We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Robert Quinones a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Robert, thank you so much for taking the time to share your lessons learned with us and we’re sure your wisdom will help many. So, one question that comes up often and that we’re hoping you can shed some light on is keeping creativity alive over long stretches – how do you keep your creativity alive?
When it comes to making my songs, I almost never know what I’m gonna make when I start. I just try to find or make something that sounds cool first. It could be drums, a beat, a bass sound, some kind of animal noise, etc. That in itself keeps it kinda fun for me. Once I find something that my ears like, I can start to hear in my head what to do next and I just follow that river until the song is finished. For me, when I’m creating, not trying to make any specific thing also helps avoid a lot of writers block. Whenever I try to make a specific genre or something, every decision you make has got to fit in with what that is, and is a kind of limit, so I prefer to just let it flow and become whatever.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I’m a music producer and DJ. I tend to make bass music more than anything else but I have made some pop and rap songs too. I always try to include real instruments in my productions, instead of being all synthy. I feel like it makes for easier listening. My main focus for the project, since the beginning, has been to just make music and be able to live on that. I love making music just for the sake of making music. The DJing part of it is pretty scary, but I really like showing people new music or things I’ve found that I think are cool. Putting your taste on display can be hard, especially since not everybody is going to like it.
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?
Perseverance is a huge one. Since I’ve started, there have been many people I know quit or stop doing it for a variety of reasons. I feel like as long as you keep on doing your craft, always look to improve, and put it out there, eventually you will find your crowd. It happens fast for some people and slow for others, but as long as you keep doing it, something is bound to happen.
A piece of advice for other producers out there is to be okay with being bad haha. Not everything you make is gonna be a hit, and if you’re just starting out, it can be difficult to get what’s in your head out into existence. Pick your DAW and mess with everything, see what does what, and how things are linked together. I’m more of a hands on person but there are plenty of tutorials out there on how to do pretty much anything you want within the software. It’s going to take some time.
Another big one is being some kind of musician, having an ear for music, or learning music theory. It is very possible to produce music just based on what sounds good and not have to use music theory, but for me, I learned music theory, kind of basic music theory, and it helps me get a better understanding of song structure and knowing what notes would sound good with what’s happening. That’s like the backbone of music. If you’re trying to do more bass heavy and electronic music, sound design can be pretty tricky, but I recommend the same as before. Mess with everything and see what does what.
I also think you should like doing it, it seems obvious but hitting writers block and finding time to create, it can sometimes feel like a chore and you’ll get burnt out. I like to keep it fun and try to resample a toilet flushing or something. Playing with audio is fun for me, and if you find that you don’t like it, that’s okay.
To close, maybe we can chat about your parents and what they did that was particularly impactful for you?
Well, my dad passed when I was fairly young, I was 13 years old when it happened. I didn’t quite have a lot of guidance in life stuff, I was a huge gamer and never really went outside. My mom tried her best and I love her for it. When I discovered that music was something I wanted to do, she was supportive from the start and a little uneasy about it, but she never tried to talk me out of it. Now that things have started to flourish a little more shes even more supportive of it haha. I think just having a good support system can really help mindset a lot, especially from your parents.
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