Meet Shaun Moore

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Shaun Moore. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Shaun below.

Shaun , thanks for taking the time to share your lessons with our community today. So, let’s jump right in – one of the most essential skills for unlocking our potential is self-discipline. Where does your self-discipline come from?

For me, I believe my self-discipline comes from when I was very young child. Let’s say first grade aged. In elementary school, no one had to tell me to do my work in class or homework. I always took initiative and excelled very well. My parents took notice of my eagerness to learn and participate in school based activities as well as extra-curricular activities. Music, karate, Boy Scouts, etiquette classes, were things that my parents supported and allowed me to do and I did them fully focused and engaged 100% all in. I kept that level of focus, discipline, and intensity all through school up to my senior year in high school with music being my main focus. However, nothing else slacked. I maintained a high gpa, took advanced placement & gifted classes, and also did what is called joint enrollment where you take college classes while still in high school. I excelled at everything. All while earning 11 full music scholarships to colleges across the country in the eleventh grade of high school. I did all of that and worked 4 different jobs still a high school student. Not because I had to, but because I wanted to. I understood young that in order to get to the next level of success I had to be focused and locked-in on what I truly wanted, and I was mentally prepared to overcome any challenges. To this day, in my career, I have never lost sight of my foundation that has helped me achieve a lot of the successful outcomes that I have been blessed to have.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

My name is Shaun Moore, and I am a professional Music Producer & Multi-Instrumentalist! I started my journey to becoming a professional Music Producer and getting into the Music Industry while I was still in college. I’m from Stone Mountain Ga but I went to college in Jackson, Mississippi at Jackson State University.

While I was there at Jackson State studying music, I was producing music in my dorm room with equipment that my parents helped me get. On a regular schedule, I would send my music productions to a contact that I knew in Atlanta who I met while I was in high school. Throughout that process, my music was being recorded on local Atlanta talent and artist who were also looking to get into the Music Industry. When college was not in session, I would always come back to Atlanta and get in the studio with these local artist and help produce songs. I did this same routine all my years of college and by the time I became a senior, some of my songs that I produced were introduced to very successful Atlanta Music Industry Executives at that time.

When it was time for me to graduate Jackson State University, I had built so much rapport and so many relationships with my Atlanta contacts, I created an opportunity to get in the door of the Atlanta music scene. After I graduated Jackson State, I came back home and began to take advantage of the opportunities that I had created for myself. Not too long after I graduated, while moving around in the Atlanta music scene, I met a very well-known and extremely successful Music Industry Executive who presented an opportunity for me to work with him inside a very successful music studio. Of course I jumped at the opportunity.

My beginnings working in this studio are what gave me my official start as a professional Music Producer. I learned so much from the experience, and I was able to contribute creatively as a producer to the continued success of that studio. In doing so, I built even more relationships with working artists, engineers, executives, managers, and other great people who work in different areas of the Music Industry. I still to this day have some of those same relationships that I built when I was first starting out.

Since starting out, I have been blessed to work with a variety of projects and collaborators ranging from GRAMMY® Award-Winning Multi-Platinum Artist, Songwriters, Producer, Engineers, all the way to Independents. For me, professionally, I am always focused on the next project or collaboration. The reason why, is because I understand the hard work I had to do to get to where I am today and it is aligning with my “why” from when I was coming out of high school. That “why” is connected to my dream and I think it is safe to say that I am closing the gap on what that is. I also understand that this is a competitive business, and to create longevity and sustainability, it is important to celebrate your wins but also be looking ahead to what is next. Or, you may get left behind as the industry is changing.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

As a Music Producer, in my journey, I’ll give two skills and one area of knowledge that was and is still most impactful to this day. The first skill is patience. In the music business, there are a lot of moving parts and people to deal with who all have varied personalities or idiosyncrasies. Because of that, you want to remain patient as you work with people who at first, may not see your vision or understand your level of hunger for success on a particular project in the early stages of collaborating with them. In addition to that, patience allows you to navigate creative direction better with all parties involved. Lastly, patience allows you to handle the timeliness of people responding to you. It may not be as fast as you may like.

The second skill is people skills. How you treat people is something they will remember far longer than the transaction. The benefit of how you treat people is actually more valuable than just your talent. Why? It is because the music business is built off of relationships and how you treat people directly affects whether or not you will build anything mutually beneficial.

From the knowledge area, knowing your craft is paramount. I started very early as a child learning my craft of music as an instrumentalist and intertwined that with the learning of how to be a producer. My knowledge base has only evolved since then over time. With the evolution of technology and industry changes, your knowledge base and how well you know your craft is what will keep people trusting in you to work with them. That is definitely an on-going process and is immensely valuable to anyone wanting to to have a career in the music business.

To close, maybe we can chat about your parents and what they did that was particularly impactful for you?

The most impactful thing my parents did for me was see the gift early on and have always supported it. Even till this day. I was in elementary school when I started my musical journey. No private teacher, just me and my instrument. Immediately I was excelling on my own. No one had to make me practice or study my music everyday after school. My parents saw that, and without hesitation, provided me with any and all the resources they could to ensure that I was supported 100%. It never stopped. They bought me my first instruments. When I earned 11 full music scholarships to colleges across the country, they supported my decision to which school I chose to go to. While in college, they bought me my first pieces of equipment to start producing on while in my dorm room as a full scholarship student keeping a 4.0 gpa. With anything that I have needed support in as I pursued and continue to pursue my dreams, my parents have never stopped supporting me over the years. I am beyond grateful to have that kind of support from my parents and every time I get the chance to show my gratitude I do so. I think things would be very different if it were not for my parents support. I learned a lot about having good character from them as well, and that has helped me tremendously in building relationships in the music business at every level. Today, as they still choose to support me anyway they can, I am always reminding myself of how blessed I am to have that connection in my life and I never take it for granted.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://eleventhgrademusic.com
• Instagram: @11thgrademusic
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shaun-m-moore/
• Other: [email protected]