Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Chance Strickland. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Chance, thank you so much for making time for us today. Let’s jump right into a question so many in our community are looking for answers to – how to overcome creativity blocks, writer’s block, etc. We’d love to hear your thoughts or any advice you might have.
We like to do a lot of creative sessions that have nothing to do with making music where we focus on cool sound design and make large audio files of cool-sounding soundscapes we can throw into sessions later on to spark creativity. The sound design sessions are fun becasue there’s no pressure to make anything in particular, just mess around, mangle audio files, throw tons of effects plugins on things, and mess with the parameters in real-time. It’s kind of like painting with sound. Usually, I’ll take a vocal or instrument loop from a sample pack or Splice and then throw ridiculous amounts of effects and processing on them until it becomes a huge wall of sound, then loop it and record as I mess with the parameters of the plugins, add new ones, take some away, all in real-time. We’ll come up with 2/3 minute soundscapes that we throw into a folder and forget about until it comes time to make a tune, then we’ll go in there, pick one, scrub through until we find a cool section, and then loop it and have that as a starting point for the song. They’re a great way to have elements that are original sounding and cool in an ambiguous way, like, it’s hard to tell if it’s a vocal, a synth, or an instrument, but it just sounds cool. Having sessions where you make cool things to use later can really help if you hit a wall or get writers block.
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?
Louder Rain is a multi-format musical project that likes to blend psychedelic/surrealist escapism with a touch of the absurd and a few sprinkles of positivity. We’re focused on bringing our music and experience to life in even more impactful ways as we evolve. Right now we’re a two-piece, but we’d love to eventually have a full band (live drummer and bass player.) We are starting to regularly do live streams of production and performance from our YouTube and Instagram.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
The three qualities I feel are most important thus far are perseverance, not being afraid to experiment, and a genuine love for what you do. Perseverance is key becasue you have to stick with it, whatever that “it” is for you. Not being afraid to experiment, with new sounds, ideas, and techniques, allows you to grow as an artist and grow your creative skillset, and if you don’t genuinely love what you do and the process in all of it, nothing else will matter becasue it won’t be any fun, and at the end of the day that’s why we got into whatever creative endeavors we did in the first place, so you have to keep having fun! If it’s no longer fun, something is wrong!
How can folks who want to work with you connect?
We’re looking for a killer drummer and bass player, so hit us up on Instagram or email us if you want to collab or jam!
https://www.instagram.com/louder_rain/
Contact Info:
- Website: https://louderrain.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/louder_rain/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@louderrain8549
- Other: Bandcamp: https://louderrain.bandcamp.com
