Monday Commute (018) - Jvstintyme

Jvstintyme on the pod this week. Another one of Long Beach's own, Justin has maintained a low key existence, making production a priority, and peace of mind the goal. With a recent release on Front Left records, Justin has proven his time away from the scene has polished his productions for any dance floor.

Enjoy!

Jvstintyme links:
https://www.instagram.com/jvstintyme?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

https://open.spotify.com/artist/1eYUhzBc9IP2rYZM0E5oMq?si=SR3UF_xlRp6Lon0pgpN39Q

https://on.soundcloud.com/3dMx0IMzUatdeZUexo

Ian Myers links:
https://www.instagram.com/ianmyers_official/?hl=en

Monday Commute on IG:
https://www.instagram.com/mondaycommutepodcast/?igsh=MWpqczVmcjM4MHdvaw%3D%3D&utm_source=qr

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Justin. Thank you for pulling up. Welcome to the show. Appreciate it. Uh yeah, thanks for coming on. Yeah. Um first podcast guy? Yeah, first podcast.

SPEAKER_01 0:13

Long time listener of podcasts.

SPEAKER_00 0:16

Yeah. What uh like music podcasts or just podcast podcasts?

SPEAKER_01 0:22

A lot of conspiracy podcasts. Yeah. I drive a lot for work, so it's like I work in like North Hollywood, so every day I'm it's like an hour and a half each way, so I'm just bumping conspiracies. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:34

I used to be like not like deep into Joe Rogan, but like I would always watch like the I don't know, the science ones and kind of just like the interesting random guess, you know. Yeah, for sure, like uh ancient civilization. Yeah, like those ones.

SPEAKER_01 0:51

That's my kind of shit.

SPEAKER_00 0:52

Yeah. Yeah, because he would always have like MMA people on and they would just I don't want to listen. Yeah, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 0:58

I can't I can't listen to three hours of fucking.

SPEAKER_00 1:00

I can only take so many comedians, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:04

Yeah, facts.

SPEAKER_00 1:06

Yeah. Um, but yeah, it's a beautiful day in Long Beach. Can't beat it. Um how uh how has music production been for you lately?

SPEAKER_01 1:18

Honestly, it's been kind of slow. I've been like really busy with work and that's kind of how it goes with me. It's I go through the ups and downs of just being like overly obsessed and have like some extra time and all that time spent in the studio. Yeah. But like recently I've been trying to get a little more active, so I joined like a baseball league, and it's kind of just like yeah, healthy balance. I'm still producing as you know, like probably once or twice a week. I'm always trying to make like a loop or something, but yeah, not nearly as locked in as I was, I would say, for the first part of this year, like January, February. I was just every day grinding, and then like the past two months, it's been a little bit of a different focus, but in a good way, you know, just trying to I stall out sometimes with creativity, you know, and we're overworking yourself in the studio, I feel like, is a bad thing because then you can kind of lose what you're trying to be inspired by a little bit and kind of be repetitive, and then you're just like I I deal with it all the time, like the imposter syndrome, or like figuring out, oh, is this sound like just sound like another artist, or is this something that's gonna make people dance? You know, and it's like a lot of the times it just sounds like another artist, so I just move on, you know.

SPEAKER_00 2:33

Yeah, yeah, I totally get that. Because when you just lock yourself in the studio and you just are sitting in the same like environment every day, I feel like you have well you'll have inspiration for a certain amount of time and then it just starts to drop off, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:49

Like straight off a cliff. I actually moved my monitors out here um just to try to kind of revive a little bit of creativity because like you said, if you're just I think being in the same same environment, you just go right back to the same habits. Yeah, I I I find myself literally creating the same groove. Like if a lot of if I'm working like non-stop and then I just hop into the studio as like an outlet instead of like with a purpose, then it's just like constantly bad habits get replicated.

SPEAKER_00 3:21

Yeah. Yeah, because the sometimes I'll I usually work off of uh I have like a studio setup, but sometimes I'll just like sit in my backyard on my laptop and just like no MIDI keyboard. It just kind of confines what you have to work with.

SPEAKER_01 3:40

Yeah, for sure. I'll I'll post up on the couch sometimes and then just create like some drums, yeah, and then it sounds a lot different too, because you're mixing off the you know, laptop, and then you're not like I in my mixes I noticed I have a tendency of just going way too loud on my low end, you know, and then it's like it's hard to do that when you're mixing on your laptop speakers, but then it's it's something I focus on when I'm sitting on the couch because I know that I'm gonna try to blast that bass up and that kick up because I'm trying to hear it on my laptop speakers, but I force myself to like turn it down, turn it down and then trust the mix. So it's kind of like a test, you know.

SPEAKER_00 4:23

Yeah, I do a lot of stuff like not visually, like I I still use my ears, obviously, but I'll get it in the ballpark and then use my ears to like turn it up or down.

SPEAKER_01 4:35

Yeah, yeah. That's I I kind of just mix as I go a lot of the times, and then it's like I never had like formal training or anything like that. It's kind of just so much trial and f and and trial and error that I just trial and error that you just kind of figure out where your ear likes to hear things, and then it's nice to like show music to friends or whatever, because then you get their perspective on it and you're like, oh, you're right, then you hear it, you know. Because it's the same thing, your ear gets trained to bad habits as well. I feel like, you know. And that's it's important to show people your music that aren't gonna give you like unnecessary feedback, but like the right feedback, you know.

SPEAKER_00 5:22

Yeah, I think showing people music that aren't producers is important too. For sure. Because I think one producers are just more overcritical. And depending on, like, obviously you have friends that like they'll give you it like straight, you know. Yeah, but the average listener is just listening to it, they're not listening for the same things that we are.

SPEAKER_01 5:45

Yeah, no, for sure. Like, uh I'll know if I put on a song with like my mom in the car and I just I don't tell her it's mine or anything, and I just see her like bobbing her head, I'm like, all right, the groove's there. Yeah, you know, if I'm looking for technical feedback, I'll go to like some producers I respect, you know, and I'll just be like, yo, is it there? But that's the biggest test is if you can get the dance floor moving, right? Exactly. And people like it's such a common theme as producers, you make content for other producers, you know, and you just that's like that horrible loop so many people get caught in. Yeah, myself included. It's like you get inspired by some parties or some people doing things, and then you catch yourself like trying to get their attention or some like you know, a lot of times it's like validation in that scene instead of like actually just being a creative, you know.

SPEAKER_00 6:36

Yeah, for sure. And uh I think I I forget who said this, but they'll put it'll just be like whatever a SoundCloud playlist, and they'll just throw in I don't know, like two or three of their tracks, and they just let it play like in context with all the other songs that are playing.

SPEAKER_01 6:59

That's smart, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:00

Yeah, that's I think not telling people that it's your music, yeah, is like what you should be doing. Yeah, because then when they hit you with the yo, what is this? You're like, yeah, let's go. Yeah, no, I love doing that.

SPEAKER_01 7:13

Like I don't DJ much anymore, but what I'll always go over to like my homies' houses and like just spin, and I'm just you know, I'm checking the room and seeing who's dancing because I'm I'm testing out all these horrible ideas I've made, you know, and some of them are really good, some are really bad, you know. And it's important to as a creative to know why you're doing it, it's to make people move, you know. It's it's so lost, and especially in like LA, why people are doing it, you know. For sure. I I uh being from LA, it's like you had I had when I got into music, like this insane network of people that I had access to that because I got in during COVID. So it was like everything was shut down. You meet people that necessarily like I grew up raving, going to raves like 2016, 17, 18, 19, and then COVID hit, and you're like, damn, these are the guys that like were behind the scenes at these events, you know, and uh you get lost in the sauce because you can create like a a fake sense of where you are in that industry based off your peers, and especially if you just have like people around you kind of not guiding you, but leeching off like energy that you you're giving to the scene, you know? Yeah, and I see a lot of people kind of get lost in that. And I I did myself, you know. It's it's a hard, it's a hard game to keep up the score, you know. It's like you have to always be out, you have to always not just be out, but be on point, especially if you're like a DJ and a producer trying to like network in LA. It's like you can't be acting a fool. And yeah, that's kind of that's probably where I went a little wrong in the early days, you know. It happens though, you know, you learn for sure. That's what it's about, you know. It's like it's one thing about music is like it's never not been a learning experience. You know, I don't think it ever will be. Yeah, just like uh oh, I got this.

