0:01

Hey Inside Mix podcast fans . I'm Shardz

0:03

from Italy and today my song the

0:05

World of Lives out on all stream platforms . You're

0:08

now listening to the Inside Mix podcast

0:10

and it's your host , mark Matthews so

0:12

stay tuned .

0:13

Hello and welcome to the Inside the Mix podcast

0:16

. I'm Mark Matthews , your host , musician

0:18

, producer and mix and mastering engineer

0:21

. You've come to the right place if you want to know

0:23

more about your favourite synth music artists

0:25

, music engineering and production , songwriting

0:27

and the music industry . I've

0:30

been writing , producing , mixing and mastering music for

0:32

over 15 years and I want to share what

0:34

I've learnt with you . Hello

0:36

, folks , and welcome back to the Inside the Mix

0:38

podcast . This is the first interview

0:41

episode post summer break , so

0:43

I'm very excited with this one in particular , and

0:45

I'm joined by Cerex Solobodskoy

0:47

, who is also known as Hyperbits

0:50

, a producer who's worked with some

0:52

industry giants , which I'll name in the episode itself

0:54

, and also Hyperbits is a

0:56

music production educational organisation

0:59

as well and has helped many artists

1:01

. So we've got 55 plus million

1:03

streams as an

1:05

artist , over 100,000

1:08

plus monthly listeners on Spotify and

1:10

more figures in that sort of vein

1:12

, and we're going to discuss things to

1:15

do with music production . We're looking at formal

1:17

music education . Is it necessary for

1:19

being a successful producer ? How important

1:22

is it to have a unique sound or style in today's

1:24

music industry ? How do you measure

1:26

the success of a music release ? Is

1:28

it about the numbers or is it about the audience's

1:31

reaction and engagement ? And I

1:33

also delve in and ask Cerex the

1:35

question is there a piece of advice you

1:37

received in your career that has stuck with you ? And he

1:40

actually gives three amazing

1:42

pieces of advice that you're going to want to know folks . So

1:45

that's enough of me wittering on , let's dive into this

1:47

episode . Our

2:15

guest today , cerex Slavodski

2:17

. I think we had

2:20

a discussion off air about pronouncing that correctly and

2:22

I think I pretty much just butchered that

2:24

.

2:25

Did I get it right ?

2:25

That was good , well done . Okay , I'll

2:27

roll with that . So a bit

2:29

about Celeric here . Also

2:31

known as Hyperbits and we're going to dive into that a bit later

2:34

on but inspired by San Diego

2:36

made in New York City , hyperbits

2:39

is a feels connoisseur . I love that , whether

2:41

he's producing for industry giants like Beyonce

2:44

, nick Jonas and Tuvalo , or getting supported

2:46

by the world's biggest artists like

2:48

above and beyond the chain smokers and Griffin

2:50

. His infectious sun set

2:53

drenched melodic house has been streamed

2:55

55 plus million times Amazing

2:58

stuff . Hi Cerex , aka Hyperbits

3:00

, how are you ? And thank you for joining me today

3:02

.

3:03

I'm doing great man . Thanks so much for having me

3:05

. I think I've mentioned to you already

3:07

, but a little tire because it's a Sunday

3:09

morning for me over here . But I'm

3:12

ready to get into all things music production

3:14

and pumped to be here , man .

3:16

Ace man , I've been looking forward to this . I know we started

3:18

chatting a number of months ago and we booked

3:20

this , but it has soon

3:22

come around and this is the first

3:25

interview post my summer break

3:27

, so hopefully we can dust the

3:29

cobwebs . I know you said off air , it's been a while since

3:31

you've done an interview yourself , so we're

3:33

both in the same boat . But it's

3:35

going to be good . I'm really looking forward to this one and I think the audience

3:37

are going to get a lot of it as well . It's

3:40

going to be fantastic . So I think it

3:42

would be good if we just dive in to

3:44

what I read in your bio . So I'm just going

3:46

to read this question . I've got here so your bio sites that

3:48

your biggest accomplishment

3:51

, from my teeth back in , is founding one of the most

3:53

popular and well regarded music production

3:55

schools . It's amazing . I'll put a link to the website

3:58

. I know we're getting ahead of ourselves a bit here in

4:00

the episode description , but the audience

4:02

do go check this out . Obviously , listen to the

4:04

episode first . The music production

4:06

schools in the world teaching thousands of students

4:08

the art of music production in the process

4:11

. So I think a really nice question

4:13

here is what is your memory of your journey and

4:15

maybe like one or a couple

4:17

of the biggest struggles along the way

4:19

.

