Produced By - #6 - Simon Attang: Thorough View of a Young Musician on Crafting Perfect Art

Episode Date: May 22, 2023

Simon Attang aka simon a. is a London-based artist coming from East London who focuses on several areas of art. Primarily, Simon is a singer, songwriter, rapper and producer but also a filmmaker of his own music videos. Inspired by various genres including hip hop, indie, RnB, classical and house music, he covers a broad range of topics such as mental health, relationships, social media and self-love. Simon thinks about art quite deeply which is reflected in his lyrics, sound, structure and basically everything around it. While working on his music career he’s also proficient as a filmmaker. He crafts his music videos as thoroughly as his songs, thanks to the filmmaking knowledge he gained while studying film at the university in London. Listen to this episode to find out how Simon planned his music career in detail, what it is like to perform on a live stage for an audience and what unusual hobby led him to start a music career in the first place. Connect with Simon: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/simonandthem/?hl=en⁠ ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@simonandthem/videos⁠ ⁠https://soundcloud.com/simonadot⁠ Topics: Introduction Music Beginnings Education Music discovery About music Music projects Competition Promotion Live performing Philosophy behind music Releases Music videos Composing Recording Equipment and resources Inspiration   Quotes:  “That was the tipping point. From then on, I actually started taking music way more seriously.” “I was more used to it, even to this day, I am still using music as a means to an end to convey a message.” “In music or any craft, I think you're always searching for perfection. I don't think you ever really find it but I think it's more about the journey anyway.” “I want people to respond, to repeat a call and a response. It's good to hear everybody give energy back because it keeps people engaged and you want people to be interested.” Connect with the podcaster: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://tomasloucky.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomasloucky/⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/thisistommen/⁠⁠⁠⁠   Follow the podcast: 🌐 Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://produced-by-podcast.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 🔗 Links: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/produced_by⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠   💬 Contact: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://produced-by-podcast.com/contact⁠⁠⁠ 📷 Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://instagram.com/produced_by_podcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  🎥 YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCT5LHnM6YCaeVzIr0WatOsw⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  ✉️ Email: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠[e-mail]⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠  Apple Podcasts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/produced-by/id1684669642⁠⁠⁠⁠   🎙️ About Produced By Podcast: Produced By brings you exciting stories of brave people who set out to build careers in competitive fields despite often challenging circumstances. Whether you are interested in creative industries, personal development or want to have some fun, enter the spotlight along with our guests and get inspired. Listen to people coming from all parts of the world, diverse fields of expertise and different levels of careers. So join us to follow their journeys, learn from life experience and embark on a great adventure. 🤩 If you enjoy listening to the podcast, please, leave a review on your podcast app, subscribe or share it with your friends. You can also send us a message and share any feedback, advice and tips for guests. 📭 Subscribe at ⁠⁠⁠https://produced-by-podcast.com/subscribe⁠⁠⁠ so that you don't miss out!    #producedbypodcast #producedby #enterthespotlight  Enjoy! Connect with Tomas:X: https://x.com/TomasLoucky⁠⁠⁠Stan: https://stan.store/TommenLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomasloucky/⁠⁠Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisistommen/⁠⁠Unproduced:Newsletter: https://unproduced.substack.comYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@unproducednotesSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033Ddo8ibDlLYoaP7FFLIWMore:Links: https://linktr.ee/produced_by⁠⁠⁠Newsletter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://producednewsletter.substack.com/⁠The Podcast Club: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/25420030/Tools & gear that support the show:Metricool: https://f.mtr.cool/HRJBZKRiverside: https://riverside.sjv.io/vDnDodFavikon: https://www.favikon.com?fpr=tommenRa Optics: https://ra-optics.myshopify.com/discount/TOMMEN?rfsn=8803777.591d19JamX: https://jamx.ai/podcasters-offer?ref_id=e02d48af-ef66-4e76-b804-c2e8d282a8bfSome links are affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. If you find them useful, using these links helps keep the podcast running. Thank you!  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Simon Atang, aka Simon A. is a London-based artist coming from East London, who focuses on several areas of art. Primary, Simon is a singer, songwriter, rapper and producer, but also a filmmaker of his own music videos. Inspired by various genres including hip-hop, indie, R&V, classical and house music. He covers a broad range of topics such as mental health, relationship, social media and self-lap. Simon thinks about art quite deeply, which is reflected, in his lyrics, sound, structure and basically everything around it. While working on his music career, he is also proficient as a filmmaker. He craved his music videos as truly as his songs, thanks to the filmmaking knowledge he gained

while studying film at the university in London. They sent to this episode to find out how Simon planned his music career in detail, what it is like to perform on a live stage for an audience and what unusual hobby led him to start their music career in the first place. Enjoy it. Hello, Simon. Thank you for joining us and welcome to the show. Thank you very much for having me. Pleasure. So can you briefly introduce yourself? Are you a musician or a filmmaker or both?

I mean, I guess I would lean more towards the musician for now. But I do, you know, make my music video. So I do have a lot of filmmaking tendencies, especially when I'm making a lot of the content for social media right now. But yeah, I mean, I would say musician, to be fair. But yeah, I mean, my name is Simon. My artist's name is Simon A, all lowercase with a full stop at the end. And yeah, I'm a musician from, well, I would just, I'd classify artist. I'd just say artist.