SPEAKER_00 9:17

Never every every time you think that, then the universe just comes and fucking humbles you, yeah. You're like, damn, I don't know anything.

SPEAKER_01 9:24

Yeah, like I saw, I forgot, I think it was M High. It was like I was like, wow, this is fucking next level. He took a bunch of records. I don't know if you've seen this video, but he like broke. I saw that, and then he like sampled it and made just this crazy 90s house banger, which is like I did see that. I'm like, that's the kind of shit that keeps me going, is that level of just like digging deeper and deeper and deeper? And Ableton is a software that you can just get lost in in that kind of world, you know? It's like yeah, learning new methods, like creating mistakes that turn out to be, you know, perfect melodies, and you know, it's it's a cool thing to be into because I grew up just playing sports and like kind of never really always you know as a kid with the the iPod headphones everywhere I went, like music was a part of my life, but I never knew I would grow into like making it and performing it. And uh yeah, it's a trip, just how much you can learn every day just from waking up and choosing to be creative, you know.

SPEAKER_00 10:31

Yeah, working with other people too helps me a lot, especially if it's it's gotta be kind of someone that works somewhat in a similar way that you do for sure. Because if they work kind of like two differently, you're like, holy fuck, like what are they doing? Yeah, you know, like it's hard to follow what they're doing and implement it into how you produce.

SPEAKER_01 10:52

Yeah, I agree. Like early days I was I would try to like over to my homies' houses, and I just probably had Ableton intro or whatever, you know. And yeah, I know how to use splice and drag and drop loops, and this guy's got all the analog gear. I'm like, wait, like, are you not gonna just like make a MIDI pattern or you know, he's like using session view, and it's like yeah, it could it's a completely different world. So it's it like I goes back to just you never really are at the top of anything, you know. You're just you could always put yourself right at the bottom and just be like, yeah, I'm still learning because someone else knows something different, and you that that uh if you if you do catch yourself collaborating with people that have a different flow, the best thing to do is kind of watch. Yeah, you know, if especially if you don't know what they're doing, that's kind of what I did, and just take notes because you you will learn something that day.

SPEAKER_00 11:48

You know, yeah, everyone thinks they're hot shit until somebody opens up session view. Yeah, for real.

SPEAKER_01 11:54

For real. Yeah, that's one thing that I want to learn for sure. Is it's uh I seen like like I joined that's one thing I did too, is I did join some of those like online communities, like the Discord servers, yeah. And it was like I think Josh Baker was like showing you how to basically arrange a track based off of session view, and it's just oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:19

I was just talking about this the other day, yeah. A video that he like posted with yeah, yeah, it just looks so much more natural, you know.

SPEAKER_01 12:26

And I I think I saw Kai William post like a thread or something, and when you start arranging music like that, instead of just kind of copy and pasting, your your sound definitely gets a lot more emotion to it, you know, not as robotic because I the way I accomplished that is like through automation and like I have the equipment to do the session view kind of like arrangement of tracks, and that's probably a goal of mine this year is to like really just start arranging tracks like that with like my mixer, you know.

SPEAKER_00 13:00

Yeah. I really uh I just did this like last week. Um because I saw uh I interviewed DJX boyfriend, and that's how he kind of works. And it's just almost a easier way to kind of just like stack ideas, yeah. And then when you go to play it out and do the full arrangement, you're just going through sections, and like each each section you're like, alright, this needs more of something, and then you just have a palette of sounds and loops that you could add to that section. Yeah. And so you're just adding and taking stuff away, and you're kind of like doing it by feel as the track is playing. Yeah. Instead of like being in this huge like sandbox, you know.

SPEAKER_01 13:53

Yeah, exactly. It's it brings way more of like a performative aspect to the track, too, you know. It's like you're really because I I make music and I'm like envisioning where this song is when I'm making it, you know. And when you arrange like that, you get a way better sense of like how you will hear it in the club instead of just like the robotic kind of looking at the box and then not, you know, knowing the patterns, but not knowing the emotion. Yeah. And I think, yeah, it's it's important to really just keep pushing yourself like like that's a small goal, it's a probably easily attainable goal to start arranging music like that. But it's something that's like that's what I do is I always just make little like kind of next step up in the studio, like especially if I'm not out here grinding or trying to put in work to like get my catalog discovered. It's like let's just go in there with a purpose and like learn and little goals every day kind of keep you going. So, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:52

I think I was just putting too much pressure on myself the last I don't know, year or so to just like everything has to be good, yeah, or else you just kind of abandon ideas too quickly. And I think you just need to make a bunch of just mediocre music, but just put all of the elements into the full track of what like a full track actually needs, yeah. And then you just like the more ideas you do that, then you're gonna eventually kind of land on something that's actually good.

SPEAKER_01 15:27

No, I I I 100% agree. It it is it's like for me, I kind of look back on when I first started producing, like, I luckily I upload everything to SoundCloud, right? So like even back in high school, like I have these awful raps like that we me and my boys made, and it's like it's still there, and I'll never delete that kind of thing because you could it's a it's a digital archive of where you were as an artist, you know. And when I look back at my early like electronic production, it was like really good because I wasn't like inspired, like I wasn't trying to put any pressure on myself other than just to like learn, you know, and it's like some of the earliest stuff I made is like I'm like, damn, what the fuck? How did I do that? You know, and then you go and then I go through my my catalog on SoundCloud, it's like 400 uploads on there, dude. And then it's like there's this really weird phase of songs that I was making that were just garbage compared to like the first stuff I was making, and it was because I started getting just so much influence from people that that I shouldn't have been listening to, you know? Yeah, and then putting that pressure on myself that it's like, oh, things have to be perfect, and you get that way, it's like the instant like demise of creativity because what I that's what's so inspiring, just to look back at like even my early DJ sets, the music I was playing, it wasn't I wasn't trying to like fit a crowd, I was just literally playing shit I liked, you know, and it's so hard to maintain that in this scene because you have so many people elevating and like doing their thing, and you you kind of try to figure out where your next move is based off of their move, and if you get caught up in that, it's it's very easy to not be good at this.

SPEAKER_00 17:19

Yeah, it's funny how uh keeping all of those songs you can kind of remember where you were. Yeah, literally, it's like a it's almost like an Instagram uh feed that's just audio, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:34

You know, yeah. It's it's a pure, it's like when you smell something from your childhood, right? And it brings you right back. This is like the prime example of it's not just a smell, it's literally like a audio representation of where your creativity was in that moment, and it's it's a humbling experience sometimes, you know. Yeah, I remember like just sending my homies just endless amounts of horrible dark music ever. And now it's like I only have like only a few remain that will still listen, you know. And and it's it's kind of like of my choosing too, because you pick and choose who you like I said earlier, who you send your music to is important. And you know, everyone and their mom's a DJ now, everyone and their mom is like a record producer, and everyone's also like a snob now. Like I really think like after COVID, like people learned a lot of how the sausage is made in the music industry, and now everyone is like a professional, either hater, you know, so it's everything is kind of out in the open, and there used to be like a mystique, you know. And that's it's a good thing and a bad thing because you're getting a lot more people getting into music, but then you're also getting a lot less genuine sounds, you know, and a lot less genuine parties, a lot less fun, yeah, honestly. It's just a lot of profiteering and like repetitiveness in the scene, you know.

SPEAKER_00 19:03

Yeah. The uh I was thinking about this the other day. Coachella is going on right now, and a lot of people just on the internet just don't want people to have any fun, you know? Yeah, it's like whatever. You don't like the artists that are at Coachella, you think it's just basically a big DJ lineup with pop stars and just whoever. But these people are just going to have a good time. Yeah, who cares? Yeah, like people like like you don't have to be mad or just like be a hater for on everything, you know?