4:20

Yeah , absolutely so . First thing I'll say

4:22

is that I had literally all

4:24

of the struggles . You

4:27

know I never like . The main caveat

4:30

here is that I never had some sort of like an official

4:32

five year business plan or something

4:34

like . Creating a music production school was very

4:36

much a result of just , you

4:39

know , doing my thing and it just kind

4:41

of like formed into something very honestly

4:43

, very naturally . Like back when I was an artist

4:46

, I was living in New York City

4:48

and I got hooked up with like some

4:50

of the ANRs that worked at like Universal

4:53

and Sony , so I got a lot of remix

4:55

opportunities and I saw , like you know

4:57

, a decent amount of success

4:59

on the artist side of things . And

5:01

while I was doing that , I literally read like in

5:03

some book by Ramit

5:06

Sadie I believe he's like a personal finance guy

5:08

and he said something along the lines of like something

5:11

like you should always be be

5:13

collecting an email list and you can always figure

5:15

out how to monetize it later , and I honestly didn't

5:17

even know what that actually meant . But I

5:19

was like , okay , it seems like it's important

5:21

down the road , for some reason , to collect

5:24

email addresses , so I just started giving away

5:26

sample packs and freebies

5:28

and things like that . Some

5:30

of them went a little viral on Reddit and

5:33

yeah like , over maybe a few

5:35

years or so , I realized

5:37

that I had about 11 , 12,000

5:40

email addresses and I wasn't

5:42

really using them . I was just like maybe I'd shoot

5:44

an email out every like three to four months

5:46

or something . And yeah

5:49

like , while I was doing all of that , I had been giving

5:51

one-on-one lessons to basically pay

5:54

the bills right In Brooklyn . I lived in New York

5:56

City it's expensive rent , right

5:59

, and yeah , I was just kind of like

6:01

, alright , like I gotta supplement the bills

6:03

a little bit with because I was doing a lot of like engineering

6:05

work , a little bit of touring , a little bit of production

6:07

work . But one-on-one lessons were the most consistent

6:10

just like thing that I could rely on

6:12

. And , you know , you get to a point where you're like , damn

6:14

, my entire life now is all of a sudden

6:16

teaching one-on-one

6:18

. And I was kind of like you know what ? Let me just

6:20

see what happens if I send out

6:23

an email to this list and say that

6:25

I'm putting together a class

6:27

, right , just some sort of a course , and I was like I'm gonna charge

6:29

a thousand dollars for it , it's gonna be a four-week course

6:31

, I hadn't even actually built it yet

6:33

. It was just an outline of what I wanted

6:36

to cover . It's mostly the stuff that I had , you

6:39

know , kind of figured out in my career and

6:41

been repeating over and over in

6:43

these one-on-one sessions . And so I sent one

6:45

email and like boom , 12

6:48

, 13 people signed up

6:50

off of that first email and I was like holy

6:52

shit , like how many one-on-one

6:54

lessons would I needed to have given

6:56

to have made that much

6:58

right ? And so right

7:01

away I kind of knew that I had something special

7:03

and I knew that I had kind

7:05

of like a I guess like a , without

7:07

sounding braggy , I had a good

7:09

skill set there , both in music production and

7:11

in communication . I felt like I could really communicate

7:13

those ideas well . And you

7:16

know , the second time that I ran it , 15 people

7:18

signed up . Then I ran it a third time

7:20

and something like 50 plus

7:22

people signed up after I

7:24

had raised prices and I was like , okay

7:27

, this is going to be the thing

7:29

that I'm , I'm really doubling

7:31

down on and pursuing and eventually hired

7:33

a team and got a lot of help and developers

7:35

and all sorts of things . And yeah , like I

7:37

, you know I'm definitely passionate about entrepreneurship

7:40

, but I was very much an artist first , just

7:42

trying to like put the pieces together

7:44

and figure out fun , creative ways

7:46

to make a living , and so I feel really honestly

7:49

super lucky and super

7:51

blessed to have kind of stumbled upon

7:53

something that you know lights me up

7:55

, that I'm passionate about

7:57

and you know has

7:59

kind of gone on to really be like a

8:01

pretty big online school in the electronic

8:04

music production world . There's you

8:06

know , there's not that many other schools that are doing

8:08

kind of exactly what we're doing . So I'm really again

8:10

just sort of feeling , feeling

8:13

, feeling a lot of the gratitude for , for

8:15

what we've created and gratitude for my team

8:18

for , for helping and doing all the things that

8:20

we've kind of done over the past like six , seven years

8:22

.

9:35

That's amazing . I really love the part that , the

9:37

part there where you're like you sort of fall into it

9:39

, haven't you ? You didn't have that business plan . You kind of like

9:42

, as you say , you're doing all these different things in the music

9:44

industry , you're doing these , this live

9:46

sound , and you're a musician , you're an artist as well

9:48

, and you you're sort of teaching to

9:51

pay the bills as such , and then you've sort of fallen

9:53

into this , this world of of teaching

9:55

and having this online school and the

9:57

email list , what you mentioned there . Now

9:59

we once again we had a discussion off there about

10:01

sort of entrepreneurship and various

10:04

people Tim Ferriss , for example , and the

10:06

. I think I've come to realize

10:08

that in conversations like at the , the importance

10:10

of an email list is often overlooked

10:13

by some people and artists and musicians as well

10:15

. Everyone seems to be at

10:17

social media is huge . Obviously you've got that

10:19

reach in that audience , but actually having an email

10:21

list that you know cannot be Well

10:24

, I suppose it could be taken away from you , but , like

10:26

you're not at the mercy of TikTok

10:29

, instagram , which could just

10:31

shut down your account at any point , you've

10:34

got that mailing list , would you say then

10:36

this is a slight tangent here that having

10:38

a mailing list is just

10:40

as important for , like , an artist or a

10:42

producer and a musician as having social

10:44

media , and it's a bit different to like actually

10:47

running a business like you're doing here , but

10:49

would you say it's just as important .

10:51

Yeah , you know , it depends

10:53

on what your goals are as

10:56

a you know business

10:58

owner or music producer or artist , right

11:00

, each one of these

11:02

mediums holds very different purposes

11:05

in my mind , and I think something like you

11:07

know , social media is really

11:09

really good for engagement and

11:11

social proof , kind

11:13

of building a community , things like that . But

11:16

an email list is a really amazing

11:18

tool to basically have

11:21

an army of people kind of backing

11:23

you in a community . That's very like like conversational

11:26

and direct . So like when I the

11:28

first time I got support from above

11:30

and beyond for example , they played one of my tracks

11:33

on a group therapy radio and

11:35

then they have this thing where , like , you basically vote

11:37

on your favorite track from

11:40

the podcast . And I was able to send an email

11:42

to my list at the time

11:44

of I don't know 10 , 12,000 music

11:46

producers and be like hey guys , I'm going

11:48

to give away , like you

11:51

know , a free collection of kick drums that I made

11:53

and all I want you to

11:55

do is just go vote for my

11:57

track . And so they ended up playing it , I

12:00

think , three times on the podcast because I

12:02

had that like community of producers

12:04

to support it . And then they started playing it on

12:06

tour and it got , you know , there's like a this cool

12:08

video of them playing it in like Buenos Aires

12:10

in front of , like you know , 30,000

12:12

people or something , and I feel like that , that

12:15

type of engagement and sort

12:17

of like social support that it got , played

12:19

a big role in them liking it and supporting

12:22

it . So , yeah , I mean to

12:24

kind of get back to your question , though , like social media

12:26

, that is that is

12:28

sort of the holy grail this day and age

12:30

, I think , for for

12:33

success , and I think it also

12:35

boils down to to what it is

12:37

that you love , because for me , like

12:39

sitting down and writing an email

12:41

like long form where I can get my

12:43

thoughts out , that's just a medium that I

12:45

enjoy creating

12:48

, right . I enjoy kind of that long form

12:50

typing things out , long blog posts

12:52

, right , like long emails , things like that where

12:55

I can convey a story . I don't love

12:57

creating social content . It's

12:59

just not the thing that like lights me up

13:01

. If I do it once in a while , I can

13:03

get into it for for short bursts , but if

13:05

my life every day was just creating content

13:07

, it's just not the life

13:09

that I want to live and I think , at the end of the day , success really

13:12

is more boils down to just doing something

13:14

that you're excited about . So I

13:16

think that social media is

13:19

important and something that pretty much any artist

13:21

or business owner at least needs to engage in , but

13:24

it doesn't need to be the thing that drives your business

13:26

, because things like email and you

13:28

know there's there's tons of different mediums , right , and

13:30

I think that's all I mean . They can be way more

13:33

, if I mean they could be a lot

13:35

more impactful on your business

13:37

, specifically because you know and

13:39

like like you mentioned they , you own

13:41

your email address , right , or you own your email

13:43

list , rather , whereas , like social

13:46

media , like I grew , you know a big Facebook following

13:48

and like then Facebook's algorithm

13:51

changed and like nobody cared about Facebook

13:53

anymore and I couldn't even I couldn't even communicate

13:55

to those followers without paying for

13:58

it . And then the same thing sort of happened with SoundCloud

14:00

. I like built this big SoundCloud following and then

14:02

everybody moved away to Spotify , and

14:04

so you're kind of like following these . You

14:07

know the , the , the , the , like the stick or

14:09

the car I don't know what the expression is , but you're basically chasing

14:12

something over and over

14:14

, whereas the email address or

14:16

the sorry , the email list just keeps

14:18

kind of staying there , right it's

14:21

. It's something that isn't going to get taken away from me , and

14:23

anybody can unsubscribe if they want to , at any time

14:25

, of course , but it's something that I can just rely

14:27

on as a you know , a source for for

14:29

communication and and for for

14:32

for business .