Simon A, I'm an artist from East London, Wolframso East London. I've been in my entire life. And, yeah, at the moment, I'm just, you know, making a bit of music. Can you say what kind of music do you produce? I make kind of like alternative, like indie soul music. like electronic, a little bit of R&B in there. But yeah, generally just like, the genre boundaries are like... So it's not rap, is it?

I do rap as well. But I wouldn't classify myself as a rapper though. So I think about... I use the rapping as a tool to tell specific stories that I might need to tell that I wouldn't be able to sing or would be better told it in rap form. Do you know what I mean? So I do rap, but mainly I sing, I guess. Yeah.

Can you compare it to some famous artist that your music is similar? to. I could give a few. I'll give a few. I think James Blake is probably a really good comparison point. There's a bit of Frank Ocean in there to be fair. Kendrick Lamar, I think like Neo-Soul, but like the alternative R&B or soul artists like Salonge, Brent Fayas, I guess these kind of artists that make the kind of like, what is this, but it sounds good, kind of, that kind of thing. Yeah, good description. That's where I leaned. How long you've been doing music?

I mean, I started properly releasing music maybe like, well, nearly five years ago now. Goodness gracious, the time. In like 2018, I started properly releasing music. But I'd been kind of making music before that. Just not officially? Just not officially releasing it, yeah. Just like for myself. Well, it wasn't even for myself.

I actually started out making birthday raps for my brother. brother as a way of for a present because I didn't have enough money for an actual perfect song. Let me just wrap a let me do a parody of a song and then uh rap you know change the lyrics to like it's your birthday on the rap and then like that was my presence. I started doing that and then um after a while I got more into the production of the song because they used to just be parodies. They'd just be like a parody song like Kanye West Jayzee song whatever like that. Just different lyrics? Just changing the lyrics on the beat. Yeah. But then when I started also doing a similar thing for my friend, I started making my own beats for the raps.

And then the beats just were getting more and more intricate. And at that point, I'd started using a program called Ableton, which is a program that people use to produce music. It's called a Door, which is a digital audio workspace. And it's kind of like Premiere Pro for editors. You know, you just go in there, you can make the instrument all, do all that, you can record in there. It's basically just a music-making program. I started getting into it because I was making a short film at the time. And I wasn't even thinking about like singing or rapping when I was doing this.

I was working in Ableton. I was mainly just thinking about it because I wanted to score a film of mine. So I was making a short film. There was a short film called A Pixalypse. I just made it with my friends. So it wasn't for university? It wasn't even. It was before I even went to uni.

I made this in like 2017. I actually started making it in like 2013, 2014 in year 9. and then like it just took ages and like actually just finalize everything people were waste in time to record we had to like re-record segments loads of times which could you still stayed with the project

I was like I'm making this film there's no way I'm not making it at this point it's over and then like I was more so interested in like the post production the post production just took ages because I wanted to get so I wanted to do some crazy things so I started working like 3D and stuff and basically the film is just about

it's like a, you know, a pixelipse. It's an apocalypse story wherein it's like alien species or whatever, but it's just these big purple cubes. It just came and invaded the planet Earth. And it has something to do with like everybody turning into like pixelated versions of themselves, like it's a disease. Like if you catch this disease, it's kind of like the last of us. You're just like immediately dead.

Like there's no cure. So like a lot of the human race just got extinct. And so we follow like what we think. think is some of the last few survivors, or like the last two survivors of it, and they've been living in a house, and they just think, you know, there must be more than this house. Like, we've got to go outside and figure out what the hell's going on out there. If there's more to life, we'll figure out an answer to this. So they eventually do, and then, yeah.

Is this short finished by now, or are still working? Oh, yeah, no, yeah, it was finished ages ago. It's sparing out on YouTube for a while. I'm sure you could find it if you search out. How was the result? Was it good in the end? I thought it was good when I'd made it. Now I look back and think, wow, that thing is kind of terrible.

I think it has some interesting ideas. The writing of it, like the story of it, it's not as polished as I think I would have done. If I'd approached it now, I probably would have done. And obviously, there was no budget, so, like, you know, things that we were using weren't, like, up to scratch. It was. It didn't look like The Last of Us. It was like a, you know, whatever kind of home, pure independent, like, zero budget. It was like five minutes, 20 minutes. It was like nine minutes long.

So just literally shot that with my friends, edited that, and then I was like, I do want to make a score for this. I want to make music for it. I don't want to get like a YouTube library or whatever to score it. So I was on Ableton making the score. And that was the first time I actually got into production of music and was getting into like properly doing the film score and stuff. And if there's one thing I'm proud of in that film, it's the score. Because I think the score is like. It's everything your work at the score, right?

Oh yeah, literally from scratch. I remember it because as I was filming the film, I had this idea for a motif that would go throughout or like a be kind of like a main theme. And it was just like this piano bit that was like like be like da-da-de-de-de-de like like like like like that. And I was like this thing is ringing in my head as I'm filming it. And then I did the post later. It was like years later.