SPEAKER_01 19:42

Yeah, like I see like as someone who didn't go to Coachella, all I hear about is uh Justin Bieber performed with the laptop, this and that. But he had like a 90-minute set, and I haven't really seen any content other than a few songs from when he wasn't using his laptop, you know, and it's it's an example of what you're saying, is like people just want to make people put people down for having fun, you know, or or just being genuine, and that's that's really what scares me the most about the scene is that like it's almost like an anti-like you can't be yourself kind of crowd right now, and I see it changing a little bit, but it's it's hard to really kind of maintain your own values and then level up at the same time because where the scene is and where people are going is I mean follow the money, you know, it's like not a lot of people have that ability to just be free and do themselves and and then also be praised for their you know efforts.

SPEAKER_00 20:43

Yeah, you have to kind of appease the people that are running the show in order to be you can be successful, but you can't be ultra successful without you know giving up something of yourself.

SPEAKER_01 21:01

You gotta ask kiss a little bit, you know, and I think every artist or performer kind of knows that it's it's part of the game for sure, but I think it's with TikTok and the next generation of sound is all kind of just stemming from that instant validation clip-based music, you know, and it's like you'll hear producers like, bro, I just made an eight-bar loop, posted it on TikTok to see. Like a lot of people are doing that, you know, and not even really having a whole song finished, but they're just based off their algorithm and their success of the content, then they'll go in the studio and finish a song.

SPEAKER_00 21:36

Yeah, I saw that. So sad, dude.

SPEAKER_01 21:39

It's crazy. Because I have so much shitty music, you know, and it's like I love finishing shitty music because it's the lesson.

SPEAKER_00 21:46

But the problem with that is everything is just becoming so unoriginal. Like the best artists put out stuff that they fuck with. They're not putting out because they got Views on a TikTok.

SPEAKER_01 22:02

I mean, look at Brunello. He's like blowing up right now, right? And I would say like his sound has been his sound for a couple years now. Like I've seen his content for years now. And he I think he's an example of someone kind of sticking to what he does. Yeah. And then kind of creating a brand around that. You know, and there's definitely that part of the crowd and people in this scene that are craving that, you know? And it's cool to see genuine sound. Like, I don't really hear any other producers that sound like that guy right now.

SPEAKER_00 22:32

Dude, speaking of this whole situation, like two days ago, I was on, I think it was on Instagram, and there's these two kids, like, this shit sounded good. And it sounded like a brut like Brunello's exact style. Yeah. He already fucking figured out how to copy his shit.

SPEAKER_01 22:51

Yep. Well, that's what it's gonna be. I mean, last year it was a couple years ago, it was Chris Stussy. Now you see, and now it's like you have, I mean, everyone is making Chris Stussy. Every single Jost. It's like Max Dean. Everyone, you know, even Clooney is like, you know, do Clooney, uh Kyle Williams. Yeah. And and now it's I mean, that's how you know you're you're doing it right, right? As people start copying you, then you're kind of put in that category of like, oh, that's his his lane, and now everyone's in his lane. Yeah. And uh shout out Bernello for doing that, you know, because I've seen the same thing.

SPEAKER_00 23:28

A lot of people emulating, you know, those weird pads and like that groovy, like just like uh it's almost like Middle Eastern sounding a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 23:38

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:38

It is.

SPEAKER_01 23:39

Yeah, it's really interesting because it's it's distinctly him.

SPEAKER_00 23:43

Yeah, yeah. It's dope. I really fuck with his sound. Yeah. Because it's different, but you can't that's what I'm saying. You can't base the music that you put out on what's getting you clicks, you know?

SPEAKER_01 23:57

No. I mean, like if you look at like the music that I make or you know, the crowds that I would like to perform to, they're not crowds that are going there for clicks, you know. It's like very much authentic house music, and and that scene is is very much alive, you know, and there's a lot of people that do it for that reason on like Sunday sessions, those kind of those kind of parties, you know? Yeah. But it's um it's so much easier to get a click and instant validation and and you know, just to prop yourself up on a pedestal by making content that way. And I'd rather take the long route, you know, and and sit in my basement and make music that maybe ten people listen to, but then you get booked at like some super sick parties, like Sunday sessions, and you're just a low-key ripper, you know. There's no that's kind of like my idea, like ideal world, is just having this in the background, be the low-key ripper, make proper music always and keep my values, you know.

SPEAKER_00 25:06

Yeah. Cause now when you put out a clip on Instagram and you get a bunch of likes on it, you're like, oh sick, you already got the validation. So what's the point of even putting the music out? Yeah, yeah. So you don't even have to like do the actual part of finishing it.

SPEAKER_01 25:23

Especially for like a lot of the artists that don't have like a management company or like you know, they're not, it's just them doing the content, and then they get the likes and then they're done. You know, like I'm sure like some of these artists that do that that are big, and then their their management team's like, oh well, we have to kind of follow up on that. That's gonna be a you know, a big record. Imagine all the guys that don't have that, and they're just literally Instagram famous in their background with no real support team, and just kind of going into the psychosis of validating themselves because there's you see that like 20k range follower, DJ producer that's like you don't really see him on lineups anywhere, but you see his content everywhere, you know, and it's like that's gotta be a strange life, you know, because you're good at making music, but you kind of succumb to this weird loop of just you know online presence, which is yeah, and like you were saying earlier, once you get caught up as the like producer guy, you're fucked.

SPEAKER_00 26:26

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're fucked, you know. Yeah, like now people will just want tutorials for you from you. Yep, yep. Shout out to all my boys making the tutorials, and then if you put out a song, they're like, what the fuck? Where's the tutorials?

SPEAKER_01 26:42

Yeah, bro, like just fucking make another pack. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 26:46

So I mean you can make decent money doing that.

SPEAKER_01 26:50

For sure, you know. Yeah, I think I mean it's just depends what you want to do. Yeah, exactly. It's there's no rhyme or reason to this game, right? That's the beauty of music is it's fluid, and there's so many outlets for it, and there's there's so many different ways of doing this. Like my stepdad's in a punk metal, like punk rock band, you know, and he's like super down to like try to work on some. He has like a new metal band he's working on. He wants to use some of my synths, and we're gonna work on some cool shit together. So it's like I think there's just so many ways you can be in this scene doing music, and like I I would say more people should do it than not do it. Because when people are trying to be creative, it gives them a less of a reason to be an asshole, you know? Yeah, I think like it's a humble it's you can get humbled a lot quicker trying to be creative and uh failing at that than just walking around on your high horse doing nothing, you know.

SPEAKER_00 27:51

I think as as an adult, you don't get humbled very often. Yeah, I would agree, unless you're playing golf. Yeah, golf or doing stuff that's hard, you know, like doing jujitsu or yeah, you know, the people that are doing stuff like that, it's like you said, it's harder to be an asshole to people when you're just getting kicked in every day. Yeah, dude.

SPEAKER_01 28:13

I I did jujitsu for a little bit. That shit's it's no joke. You know that physical, you know, getting your ass kicked is voluntarily is an interesting thing.

SPEAKER_00 28:24

Yeah, that's one thing I kind of miss about just high school and being a young kid is just the competition aspect of it, you know. We don't really get that as adults, yeah. And I'm a very competitive person.

SPEAKER_01 28:39

No, dude. Tell me about it. I was like on every sports team possible in high school. I'm like, then I just partied for like 10 years.

SPEAKER_00 28:48

That's what I did for competition.

SPEAKER_01 28:50

Yeah, and then I was just like, fuck. Um what am I doing now? And so like I got back into baseball, and I'm like, like, you need that competitiveness, and it's I think it's healthy to be competitive in music, but if for the right reasons, right? Like I'm competitive with myself, I don't really like to compete with other people because there's no point in that. Like, people are better than me, you know. If I'm in competition with myself, then I'm always just trying to level up, you know. And by doing that, I've I've progressed a lot as a producer, you know. Like I think my sound now is a lot different than it was when it started, but it from it it stems from that competitive little kid that just like was always on a sports team, trying to be the best at something. And I was always kind of like a nutcase in sports, like I you know, like not like I had that like hot head mentality, you know. And so to apply that into music, I think is why I'm able to kind of keep myself motivated and keep getting better at it because without being competitive, I'd probably just maybe I'd make sample packs.

