How I ended up going from dj to producer. It's not all fun and games. If it were easy, everyone would be doing it
I think it was about 4 years ago that I built a studio from scratch. I really had no idea what I was doing, especially with sound treatment, so thank you YouTube (and Nick Mechanimal, my mentor and friend) . On his recommendation and that of a few producers whom I both respect and trust, I got a couple of synths, decent effects and of course cubase.
Making a baseline and kick that really work is no easy task. I took a few lessons from an amazing producer that I know and the most valuable lesson that he taught me was simple: listen. After 4 years, I am still learning, and it’s great. I would imagine that people doing this for 20 years still learn every day.
So, I started out doing music that I would like to hear on the dance floor. Lots of arps and floaty melodies. More than one producer told me that my music wouldn’t sell. It wasn’t like today’s psytrance, they said. But really, I never wanted it to be. After experiencing what was out there, I was happy to do something different. In fact, that sound of “today” seemed no longer unique or interesting It used to be, but now everyone is making it. As it turns out, there are very few artists left making the old school sound. A promoter in South Africa who booked me called it ‘new old school’.
My first attempts were somewhat thin and simple, though of course they sounded good to me. Listening to them now kind of makes me cringe. I still can’t believe that I played many of them live back then. In 2018, a label called ‘Reincarnations Recordings’ released my first solo track called Goa Creamsicle. I was rather pleased that it made it to number 7 in the charts.
Subsequent releases came out on the same label as well as Up Records Australia. They all did pretty well, perhaps because the sound was different (despite what I was told). It was interesting to find out that my music was popular in places like Israel, South Africa, Brazil and Germany.
During the covid times, I made a psychedelic chill album. I don’t know what possessed my to do it, I just wanted to see if I could. Turns out that it was really fun, but after it was finished I was quite happy to get back to my full-on music. The promoter of Funny Moon Festival in Czech gave me the opportunity to debut my chill music on the alternative stage, aside from a main stage set.
Here's a recent DJ CHART. SATURDAY NIGHT STOMPERS
A groovy selection of dance floor fillers. A few may need a bit of pitch control, but you'll find that 144 to 145 makes for the best atmosphere. This is the stuff you need to add to your cart right now. It's pretty much all uplifting