I’ve been surrounded by music my whole life, it’s really something that’s always resonated with me. It still blows my mind how much music can impact people’s lives and be their outlet. The emotions it brings are so powerful and I wanted to be a part of that impact by creating my own. Every day on my way to work, I think about where I’m going in life, and a lot of times I feel like I’m in a dream realm, which is how I derived my name actually. Feel like these moments happen to a lot of people. But the real moment I knew I wanted to start creating my own music is after hearing music from other artists, like ILLENIUM, Logic, and MitiS. I could literally listen to “Reverie” by ILLENIUM and “Under Pressure” by Logic on repeat for days on end and not get tired of them haha. These two songs were the turning point for me to start following my passion of making music.
Your track “Letting Go” is absolutely amazing! How did you achieve such a great signature sound in such a short time? Also, what is your creative process like?
Thank you so much! It means so much to me to hear that. I was so blessed to work with such talented individuals on this one. Huge shout-out to Alexis (XELA) & Tayler (Gioto) for the amazing vocals/lyrics, Adam Pearce for helping with the finishing touches, and William Nguyen for the artwork. I couldn’t have made my vision for this song come to life without them. I started making music pretty recent in 2017, and I’ve always wondered what “my sound” is. In all honesty, I don’t think it’s fully developed yet. The sound that I have made so far though I feel came pretty naturally. It’s not something you can force in my opinion. Much like inspiration, I feel the more you search for it, the further you became from it. I’ve learned lately to just let inspiration and my sound find me. I’m such a tough critic on myself about a lot of things and sometimes I need to let things go, which is what “Letting Go” means to me. I’ve always wanted to tell a story with my music like Logic, have huge drums like ILLENIUM, and synth layers and catchy melodies like MitiS. Creative process wise, I always get most of my ideas while I’m at work for some reason haha. So I typically always have to record them on my phone and play around with them later. I tend to be very real with myself before I release new music. If I can’t stop listening to something I’ve made, then it’s not good enough yet and needs more work. One major thing I’ve learned with music production during my creative process is to never be afraid to break the rules. Eventually the sound I’m looking for always finds me, typically when I least expect it.
Going over your Soundcloud we can tell you love experimenting with new sounds. Can you tell us more about your studio setup and some of your favorite plugins/instruments?
Yeah, I really love experimenting with new sounds and ideas to keep my music as unique as possible. My “studio” setup, aka a cheap folding table next to my bed haha, is pretty simple at the moment. I have a Novation Launchkey 61 note MIDI controller, Audio-Technica ATH-M40x headphones, a laptop, and an external computer monitor. I’m definitely looking into upgrading eventually to have an actual studio though so my fiancé doesn’t have to keep listening to me constantly looping the same sounds all night while she tries to sleep haha. I typically have go-to plugins for each of my sounds, but still my absolute favorite is Spire. I normally use Spire to get really ambient synths that shape the basis of all of my songs. I also tend to use Sylenth1 for leads and gritty synth drop layers, and Serum for supporting mid-range and bass layers. I’ve also recently discovered the FabFilter plugins, which I honestly don’t know how I’ve gone this long without them haha. There’s a good amount of other plugins I use too, but these are the main ones.
Your music sounds very organic and authentic. Do you play any real-life instruments?
Thank you! That’s exactly what I aim for with my music, I want it to sound very real and authentic! I feel people relate best to that. The ironic part though, is that I use plugins and samples to make all of my sounds, not physical instruments. It’s insane how real some of these plugins sound, but eventually I do want to include more live instruments when I get more equipment. I also do not know music theory or how to play an instrument, I create everything by ear. I feel I’ve listened to enough music in my life to know what sounds right and what sounds wrong. However, I do want to learn to play instruments one day, because it’s definitely more challenging to create music without understanding the theory behind it. It seriously takes me forever to create chord progressions it’s ridiculous haha. For my next song there will be acoustic/electric guitars in it though, so I’m super stoked for that and the one after that will probably have some orchestra instruments as well. I’m sure I’ll pick up music theory eventually along the way, but as of right now, I’m just producing.
What are your musical goals for the future?
So this goes back to the car drive to work I discussed earlier haha, I’m always thinking about where I want to go in life. Not just with music, but also with the rest of my life. It really is frustrating sometimes to not know exactly, but I know everything happens for a reason and always tends to work out eventually. I got my degree in electrical engineering, so I definitely want to somehow apply that with music production to make a career out of one day. I have thought about going on tour and/or playing local gigs quite often, but I know how demanding that can be. For right now, I’m pretty comfortable with just creating music and networking with as many people as I can. Networking is so important in this industry I’ve found and opens so many opportunities. I network with people all the time to build relationships with them. You’d be surprised how much it means to someone to simply DM them and compliment their music versus asking them for something. But anyways, I got a ton of ideas for the future with my music, so I’m excited to see where they take me.
What are your goals for the coming months? Any upcoming projects we can get excited about?
My goals for these coming months are to really focus on sound design, mixing, and the power of silence in music. I definitely still have a lot to learn, but it’s all a part of the process. Closer to the end of the year, I do have a very special concept lined up already that I hope really tells a story that a lot of people can relate to in their own ways. I don’t want to reveal too much at this time of what that is, but I have been dropping small hints for people who pay attention to the content I post. I will say that my newest track “Letting Go” is a part of this story. I also plan on doing something really special for this song as well, hopefully next month. I’m so thankful for everyone who has followed me on my journey so far, it really keeps me going. I hope one thing people can take away from my music is to never give up on their dreams and always believe they’re capable of more than they think. I feel incredibly honored to be asked to be a part of this interview! So thank you very much for the opportunity!