14:32

Yeah , I think that's

14:34

a really good way of putting it and you're right in

14:37

that like , yeah , I think each sort of platform

14:39

has its own purpose and

14:41

you , like I say you do need to have that

14:44

social media presence , you know , and it's

14:46

it's how you use it . But I really I'm

14:48

with you with the idea of , like , leveraging the power

14:50

of a mailing list . I think it's

14:52

an incredibly powerful thing to do and

14:55

I really like what you said there about success

14:57

is being . It comes

14:59

with excitement , about being excited and

15:01

doing something . So it kind of segues

15:03

ish nicely on to like the next question

15:06

, which is about sort of music education

15:08

. I've asked this a few times on the podcast when I've had audio

15:10

engineers on and producers like yourself . So

15:13

, with regards to that success and excitement

15:15

and being excited about doing something , do you think

15:18

a formal education in sort of music

15:20

production or songwriting

15:22

is necessary for being a

15:25

successful music producer , or

15:28

is it a case of just being passionate

15:30

, being excited about it and

15:32

just getting out there and doing it ?

15:35

It's a really interesting question because , technically

15:38

speaking , right like nothing is inherently

15:41

necessary , right , it's not like

15:43

you know , like coding

15:46

boot camps exist , but they aren't necessary

15:49

for a developer right to learn a coding

15:51

language . Plenty of successful coders out

15:53

there who never took a boot camp or

15:55

never took a course Could

15:57

it have , you know , maybe

15:59

fast-tracked their progress or provided

16:02

some sort of a foundation for them ? Like , very

16:04

possibly . I mean , at the end of the day , somebody like Tiger

16:07

Woods , who is one of the

16:09

best golfers ever , if you know , if not

16:11

the best , he still has a swing coach , right

16:13

. So , having some sort of education

16:16

or some sort of like person

16:18

in your corner or you

16:20

know , like it can help , but

16:23

it's not , it's definitely not

16:25

necessary . And what I find interesting is that there

16:27

is this kind of almost like

16:29

I don't know what the word

16:31

is Like I feel like very much on YouTube and

16:33

Reddit , there is this like community

16:36

of people that very , are very turned off

16:38

by education . It's almost

16:40

like a stamp of honor or something

16:42

or a badge of honor to say like , oh , I'm

16:45

self-taught , and to me

16:47

that is basically

16:49

a little bit of like , it's

16:51

like an ego piece where , for

16:54

me personally , once

16:57

I put aside my ego and trying to be self-taught

17:00

. When I was coming up in music production , I actually

17:02

did sign up for a music production school . That

17:04

school is now no longer like

17:07

a thing , it was DubSpot in New

17:09

York City , you know , and I spent thousands and

17:11

thousands of dollars on this course and

17:13

it saved my kind

17:15

of like , I think career in music production

17:18

because it gave me this like framework to

17:20

initially just like no , okay , here's

17:22

exactly how to anchor

17:25

my kick drum at the right DB , to get the right

17:27

sounds right , to get the right gain structure

17:29

, to learn how to create a professional

17:31

sounding track and how to use references to

17:33

basically get my sound

17:35

to be as good as theirs

17:38

At least . Like I could play my song and I could

17:40

play my favorite artist song and it wouldn't sound

17:42

any different . That was priceless

17:45

. And then , once I had that skill set , so

17:47

many people came to me to

17:49

, you know , learn one-on-one

17:51

to engineer tracks for them

17:54

. It even led to like my connections

17:56

with some of the major

17:58

labels right Like once they started talking

18:00

to me and I met up with them and had like a drink with them

18:02

and they'd be like oh like we have this other artist

18:05

that , like , listen to this song , like what

18:07

would you do differently ? And I had the framework

18:09

and , like , the understanding now of how

18:11

to attack it and I can actually communicate it confidently

18:14

. And they were , you know , they were like , oh shit , this

18:16

guy kind of knows what he's talking about and that

18:19

really opened the door for me . So , sure

18:21

, like you know , formal education it's

18:23

definitely not necessary , but if

18:25

it's something you're passionate about and it's something

18:28

that you want to pursue , you

18:30

know , in your life and I'm a firm

18:33

believer that life is short and you

18:35

know it's really important

18:37

to me because I've had a soul-sucking job and

18:39

I've had those careers where , you

18:42

know , I didn't really want to wake up in the morning and there's nothing

18:45

more kind of sad or depressing

18:47

to me than to like not be passionate

18:49

. And I just feel like , if you love something

18:51

, why wouldn't you be open to

18:54

education and developing that love

18:56

for learning ? Because , like , at the end of the day , that's what

18:59

music production kind of is . It's this

19:01

endless opportunity

19:04

to find ways to grow and

19:06

to change your sound . And like , even

19:08

now , right , I've been doing this for I don't know , 12

19:10

, 13 years or something . I

19:12

still , every single time I work with somebody

19:15

, I'm amazed at how much I'm learning , you

19:17

know , and I think that that's such

19:19

a like positive attitude

19:21

to maintain because it keeps you kind of from

19:23

becoming like that jaded , bitter

19:26

dude who's just been doing something

19:28

forever and is just like stuck in their ways , right , like

19:30

nobody wants to be that . I want to maintain that

19:32

child-like wonder

19:35

and awe about the things that I love , and

19:37

I feel like education is a big piece

19:39

of that . So , again , it's not required

19:41

, but those are the

19:43

types of people that I catch

19:46

myself like surrounding myself with . You know

19:48

, somebody who loves education

19:50

and loves learning .

