I’m a small artist but do sign my work. I’ve been enjoying Lemmy for some time now and want to push this community to interact more and grow! So I thought one way I could contribute is to do a little AMA about what it’s like as a signed artist making house music :)
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What was your learning experience like?
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How long before you got signed?
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What was the most important thing you learned that helped you improve?
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What is the most recent thing you learned that helped you improve?
Oh I love these!
1: Learning experience was VERY slow. I still feel like I’m playing catch-up, but I can be proud of what I put out now. DAWs have a very steep learning curve, then it flattens out for a bit, then gets steep again as you start to realise just how little you know!
2: I have had no musical training whatsoever, so it took 6+ years of playing around and teaching myself through experimentation to get a track signed.
3: Most important thing, and something I still struggle with, is to focus on the music. It may sound silly, but when you’re a producer, you’re doing everything from start to finish. So it’s easy to get caught up in the production, in the technicals, or even in trying to get a specific style down — sometimes you have to step away and listen after a week so you can go “oh this is actually musically interesting”.
4: Most recent is taking advantage of macros and modulation to give sounds character and slight imperfections, such as a randomised LFO on a cutoff filter that changes the texture slightly throughout :)
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Classic question: What do you wish you had learned sooner when it comes to music production?
This answer is a bit more specific to what program I started with (FL Studio) — but organisation! Colour coding, naming, etc.
Another one I’m still learning and struggling with is not to sit on songs. I have 20+ 90% done ideas that I should finish and get out. Sometimes waiting for that ‘spark’ to come back is detrimental. Trust your talent and finish it.
How big a deal is it (for you or relative to the industry in general) that you’re “signed”?
Any links to your work or anything?
For me it was definitely a big deal when it first happened! I was working alongside artists I listened to for years. However, these aren’t massive corporate labels, so I have the freedom to contract one song or EP to a label, and one to another, etc.
All of my stuff can be found under my name on basically all platforms :) Not sure if links in comments are allowed.
What does it actual get you being signed? Apologies if it’s impolite to ask about financial things.
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African or European swallow?
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How did you get signed? Did you reach out to various A&R, or did they reach out to you? I’m an indie music producer and I’ve never gotten noticed by anybody in the industry for distribution.
