My style of production is electronic, largely reliant on sampling and patching. I am fond of a variety of genres, and I blend elements of electroclash, hyperpop, grime, and cloud rap in my music. I am an artist-producer and multi-instrumentalist (although I don’t produce with many acoustic instruments, engaging with them has thoroughly shaped my musical sensibilities).
An artist-producer drifts between two commitments which, in my experience, can cause confusion while creating a piece of music:
i) A commitment to vocal performance.
ii) A commitment to instrumental performance.
These are difficult to juggle because I cannot decide if my primary responsibility is to perform or to support. It becomes even more confusing if one considers the production itself a performative aspect.
Thus, I experiment with the relationship between these two; my vocals often become instruments to my production instead of the other way around. Sometimes, this feels like a disservice to myself – after all, I have a voice which is arguably more capable and intuitive than a MIDI region.
It is this conflict that necessitates a tightrope; a line of balance between these two commitments is essential to walk on.
In many ways, being an artist-producer is very fulfilling. It gives me the ability to create my own “moments” of synchronisation between the two elements, and gives me a lot of control over what a “song” is meant to be.
On the other hand, producing for other artists is a wholly different experience that is equally fulfilling; I do believe I am inherently collaborative and having executively produced another artist’s album over the past three months has taught me how to employ subtractive production and how to try everything, at least once.
Over the first year, I look forward to developing my artistic identity through the exploration of existing works. I also thoroughly look forward to gaining mixing & mastering knowledge, areas I have never fully understood the principles of. By the end of the first year, I want to be more insular in my releases, that is to say, have informed control over all aspects (production, performance, engineering, artwork, promotion).
Further, I am interested in exploring the place of a musician in the contemporary world. I am looking forward to being able to exact my experiences with music in terms I can explain. This is something I’ve never been able to do, largely because I have never studied music academically, and all I know I have learnt from trial and error. Music production has taught me how to learn, and I am looking forward to (formally) learning about something I identify with.
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