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….

‘Making money from music is impossible’ I often see people with long faces posting on FB groups…Big hairy goat’s bullshit!

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 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!!

Understanding the Artist’s cycle is key!!!