19:52

Yeah , I totally agree with you there and

19:54

I've followed a similar pathway to what

19:57

you mentioned there about how you kind of almost like

19:59

expedite the pros expedite or that

20:01

might be the wrong word no , I think that's right . I

20:03

think it might be expedite , I think it might be trying to be

20:05

fancy here , but yeah

20:08

, because I did something similar , because I'm a guitarist

20:10

and I was self-taught for a while and it's

20:12

kind of like you say . It's almost like some

20:14

individuals might think , like you've

20:17

got to be in the trenches , you've got to earn your stripes , like learning

20:19

yourself and do it yourself , but

20:21

like if somebody it's kind of like when

20:23

you think of studios as well , like

20:25

the studio intern and the studio runner jobs

20:28

, it's like people do that so they can learn , like

20:30

you've done there you mentioned about the kick drum and like

20:32

knowing how to correctly process and engage

20:34

, stage the kick drum . It's like rather than

20:36

sort of struggle around and muddle around

20:39

to try and do it . If there's someone else out there who can coach

20:41

you to do it the right way and quicker for

20:43

you to learn it , then why not do it ? And I did that with guitar

20:45

. Playing guitar , I went into a studio , realized

20:48

my guitar technique was shit and

20:50

it just . And then I had to go and have lessons

20:52

and it made me realize actually , having

20:55

had lessons now I've advanced so

20:57

much quicker and I wish I'd done it sooner . And

20:59

then I went and also I'd got

21:01

a master's degree in music , engineering and production as

21:03

well , which kind of set the foundation for everything

21:05

I know . Now the only thing I

21:07

would say off the back of that is , I think , having

21:10

a this could be another question actually

21:12

to add to this about a portfolio of work . So

21:14

if you are like a producer and

21:17

you wanna start working on other people's music

21:19

, I kind of always say to people it's

21:21

great to have that education , that academic

21:23

background , but I think having an actual

21:26

portfolio of work that you're developing at the same

21:28

time can be just as important

21:30

. What are your thoughts on that ? Yeah

21:32

, I mean .

21:33

I think , like neither

21:35

one with

21:37

like without both , it's

21:40

hard . Like confidence can only get you so

21:42

far right . Like , at the end of the day , you have to have some sort

21:44

of work that you've created

21:47

that can

21:49

kind of hold its weight and communicate

21:51

that confidence that you have . And

21:53

when I go back to thinking about when I was

21:55

living in New York and I got

21:57

connected with those guys from some

21:59

of the major labels , like a lot of it stemmed

22:01

from a few remixes

22:04

that I had done and

22:06

they heard it played like at a festival , that

22:08

is , they were literally like who made this

22:10

remix ? I wanna talk to this guy

22:12

and like that was enough to you

22:15

know , open up that conversation

22:17

. So I feel like , yeah , like the

22:19

education piece , this is kind of like the I'm

22:22

a big Reddit guy . I'm gonna keep referencing Reddit here

22:24

but like you know , there are people

22:26

like in entrepreneurship , right , who

22:30

have been thinking about doing an idea

22:32

for years and years and years , right , and

22:34

like they'll have these posts and they're asking for

22:36

validation , right , and they're like , okay

22:38

, I've been thinking about doing this for five years , here's

22:40

my plan , here's the things that I wanna do . It's like

22:42

if all you ever do

22:44

is study entrepreneurship

22:46

and don't just take action , then

22:50

you are really shooting yourself in the foot , because the

22:53

only way to apply that stuff

22:55

that you're learning is to actually go use it in the real

22:57

world . So you know a lot of I think a lot

22:59

of people this day and age kind

23:02

of shit on the idea

23:05

of , like , doing work for free

23:07

, you know . But I think when you're just

23:09

starting out and just learning a skill , like , there's

23:11

nothing wrong with going out there and being

23:13

like to a band that you like and being like , hey , you

23:16

know , I'm an upcoming music producer

23:18

who wants to get their foot in the door , or engineer

23:20

, and I want to work on your stuff

23:23

. You don't even have to pay me . I just wanna be able to use

23:25

this , as you know , an

23:27

example of work in the future , and

23:29

there's nothing wrong with that . I did that initially

23:32

. I know a lot of people that have done that . It's

23:35

very it's akin to like an internship , right

23:37

. It's like , yeah , you sometimes work for free

23:39

at the expense of like lack

23:41

of monetary compensation , so that

23:43

you can then showcase that work or

23:45

experience elsewhere , and I think there's absolutely

23:47

nothing you know nothing wrong with that , and

23:50

I think it's actually like a really good idea

23:52

to kind of get your foot in

23:55

the industry in the door and just have something to

23:57

showcase .

24:00

Yeah , I'm glad you said that and I totally agree

24:02

. I think having a portfolio and it

24:04

is really important and it's something

24:06

I wish I'd have done more of when I was

24:08

studying , because I was probably like

24:11

what you've said there . I think it was like paralysis by

24:13

analysis and that I was trying to read everything and trying

24:15

to understand everything . I need to know everything

24:17

about sound synthesis and sampling

24:19

, whereas I probably could have dedicated more time

24:21

to actually just thinking . You know what ? I

24:24

wanna go record this band . This is back when I was

24:26

doing recording and or maybe I just wanna

24:28

produce or wanna mix this particular bit of music

24:30

here . So it's

24:32

quite easy , like you say there , to get stuck in that trap

24:34

of just and it's much

24:37

like with entrepreneurship as well of like just trying

24:39

to absorb so much information but not actually

24:41

taking any action . And

24:43

once again , this kind of segues on nicely to the

24:45

next question . So you mentioned there about sort of possibly

24:48

doing free work to develop this portfolio

24:51

. So at the same time , so you're doing that

24:53

, you're in the trenches , you're doing that sort

24:55

of that work there to try and up skill

24:57

and find your place in whatever

24:59

niche you're in . How important is

25:02

it to have a unique sound or style

25:04

in sort of like today's

25:06

modern sort of music industry .

25:09

Yeah , that's a good question because , like

25:11

, similar to what we were just touching on , like something

25:13

like a unique sound , I don't

25:15

think is something that you sit down

25:17

and intentionally like study and try

25:20

to like create . It's actually

25:22

a natural result of

25:24

doing a lot of work . You

25:26

know , doing a huge volume of work

25:28

, like if you're an engineer , right Like

25:30

, even as an engineer , maybe you have a

25:32

specific sound or a style

25:35

, right Like certain producers are maybe known for

25:37

, like oh , they're really tight percussion

25:40

right , or this like super compressed

25:43

vocal sound or something right

25:45

that like communicates the things

25:47

that you love or the taste that

25:49

works for you . But you

25:51

only determine those things by

25:53

doing this crazy amount of work

25:55

, right Like every single project you work

25:57

on as a producer , as a songwriter

26:00

, artist , engineer they're all just opportunities

26:02

to like hone in what it is about

26:05

music that gets

26:07

you lit up and gets you excited

26:09

. So you

26:11

know , like , like for

26:13

me , I guess one story that I could tell

26:16

about sort of this kind

26:18

of side of things , like

26:20

Hyperbits is the name of the school that

26:23

I run , but it's also the name of the artist

26:25

project that I started and I've always kind

26:27

of been very into like melodic

26:29

house and progressive house and trance

26:31

, things like that , and

26:34

that was kind of the sound that I was really

26:36

into and I'd been doing that for years . And

26:38

as I was doing this , you know , I ended up

26:40

working with another production partner and

26:43

we started a project called the rooftop boys

26:45

and it was really kind of like

26:47

a little

26:49

bit of like a you know , a meld between

26:51

what it is that I was creating and some of the stuff that he

26:53

was passionate about . But we started

26:55

getting all these remixes done in the more

26:58

like pop house space

27:00

. And do

27:02

you remember Hype Machine back in the day

27:04

? It rings a bell .

