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'INSPIRATION HAS TO FIND YOU WORKING'

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'INSPIRATION HAS TO FIND YOU WORKING'

‘Inspiration exists but it has to find you working’

This Pablo Picasso quote makes a lot of sense.

I believe one of the reasons I have a job as a songwriter / producer is that I sit down and work at it every single day regardless of how I feel.

The romantic image of a poet sitting in a room ,holding a flower with a dreamy look on his face and waiting for the inspiration to strike is what it is: a romantic image.

The thing is, in the art world, a piece is good when you don’t see the work.

An artist is cool when what he does seems effortless.

Music is something non-musicians associate with good times, relaxing times, emotional times, introspection times…anything but work.

When I say to most people that I’m working as a musician and

Lady Luck

Lady Luck

Last week a young singer got in touch with me on Instagram.

He said he listened to my tracks on Spotify and liked the production style.

He asked me if I could write him a hit. I said: “I’ll do my best!”

I asked him more questions about what he’d like me to help him with: writing / arrangement / production / mixing / mastering / so I could figure out how much it’d be for him to hire me.

He said: “I need you to do all those things, please” and he added: “could you do it for free… please.”

I very much enjoyed his politeness!

Now, I wasn’t upset, I was sad for him.

If he keeps going on like that he will have nothing serious to release for years.

On his Instagram pics he wore expensive sports clothes, pics of him partying and drinking and going on sun holidays (pre Virus time I imagine!)

What is most important to him?

Not investing in his music obviously, so that’s why I was more sad for him than anything else.

On the other hand, I’ve met people working overtime at tiring jobs to be able to record and release their songs…

I wonder if lady luck picks one of the two kinds of people which one it’d be….

{UNDEFINED}

{UNDEFINED}

To Niche or not to Niche? That is the question.

James is a great singer / songwriter, I know him for seeing him playing around town, from following him on FB, etc. I was always surprised though by the sound / aesthetic of his releases, and saddened that they never met an audience, never  went above the dreaded <1k threshold on Spotify.

He told me how it hurt him, that he went through depression, was considering stopping music altogether. I felt for him. Felt the pain.

Before producing, I’ve been a very active live musician. Playing to a non-existent, non-responsive audience is painful. Having a release with no listeners is the same feeling multiplied by the number of days in the year!

As an artist putting my releases out there, I know the joy of seeing  Spotify stats going up, not for the fame or the money, only to know your music is being heard and appreciated by thousands of people, that your music career is at a healthy place, that the ball is rolling. MOMENTUM!

It’s not luck, nor talent. It’s preparation, it’s having on board the right team of people working with and for you. James ’s mistake was that he thought that he had to ‘mainstreamed’ his music to be successful. His releases didn’t sound Indie, didn’t sound quite Electronic, didn’t sound mainstream Pop. It could have been a good thing. It wasn’t. If I’d be curating Spotify playlists, I wouldn’t know where to put him. 

Have a plan, study and understand musical aesthetics so you’ll fit somewhere.

Better fit perfectly in a niche genre close to your style than float in the ‘wanna be mainstream’ undefined stratosphere! 

It works. It just does, it brings you listeners, it keeps you happy and motivated!

JIMI HENDRIX WOULD SOUND LIKE JIMI HENDRIX on your little brother's shitty guitar! ;-)

JIMI HENDRIX WOULD SOUND LIKE JIMI HENDRIX on your little brother's shitty guitar! ;-)

Jimi Hendrix would sound like Jimi Hendrix on your old crappy guitar.

Fact.
Many artists are going from producers to producers because they ‘can’t get their sound’
I hear this so often, and I’m not sure who’s fault it is. 

Granted some producers rush into shaping a track into what they want for it or what they know how to do, instead of listening to what the artist WANT. 


But from my experience, every single great artist / singer I worked with already had their sound just by the fact of showing up in front of a mic. 

Because their sound is in their vocals delivery, in the timing of it, in the songwriting.

The power of a record lies in the emotional power of the artist.

Period.


I suspect some artists expect producers to bring their good song to a song as great as their idols’ songs.


Fair enough, if you don’t augment a song, you’re not doing a good job as a producer but the responsibility has to be shared.  And the bottom line is that there is no secret ‘production tricks’ to make something average amazing.


Like Jimi Hendrix would sound great on your little brothers’ guitar, a great artist sound great on an iphone recording!

The producer’s job is to enhance and maximize all this talent…the results, when the alchemy is here, then can be amazing!!

INSPIRATION PACK WALKTHROUGH VIDEO

INSPIRATION PACK WALKTHROUGH VIDEO

If you know the basics of how to record your vocals on a computer then this pack is for you!

I take it that you are using a recording software (DAW - Digital Audio Workstation) like Garageband, Abelton,ProTools,Cubase,Reaper, etc. and know how to do basic moves on it!

The main 2 files you’ll be dealing with are: Audio files (in my pack they are loops and one shots)

and Midi files: The beauty of midi is that you can assign to it whatever virtual instruments all these softwares are ship with! It could be a piano, a synth, strings, etc you decide…this is how you will personalise the construction kits in my pack…to learn more watch the video ! and happy songwriting!!! :-)

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COMPOSITION / PRODUCTION TIP #1: Layering: The easiest advanced production technique!

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Layering parts is huge in music production, it is the easiest thing to do as it’s just about repeating the same thing, and it’s also an advanced technique as selecting the sounds to use when layering requires great skills!

In this video I take an example from my track “Paris Used To Be A Feast” which you can hear here in its final version!:

https://open.spotify.com/track/0vuIA1hTdYuUEUdwvuSSZf?si=cshPdq4-RvOLSYpokQDYkQ

Here’s the Video: