We were lucky to catch up with Cheema recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Cheema , appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?
It’s interesting being asked this question because it has been a slow few years for me music wise. Since the pandemic, all my creative pursuits came to a halt. Even at this moment, I haven’t gotten the ball fully rolling again. Keeping my passion alive has been such a challenge.
I would say the main reason for my resilience, and push to keep going, has been the fact that I want to keep my inner child alive. I don’t want to lose that magic, and spark. I don’t want to wake up everyday and go to a job I hate, eat, sleep, and repeat for the next 40 years. I keep in mind the 11 year old me who loved everything related to producing music and being someone who is creative. I want to keep making her proud while also living an inspiring life as a result of me taking a chance on my talent and purpose.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I go by Cheema and PasDeMeme Music. I’m a Toronto based Artist/Producer. My journey began at a young age. After listening to the album “Fly or Die” by N.E.R.D as a child, I decided to learn how to create my own beats and music. I downloaded a free trial version of the digital audio workstation FL Studio and years later here I am now. I explored the program and taught myself how to structure and create beats by imitating songs by my role models: Pharrell Williams, Missy Elliott, Timbaland, Ryan Leslie, and Calvin Harris just to name a few. I knew whatever I felt or went through, I could translate into my own unique sound.
I specialize in the genres R&B, Pop, Synthwave, and House. I built a fanbase on Instagram by consistently posting fun clips of myself producing, along with links to my music. I produce and sell beats and create music for people to vibe to.
I take pride in being unique. I not only want to enjoy this amazing creative journey, but influence others to follow their passions as well. I do my best to showcase my journey to inspire and motivate other creatives to get out there. We are all given talents and I encourage everyone to share them. Love yourself, and love what you do, because the world needs authentic creatives.
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?
Three qualities that have helped me most on my journey are confidence, charisma, and genuineness. Charisma is important because it helps you be able to easily speak to people. You can’t always wait for people to come up to you, or find you. Sometimes it helps to start the conversation. That is something that can really help you stick out as a creative.
Confidence goes hand in hand with charisma because you have to know who you are and what you have to offer. People really do pick up on the energy we give out as a result of how we feel about ourselves. Believing in yourself unconditionally, and knowing what you want for your journey are huge for building the foundation of your dream.
The third quality genuineness, is pretty self explanatory. I have gotten so many opportunities by genuinely offering my support to peers in the community and by showing interest in their journeys and talents rather than trying to sell myself all the time. I know along the way we are trying to find people to help us or collaborate with us and there isn’t anything wrong with that but it is really important not to take all the time but also give and create a balance between the two.
The best way to work on all of these things is to go out to events you are interested in and start talking to people. A good start is just learning to say hi. Start showing a little more interest in others than yourself, and get curious about the people you would like to interact with.
Looking back over the past 12 months or so, what do you think has been your biggest area of improvement or growth?
Believe it or not my biggest area of growth in the last 12 months doesn’t have anything to do with music. The thing I have grown the most at is learning to rest and to not take everything so seriously.
We have all this pressure in life to succeed and to keep pushing ourselves. As a result of living my life with this intense pressure, I have burnt out more times than I can count. With each burn out, it started taking more time to recover and get back to things.
I started to realize that I wasn’t taking time to rest or enjoy the journey. I realized living my dream as a creative wasn’t just about trying to make music my full time job and make money from it. That wasn’t how I started my journey and somewhere along the way I completely forgot why I really do it. I do it because I love it and enjoy it. Of course there are technical things like strategy, planning, and the business aspects that are really important to bring my dream to life but the most important thing is my expression and enjoyment of music. Now I give myself time to rest. and allow myself to stay in love with the journey and not the end result.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/cheema_waves
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pasdememe_music?igsh=MWY5Nnd3a3RneHFtMA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@cheemathaproducer3262
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/cheemawaves
- Other: Email for inquiries: [email protected]
