Meet Austin Rich

We were lucky to catch up with Austin Rich recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Austin, we’re so appreciative of you taking the time to share your nuggets of wisdom with our community. One of the topics we think is most important for folks looking to level up their lives is building up their self-confidence and self-esteem. Can you share how you developed your confidence?

Confidence and self esteem in my situation simply came from practicing and refining my craft mostly, trying to get better.

In my field of audio and music production, making quality product for mass consumption is essential, you’re competing with professional music producers/DJ’s, and that is extremely intimidating, there is an obvious tendency to doubt yourself and feel insecure and critical of yourself and your work. As well, in this field, there is such a steep learning curve between sound theory, audio processing and hardware, the programs and their functionality and all the plugins and instruments and their controls… Then you actually have to know how to write music and play music, edit and arrange it, mix it, it just never ends, Any newcomer will see it as an impossible mountain, and often give up early on. You gotta stay resilient and not be attached to outcomes and expectations, enjoy the process! It ensures you keep coming back to it, and you’ll start making cooler and cooler stuff. I think this overall theme can be applied to other fields or life in general, not just audio and music.

Personal knowledge also is a big part of being confident in what you do. Educating yourself is the most important thing you can do to speed your improvement along. Take the time to learn. Myself, I chose to pursue formal audio education to give myself an advantage (since up to that point my only experience was playing guitar in my bedroom) and soon was a graduate from the Conservatory for Recording Arts and Sciences, in Arizona. Understanding sound and audio from theory to application is what allows me to operate my music career more or less independently, and allows me to bring more value to any situation involving audio or music, fostering more connections. If you know your stuff, you aren’t ever going to be in a situation where you look like the dumbest in the room, nor will you be unprepared…. You very well may end up being the hero in the room!

However, my education did not teach me anything about writing music and composing music specifically, and there is still an endless world of knowledge surrounding electronic music production; sound design, mixing and mastering techniques, the endless world of 3rd party fx plugins and synths, I could go on and on.. You can never stop learning or trying new things. Therefore, much of my time is spent producing music, and being curious.

Another way of building self esteem besides practice and education, is collaboration. When you feel good enough at what you do to start collaborating with others on projects (in any field…), it gives you a gauge of your skillset and where you’re at amongst your peers. Know what you bring to the table and what you are about, which will come with honing your skills and practicing your craft passionately. However I will also stress the importance of not being overly confident…. Be humble and open minded. You never know who you’re with, and who they know, and what they will be doing next; be of the most value to everyone and every situation you meet.

To expand on that a little, something I have seen smaller artists offer as a service are production lessons on certain DAW’s, so if you are NOT feeling confident enough in your music production ability, try and reach out to other producers for advice and help, offer to pay for their time, which really is just investing in yourself. YouTube is a great resource as well. For example, something I do often when I get writers block or am feeling burnt out is I try and find tutorials of how to produce/recreate songs I like from other artists, or I just make weird nonsense noise, all just because you never know when you’ll hear something that sparks a new idea….

Ultimately confidence will come from believing in yourself (and belief is a tricky thing), but you’ll begin to believe in yourself by getting results you’re happy with, and good results will come from working hard and investing in yourself and your craft.

…..It’s worth it.

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?

I’m an Electronic Music Producer and Audio Engineer from Phoenix, Arizona, I go by the stage name Soundrich, and I have a brand new EP coming out on Friday, August 16th, 2024 (title: “Orphic”) to all streaming platforms for fans, as well as on Beatport for professional DJ’s/EDM Artists to use .

My primary and passionate sound is something I would describe as my take on the Progressive House genre, though I incorporate elements of trance, electro, and bass house as well. I try to create a sonic universe that is heavy, melodic, and emotionally intense. I really enjoy making what I personally like, which I think is a lost touch in the electronic music scene lately. Everyone seems to be chasing fads and making tracks that all sound similar, putting what other people want to hear before what they love to make. Popular and recycled sounds may be a way to possibly become flash in the pan viral sensation, and could indeed kickstart a real career, but longevity an authenticity can be a problem when you just want to make what everyone else is doing, its so important to try and be yourself. I do not make music checking boxes, or asking myself if this sound is like “too techno-ey” or “not electro enough”, or whatever. I just know what I do and don’t like, and more importantly, I can hear something I don’t like and then know what tools to use to change it in a way so that I will like it.