27:06

It rings a bell .

27:07

It was an algorithmic like collection

27:10

of all the songs that were being uploaded

27:13

to blogs , kind of like on the internet

27:15

, and then people on HypeM would just there'd

27:17

be tons of users and they would literally heart

27:19

the music that they liked , and it would basically

27:21

create this like real time . You

27:25

know , like real time chart of what's

27:27

happening in the world in music and

27:30

you know , if you get up to the top of the charts on Hype Machine

27:32

, it was linked right to your sound cloud so you can get

27:34

like hundreds and hundreds of thousands of

27:36

streams , sometimes millions of streams , in a matter

27:39

of days by being

27:41

at the top of the charts . And so when I started this , this

27:44

duo , this rooftop , this rooftop boys

27:46

duo , we had a span

27:48

of like something crazy like six or seven

27:50

consecutive remixes get to number

27:52

one in the world on Hype

27:55

Machine . And it's

27:57

funny because , like you know , I didn't see any

27:59

sort of success like that with

28:01

hyperbits , which I had been doing for

28:04

years , whereas like rooftop

28:06

boys just kind of like started and it was just a . It

28:08

was just a result of of just

28:10

making all this music and

28:12

kind of honing in on something that was very

28:15

like specific . But I didn't intentionally

28:17

be like hey , I'm going to create pop

28:19

music or something . I was just like , oh

28:22

, like , I've been playing around with this bass , bass

28:24

sound that ended up being like the signature

28:26

sound to to

28:28

the rooftop boys , excuse

28:31

me . And yeah , I think

28:33

, like you know it

28:35

, like I said , it wasn't an intentional thing

28:37

. It was just something that naturally came out

28:39

of doing a lot of work , and

28:41

then whether or not it's successful isn't even

28:44

up to me . It's just something that , like , the

28:46

audience determines , right . And

28:49

yeah , I think , like you

28:52

know , people sit down to intentionally

28:54

create these unique styles . I

28:57

think there's something to be said about , like you know , really

28:59

honing in on what it is that you want to create and being

29:01

very intentional about it . But

29:03

, you know , if you're forcing your way

29:05

into the music , sometimes I feel

29:08

like the audience can hear that and it doesn't

29:10

come across as natural . You know

29:12

, like it should be something that , just like you

29:14

, innately wants to create

29:16

. And if you had

29:18

no rules no , no boundaries like what

29:20

would you ? What would you like

29:22

? What type of music would you would

29:25

you be creating ? Like it's very interesting to me , like

29:27

once you put labels out of the mix or the

29:29

potential to release out of it what

29:32

comes out of you . Naturally and sometimes

29:34

, yeah , maybe we go a little overboard or there's

29:37

just too much like chaos or

29:39

something . Right , you sometimes have to reign in

29:41

the stuff that you're creating , but I feel like every

29:43

producer should go through a period where they're just having

29:45

fun and just creating whatever

29:47

it is they want and assess

29:49

from there .

29:51

Yeah , it kind of echoes almost what you

29:53

said earlier about how you started hyperbits

29:56

, in that you kind of just fall into it . There wasn't

29:58

that sort of plan , much like you said

30:00

with the rooftop boys is you start

30:02

, started doing this music and then you sort of just

30:04

sort of fell into it . And I think that's

30:06

the best way to do because I think , with regards to

30:08

influences , you kind of are the sum of your parts

30:10

. And it's really interesting what you mentioned there about how

30:13

if you kind of I

30:15

don't know if the phrase translates , but if you

30:17

try and shoehorn your way into a genre

30:19

or niche and try and do something that's

30:22

not inherently you , then the

30:24

audience can hear that . And I have witnessed that myself

30:26

in that I have sort of

30:28

tried and dabbled in different genres

30:31

and when I've been creating that particular music

30:33

it's good to a standard . But

30:35

when I listen back to I'm like actually

30:37

it doesn't really represent what

30:39

my musical tastes are and what I like to

30:41

do , and now sort of hone

30:44

that in more given over time

30:46

. So I really like that idea and I think

30:48

it's quite easy maybe

30:51

to get preoccupied with

30:53

what the current popular sound is and

30:55

think actually I need to move in that direction

30:57

if I want to be successful , whereas , like

30:59

you mentioned now , I think it can sound a bit inauthentic

31:01

if it's not inherently you .

31:04

I mean , some people might be able to get away and do really well just being

31:07

able to create any sort of music in any genre

31:09

which hats off to them , but yeah , yeah

31:11

, and there's also , you know there is something to be said

31:13

about like borrowing trends

31:15

or borrowing things that are working for

31:17

other artists and like incorporating it into

31:20

your sound , and I think that's something that everybody

31:22

should , should try like in electronic

31:24

music , I think , as a result

31:26

of like Fred again and a bunch of other

31:28

artists , there's this like kind of stutter house

31:30

craze that's been

31:32

going on and like there's nothing wrong with

31:34

kind of taking that element

31:37

and throwing it into one of your songs and like

31:39

seeing how it changes your production

31:41

or , you know , taking a , taking a trend and

31:43

just like giving it its moment

31:45

in your music . It should still

31:48

sound like you if you're able to incorporate

31:50

it kind of correctly and just like have fun with it

31:52

in a way that lights you up . But

31:54

yeah , it's like I think at the end of the day , you want to try to

31:57

avoid , yeah , just changing

31:59

your entire sound every time

32:01

that the new sound comes about .

32:04

Yeah , Fred against Wildman . I've

32:06

watched some videos of him like triggering

32:09

beats and I'm

32:11

just like I'm not even . I'm not even going

32:13

to attempt this . It's not my fault , I'm a guitarist

32:15

man , I'm going to stick with that Maybe . I

32:17

should have more of a growth mindset , but I've just seen him

32:19

doing it . He was with Zane low and I was

32:22

just like that is insane what you

32:24

are doing right now .

32:25

Yeah , I actually

32:27

saw him live exactly about one year ago

32:29

that in San Diego there's a festival

32:32

called called crossed that

32:34

happens right around now

32:36

. It's actually happening this weekend , which I

32:38

don't have tickets yet , but I might go get one on

32:40

like offer up or Craigslist or something right after

32:43

this interview and go . But basically I saw it Fred

32:45

again last year and dude

32:48

, it was just like sometimes , you know , like

32:50

there's this feeling of like there's one artist

32:52

that's just doing something so original and so cool

32:55

and there's this collective energy in the crowd and

32:57

you're catching them right at that like kind

32:59

of peak , right when they're just blowing

33:01

up but haven't like fully blown up yet . That

33:03

was Fred again and man , like

33:05

the way that he just takes like all these samples

33:08

of like spoken word and just

33:10

it's some of the most emotional

33:12

music . I mean people are balling their

33:15

eyes out all around you and then you're partying

33:17

the next song and you're surrounded by friends , like

33:19

it was one of those really special moments that

33:21

kind of made me think

33:23

about the rewards of having such an original

33:26

, unique sound and just how cool

33:28

that is that he gets to share that with the world and

33:32

also just how lucky , you know , I am to be

33:34

a part of the music world . Like I really do

33:36

believe in , like the power of music and how

33:38

it can really help you through some of your darkest

33:40

moments , and how much of

33:42

a tool it is to like engage and connect

33:44

with your friends . Like I remember just feeling very

33:47

, very lucky , you

33:49

know , and very like in love with music

33:51

during that show .