SPEAKER_00 30:01

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and I think it's good just to be around regular people, yeah, for sure. Because we get in this bubble of music industry people and just producers, DJs. That's that is our lives, but that's not like normal people shit.

SPEAKER_01 30:23

Yeah, yeah, and I think I realize that like later in my journey in music and in like probably the past couple years, is that I'm not like that kind of person, you know, and it's to be in that environment, it takes a lot out of you, you know. And yeah, I kind of lost my train of thought.

SPEAKER_00 30:45

Fuck uh it just the grind of having to be in the music industry.

SPEAKER_01 30:53

Yeah, that's just oh yeah, I was saying, so like in the early days I was constantly just grinding, grinding, grinding, trying to be around the people I thought I was supposed to be around, and you just that's that weird period of time that all my music sucked. You know, so in the last year or so I've just taken the time to be I haven't really even been collaborative with a lot of people in music recently. It's it's been a lot of just let's get better. Let's get better for the sake of you wanting to be better for you, you know. And uh it helps not being in a scene to really accomplish that goal because yeah, if you're around other people, as much as you'll say you're not influenced by them, you're a hundred percent influenced, and and you can get weirdly competitive with people that you call your friends, you know.

SPEAKER_00 31:44

So yeah, I totally feel that. Yeah. Seeing social, you kind of have to just like stay off social media because you see your friends like getting these gigs sometimes, and you're like, fuck.

SPEAKER_01 31:55

Yeah, yeah. Whenever I feel like that, I'm like, shut the fuck up and just be happy, you know. Yeah, it's like those guys they're working, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:05

And then you just look yourself in the mirror, you're like, dude, I'm a piece of shit. I'm just like mad at my friend because he's sick, you know? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:12

No, I've I've had to like check myself a few times like that. And then I always just cut back to the conclusion is that these people are outworking you, you know, work harder. And it's it's simple as that. I could talk as much shit as I want on on the way these people are gaining success and and doing things in the industry, but they're working. You know, it is not easy to like I see people that are stage managing or like at every show, and that is such a hard full-time job that like if you're not doing it 100%, it's very easy to see through it. And the people in the industry that are you know, the gatekeepers, they see the guys that are working hard, and you always see them around, you know, and people that you think are onto something, it's easy to say see when they're not working, yeah, because they kind of fizzle out. And I've fallen into that boat myself plenty of times where it's like I it kind of goes back to that false sense of where you're at in the industry. Yeah, you know, you don't realize how much work these people are actually doing because you have one fun night with them, they get up and do it again multiple times at different after hours, they're fucking the door here, they're all just to play a set one night in a week somewhere, you know, at a really dope venue. And I don't have it in me, and that's kind of like something I had to admit is that like that grind is not for me. So you have to I found my lane, which is staying at home and creating music that I like, you know.

SPEAKER_00 33:43

Yeah, I think you have to figure out what kind of like systems you have to put in place to be successful, because it's it's different for every person, yeah. But I think just kind of figuring out how you want to work and how you need to work in order to be successful, yeah. Because at some point you will just like burn out because I was kind of feeling this. I was just I always just put too much stuff on my plate for sure all the time, and it was just not sustainable, yeah, yeah, at all. Yeah, so like trying to DJ all the time, produce all the time, like do this, and throw parties, it's literally impossible with one person. Yeah, there's not enough hours in the day.

SPEAKER_01 34:37

That's that's insane, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:39

And I was just like starting to lose my mind for a while, and I was like, is this like how much work it fucking takes to like make it in this industry? But I was just focusing my time on the wrong shit. And I kind of like pulled back on the parties, pulled back on DJing, and I was like, what's a really gonna make me fulfilled at the end of the day? Yeah. And what's actually what people are doing to be successful? If you want to be a produ producer and play those bigger shows, you have to be good at producing. Yeah. As fussed up as that is, you know, to be a like an uh actual DJ that plays these huge gigs. You're not these aren't DJs, they're producers, yeah, that play their music live.

SPEAKER_01 35:31

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's like you have to be at a point, like these guys can play a two, three hour set, 100% original music, you know, like these big headliners. And it's like it goes back to just being that competitive too. I I look at things like that as just another lesson and another level to achieve because there's just no no stopping this this grind, which is this music industry, you know? And it's it's a fun, it's a fun thing to be in Los Angeles and kind of be around the scene, but not really like and having the ability to jump in and out, right? Like if I was a music producer in Missouri with like you know, a local show that pops off once a month, it would be very I don't know, who knows? It it could be a lot more inspiring as a producer in that kind of scene. But just having the access that me and you have and in being able to go and meet all these other really fun creative people in our scene, because we've talked enough about the lame people, but there's so many fun people throwing cool parties that are inspiring to see and like keep you going, or at least for me personally, it keeps me going because I'm like, damn, I want to play that party, I want to play that party, and so I'll like really kind of just you know that's why I like to make these dope songs because it's like someone's gonna get you an opportunity at some point, you know. Yeah, and and you do have to go out and support, and that's one thing I'm gonna be doing a lot more of is going to the parties that are not just parties, but they're like experiences, you know. Because one thing it's like as a producer, I I I look for labels that throw dope parties, right? Because that's a good way to like release a song and then get booked. Yeah, you know, because you're in with the label, it's you got some sort of rapport and you know it's it's an easy way to get your you know songs noticed, yeah. Especially if there's promotion around like a VA that you guys are dropping as a label or something, you'll get a lot more people listening to your music than if there wasn't a party. Yeah. You know, so it's hard to find proper parties, especially in our kind of sound of music. It's it's a dying breed with all the techno and industrial shit going on.

SPEAKER_00 37:59

Yeah, I mean for sure in Long Beach. Yeah, but there's there's stuff in LA going on all the time. But yeah, it is nice being in LA. I think it depends on your personality. I think LA can ruin a lot of people.

SPEAKER_01 38:22

Fast.

SPEAKER_00 38:24

But I think if you're competitive, it's a good motivation to see other people a lot of people doing better than you. Yeah, yeah. If you can it take it in the right way, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:36

That I mean, it's it's very hard to keep that mindset as an artist, you know, and not kind of self-destruct. Yeah, we've all self-destructive. Yeah, but it's how you bounce back, they say, right? You know, and I think that's the most important thing about our scene is there's a lot of resiliency. You see, people have ups and downs, and I've seen people at their highs and their lows, and yeah, and they don't stop. So people are like, they're not stopping, you're not stopping. And it keeps me going. It like I love being from LA because it's just where else can you get the diversity in a in the music scene, you know? Yeah, for sure. In the same day. You can go to a punk show in Venice, go to a techno show in downtown, go to a folk music show in Silver Lake and probably learn something from every single place, you know.

SPEAKER_00 39:31

Yeah, and I think it helps to be like we said, it's nice to be around like regular people, but it's also you have to be around people that are in music, because I've dealt with this recently. People that are outside of the music industry have no fucking clue what's going on. No with us, you know. Oh, your little DJ thing. Yeah, so you can't if you uh need advice on whatever, just anything in the industry, talk to somebody that was once in your situation or somebody that's kind of in your same situation. Because regular people don't can't relate to the shit that we have to deal with.

SPEAKER_01 40:15

Yeah, I agree. I think that it it's big too on like why I think it's important to have like a mentor, you know, because someone that like is a little older than you has gone through some things and like you kind of can relate to it, it'll help you kind of keep your head on the right, right path in this scene. I I've had quite a few good mentors that come in up, and as shitty as I did get at some points, there was you know a reason I didn't go too far or ever like you know I as far as I know I think people like me, but you know, it's it's important to surround yourself with people in the music industry that can kind of level with you and and bring you down to earth sometimes when you're acting a fool or yeah, getting ahead of yourself, and yeah. Normies, they'll they're good for testing the music on, yeah, yeah. But when you need to really dive in and get get some real clarity on things, talk to another musician for sure.