I was like as I'm filming him, like I'm going to do this. And then as I'm done with it, I bring that into Ableton and do that and, you know, make the whole thing out of it. And it's like big. It's like orchestral. There's like a violins and piano and then it gets electronic towards the end. but there's some really interesting musical ideas and synths present

considering it's like the first piece of production I've ever done I look back at sometimes I'm like what like yeah I mean if it was before the university on such a project it's all like a great experience big done oh 100 I was like I really just made a short film and I remember screening it in like my school

loads of people came and watched the film and everyone was like whoa like yeah like that was kind of cool I was like yeah this guy has a future Well, actually, that was funny because then I got voted, we did like the end of year, like awards, like, whatever, and I got voted, I got voted most likely to be famous. It might have been because of that, I think it was because I wasn't even, I don't even think I was singing at the time, but it was probably because of like my filming. So were you like credited as director, screenwriter, music designer, everything? Literally. Director, producer, editor, the whole thing.

So that's why I didn't even put credits because it was just literally four of us. there's like four of us or five of us making the film. And then a few of them were just, as in like, it was me editing the whole thing. Someone shot it. And then like the other three were just actors, pretty much. There wasn't even like that big of a crew. It was literally a skeleton crew. It was so small.

But it was like a great experience or preparation before Gates University. Because then, you know, you shot something. You knew some software, the stuff, how it works. Yeah, no, 100%. I mean, I knew at that point that I was interested in filmmaking. I wanted to pursue filmmaking. In fact, I picked my A-levels to help get into filmmaking. I picked photography, English literature for writing, philosophy, for concepts.

And then I also picked chemistry because, whatever. I dropped that after, like... No surprise. I'm not a fan of chemistry either. I know. I was... I literally dropped that after, like, the first year. This is impossible.

They were all about moles, units, ionic bonds. I was like, do you know what? No. Absolutely not for big cakes. Especially for someone who wants to become a filmmaker. I just picked it because I wanted a fourth A-level. And then I was just like, you know, well, chemistry, whatever. And then I was like, yeah, actually, no.

Maybe if you were doing Breaking Bad, they're into being helpful. Because the thing is, when I was watching Breaking Bad, I was like, some of the things were constantly. I was like, I actually understand this. I learned this. I learned this in A-level before I dropped that. But yeah, no, so I did that film and then I wanted to score it. and that was when I just got interested in production and all that.

But then, yeah, I mean, I got more into filmmaking as well, because that was the main ambition at that point. I wasn't really that interested in kind of like producing music, I suppose. Then I went into uni and, you know, I studied film as the Jew, just got into there. And then it was like around in the middle of first year, as these kind of birthday reps were progressing more and more, and they were getting more intricate.

So you still continued with that? Oh, I was doing it. I'm still doing it. I still know. I think it's a fun tradition at this point. That sounds like that, yeah. At that, as I was getting more into production, I was like actually purposefully making the instrumentals more and more crazy,

like, not really crazy, like, you can't listen to it, but just like really intricate, adding loads of instruments and like making them ebb and flow in different parts and stuff. And then, yeah, I went to in the middle of first year in 2018, I went to a Kendra at Lamar concert, and I ended up breaking my foot because I landed on it roll. I was just jumping in the concert. I like landed on my left foot. Yeah. And then I broke it. You know,

when you land and you land sideways. Yeah. And then so I snout. And I felt it like ascend. It was like electricity. I felt it like throughout my entire body. And I even heard it. The music is loud. Been at concert, this guy's sick. But I heard the kick like that. And I was like, oh, but it didn't hurt immediately. I thought it was like a knuckle crack. You know when you crack your knuckles. I thought I'd done that with my foot. And I was like, oh, I didn't know I could do that with my foot. Fair enough. But then I tried to stand on it and it like hurt immediately. I was like, oh, okay, I can't stand on my foot. I think I might have just broken my foot.

Fair enough. So they were serious. It was like, yeah, it was like an actual, like I couldn't move my foot or anything like that. So I was like, yeah, I had death I just brought. I remember turning to my, as we were in a concert, I remember turning to my friends like, yeah, I just broke my foot. And then they were like, oh, yeah. Anyway, da-da-da, he just went in the middle of that guy singing. I'm thinking, yeah, I hear you.

So I can't leave. I'm not leaving. I'm going to just jump on one foot and whatever. And then at the end after, you know, I went to the hospital at the next day. I ended up getting a cast and stuff. So that was in February 2018. Then when I was in the cast, about two months later in April, there was another concert by an artist called Anderson Pack. It was another big inspiration point for me.

But that concert was free. And I didn't even get tickets. My friend got tickets. We managed to get in. But we came in and we went to see the line over to Academy Brixton. And the line was hell along. So, and I had the big. boot, you know, like when you break your foot and you get that like,

yeah, yeah, and my friend was just like, follow my lead. And we walked to the front, walk to the security guard. And then my friend was just like, no, my friend, you see, he can't walk. Look, you can't walk, look. And then I was like, oh, yeah, no, I can't walk, I can't walk. And then the security guy was like, come with me, click, come with me quick. And basically we skipped the entire line, got to the front of the crowd. And then this was the friend I was making birthday reps for.

So we were in the front of the crowd. And, you know, before a concert, they have like a kind of like, they're playing music in the background. Yeah. Like it's not an opening act, but they just kind of have like a playlist or radio going in the back. And I remember hearing a song and I said to my friend, I was like, you know, I think I could really like, I think I could make this song, or I think I could recreate this in

Ableton or something like that. And then he just looked at me and he was just like, do you know if you should take this music thing actually quite seriously? And I was like, do you think? And then he was like, yeah, mate, I'm telling you. And I was like, fair enough. And then four months later, I just released my first EP from, that was the tipping point. And then from then on, I actually started taking music way more seriously.