I was never particularly fond of most house music, and still am not. Honestly I don’t really listen to a lot of electronic music besides the artists I like, (most of which reside on mau5trap, the horde is home! 😀 ). Popular house music played in clubs and bars, in my opinion is very thin sounding, has thin basses and odd melodies, synths and repetitive vocal samples. That style of house can be fun, it’s meant for partying, and usually has a playful and upbeat nature…. Surely it’s popular and has it’s time and place, however I cannot stand it, ha! By contrast, the house I enjoy is heavier, more intense in its bass sounds and drum selection, typically has darker melodics, more depth, ambience, and layers. One big difference as well is the longer and more dynamic song structures that build and fall, creating storylines almost, very much along the lines of Trance music, or progressive music overall. This is just my preference though, music is great in that there is so many different styles for all the different types of people out there who enjoy EDM.

However, in addition to house-based music, (“boots-n-cats”), I’m a huge fan of experimental bass, dubstep, and trap style electronic music, and spent years in that arena before finding my love of “deep-electro-progressive-bass-house”, as I would call it, and my personal influences extend far beyond the house and progressive genres. This gives my tracks a vibe thats a bit different, but still with good taste. I love to use deep and heavy modulated basses, playing musically pleasing and emotionally powerful progressions. Synths and sound design is a huge focus for me as well. I love taking the time to craft synth patches and sounds from scratch with textures and timbres that defy easy verbal comparison. And ultimately, my biggest goal in my music is to create tension that gets satisfyingly released. Each song has its own unique elements, but they all share a similar structural arrangement style that is more typical of progressive genres, with their own beautiful and powerful peak/crescendo to complete the experience.

The music is meant to be an emotional catharsis, on the dancefloor or in your headphones.

One of my biggest goals in life is to be able to make powerful music and share it with people, in hopes that it resonates with them and makes them feel something deeper and more real, in a world and time that is predominately superficial and cold. Music has always spoken to me on the deepest levels of my existence, and it has gotten me through absolutely everything in my life. I look at music as a collective sixth sense that lets people communicates beyond words, bringing them together regardless of their personal details, everything else negative seems to disappear, if only for a short while, to me, that is the most beautiful thing in our world (besides my own kids and wife) and I simply want to share that with people who feel the same way, through both personal listening/streaming online, and in live show settings.

I have been playing music since I was 10 years old and had been infatuated with music since I was just a little tyke. I went to school to be an audio engineer immediately after graduating high school, and I began producing my own music at the same time as well, though it would take several years before my projects became anything I was comfortable sharing with others…. Early on (2014-2019) I was posting music online without any clear brand or goal or style in mind, it was more experimental and novice in nature, covering hip hop style beats and my own experimental trap style of sorts, (since taken down, available on my Bandcamp store only). I punctuated that era with a pretty cool deep-melodic-trap EP in 2021 (“IFYKYK” – available on all streaming platforms),

Since the beginning of 2023, I refocused entirely on this current genre of EDM I prefer to make and listen to, and have released 6 singles, as well as an EP all on streaming platforms, with my upcoming EP, “Orphic”, on August 16th as well, I believe it represents my best work so far. I have much more music on the way, in this genre, and others… 😉

There are several other unofficial tracks on my YouTube and Soundcloud channels in different genres (Dubstep/Riddim and Trap music). As well, In 2023 I had my dubstep single, “Incendiary”, signed and released with TermenlF Records in Florida.

I have created my own record label: Syntex.Sounds for my releases, and have my own LLC for freelancing audio engineering/production services, Soundrich Audio LLC.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

1. Do not compare yourself to others

2. Learn Your Tools (DAW, plugins, etc.), find out as much as you can about how they work and their effects/applications

3. Enjoy the creation process and HAVE FUN — don’t be attached to the outcome

Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?

At this point, I am definitely looking to collaborate with other artists in a similar genre niche as me, some people have offered collabs in the past but they weren’t quite in my genre… But yes if any producers enjoy my music and feel we would work well together, definitely reach out!

However, I am primarily interested in working with a female vocalist who would be open to putting their voice over my music.

One huge difference in my music compared to other EDM artists is the lack of tracks with vocals. I have one song that I havent released, that has an alternate vocal mix version that I don’t but have gotten good feedback on which is exciting. Generally though, I haven’t found anything that really fits what I am looking for, in the world of vocal sample packs that are out there.

Also I am in search for graphic design artists, someone experienced in making logos and live show graphics (loops, effects and visuals for a live backdrop, etc.)
But, its important to note that I simply love creation of all types, even drawing, painting. and digital art. Creation is one of the most incredible parts of being human, and I always enjoy when other people are passionately doing it too. I’m open to any and all types of collaborations, reach out!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/soundrichaudio
• Instagram: @soundrichaudio
• Youtube: @soundrichaudio
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/soundrich-audio
• Other: https://soundrich.bandcamp.com/

Image Credits

All images taken by Austin Rich and Max Masano ( @pulsion_pro )