33:53

Yeah , amazing . It sounds like one of those like I

33:55

was there moments , isn't it Like when you watch a particular

33:58

band you're like , yeah , I was there just

34:00

before I knew them , just before they got to that particular

34:02

stage . But I love what you said there about music

34:05

and it's totally right . I know , when I get together with my friends

34:07

but it's always a case of one of the first conversations is

34:09

like what is the soundtrack tonight's barbecue

34:11

going to be ? Like what vinyl we're going to stick

34:13

on with having a few beers before we go out ? You know it's

34:16

that's why music is amazing

34:18

. And totally what you said there , yeah , so

34:22

on the sort of just arcing back

34:24

a little bit there about like for the rooftop boys , for example

34:26

. So my next question would be sort of how do you measure

34:29

the success of a music release ? Is

34:31

it more about because this is quite important

34:33

actually , before I ask the next part , because I'm

34:35

part of a number of sort of chat groups

34:37

and you see conversations a

34:40

lot of the time centralize around metrics

34:42

and people getting hung

34:44

up on metrics and rather

34:47

than the music itself , which is kind of interesting is

34:49

it more important about the numbers of the audience's reaction

34:51

? Is it more important sorry about the numbers

34:54

or the audience's reaction and engagement

34:56

?

34:58

Yeah , I mean , there are so many different

35:00

ways to measure success

35:04

and and I think total streams

35:06

is probably the most like Vayne

35:09

metric of success . But it is a real

35:11

thing , right , it is something that , like you

35:13

know , if I hear a song that I like

35:16

, I'll go on Spotify and be like how

35:18

many streams does this have ? I want to gauge its

35:20

like general popularity , like , is

35:22

this an unknown , is this a someone

35:24

who's blowing up ? But I

35:27

think , if you kind of piggyback

35:30

your idea

35:32

of success to something as like

35:34

straightforward as total numbers of streams

35:36

, like it's a very

35:38

empty way , I think , to live

35:41

life as an artist and I think it's important

35:43

to maybe have some sort of a goal , like a realistic

35:45

goal , to work towards and to , you know

35:47

, have some sort of a marketing plan in place to

35:50

try to achieve that . Because if you just hope for

35:52

millions of streams , it's

35:54

not necessarily going to happen unless you hit some

35:56

, like you know , benchmarks before that maybe set

35:58

10,000 as the first goal , 50,000

36:00

as the second , 100,000 , you know , so on and

36:02

so forth , because you'll learn

36:05

about what it takes to get those types of

36:07

streams and and Spotify

36:09

, spotify's algorithm isn't going to

36:11

like Just deliver you millions

36:13

and millions of streams off of your first release . It

36:16

might start to do that if it

36:18

catches on the bandwagon , right , that your people

36:21

are favoriting your music , people are playlisting

36:23

it . You know , sometimes

36:25

it gets supported on radio shows and Spotify

36:27

is like algorithmic streams start going

36:30

up . But but yeah

36:32

, it's . It's to me it's more about like

36:34

looking at the whole thing as like a holistic

36:37

package and like you know something

36:39

, like our labels excited about

36:41

this , our Fans

36:43

messaging you . Is there Good

36:47

engagement on your social posts ? Like

36:49

what kind of live reaction does

36:51

it have ? Like I think that All

36:53

of these things , like as a whole can

36:55

can paint a much better picture of

36:57

like you know what

37:00

kind of metrics or what kind of numbers we're looking

37:02

for it . Because , because , at the end of the day , like the thing

37:04

that excites me most about music

37:06

production is , literally before any

37:08

of the release , stuff Like that is cool

37:10

and it's really validating to hear

37:13

your music played and to have people connect with it . Like

37:15

I'm not saying that that isn't , but to me

37:17

, the coolest moment is , like you

37:19

know the happy accidents , right , when you're

37:21

like you're just like , oh , what did

37:23

I just do ? Like that was a mistake

37:25

and it was so cool , right . Or or

37:28

just sitting , you know , in

37:31

your own studio and listening to something and

37:33

like being like you know what , like I am

37:35

really proud of this and this is something that I just Created

37:37

out of thin air . Or the best is collaboration , right , when

37:40

you're , when you're with another producer and

37:42

you just you're like you know what . You

37:45

have a moment , almost like in basketball , you set like a flawless

37:47

pick and roll with a stranger and you have this like

37:49

Moment where you're like your home

37:51

ease and you know each other . You don't know each other , but

37:54

now you know each other with like with collaborators

37:56

and music . Sometimes I look over at somebody . I'll

37:58

just be like how the fuck did you

38:00

just do that man ? Like that was so cool and you have this connection . That's

38:05

what I live for and , honestly , the , the

38:07

metrics and stuff outside of that , it's

38:11

it's important , but it's it just

38:14

doesn't . It's not what lights me up and I envisioned

38:16

like a really empty life if all I cared about was Total

38:19

streams . You know , it just seems really sad , honestly

38:21

.

38:23

Yeah , yeah , I really like what you said

38:25

, that not not the fighter part of the song , not the fighter part , because that

38:27

would be sad , but the bit before . But a

38:29

bit before about the Sort

38:32

of like the lead up to the release , which , which

38:34

is great , and I find that myself , I

38:36

find the most enjoyable part is probably

38:39

before I've actually released the music . And

38:41

there are two aspects I've come to realize that I

38:43

really like , and that's I'm working on an EP

38:45

at the moment and the audience listening will know this because I've been

38:47

referencing it like crazy on the on

38:49

the podcast . I use it in the tutorials and stuff and Is

38:53

when I like I've got three songs in the bag

38:55

and then I don't listen to them and I come back to them two or

38:57

three weeks later and I listen to it . I'm like shit

38:59

, these are actually like quite . I really like

39:02

these , these tunes , and for me that's

39:04

like it might be a bit so like self gratifying

39:06

, but I really like that . And the other

39:08

one for me is because I

39:10

always outsource the vocals . Don't

39:13

sing wish I could but when

39:15

I have like an instrumental and then I

39:17

have a vocalist Put vocal down on it and return it and

39:19

then listen into it and have that song come to life . That's

39:21

one of the most like . That

39:23

part of the musical process for me is one of the best parts

39:25

. It's like when I have a vocal part on a track and

39:28

I'm like , yeah .

39:29

It's cuz you're like , you're sort of able to

39:31

Finally listen to your music . And

39:33

as a commercial listener , you know , like

39:35

, when you're in the midst of creating everything

39:37

and you're focused on , like you know , this

39:39

little automation here , the the

39:42

bass relationship to the kick or whatever

39:44

it is that you're working on , like you are listening

39:47

as like a Scientist you're looking at it

39:49

and being like , okay , I got to

39:51

make sure that this is all working , that it sounds

39:53

good , right , and you're too far in it . You're listening

39:55

to it closer than any audience

39:57

, like potential fan , would

39:59

ever listen to it , right . And then when you take

40:01

that break a couple weeks Sometimes , if you

40:04

can take like even longer off like that

40:06

is the most rewarding listen , because you're

40:08

like , oh , like I'm not Super

40:11

, like you know , locked

40:13

up on all the little decisions that I was making

40:16

I can just sort of like enjoy it , and even then

40:18

you're still remembering some things that

40:20

you did and didn't do . So it's like you'll never get

40:22

that fully commercial listen

40:24

from someone who just hears a song for the

40:26

first time . But uh , I'm

40:29

with you , man . I love taking like good long

40:31

breaks and

40:33

coming back to it with fresh years . That's like one of my favorite

40:36

yeah , favorite kind of points of

40:38

the process with music .

40:40

Yeah it . I was having a conversation just before

40:42

this with with another producer and I said exactly

40:45

that about how I'm now as part of my workflow . I

40:47

never used to do it . I never used to leave such time in between

40:49

. It would be like I'd

40:51

finish the mix master and then it would release . But

40:54

now I'm leaving that gap in between and it does make a difference

40:56

and it also it's

40:59

much like what you said there about how being the scientist

41:01

and you can like . It goes back to what I said earlier about like Paralysis paralysis

41:03

by analysis and like binge editing . I've

41:07

forgotten about all those little tweaks , automation

41:09

tweaks I wanted to do on the vocal or on the kick or on the snare or that reverb

41:12

send . I wanted to actually automate

41:14

that , that there on that particular vocal phrase . I've forgotten

41:16

all about that and now I can listen to it as I

41:21

would want to listen to it , and I think that's it's a fantastic bit of advice , I

41:25

think , for the audience listening and it's it's only

41:28

something I really , really thought about today and kind of it's great that it's also Echoed

41:30

by two people that I've spoken to today , which is amazing

41:32

. So , on the on the topic of advice , it

41:34

sort of leads on to the final question here Is

41:37

there a piece of advice you received in your career

41:39

that has stuck with you , and

41:44

can you share it with our audience ?

41:46

Yeah , I've got . I've got at least

41:48

three that I like to kind of come back to and share . The

41:50

first one is not something that anyone necessarily told me . It's

41:54

something that I've noticed and witnessed amongst

41:57

the People

42:00

that I've worked with that I respect the most

42:03

, and it's just that writers block is a myth . It is not something

42:08

that is even real . Like , like professionals in this industry

42:10

that you

42:12

know have been in this a while , do not have the

42:15

luxury to wait around for inspiration and they

42:17

actually just rely on a very like particular set of tools and strategies

42:23

and workflows and things to to overcome the problems that they face . And

42:27

I think that there's this

42:29

sort of misconception that artists , you

42:31

know , and this , this is a result probably

42:34

of just like , how we consume music for years and

42:36

years , artists would like disappear for you

42:38

know 12 months or 24 months or something , and come out with

42:40

an album and you just be like holy , like

42:45

how did they just come out with this ? Right , it's like

42:47

you thought that they would just like go find

42:49

inspiration and come back and it's like no , like they actually woke

42:55

up every single day and

42:57

kept honing in on what it

42:59

is that they want to create and they did it

43:01

day in and day out for

43:03

years , right , and what you're

43:05

hearing is a result of that like of showing

43:08

up to do the work , and so , yeah

43:11

, it's like if you kind of sit down and you're not

43:13

inspired , like that's okay , just

43:15

get started anyway . Just

43:18

go through it and like know that

43:20

there is a bunch of strategies that you can rely

43:22

on to help get that inspiration . I mean

43:24

, there's a lot of also just incredible tools out

43:26

there this day and age to kind

43:28

of like create ideas very fast . But

43:32

even just the music that

43:34

you listen to and love , that is

43:36

inspiration in and of itself . And

43:38

it's very hard for me to just like stop

43:40

working , like literally press stop and

43:42

go reference like an artist that I love

43:44

, like it's just it's hard piece of the workflow

43:47

, but every time I do that I'm like , oh , I

43:49

got plenty of ideas now you know . So

43:53

that's one , and the second

43:55

thing that I'll say is that quantity actually

43:57

creates quality . Again

44:00

, I think that like there's this idea that

44:03

you know you can

44:06

spend like an entire year

44:08

on like one song or something and that'll

44:10

make that song that much better , and

44:12

it's actually kind of quite the opposite , like

44:14

the like

44:16

showing up and creating

44:18

a song every day , or maybe a song every week

44:21

or something gets

44:23

you into like the rhythm of flexing

44:25

that creative muscle and like solving

44:27

the problems that keep coming up . If

44:29

you're weak on the sound design portion or

44:32

the sound or the songwriting portion of

44:34

creation , like you will start to have

44:36

to address that by creating a volume

44:38

of work , and for any

44:41

. This isn't a video that I created , but anybody

44:43

that's listening to this . I would Google . Volume

44:47

of work by Ira Glass . It's

44:49

just a great like two minute little video

44:51

about kind of the

44:53

thing that every

44:56

successful person knows but

44:58

never says , and it's just all

45:01

about how he's like . He's kind of like I

45:03

wish somebody would have told me this , but it's

45:05

like there's going to be a gap between

45:07

you know

45:09

what you're hearing in your head and what your music actually

45:11

sounds like for a little while . And the

45:14

only way to close that gap , to

45:16

sound like your favorite artist

45:18

or sound sonically as professional , is

45:20

to do a shitload of work , to do a ton of

45:22

work , and over

45:24

time you're going to start to close that

45:27

gap , but I'm probably butchering

45:29

it , so I would just watch that video and

45:31

then the last thing that I'll say here is

45:35

something that was a direct kind

45:37

of interaction that I've had . So

45:39

the producer of Passion Pit

45:41

actually happened to be a friend

45:44

of a coworker of mine back when I had a

45:46

corporate job in New York City and

45:48

he took a little bit of time to just like

45:50

review some of my music , give me some

45:53

feedback , which was like at the time I was like , holy

45:55

shit , like the producer of one of my favorite

45:57

bands this is like 2010

45:59

or something right , when Passion Pit had blown up , took

46:04

a moment and , just like you know , listen to my

46:06

music . Cause my question was like dude

46:08

, I've been doing this for like a bunch of years . What

46:11

am I missing ? Like I feel like there's just something that

46:13

I'm not getting cause , when I listen to like other

46:15

people's music , like there's something like it

46:18

doesn't sound as exciting , it's a little bit flat

46:20

, it's kind of dull , and I thought that I was

46:22

just missing this one thing . And

46:25

there is no single

46:27

answer is basically what he said

46:29

. And he's just like dude , I've been making this

46:31

is what he said . He was like I've been making music for 10

46:34

years now and I'm just

46:36

started to get half decent at it . He's basically

46:38

like there isn't one answer

46:40

. There's hundreds of answers , maybe thousands

46:43

of tiny little answers that if you start

46:45

to kind of take all of these things , they

46:48

add up into something special . And

46:51

kind of like I think that our brain

46:53

, the human brain , is very silly

46:55

and that it likes to oversimplify

46:57

, right Most problems

47:00

and like it's like , oh , like there must be one thing

47:02

that I'm doing wrong . It's like , no , actually , like

47:04

there's probably hundreds

47:06

of tiny little things , and like that's what music

47:08

production is to me , it's this attempt

47:10

to gather all of these little

47:12

, tiny moves so that when you're

47:14

presented with these little problems , you

47:17

have more strategies and techniques

47:20

in your toolkit to rely on

47:22

and that's all it is right

47:24

. It's kind of just like lots of little

47:26

moves they slowly add up into

47:28

something special .

47:31

Some fantastic advice and it's what

47:33

you're saying there , the way you describe it , it's quite

47:35

like a computer science sort of background

47:37

, it's like abstraction , where you're removing

47:39

the unnecessary information , then you're also you're

47:41

breaking it down into these smaller , more manageable chunks

47:44

and then sort of bringing it back together

47:46

in this sort of compound effect

47:48

. And I also really like what you said about

47:50

the flexing the creative muscle , and it

47:52

echoes a conversation I had , approximately

47:54

this time last year actually , with a band called the Safety

47:56

Worth and about how showing

47:59

up every day and not waiting for inspiration

48:01

to strike , but rather than just sit

48:03

in front of your DAW , your keyboard

48:05

, your guitar , whatever it may be , and just

48:07

start to

48:09

play something . Or , like you said , there are many tools

48:11

, like Scala , for example , that will generate

48:14

a core progression for you , rather than waiting

48:16

for inspiration to strike . And it's something that I

48:18

started at the beginning of this year because

48:21

unfortunately , I fell into that category a lot of the time where

48:23

I'd be like , oh , I'm not inspired , but I

48:25

think that was just me being lazy and procrastinating

48:27

and trying to do other things . But

48:29

yeah , all of that is fantastic advice , specifically

48:32

like the creative muscle and also the

48:34

I was gonna say the flexing , the creative

48:36

muscle , and the quantity

48:39

equals quality . If I got that around the right way , which

48:41

I really like as well , and how I just put

48:43

in the timing and closing that

48:46

gap so many really

48:48

good nuggets of information there for our audience

48:50

to take away . Yeah , the last thing .

48:50

I'll say is just like what

48:53

you mentioned about all these tools

48:56

out there like Scala

48:58

, too , is a great , great plug-in to maybe generate

49:00

a core progression or melody from you . I

49:03

think it's actually really cool to

49:05

see what's on the other side of only

49:07

relying on yourself , because

49:10

if you sit down every single time and have

49:12

to generate ideas strictly

49:14

from yourself , from your own head , the

49:17

only thing that you can create is based on

49:19

your learnings , your environment

49:21

, your experiences as a human right . That's

49:23

all you have to access , and that might be

49:25

a lot , and you can also learn more

49:28

and always add to that . But

49:30

if you're now accessing , like , all

49:32

these algorithms or tools

49:35

that can create ideas for you , you've

49:37

just exponentially created

49:39

a better producer than who

49:42

you were a second ago . And I feel

49:44

like you're still relying on

49:46

your taste right To determine

49:49

what's dope and what's not . And I think , like when

49:51

I'm given ideas , maybe by an AI

49:53

or by samples or something like that , I

49:55

still get to tweak them , manipulate them

49:57

, make them my own . But

50:00

I get really excited when I stop

50:02

relying solely on myself to

50:04

create because , like it's just

50:07

to me , it's like you're collaborating with like

50:09

such powerful tools and

50:12

there's , you know there can be sometimes like a little bit

50:14

of a negative connotation to doing

50:16

these types of things , but it's fair game , it's part

50:18

of the game and for anyone who thinks

50:21

it isn't , I suggest they read the

50:24

book . Steel Like an Artist . It's

50:29

a really I'm blanking on

50:31

the writer right now , but it's

50:34

one of my favorite books and it's very visual and it

50:36

basically talks about how , like , everything in life

50:38

is a remix and every idea is borrowed

50:40

. So one of my favorite

50:42

books .

50:44

Yeah , yeah , yeah , I've heard of that book and

50:46

I do . I need to . I think I'm fairly certain

50:48

it's on my Amazon wish

50:50

list . Christmas is approaching

50:53

, so my girlfriend doesn't listen to the podcast

50:55

, but if she did there was a nod to that , though Maybe

51:00

I'll make her listen to this one in the car

51:02

, who knows ? But , Sariq , this is fantastic

51:04

advice . Absolutely love it . It's brilliant stuff

51:07

. So I think we'll just sort of end it here by . Where

51:09

can our audience find you

51:11

online , and have you got any like key dates

51:13

or any releases ?

51:15

Or anything coming up . Honestly

51:18

, we're always releasing cool

51:20

stuff , always working on new projects . So

51:22

I think the best way to kind

51:24

of connect with us is actually to just go to hyperbitscom

51:26

. That's our website

51:29

. If you go there , there's a free

51:31

tab and there's just so

51:33

many resources that we've created . So workshops

51:35

, sample packs , pdfs

51:37

, past podcasts , youtube

51:40

videos just tons and tons of free

51:42

content that we've really put a lot

51:44

of like blood , sweat and tears into making our free stuff

51:46

just really really dope . And I

51:49

would just go there and grab stuff that you

51:51

think might be helpful and

51:54

from there you could opt into the email list and

51:56

keep connected there . But if not

51:58

, you could also just go grab a bunch of free stuff , and I

52:00

think that's a great way to start .

52:02

Fantastic , excellent stuff . I will put links

52:05

to everything that we've mentioned today in the

52:07

episode notes so the audience can go away and

52:09

do that . Who doesn't like a freebie ? I know

52:11

I do all the time . I'm fairly confident

52:13

the audience listening at the beginning of this episode . You've probably

52:15

been introduced to some sort of freebie that

52:19

I'm handing out there . So now , fantastic

52:21

stuff there . It's been brilliant and

52:23

thank you for getting up so early as well and

52:25

joining me on this today , on a Sunday of the

52:27

day .

52:28

I sound like such a baby getting out . It's not even that

52:30

early , but you know .

52:33

Excellent stuff . Cheers buddy . I

52:35

will speak to you soon , all right , thanks for having me , mark

52:37

.