Yeah, sounds like an interesting story that led to it. I know. The origin story is hilarious. So if he didn't say that, maybe you wouldn't even start? Or like, maybe not. Or I don't even know who can say, really. Maybe I would have had some kind of other inspiration point that would have led me here. But that was definitely a moment that made me think, okay, I'm actually going to try it.

Try now. I'm actually going to try and release music. So then what should it to basically just compose your own sound? Yeah, I started making songs. I made a project that it was called The Open Door. At that point, I was very, very interested in the concept behind the music rather than like the music itself. I was more so using, well, even to this day I am still the same.

I'm also using music as like a means to an end to convey a message. So at that project was, it was basically about addiction to technology and like social media and all these things and what does to a person. and so the narrative of the project was framed around kind of like when people go to Alcoholics Anonymous, like those kind of meetings where just the inner group is they're like, Hi, my name is Frank and I'm an alcoholic. Hi, Frank.

Like that kind of thing. But it was a group, it was like a technology addiction. So everyone's going in and it was like five songs on the project and each song was from a different perspective of someone who has like a different problem or whatever or has different thoughts. You know, after my friend said that, I was like, cool, I'm going to see what I can come up with and then started making these songs and they eventually developed into that concept, that EP.

That was like a structure of that EP. Yeah, it was literally like one song after the other. I mean, I wasn't even thinking about the songs individually. I wasn't even thinking about singles. I was thinking about what does this song do for this song and how does it reinforce the narrative of the whole thing? And then, yeah, just released that in like July to, I think a lot of people were probably surprised because I don't think many people knew I was doing music.

at the time. Everyone was like, right, okay, cool, because I was singing on that project as well. I don't think many people wanted to sing. So how was the feedback? Or what did people say? They were like, people were like, right, is like, okay, fair enough. It's tough to think about now because I'm so far past like that style of, you know, whatever I was producing back then. I actually think that that AP, if I were to redo it now, I could improve it like a lot or I would execute it way differently. It was very like rough and wild and like crazy and stylistic. it was kind of, not going to say all over the place, but it was like, it seemed quite unfocused in terms of like the actual music of it. It was very conceptual. Like, I was talking

about things like Franz Kafka's metamorphosis. I was bringing up like Plato's analogy of the cave. I was bringing up like some crazy. So even such a deep stuff. I was going mad. I was absolutely insane. Like you'd have to like, it'd be like, you'd hear what I'm saying and think, I have no idea what the hell he's talking about. You have to read the lyrics and then, like, Google what I'm saying. It was that kind of thing. So since then, I've kind of like toned it back a bit and thought, well, actually, let me make it so that it's a little bit more accessible with what like, at least like to listen to it sometimes without like wanting to break down into a concept. Ever since then, it's been like an attempt to try and find the balance between getting across

a point and then also like having people enjoy just listening to the song, even if they don't want to. So do you feel like you manage to find that balance? I honestly, I don't think I'll ever be able to find it. I think, you know, music is, or, you know, in any craft, I think you're always searching for perfection. I don't think you ever really truly find it, but I think it's more about the journey anyway. Along that journey, you start investigating different things and, you know, trying different things out. And it's more about the exploration of different things that I think is more valuable than, quote unquote, perfection every artist by search out. So how many, let's say, epith or albums have you released since then?

Well, since that, I've released that one in 2018 and then I released another one in 2020 and that one was way more listenable. It was like actually kind of had a vibe to it like as a whole. It was very nice and dreamy and airy and obviously my singing had improved. How many songs? That one has five songs as well. Actually, I think the first one had six but the last song doesn't count. It's more like an interlude or whatever or an outro or like a skit.

But this one has five straight songs. And even still, I think, like, some of the concepts on that EP are a little bit more abstract. It is quite listenable. Like, you can just listen to it. I think it sounds nice. And did you actually make, you know, physical CDs or? I haven't. It's all on streaming and digital and stuff.

I want to do things like vinyl and things like that. But I want to gather an audience first before I commit to doing something. I want to know that people would actually want to, you know, buy it and think that makes it. I can imagine it must be quite hard, right? There is probably a big competition with people who want to become singers or rappers or musicians. The market is very, very saturated, to be fair. I think it's more about how you approach it.

I think finding a kind of niche is probably the best thing to do rather than trying to infiltrate the popular music scene because it can always, in my opinion, seems quite inauthentic. If you just come through and try, I do what everyone else is doing. I would much rather like try and bring people on to what I'm doing and like, you know, make that as good as possible to attract people to it.

I do think there's an audience for everybody. There probably is space for everybody, I think. Yeah, especially in London, right? There must be a very charity, everything. Yeah, for sure. I mean, London's a bit, the UK is a bit different because the UK mainstream seems to focus on very specific genres of music. It seems to be like either drill or Afrobeats or like kind of just up in general, you know,

these kind of niches are like generally just UK music. And because America is like so much bigger, there's a more potential for an artist to flourish within their community just because the community is bigger. Do you know what I mean? There's more people there. So you find I, the amount of times I come across a random artist on Spotify, just like, like a million monthly listeners. I've never heard of you in my life.