SPEAKER_00 41:15

Because it's so unrelatable for regular people, yeah. Because I'm like over here, even my brother who I live with, and he's like seen all this like become what it's become, but uh I'm just like sitting in my room just like editing clips for this, like working on music. And I'm like I'm like putting so much time and effort into something. He's like, How are you are you gonna like make money off of this? Like how how are you gonna like make this into like something that's like sustainable, you know? Like he went to school for fucking 10 years, so like yeah, social media and the modern just like influencer, I don't know what you even call it, like the LA like bubble of how you can kind of make money and survive nowadays is so like out of their just like it's not really relatable, you know. Not at all. At all. Yeah, so like it's hard to like even like confide with people that don't really know anything about it.

SPEAKER_01 42:30

I yeah, I agree a hundred percent. It's it's that weird it feels so lonely sometimes, and then and then you'll you'll kind of meet a group of people or a couple people and you or you're just like, oh, this is this is what I've been missing, right? Like in my beginning days, it was just me and my ex-girlfriend like running around, and I was just getting into DJing, and then you got I had someone just pull me aside and be like, yo, you're really good, and like I see you, but like you need to slow down a little bit. And no one in my family could have told me that because I'd be like, You guys don't get it, you don't get it, yeah, you know, and uh it's easy to do that too to people that aren't in the music industry is like kind of not take what they're saying as face value because they don't really relate to what you know, you know, and so like yeah, I agree a hundred percent having having someone to talk to and kind of hash things out or get ideas out of your head is important.

SPEAKER_00 43:26

Yeah. And like even like trying to explain like the music industry to my parents, it's like so out of their world. Yeah. Because like my brother one uh one, he's like only a couple years older than me, so he kind of understands it a little bit more, but holy fuck, trying to like explain it to my parents.

SPEAKER_01 43:47

Dude, luckily my mom's a band manager, so she gets it. But like none of my family like siblings, I ha I'm one of eight kids, so none of them ever got into music. I'm like the only one that was you know, did his thing and my mom's like she's like my biggest supporter. She loves it. And she's like she can relate to it because she's she's in like the Venice punk rock scene. And so it's like she knows like she's having meetings with like record labels and stuff like that. So there's certain things I can talk to her about. But it's also important to have peers, you know, yeah that are on your level to talk to.

SPEAKER_00 44:23

Yeah, for sure. Yeah, because a lot of times you just have to like have somebody there to help you not dive off a cliff. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:32

It's that that constant singing you back from the ledge, you know. Um yeah there was there were some dark days in the early days of production. Just like it was sending feedback to sending a track to the wrong person and then him responding like this is fucking horrible. Stop making music I'm like damn luckily I had enough people around me that were nice, you know but yeah if I would have stopped it would have sucked because of all the lessons I've learned just from trial and error.

SPEAKER_00 45:04

Yeah. And I always thought just with like anything you just think the people that are good at something are just gonna like not want to talk to you because you suck. For sure.

SPEAKER_01 45:15

Yeah yeah I'd be walking around like the party I really wanted to play and like nervous to talk to people that are like my homies, you know? But because they're on the lineup I'm like for some reason I feel like intimidated.

SPEAKER_00 45:27

Yeah I think they're people are cool with helping other people if you're just open to learning stuff. You know you just kind of like are a sponge. Yeah. Yeah in like studio sessions or what whatever it is.

SPEAKER_01 45:40

Yeah that's I mean it's hard as creatives to be that sponge because you're your mind's constantly racing. You're like at least for me it was I always wanted to like try to interject or like what about this you know and you learn fast when you're trying to take lessons from someone just to shut up and listen because your idea is not right. Yeah. Especially if you're a new new guy and you're like oh put a saturator on that let's see how that sounds and and it's it's funny just to think back on just how many times I was a fool in the studio with someone else and how patient they were with me. You know a lot of patience goes into that role too being that role to someone else is big.

SPEAKER_00 46:21

Yeah and inspiring them to keep going is huge you know yeah yeah I I really also like helping people with their production as low level of production that I'm at like it's nice to kind of just like show people little stuff. Because even um I was with Jose last night and he's been producing forever dudes a G like 10 plus years. Yeah and on Ableton he's like hitting just like the MIDI notes on the piano and he goes and like plays like plays something and then he goes to like hit record. I was like dude you could have just hit the collect all button oh yeah and it just saves all the MIDI that you just played.

SPEAKER_01 47:07

Yeah he's like what really see that's I didn't know that yeah that's that's the running theme of the day is you're constantly learning with this software you know yeah it's like you can be producing for 10 plus years and somebody that just started yeah teach you something. Helping people in the music scene is like I like whenever I'm out and I have like a drink or two or something and I'm feeling good and I see someone and it's like unsolicited unk advice but like I give it you know because it's like it's important if you if you genuinely see someone coming up and like you you see that they're genuine and they to not to like do your part to not help them get corrupted by this whole like tackiness that is floating around the scene too because it's a fine line from pushing it grinding going out and being you know part of this working class musician scene we're in and then being like a TikTok like grinder like that, you know? Yeah. And you can blow up by being really good at music. You don't have to have good content. You know it's not easy but it's it's achievable especially being in Los Angeles.

SPEAKER_00 48:15

Yeah and you can see you can see what's going on like people you can tell people's intentions right away.

SPEAKER_01 48:25

Oh for sure you know yeah like you know the the real ones yeah yeah like DJX boyfriend he's a real one yeah I fuck with him yeah he's the homie we uh he I played a show with him at a apotheche and then uh left my headphones and then he's like I asked them to I told him they were yours and then they said no you had to come in and then like the next day they were gone and he got he got more upset about it than I did.

SPEAKER_00 48:52

Yeah and yeah he's he's one of those real ones there's a lot of really cool people down here in Long Beach too you know yeah yeah there really is Dakin and the whole footworks team over there that they're sick Ian's crushing it Secret Service they're crushing it everyone's kind of got a cool little scene down here and it's it's you know it's not quite the LA scene you know but we got something going it's fucking cool it's cool yeah yeah the uh big zoon shout out big zoon he's been crushing it yeah um I just like seeing the because how old are you 29 29 see I'm I'll be 32 in September so I'm like fucking big unk over here but it happens like 28 it just switches bro which I I'm down for I like I like the unk status but I just like seeing the young the young guys just like getting after it's so inspiring for me.

SPEAKER_01 49:54

Yeah it's so sick to see because you're like damn and they're fucking pumping out good music you know it's like being a level headed kid in the scene not really going on too many benders or like you know it's really cool when I see people like that not just unsolicited uncadvised like keep it going bro wake up like damn what did I say yeah yeah and it's cool to just talk to them.

SPEAKER_00 50:18

Yeah when I was like throwing the parties and stuff I think it's important to one I do like talking to like the older heads because they've been around for so long. Yeah but it's interesting to hear like the mindset of the just like the younger generation that's coming up. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 50:39

Yeah for sure and for me it's interesting to see how how they take it because you can clearly see there's the TikTokers and then there's like the the rejection of that you know yeah there's a there's like a hard line. Yeah there's no there's no like uh I'm gonna dabble in both it's like either you're just like an analog kid or you're like a fully digital like yeah and not in the sense of like music gear but like literally like the way you create is either like TikTok based or like being a genuine creative yeah yeah and it's cool to see the younger kids that are um just getting into vinyl and analog gear I'm like dude that's so sick. Yeah yeah I wish I was you when I was 20 you know yeah the resurgence of like just I I think everyone's just looking for something to like have substance on and like really just hold and and like not just live in this world of like everything's floating. Yeah just virtual cloud cloud experience it's a depressing time when you think about it when like there's it's like dude I just found my Game Boy and I was like dude just having this and owning this is like this is mine and it won't ever update or change or it's it's just a Game Boy you know there's something like sim symbolic about that because you don't really have that now other than like like I I saw there's cars that are selling like subscriptions for like Apple CarPlay and shit after you just spent like 70 grand on a car.

SPEAKER_00 52:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 52:17

It's a weird economy.

SPEAKER_00 52:19

Yeah we could go down that road but I just don't like to be like so negative all the time because sometimes you're just like dude you just go down these roads where you're just just negative about everything. Yeah yeah I agree that the negative thoughts are easy to just consume. Yeah you know especially with social media it's like dude yeah I deactivated mine.

SPEAKER_01 52:42

If you get your algorithm locked in you're just hating on everything I have I have I have like two Instagrams one's so holistic and nice and it's like for like my baseball content and shit like that. And I spend I try to spend as much time on that one as possible because if I switched over to just in time and it's it's just it's horrible what what goes through that phone you know it's like and it's just you know it's slowly built up over your homie sending you shit then you're looking at it for too long and then it's like no I don't even like this shit. Why is it everywhere? And then especially being in the party scene it's like every other meme is like someone fucking railing lines or doing something yeah it's like the amount of just drug memes and just like God it's depressing.

SPEAKER_00 53:32

I don't know if it's just my algorithm but fuck if someone saw the shit that goes across my feed like I probably would be arrested.

SPEAKER_01 53:40

Yeah I think like 99% of LA's in in underground would be yeah yeah that's funny yeah it's uh so I yeah I deactivated that Instagram for like three weeks and I never felt better and I recently reactivated it and I'm just straight back into the hole. But it's fun it has social media has its place as long as you can control it how much you use it.

SPEAKER_00 54:07

The hard part for me is like I have to post for this stuff.

SPEAKER_01 54:12

So if I'm posting all the time I just have to use it you know yeah well there's I mean intentional content is always really refreshing to see you know it's like you're you're posting conversations you're having with people you're not just posting AI like brain rot you know yeah I don't know how people get through the day and they do that kind of shit all day it's like uh they spend 24 hours a day just making horrible brain rot memes and then uploading it like how does that work I don't know it's gotta just be I will say like fuck some of these are so funny.

SPEAKER_00 54:49

Dude I've been I've been it's so like specific dude it's like how is this even how does this even exist?

SPEAKER_01 54:55

Have you gotten any of the fruits they're like AI fruits and they're like in love and then someone cheats and it's like an apple and a banana and I think so. Oh dude I they're like novellas I'm like every morning I'll wake up yeah I'm like fuck this is a 30 minute session I'm watching.

SPEAKER_00 55:13

Yeah yeah the the AI generation it's scary dude yeah I uh I just started messing with Suno oh fuck is it we're cooked bro is it I I dude I I got some random ad for like Ableton GPT or something.

SPEAKER_01 55:35

I saw that I tried it out it's horrible yeah it does I mean it doesn't work it doesn't work it's maybe it's too early in the phase but I think when it comes to the AI shit and music yeah it's gonna be it's gonna be an interesting development. I but we also were just talking about how there is a pushback from like certain young kids that are coming up and like resisting that you know so as creatives I think you always have the power you know like a human can put its feeling and emotion into things that computers can't but what there is available now is fucking it is cooked.

SPEAKER_00 56:17

But it's also what are you trying to get out of it you know yeah if your goal is to just put in a prompt on Suno and just have it spit out some generic fucking tech house track like you don't really appreciate you're not gonna appreciate any of the success from that you know yeah yeah because you're just gonna get like say it did work out and you became some famous DJ you just feel I personally would just feel like a fraud.

SPEAKER_01 56:45

Yeah no a hundred percent you don't it what did you create a prompt yeah you're a writer you know but that's scary to think that there's people that will do that that don't care yeah like no I I am headlining Coachella 2036 mark my words but to be fair everyone's all worried about AI music like there's so many like ghost produced artists already so it doesn't even matter about your authenticity yeah you know dude I remember the first time I heard that and it was just talked about nonchalantly in a green room like oh so and so is gonna ghost produce for him and it was like you know my first year or so into like DJing and I was like I it goes back on saying how like everyone's kind of learning how the sausage is made it took away a lot of like uh like awe I had of some of these artists that you know are always headlining festivals and like you know it's like I used to go and just to these raves and just be like how are they doing that? You realize a lot of people aren't as genuine as you think you know there there's plenty of people that are though you know and those are some of my favorite favorites. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 57:58

Yeah because you have to have like it's so much like effort you have to have such a huge team and it's like to be able to tour and make music and just do everything that you need to do to be like at that level. Yeah. It's like I see why people have ghost producers.

SPEAKER_01 58:17

Yeah no for sure I mean every genre of music has it you know like you you would think that like country guy Morgan Wallace making all this music no you can you got like he's just performing it yeah 10 writers you know and I I think it's subjective to what you think success is at that point right it's like for some people that's they know they have the look they might not have like the in tune this with the creative muse but they know how to perform and there's I mean people that could never perform in their life but are super talented writers and so I think there's a place for all of that you know yeah I think just because I think producing as a DJ you can do everything yourself but that doesn't mean music has never been something that was just an individual sport, you know?

SPEAKER_00 59:13

No. It's always been a team sport.

SPEAKER_01 59:16

Yeah yeah it's literally you the crowd and everyone that's inspired you to get there you know I think a lot of people are just ready to call it what it is and and enjoy music for it being music now you know I think like you'll see that why everyone was so happy with Justin Bieber is like he's performing on a multiple like multiple levels right you see like people talking about he's heal healing his inner child he's you know playing a game against the record company that bought his catalog and it's like that in itself is a mental performance you know on top of him singing and crushing it it's I dude I've had sick ass dreams of being Justin Bieber's best friend. Yeah yeah that's right yeah it would be probably pretty cool.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:07

Yeah just any like big celebrity like that. Yeah you know because you just have a if you're Justin Bieber's homie you have an access to everything. Bro that would be you're you're good. Yeah get into any club any any concert anything Justin if you're watching this yeah hit me up in the not in a weird way but I've had some cool dreams that's funny yeah but I'm just talking about like specifically more just even in the studio like music traditionally has always been made with you have the artist it obviously depends on the band or whatever the artist but they have writers and you almost kind of even doing this in the studio just like at our level I think the best way to work is whoever studio it is like they're the hands that's gonna like do kind of like the grunt work part of it. Yeah for like the workflow stuff. Yeah. And then you're kind of just like um like using them as like a tool almost you know like I want it to sound like this.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:21

Yeah. You know? Yeah I think that's a it's important when you do collab with people to kind of give that space too because that's how you're gonna actually create something right like if if I walk into someone's studio I don't know their layout I don't know where things are I don't know how things are routed and then it's like it's kind of impossible to just be super hands-on the first time you like maybe if you guys have worked a thousand times together right sure of course but yeah I haven't worked with too many people honestly like in the studio for that reason because it's been tough to find that that flow and a lot of people don't understand that you know and I I'm usually having people here and so it's like it's tough to really create something that's like fun instead of just like a session with your homies fucking around you know and it takes that fine balance of knowing when to be hands on as a collaborator and then when let it let them cook as the kids say.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:18

Yeah let them cook yeah it's uh I think the more you do it the more you get better at it obviously but like I said I think it's just depends on how they produce also yeah like if I went to ex-boyfriend studio there's no way in hell I'm fucking hey bro uh watch out let me hop on the mixer you know it's like that's that's a great example of someone's studio you go over you kind of just jam you let him yeah yeah yeah because especially with people that have been doing it for way longer I'm like fuck I don't even like here take the take the keys I don't know what I'm doing.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:55

Yeah yeah it's cool I've had the pleasure of being in some really cool studios and it's just like you think what you have is sick when you get it and then it's it's one of those things the common theme in music you can really just get depressed really fast.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:11

Yeah but I also think at some point I think it would be cool to just have like almost like a team of like five producers just like working on something like I think having more people looking at something the better the track's gonna be and if you like work cohesively obviously yeah but uh that's key you can't just have two different yeah like having somebody that's fucking like good with automation and just like making some like crazy baseline they all have like their kind of role you know yeah it's hard because everyone's got an ego too you know so it you have to collaborate with the right people yeah because everyone wants to be the man.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:56

Yeah. But if you like what you're saying, if you can find a group of people that like everyone knows their strengths and you're kind of working together to really just create a masterpiece that's like the ideal world as a producer right yeah because collaboration is how you you develop a sound I think or like from sharing not just actually collaborating on the actual production but sharing it and learning from people. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:21

Yeah and I think you have to know what people are good at when you go in. Yeah like if you're good at laying down the drums like let them cook on the drums you know yeah yeah I have a homie that comes over and he just is super groovy with bass lines yeah and I'll just cook up some drums and like alright ready for a bass line and then he hops on you know and that's that's always fun.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:46

And it's also cool like when you're working with someone especially if you guys have similar tastes in music to like see what they do you know and like oh that's that's sick actually I didn't think of that and that's how you really you know start creating some interesting shit is is working with people and I think I want to do more of that this year for sure because I I I just lock myself in my studio. It's like I get home from work I'm like fuck it studio smoke a joint and hit the studio you know it's just so convenient now. It is but like I think I mean you you s said on that DM it would be sick to have like a little space in Long Beach where everyone kind of piles their their equipment there and it's like you know a collaborative effort because what could get cooked up in that studio would probably be pretty sick with all the people in Long Beach.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:33

Yeah yeah I think that would be a dope thing to have in like an actual studio.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:40

I think it's like attainable in a city like Long Beach too, right? Because it's not like it's like everyone here is within like three miles of each other, you know you might have some people in the north side that are like pretty far, but like if you're in LA you might have one person on the west side and then one person in Silver Lake and one person in you know Hawthorne.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:58

And then to like Find a space to have a studio is probably inconvenient for everybody. I think you could probably find something here that's like pretty dope.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:08

That's one thing about Long Beach is tight too, is that I've from moving here, I've it's like because I'm from like West LA, like Culver City. And yeah, you knew like the mom and pop shop owners, but like I I feel like I have a lot of homies that own businesses here. You know, it's like one of those cities that kind of is like allowed people to like start something. And so if that ever does, you know, amount to anything, keep me in the in the loop.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:36

Yeah. Yeah, I think just I don't know. It would just cost money to build it out. I actually have a connect with a speaker company so I could get stuff for that's pretty sick. That's pretty sick. That's a good plug to have. Yeah. I haven't taken advantage of it yet just because I had to stop. I'm trying to use less and less as I produce, but also I want analog gear just to play with. Um but I'm trying to like cut back on my spending habits with music.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:14

I I went through a phase where it was just like I was making a good amount of money at that point, and I was just buying random shit that I didn't know how to use. I'm just like, why'd I do it? Like, you know, you look back on it and it's some things you regret, but some things like I'm like, thank god I bought this, you know? Like that synth, the SH101 is like it's pretty sick to have a piece of music history, you know? It's uh it's a very easy synth, too. Uh it's like uh one of those things that wasn't overwhelming when I got it home. I've bought some things, like I had an OP1, I don't know, the teenage engineering. It sounds familiar. I've probably seen it if I it's like a $3,000 little fucking synth that looks it's like this big, but it has endless layers of shit you could do on it. And it was just I had to sell it, it was too much, you know. I'm like, this is too expensive just to be collecting dust. And yeah, it's the analog, I think, like I said it earlier, but it it's fun, but you know, I it takes like a specific mood for me to get into. Like I'll always use my like one thing I love to use in my production is the digit digitac for like drums and just like a sequencer, yeah. It's it's pretty crispy on like the sounds you can make with that. So I'll I'll lay down drums on that and then I'll kind of work in the box a lot of the other times, you know, for the rest of the track. But but having the gear is better than not having it, you know, because you can always, if you get bored, turn something on and fuck around, and then you never know. Like that's the thing. When you open a doll, you never know if today's the day. I just made a fucking number one hit, yeah, you know. That's true, it keeps me going too. It's like this song could very well just have been nothing and then created everything for me, you know, and that's what the power of music is, is that you have so many, you know, reasons to keep going. It's not just one. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:20

One thing I've been trying to do, if I buy like a I don't know, like a plug-in or something, try to read as much as possible about it. Like read the actual manual. Smart man. Like I went through Ableton the other day, I just read through the entire manual. Oh shit. Obviously, some of the sections I just kind of skimmed over because it's stuff I already knew. Yeah. But sections that I didn't I gotta do it again on 12. I th I went through eleven, but I gotta like actually go through twelve again. But I think a lot of people buy plugins and they just don't even know how to use them.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:01

Yeah, they'll they'll see like a tutorial on YouTube and they see the way that guy's using it, and then that's just how they use it. Yeah. Do you have a favorite plug plugin?

SPEAKER_00 1:10:12

Speaking of buying plugins, I just bought Omnisphere 3 two days ago.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:18

I have Trillion. The base? Yeah. I I've I've been meaning to get Omnisphere. How do you like it?

SPEAKER_00 1:10:24

It has a lot of sounds that are fucking tight.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:29

That's the thing. So like Trillion is the same, like, bro, it's it's the most overwhelming plugin that I have because it's just endless sounds of fat bases.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:40

That I who makes that? What's the company? Omnisphere? They're the same company. Spectrons Spectron something like that.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:47

Like Spectronics or something like that.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:49

Yeah, yeah, they're definitely goaded for sure in the in the world of synth plugins.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:54

Yeah. Because I'm not a big sound design guy. I just I just want to be able to like click through stuff and be like, alright, this sounds tight. I can kind of flip it somehow. Make it sound different, obviously, than just like straight up using the the uh the patch. Yeah but I mean that's what it's there for. Yeah. Everyone's so worried about using samples, using patches. It's like what was the point of them making a thousand pads for Omnisphere if nobody's gonna use them, you know?

SPEAKER_01 1:11:31

Yeah, I think you should it's like a carpenter. You like use the tools you have, you know. Get the job done. And yeah, I I dude, have you ever used Tantra? No. I I feel like I know people that it's a big one in our sound. I was gonna say it's uh it's like the one plugin I got that was like, oh, this is changing a lot of my sound because uh it's just like a an effects like thing. It runs through different it'll take your sample and then run it through the different waveforms and like effects.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:05

Is it like a gray UI? Yeah, yeah. Jose was using it last night. Yeah, so like he threw it on like some pads or some weird kind of like C.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:13

It creates sick ass like call and response. So like, yeah, that plug-in's been huge in my production, and then obviously, like I got the Korg M1, that's a good one, and Trillian, those those are like the big threes that I've been using.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:28

Yeah, yeah. Have you uh what's the fucking plugin? Have you heard of that? Like it's called like meet something. Oh, meet beats. Meet beats. Yeah, that one has a bunch of dope plugins. Yeah, I've patches.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:43

Yeah, I've been seeing that. I've been meaning to get it. It's just it's also one of those things that I always have like these plugins in mind that I want to buy, and then I'm like I just get so excited to open the DAW that I forget about it. And I have I've spent way too much money on samples and fucking plugins that I in theory I don't really need to spend any anything else, dude. Like, if if anything, I should invest in more like soundproofing of the room and like treatment because that helps more than a plug-in.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:14

Yeah, literally. Are you on 12? Yeah, yeah, same, dude. 12 is so fire.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:18

Yeah, dude, it's sick. I bought 11 sweet like a week before they dropped 12, and so I got 12 for free. Nice, yeah. I mean I technically didn't, but yeah, I like with Ableton, bro. I fucking I ripped the intro for like six months. So like you know, you can do like the 90-day trial. I just kept like changing changing emails, and then it by like the sixth email, it was like you can't do it on this IP address. And I was like, fuck, gotta buy it. But yeah, just it's like because I have uh with with music, I have it's like one of those only one of the only things in my life that's been I I get good at things kind of quickly, and then I'll just phase out. Like uh I learned how to do a kickflip. All right, I'm not gonna go to the skate park anymore, you know. Like I don't know why I'm like that, but I'm like that with a lot of things, and like music is like the one thing that has been challenging, and then I get good, and then I keep wanting to get better, you know. It's never been and it that's why I have so much respect for it, is because it's hard it takes a lot to convince me to keep doing something that isn't I have ADD out the ass, you know, and so it's it's crazy how much music has changed who I am, you know, because like I said before this it was just sports and fucking partying and not much thinking other than where the hoe's at, where like you know, like dumb shit, and now it's like you have something to care about.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:50

Yeah, it's nice.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:51

It's a journey that I've created that like having that digital archive to look back on and hear, and like it's just so it's inspiring for just bigger things in life, too, you know, not just it doesn't just sit with music, you can take what music teaches you and apply it to anything, you know.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:08

Yeah, yeah. So you haven't been on Ableton for that long?

SPEAKER_01 1:15:13

Probably 12 just came out, didn't it?

SPEAKER_00 1:15:17

No. I've had 12 for like a year and a half, maybe. Okay, yeah, it has been out that long. Yeah, yeah, you're right.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:24

I I started the Ableton journey in like 2000 uh 2021 or 2022. I bought so the way I got started, it was Valentine's Day, I bought my ex a bunch of shit, and then I was like, can I go take us to Guitar Center really quick? Because uh I want to buy a DJ deck, and so I bought I bought um a DDJ 400. Nice and I got a uh what was the it was the intro Ableton version, it was like $99 or something.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:59

Yeah, something light.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:00

Light, yeah. So I bought light and I had light for I I was like, all right, I'm gonna learn how to DJ and I'm gonna learn how to produce. And like that's the time when I was looking back at my music and I was like, damn, this shit was sick. Yeah, like bro, you just had Ableton Light. Or then I think I found out by that point I had a crack um 11 suite with the intro things. I did that for like a year, I'm pretty sure. It was like oh, that's what happened. I did it on one computer, and then I got a different computer, and I did the intro um the free version of Ableton for like another six months. Yeah. And then I finally bought it. But it was uh one of those things I didn't want to just DJ, never ever wanted to just DJ because that's fun, but like someone like me is just gonna like it's you would see through me as a as a person if I was just a DJ and like I was it would be so face value, you know. And having that level of like backup of like being a creative as well gave me a lot more confidence to like throw myself into stages in in like the first couple months of DJing. Like, yeah, I know how to DJ, even though I only have like an eight-bar loop, I produce too, you know? And delusional confidence leads to like you know, some really cool lessons and cool experiences in the in the scene, you know.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:31

Yeah, yeah. I I was on FL Studio. It's funny to me that I just like looking back at it now, I feel like I just like forgot about the time that I like was producing before I started DJing. Just because I was making like hip hop and just like random shit on FL. But I started kind of like making more like housey stuff. I don't even know what year this was. I kind of like open up my old FL studio and just like go through all those old projects. But uh I think DJing I stopped for like a good while. But I think DJing first really teaches you a lot more about just how to kind of navigate and just your it trains your ear a lot better. Yeah, for sure. Because, dude, some of these producers are not good DJs, yeah. We don't want to name any names. I'm not gonna name any names, but like big DJs. Yeah. I'm hearing some of these like sets, I'm like, holy fuck, bro. Like, this is pretty bad.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:36

Yeah, I hate being that guy too in the crowd.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:38

It's like But I d it's like I don't want to be like a hater on them. Like in the moment, it's probably sick, you know? It's because we're listening to it back, which is kind of like a weird new thing that never used to be around. But dude, I'm telling you, you go see these DJs that don't produce, and it is a whole nother like there's levels to DJing. Yeah, you're like, damn. Like one, their transitions are just like so buttery, yeah, like four hours. Yeah, no, no, it's like to the point where it's like there's no way he's actually mixing. Yeah, that's what I mean.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:17

And then you see this fucking content, and it's like, no, he's got he's mixing, you know.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:22

Because it's a it's just a completely different skill, and the amount of amount of time I think it takes to like really dig and find music and use it in the context of DJing and like actually like create a story. Yeah, you're not just like playing tracks and then hoping it the shit's gonna sound good. Yeah, because a lot of these back to backs that they have now, it's just like whole dude. Yeah, what was it? Like none of this was like prepped really. I mean, which is tight, like that's part of kind of DJing and just being at those parties where you're kind of just like freestyling almost. Yeah. Yeah. Which is really fun for the DJ, but just for the like pure skill of DJing, it's like a little sloppy.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:09

Yeah, there's definitely like the DJ purists and then like the party boy DJs, you know. And there's there's room for everyone, I think, you know, but like the going on your your DJing definitely helps production, because like I didn't like I didn't grow up a training musician. I didn't know the terms of like I know what an intro is just based off of like the definition, you know, but you don't really know, like, especially in house music production, there's so many kind of red lines of like you have to do this, yeah, you know, for it to be like a cohesive song for someone to play, or you know, so yeah, I if there is any kind of take take back from what I said on my early production, it's like that that was the hardest part was that I didn't really have the right phrasing down in my music. You know, the ideas were there, but they were just kind of like a run-on sentence and DJing and getting better at that definitely helped the way I would make productions. And like I had a a homie that I would DJ with just all the time, kind of he helped me like get good at DJing, and through that it was like, Oh, yeah, this is how you phrase two tracks together, and then and then you learn, like, oh, maybe my breakdown should be like this when you produce, and all those lessons translate. So I think if you're gonna DJ, I don't think you should ever not consider producing, yeah, as well, because you already have a lot of the ideas mapped out, now it's just learning a software, you know. Because you have that I think all all DJs are great pattern recognizers, you know, and like level like order of operations and yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:58

It's like a weird brain thing, yeah. Yeah. I don't know what it is, but yeah, there's something going on in there. Yeah, I agree. Yeah. Um what was I gonna say? Yeah, the There are still producers that are good DJs. I'm not gonna like blowing everyone out that it's just a producer, but I think there's definitely a level of uh perfectionism when it comes to the art of DJing and the art of production uh like production, you know, and and not too often do they go hand in hand, you know? Yeah. You kind of just get lucky sometimes. Yeah, yeah, for sure. You gotta make your own luck. Yeah. But uh yeah, we can uh wrap this one up. Fuck yeah. This was tight.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:54

Hell yeah, bro.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:55

It was nice to I feel it. There's so many people that have had on. I'm like, dude, we should have met a long time ago. Yeah, I know I feel I feel that, bro.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:03

I've seen you like throwing down proper, and and I'm just like, yeah, this we need to like cross paths more. And that's on me for being a hermit too. You know, I need to I'm definitely if anyone's watching, I'll you collect I'm coming to your show and I'm just gonna support. Yeah, there you go. And uh, because definitely, like if we're gonna end on anything, it's like I gotta you gotta support your fellow creatives, right? Like people are out here putting in money, time, a lot of you know, a lot of effort into creating stuff for us, the consumers, and yeah, and and you know when people are doing it the right way, and you're one of them, bro.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:38

So I appreciate you coming through. Yeah. Um, plug yourself. Where can people find your music?

SPEAKER_01 1:23:44

Uh, just in time, J V S T-I-N-T-Y-M-E.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:49

I was having trouble. It was it's funny that you like brought this up kind of. One of my friends, he uh used like dollar signs instead of S's in his name. I was like, dog, you gotta change this shit. Like it's so annoying to type in every time, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:05

Yeah, yeah. It's one of those things uh in the beginning I was always like, should it be a U or should it be a V? And yeah, my imagery brain said V, and now I'm kind of stuck. But yeah, yeah, just in time on Instagram, Spotify, SoundCloud. Um, let's bump up those numbers.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:21

Run up the streams.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:22

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:23

Uh we'll see you guys in the next episode. Yep. Let's get it later.

unknown 1:24:26

Later.