We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kontent. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kontent below.
Kontent, we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?
Through repetition. The more you do something the more confident you’re going to be at it. After having had hundreds of sessions with many different artists from around the world I know I can be in a session with any artist of any caliber and leave a good impression. I know deep down that no matter what happens in a session I’ll be fine because it worked out well so many times in the past. That’s why repetition is the key for developing confidence in any field.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I’m a music producer and based in LA since 2020. I’ve been producing music for many artists from different cultures and I love fusing different genres to create something that has a unique flavour. Just recently I produced the song “Butterfly” for the artist Akshara. Akshara grew up in India learning Indian classical music and then moved to the United States in her teens. When I work with her I try to fuse her Indian roots with some of my influences like left field hip hop or other modern genres to create something out of the box. I produced her last 4 songs, including her biggest song “EYES”, which already has over 400,000 Spotify streams. I’m very proud of that because everything was done fully independent with no help from any label. Another thing I’m proud of is having produced the song “sardines” by the artists Audrey Nuna and Deb Never. Both are major label artists and I was already a fan of their music before the song even happened. It’s a great blend of both artists’ genres which is left-field hip hop (Audrey Nuna) mixed with indie rock (Deb Never).
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
1. How to have a session with an artist.
Being a music producer, you’re in sessions with artists which means you will have to have conversations and your goal is to create a great vibe. This is not an easy skill and it’s not taught in any music schools. Creating a vibe is a very specific thing and the better the vibe the better the song will be. The best way to develop this is mostly through repetition. The more sessions you’ve had in your life the most likely you’ll be better at this. Another way of learning is being in sessions with other more advanced producers and learn from them. See how they create a vibe. Because everyone has a different approach to this.
2. Reaching out to new people.
This might probably be the most important one. The music industry is nothing but connections and the more you have the more successful you’re going to be. Obviously, your music needs to be great already for this point. The problem with most music producers is that they spend all day in their room making music but barely spend any time reaching out to new people that can help them with their career. This can be reaching out to new artists to work with, reaching out to music industry people, going to concerts, networking events etc. Any person you meet can change your life so this should be the top priority. Because after a certain time of being in the music industry you realize that after a certain threshold everyone has the same level of skill. Once you’re surrounded by professionals anyone you know can make a great beat or a song. So the only thing that differentiates peoples’ success is who they know. Their contacts. That becomes the main differentiator (at that level).
3. Develop your taste.
Another thing that you realize once you get to a certain level is that another main thing that differentiates music producers (and all musicians really) is their taste. After a certain point everyone is skilled and then it’s just a question of what is your taste and is it cool?Why do some people make fire productions and others make average ones?
As a producer, one of your main tasks is making decisions. Specifically decisions on which sounds to use. The main thing that decides this is your taste. The music you grew up on. What do you think is truly “dope”. All of this will affect whether you choose this kick drum or the other one. Why was this vocal take better than the other one? No one can explain you these things, you just have to know. And this is again something that’s not taught in music schools. You have to really dig deep when you’re listening on Spotify and try to expose yourself to as much diverse music as possible. All of that can become your arsenal in the future. So pay attention to what you’re listening to on a daily basis. Are you listening to dope music that’s super fresh and not many people have heard yet or are you listening to the same old stuff you’ve been listening and that doesn’t really challenge you. Because as a music producer you’re also a taste maker. Challenge yourself and listen to something you would never normally listen to. All of that will expand your mind and help you create great art and make tasteful decisions for artists.
Tell us what your ideal client would be like?
The ideal client for me is the artist that knows exactly what he/she wants. This makes my job the easiest. Because what producers don’t want is not knowing what the artists wants and having to make decisions for them. Because then we’re shooting in the dark with our ideas. And sure, sometimes we can get lucky and it might still work but at the end of the day the artist needs to stand 100% behind the song and not the producer. And usually the artist has the last say and that’s the person we need to make happy as producers. So when an artist knows exactly what they want we can perfectly execute that and we did a great job. Everyone is happy and the workflow was the easiest.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/onlykontent/