Like a million monthly listeners. Who are you? I don't even know who you are. They've literally just got everybody in. And I didn't even know like Ohio. You know what I mean? These kind of whatever niches is just so random. So yeah,

but honestly, I do think there's like a space for anybody if they want to try and craft their lane. So what is your way of advertising yourself or trying to get your name out there? At the moment, I've been doing a lot of life. shows. Really? Like a concert? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Performing live in and around London. I managed to do a

festival in Sheffield last year called Tramlines Festival. Yeah, I just got given that opportunity completely on a random and I was like, yeah, why not? And then literally just got the train up at Sheffield. How was it? It was quite good, actually. It was quite good. It was the biggest, like, in terms of stage, like, it was the biggest stage I'd ever performed at. To this day, I think even as the biggest stage. And it was quite nerve-wracking because, you know, I'm at like a part of the day where there aren't that many people, people are just walking around, like, some of the acts that went before me, it seemed like they kind of cleared out the area where, like, people were sitting. Like, not many people were paying attention to what was going on on the stage that I was

going to go on to. So I was thinking, man, I'm not going to go on and there's going to be like five people in the crowd. I'm going to think, like, this is going to be a whatever. But went backstage, got ready, came out, you know, hopped on stage, started doing it. And then, I guess I didn't really notice because I was quite focused, but as I started looking out, suddenly there was like loads of people there just like ready to listen to what I was, you know, what I was doing. I was like, wow, even deeper. I was on stage. I was like, rah. There's like, what? Like at least 70 people here. That's crazy. Fair enough. Before I went backstage, there were like five people there. I was like, rah, okay, that's mad.

Did you get more stressed or the opposite that it kind of energized you? I actually get more energized when there's more people there. I don't know. I guess most people would get more embarrassed, I assume, the more people are looking at them. I would get more embarrassed, the less people are there because I like to engage people in the crowd. Like, I like to talk to them. And if there's like five people there, I'm thinking, right, actually, I don't want to talk to the crowd because it's literally five people. Yeah. It's a little bit, if you're just talking to the one person and then, then, like, there's like three other people over there, and that's it. I'd much rather, like, have a big amount of people there to actually respond to what I'm saying,

because I like talk to the crowd. I like to, um, yeah, engage, right? engaged. I have them respond. I have them like do it like a repeat call a response, repeat after me and it's good to hear everybody like give energy back because it, you know, I think it keeps people engaged and you want people to be interested in what's going on. Yeah, that sounds cool. I didn't know. Yeah, I mean, I recently started to take off even more a bit like there's a big plans this year, I'd say, to do even more live shows and stuff. Other than the live shows, I'd say, you know, I'm on social media, Instagram, TikTok.

Even TikTok. TikTok is a big one for artists. I wish I was on TikTok like two, three years ago when it was like actually people were actually popping off. Nowadays it's a bit harder to pop off, I assume. Need to find something to stand out, something viral. That's the jarring part of it. It's like, bro, how do you even go viral?

Back then you didn't even have to go viral. It was like you just had to do, put the music out there and people were like, raw music on TikTok and then everyone was like, that's how you get people like Pink Panther and stuff like that. Shout out to Pick Panthers, she's sick. But like, yeah, I wish I was there as well, man. I would have capitalized, boy, if I'd known, I didn't even know. I didn't know it back to neither.

Who would have known? Who would have known? Shout out to the people that were up on the curve and managed to take advantage of it. I am doing it now and we'll see if something happens still. And just coming back to those concerts, how does it work? Like, do you reach out to them? Do they reach out to you? Currently, I have a manager now who is able to deal with a lot of the arrangements.

The main issue I had making music was like figuring out how to actually like progress and like do things in the real world. Because, you know, it's a struggle when no one's really, there's no like guidebook on how to like make things happen. And the thing that was stressing me out was like, you should have do this. But like it's a combination of like looking at other people's success and how they're doing it. You know you're on Instagram. You're playing the comparison game. And like everyone looks like they're doing well. Yeah.

Let's picture on Instagram. Post is just the best version of yourself. Everyone's just putting their best foot forward and like that's all you're seeing. So you think that that's their life unconsciously. That's just what you think. That's what their life is. But obviously everybody goes through, you know, day and day out struggles. They're not going to show that though.

They're just going to show, oh, here's me, you know. I just got like a thousand streams on myself. I'm thinking, how did you do it? How did you do it? How did you do it? And then you go on big artists, Wikipedia pages. And you're looking at the Wikipedia page and it's just like, oh, you know, Started making music at Blah in 2011, signed to Sony Entertainment in 2013.

But excuse me, sir, like, what happened between those two years? Like, how did you get signed? What did you do? That's what was jarring. That was what was jarring me. I literally had no idea. And then maybe you don't know that there's one out of how many thousands? Do you what I mean? Like, literally imagine, you know, you're seeing the success of one artist, you're thinking how many artists have tried and haven't been able to, or are still trying to, the make it will come up or whatever. You have no idea.

You're only seeing the best of the best, and you're thinking, that's what there is. I'm not there, so Satan must be wrong or whatever. I don't know. But that was my main issue. She was figuring out how to make things happen. But I've got a manager now, so she's been promoting me a lot.

