(by CSP)
I remember becoming quite interested in electronic music and hip hop music after completing my first year of music college. Through my years of studying bass I felt like I understood fairly well how instruments could be used to create various live spectacles. I found electronic / hip hop music to be so mysterious because I couldn’t conceptualize how it was made.
I got a keyboard that Summer that I set up next to my bed, so I could wake up and play it every morning. I loved coming up with ideas and imagining how they’d sound if I could loop them. I never managed to take those ideas further than my bedroom. I lacked a lot of self confidence and I didn’t have as much of a can do attitude as I do now.
I convinced myself that this was for the best. At this point in time I had already devoted 7 years to learning bass and almost 4 to learning jazz. I thought it was too late to start a new skill without sabotaging my chances of having a successful music career. I wouldn’t entertain the idea of studying production for another 6 years.
In 2018, these two guys moved into the downstairs apartment of the building where I was living in the east end of Toronto. They were both music producers professionally. We were mutually excited that they moved in because as a musician it’s really difficult to find neighbors who are tolerant of noise. Having another musician as a neighbor really makes your living experience less stressful because you know they aren’t going to be overly upset about the noise.
I asked them how they learned production and they told me, “Youtube.”
I remember feeling like that was a bit of a loaded answer and like they were holding back on me.
Through this time period I had gotten more deeply into hip hop music than I had in my entire life thanks to my girlfriend, Azania. She introduced me to a lot of music I had been sleeping on during my years as a professional jazz snob. On one particular night, she showed me the first Tyler, the Creator mixtape, Bastard.
I found myself enamored with this collection of recordings because it felt like it was breaking all the rules. Beautiful piano pieces would be contrasted with obnoxious and annoying saw wave synths. Tyler’s wordplay, though admittedly untasteful at times, is so unhinged and colorful. I lost my mind during this one song where the snare is being placed so ahead of the beat that it’s ridiculous. I was blown away that one guy had created the majority of the sounds heard on the project. I loved his ability to make music choices that sounded “wrong” but it was the way he would execute the choices that made it so you could tell he knew what he was doing.
On a winter day in 2019, I was listening to this mixtape while shopping at our local grocery store and I spotted one of my producer neighbors. We were chatting it up and I asked if they could recommend a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) that I could use to start learning production. He recommended Logic Pro and helped me set up a pirated copy on my computer.
I messed around with Logic here and there, however at this point in time I was still convinced that I would always be a jazz bass player.
Later that same year, I was living with my Aunt in Guelph. I was watching TV one night and saw that there was a documentary series streaming called “Shangri-La”. It was about Rick Rubin, who I hadn’t thought about in years even though I had been a fan of his work as early as 2007 when I was listening to Linkin Park, Metallica, System of a Down, Weezer and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I thought it’d be interesting to see what work he was doing now more than 10 years later.
The movie ended up having an incredibly profound effect on me. The film is about Rick’s studio, Shangri-La, his life and how he works with different artists. The perspectives he shared on making art and overcoming common artistic struggles really resonated with me.
In one scene, he’s talking to Tyler, the Creator about the Beastie Boys. He explains that when he joined the Beastie Boys that they were a punk rock band. Despite being a punk band, Rick recalls that he and the rest of the group would only discuss hip hop music. One day he asked the band why they were still playing punk when clearly all they liked to listen to was hip hop? It became clear that the band was making punk out of habit and it was after they switched to working on the genre of music they really loved that they found their success.
It made me realize almost immediately that I had been playing bass and studying jazz because that’s how I had been learning music for so long. I loved listening to hip hop and I always had that deep fascination with how it was created.
That Summer I started making tracks on Logic every week. I didn’t have a midi keyboard so I had to tap everything I played using my computer keyboard. I taught myself everything I could through experimentation and YouTube tutorials. It was really rough around the edges but I was happier making music than I had been in years.
It was this practice that led to the creation of my debut single, “The Being,” in 2021, which led to Jinxz and I collaborating and starting Heavy Herb in 2022. After studying this art form for a couple of years I feel a lot more confident in my abilities to create with it and I’m constantly excited to see what I come up with next.
