nowhere [laughs], Airbnb killed us all.
-True, I don’t use Airbnb. before it was all about looking a plce by checking the newspaper and lots of mouth to mouth, but now a Telegram group fills up in two minutes with a waiting list of 20 people for anything for rent. It’s much more complicated. There are too many people, and on top of that, there’s so much scam that the situation is terrible.
-And what is your plan now? Are you staying here, or do you plan to move?
-I don’t think I’ll live on the island forever. What I really want is to travel a lot and make travel videos, since my goal has always been to be a travel blogger.
-But have you tried making videos about other destinations outside of Ibiza?
-Yes, but they don’t get as many views as those about the island. So, I understand that my audience wants to see Ibiza content, which is why I’ll probably stay here a bit longer.
-What are your top 3 most-viewed videos?
- Food bank, where I helped raise quite a lot of money for a non-profit association.
- Progress in real estate developments.
- Changes in Ibiza.
-What is your favorite video, the one you’ve enjoyed making the most?
-The ones I like the most are the ones where I walk through nature, discovering places. But that’s the thing—once I publish one, I forget about it, and then it’s hard to pick a specific one. But I plkace I love is Sa Talaia. I love the 360° views.
-What is it like living in San Antonio?, which for many is seen as a town made up for British tourists.
-I really like it, and I have many Ibicencos friends here. I feel like part of the community, I even say hi to Pepe Roselló, the former mayor, and I greet a lot of people I don’t really know personally but see every day. The truth is, if I were to move, it would be close Pikes the furthest away, but always in San Antonio.
-It’s a very nice community, I have friends from many different places—Filipinos, Colombians, from all over. And if I need to talk to someone, I always find someone willing to listen. If you have a problem, there’s always someone to help you out. I imagine people living in Santa Gertrudis could say the same… but in San Antonio the the is a big sense of community. I love it.
-How do you handle fame? Do you like being a well-known person?
-Yes and no. In summer a lot of intoxicated people approach me just because they’ve seen me in a video, and they assume we’re close friends. Once I was sitting with friends and a fan pulled my chair, jocking as if we were friends. Or they just want to talk fro an hour or so. It’s awkward. Also families want a picture taken and that is nice.
Now when I go to events it can be overwhalming but yeah, I know where I m getting myself into when I go to Usuahia or so.
-The problem is that people don’t separate the person from the character.
-Yes, but in my case, it’s my fault because I am the character [laughs], I even showed my favourite places and now I can´t go back anymore! [laughs].
-Can you walk through the West End in summer?
-No, not at all. At the beggining I use to sell tickets state selling tickets there so the West end is close to heart. Also many of the Bar owners are my friends, so.
-It’s part of the deal, I guess.
-Yes, and I accept it.
You can find more of Dwayne here.