She's been helping me out and securing a lot of shows. Yeah, that feels great. And how did you find the first one? What did you manage to break the first one to find a place somewhere life? Oh, man. The first one I, at this point, every single or before this year, every single performance I'd done had just been happenstance of like knowing the person who either owns the venue or someone who is performing there and like needed a slot or something like that. The first performance, per life performance I'd ever done was that it's kind of like, it's a thing called crate in St. James Street. It's kind of like box park in short-inch, but a little bit smaller.

but it's just like a big collection of like a random shops and you know the different outlets or whatever and a friend of mine used to work there and he said he was just like well I mean do you want to do a performance there or on a random whatever day in September I was like yeah why not I never perform live let's try it out see what happens and then um managed to do that there and then you know that one was all right that was my first performance that was in 2019 I think and then obviously COVID so then I couldn't perform again after that but then 2021. I was in touch with a girl who ran PR, public relations. And she, as we were doing a kind of like a photo shoot for something,

she was just like, do you want to do a live performance at Folklore in Hoxton in Shortage? And I was like, yeah, okay, why not? For sure. And then did that. That was my second live performance. And then the third one I'd ever done was an artist I'd met who ran a magazine, had reached out to me, and was just like, Like, you know, I know you're an artist.

Do you want to open up for me in Sheffield for one of my shows? He's from Sheffield. One of his shows in hometown, I was like, yeah, for sure. And then that was my third live performance. And then he was the one who was like, I'm actually curating a stage at Trameline Festival in Sheffield. Do you want to perform there as well? I was like, for sure, why not? All four of my performances were just like, okay, I guess.

Why not? Just a random offer. And then, but now they're becoming a little bit more scheduled now that I have. you know, a few more contacts and... Yeah, so do you want to, wanting to become something regular? A performing? Yeah.

I guess for now, I would want to perform more, yeah, because it leads to more exposure. And I like exploring how to operate the stage at a live show, because, you know, I don't like half-assing anything. So I like doing things very interesting at a live show. I like to change the song in a way to do it live differently. And as I said, I like to engage the crowd. I like to talk about the concepts of the song and do different things in a live show that I think at the moment could lead to people getting interested in me as an artist and being engaged, maybe sticking with me and, you know, seeing how far we take this.

I think eventually it will probably get to a point where I probably won't be performing as much and mainly just for like tours for an album or like, you know, a festival or something like that. But never just like, it wouldn't just be sporadic performances. I think it'll be more organized and more few and far between. Just to make them more of an event, I do eventually want to get to a point where people are like, you know, Simon's Live. Like, let's get a ticket. Oh, like, we've got to get a ticket because who knows when. Yeah, yeah.

So are you like planning when you make a new or next album to actually prepare something like this, like a tour? I mean, the thing is I'm quite candid about how I want to structure my career. or how I see it going. I know for a fact that I only want to do seven albums in my career. Why did that? Because I just think it's fun. There's a few reasons. Firstly, the number seven, don't ask me why.

That was just the first number that just came to my head. I like the number seven. I think it's decently well-rounded. And I'm like, I think seven is a good amount of albums. Because, you know, Korea can span like 20, 25 years. You do seven albums. You're like, all right, I think. you cover a lot of ground there.

So do you count those EPEs or not? No, not at all. I haven't produced any of the albums yet. I know when I begin doing that cycle, that's when, you know, the album thing will start,

but like EPEs, singles, they'll be outside of that realm. And secondly, the reason why I know I want to do that is because I just don't want to fall off. I don't want to, like, have my career Peter out into, you know, irrelevancy.

It might happen, but like, at least I know for a fact that I'll be going out on my own terms and know for a fact that, you know, I've done, I'm doing one, two, three, four, five, six. This is the last one. And then after that, it enables me to put more energy into each project because I know there's less of them. It's not indefinite.

Like, I know that the fact this is one of the seven albums that I'm doing and then, you know, it's a seal of quality, basically. You would know for a fact if you care to listen. you would know for a fact I'm putting a lot into this album because there are only seven of them. Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's understandable. Yeah. It's an interesting idea.

I've never seen it done before, so I want to try something new. It reminded me of something. Just a quick one. If you enjoy our podcast, please give us a review on your favorite podcast app, subscribe or share it with your friends. For more information, visit the show notes. Thank you and back to the show. You know what? It reminded me of Quentin Tarantino.

Oh yeah, he said he only wants to do 10 films. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, exactly. That's true. And isn't his 10th and 5th? He just announced his 10th and final one? I think so, because I wasn't sure if the previous one was 10th one or now is 10th one coming. But I read that it's going to be about this female movie critic, right?

Yeah, it's a movie critic, yeah, it's called the critic or the movie critic or something. Yeah, it's a good idea. I agree. That leads me on to another thing, is that the way I view. you know, structuring a lot of my music is, it really does come from a film perspective, to be honest. I do think, you know, I value the music and the quality of music, but I want these albums to carry concepts and have a kind of like impact as if it were a movie by a director. I want people to think about the albums as if I were a director. You know when Christopher

Oner releases a new film, he's like, well, what's this film going to be about? I want people to think the same way about the music that I make on the, single thing I release. Yeah. It's interesting that you think it true as much. It's like a film that you go to cinema and it's not like just to enjoy, but it makes you think after you leave. That's the aim. You want to revisit it again. So yeah, good way to think about it like this. I agree. I just think it's fun. I think it's fun to, you know, put a lot of thought into something. I think it gives you the best possible result. I like planning things. I like improvising sometimes, but I just like having structure. I think when something has structure to it and like, like,

like it's visible. I'm just a big fan of it. So I just thought, let me just approach my entire music career from that perspective as well. Because why not? I'm already here. I'm thinking about it. That was my thought. When I came up with the plan is, I'm already thinking about it.

So, like, I might as well just do it now and, like, think about we're doing in the future now, because I'm already thinking about. So you don't have to scrounge around and think, oh, what do I do next? I already know. I already know what this album. Because I already know what all the albums are going to be about. Oh, so we got it even planned like this. Oh, yeah, I'm 100%.

I know what they are. what they're going to be covering. I know what they're called. I guess you don't want to say that. Absolutely not. It makes sense. No way. That's what makes it. Because then that's what makes it fun. But nobody else does. And that's what makes people think raw. Like, it's thought through. It's like, bro, I thought about all of this when I was like 20. I have no idea. Do you think you will change it or it's like not going to change it? I'm open to having fluctuations in the plan because you know, you never really know something might come up and something might change but i do kind of want to stick to it because i've put a lot of thought into it at this point and i've given the plan a lot of leeway

to kind of switch up i know the specific order of the things i want them to release and but like you know for example the way they sound i have the general topics but like the individual intricate elements of the topics or whatever i'm ready to think about like when the time actually comes so it's a little bit more organic but it just allows me to me to know I'm not going to be lost when that time comes to you know I'm ready for the third album now like I know what that's going to be so I'm ready to know it reminds me I read about some book authors and there's like what I like to read and he says that he's writing a book and when he finishes he already knows next one that is coming so basically it's not like you finish and then like

what now now I'm done what am I going to do with my life but you already know what is the next projects and jump on it after it. So I think it's a great way to approach work like this and stay productive and work like that. Yeah. It's true. And have you got a time scale in your mind? Do you know when you start maybe working on the first album? I don't actually, I couldn't tell you when because I don't actually know, but like I know that when the time comes, I'll know I'm ready to begin because like I do want people on board for the first one specifically because that's like the introduction, you know, people are ready to, I'm okay with like, you know, the audience getting bigger and bigger as time goes on. I've given a lot of importance to this, these seven albums,

the whole run. So I don't really want to have like too minimal of an audience there because it would just, I don't know, I guess it would just hurt me internally to like release it and it just doesn't get. And you know, make a good first impression. A 100%. Yeah. The thing is, to consider is, at the moment, I'm currently making a first impression to everybody, basically. You know, whoever is listening to me is probably listening to me for the first time. So everything I make currently, I make it with the thought of, this is probably the first

song of mine that someone will hear. Or like, it's the first project of mine that someone will hear. So everything is pretty much an intro, but I know when that time comes and I'm ready to, okay, now I'm ready, let's begin the plan. And then like, now we're going to go album one. That's when it'll come. The only date of structure I have is a specific year. It's 2031.

Is it for the last album, for the first album, or? No, that's actually for, this one is a dumb, crazy concept. Essentially, what I'd figured out or, like, kind of just thought about, is that a lot of great artists release what is their best work, quote, unquote, is their best work, when they're around the age of 32, or like 33 or 32, and I'm going to be 32 in the year. 2031. That's an interesting idea. Yeah, so I don't think it will be the first album or the last one, but I'm banking on it being my best one. Whatever I release in that year, that would be my best

out. I have no idea which one. It's either, I think it'll even be the third or fourth. I don't know, but that one will probably, maybe, I guess, according to my rules, be the best one, but we'll see. It makes sense. It's kind of interesting to think about it like this. Yeah, I just like playing around with like just rat just making things like solidifying things and just you know it being random and just having a concept that plays out pretty much and i guess what to start working on it are you going to release like the songs with music videos as you know regular artists oh yeah i already currently do i have loads of music videos out with my songs already do even record those by yourself sometimes i do sometimes i have some help you know have a lot of my friends who are ready and willing to like help me

film things and do all of that. But yeah, generally a lot of the time I edit it myself and you know, release it with myself. They're all tie-ins to different songs that I released over there. So what are you working on now? At the moment, I actually, well, the other day was it yesterday, I suppose from the recording of this. I released a music video for a song that I'd released last week. Their song was called Dare Laughing. It's basically the song is essentially about how a lot of people seem to kind of complain about things like unnecessarily and then because they're complaining about things and they're not moving to action they kind of move past it and complain and then forget about it and nothing ever changes and because nothing changes the thing or the things

that they complain about they don't even care they don't care that they complain so you know it doesn't really matter much. And, you know, the people that people might complain about, because they know there's not going to be any repercussions for these complaints, they're laughing. And that's the thought behind the song. It's framed from two different perspectives in the song, the person is speaking first,

or the, you know, the narrator at first is from the perspective of those people who complain and then forget. And, you know, a lot of these lyrics are quite, like, hypocritical. And kind of you would think is quite dumb. It went put into the perspective, but these are things that people might actually say. I will have a look and listen after. Oh, yeah, you should. Yeah, they're there. And then, so then I released the music video for that yesterday.

And the music video is, it has a video collage kind of style to it. Each clip just gets overlaid on top of each other. And it ends with, I have, I got this like program to have an, like, it's like an AI face lip sync to my soul. So like there's these different kind of like AI. They seem like quite professional people. Obviously, they're like made up people, robots, however. But they're kind of like lip syncing to the second part of the song, which is from the perspective of the people who people might complain about

or the things that people might complain about. So yeah, it's like really ominous, really thing. But the song is quite vibe, to be fair. Part two songs. Very, yeah, very, very. I think it's my most, it's my bravest song, I think, that I've ever paid because it's quite in your face with it. I do try and generally be quite nice with it currently and have the concept there, but, you know, I'm not like bashing you over the head with the concept.

But this one's quite like, it's quite in your face, like this is what I'm talking about. You know what I mean? But I do think it's interesting because sometimes you just have to challenge. Yeah, of course. And it's good to try new things because you never know. Maybe it can become viral. You never know. You never know.

Yeah. See, I'm still promote it. How long you spent on it? How long does it take? To write a song, to record it, then video. I cannot imagine. I mean, it really, it can vary. Some songs I've made very, very quickly,

maybe in like, I don't know, I couldn't count because each song has a different kind of process of creation to it. You might start with the lyrics and then make the beat, or you might start with the instrumental and then write lyrics on top, and then you might have a section of an instrumental that expands out. So it's always different? Yeah, the order can always change from song to soul. That song, I think, I remember coming up with it,

like kind of late last year, maybe in September, I'd kind of come up with the concept and then kind of recorded the song and made it in maybe those three months. And I think I was maybe done with it, maybe around January time. And then so from there, it was just like, I like to sit with the song a lot. I'm quite slow in the creation process because I want ideas to come naturally and have things just happen without me sitting down and thinking, okay, what can I do? What can I do for this?

blah blah, blah. City was just sitting there and I was thinking about how I could possibly present what would be the best way to present this song. Because it is just a song and obviously the concept is in the song. But like I'm thinking, what's the best way to expand this outwards into kind of like a world? So I started to explore, you know, and came across a thing on TikTok. It's kind of like an art movement called core core.

Core, core. No, never heard of it. Have you ever heard like, you know, when people might take a word and then add core to the end like gorp core or like yeah i think no like that it's usually to do with fashion but it can be other forms of art as well but core core is kind of like a parody of that and it deals with like existentialism so a lot of the videos that present themselves as core core videos are kind of video collages of different videos of that give across a theme like a specific theme like one could be about work culture and it's just all sorts of different videos of people talking about like

you know I work for a liver but not really able to do anything or like or from the other side people promoting work and it's like to get across a specific message of you know this is what work life is now to the 21st century and how do you feel about it I saw that and thought wow this is really like actually quite cool and then organically I thought oh this could probably connect to that song that I'd made in January the whatever so then I started to combine those two ideas and then that's how I decided to present the song in that kind of way and align it with that style of video and, you know? And does that happen, for example, that you got an idea,

so you sit down and you write the song during the night? Mm-hmm, all the time. The amount of times I've been going to sleep, like, I'm in bed, and then like... And your brain starts working. My brain, something just clicks, and I'm like, oh, man, I have to go sit there. I don't want to forget, which is good. And I'm like, fun. Now I'm going to bed of, like, one.

But you know, inspiration can strike at any point in time, you never know. And then just for example, you wake up the next day and in the morning and you look at it and you say, oh, that's actually great or is it like it's not good? Sometimes I have an idea in my head and I might get it down and immediately think, actually, whatever was in my head, it's not this, like this isn't good actually. It could be quite hard to translate like a really good idea in my head into like the program because like, you know, I don't actually know what. what instruments are being used in my head. So I'm trying to find the kind of equivalent to that on the program. And then it might not sound exactly high in my head. So I might be a little bit disappointed.

And it's like, yeah, and it depends. Sometimes I might record something and then go back to it and think, do you know what? Like, we can work from this. This can be a jumping point. Sometimes I might record just a section of, generally it's like a section of an idea. Like I never come up with an entire song.

I just have like a kind of section or a kind of like verse or chorus or a motif that I I want to put down that I eventually just return to and kind of expand outwards when I have more ideas for it. So that's, that's the way, that's the way. So I can imagine do you have like more songs kind of in a process that you are working on? Or is it like one song they're working on and once you are finished to go to the next one? Oh, I have, no, yeah, there's loads and loads in the works like loads of finished ones as well. The thing is I can have loads of ideas, but when I'm close to finishing a song or a song is looking more and more complete, I start to focus more on that song and then, because I'm into it now, like I'm ready, this is actually shaping up

to be a song. So I start focusing on it more and paying more attention and try and finish that one first because I'm just more engaged in that one and then eventually return to the other projects. And I'm curious, when it comes to making music like a sound, do you just use your keyboard or do you actually have like, you know, proper keyboard as a, you know, pianist or something? I do have a little piano. I have it. It's up there, actually. So do you use it to compose the music or just software or how does it work?

The way I work is because I, you know, I can play piano, but I can generally only play what I need to play in that moment. I kind of have the piano there. But generally, when I make a song, I use the software to kind of put the notes in. You can, like, double-click and write a note into, like, a piano. role and make a chord there. And then when I've like made that progression or shaping up to be like a thing, I then go and record that progression again naturally with the piano with me actually playing it live. Just to add that, you know, the feeling of it. It's actually being played like properly.

You can record something by it will still sound digital because, you know, there's a lot of fine tunements when you play lives that you just can't, you're not able to replicate unless you want to work for like 50 hours, which I can't be bothered. So I just want to. I just want to. learn the piece and then just play it and then the software is it free or you need to pay it's not free ableton is um i think it's like 400 pounds but it's not like adobe cc like it's not you don't pay perpetually forever you just like buy the software once and then oh you got it and how hard is it to learn it the reason why i chose ableton was specifically because it had the most similarities to Premiere Pro, which I was using for ages before that.

We had a similar kind of timeline vibe to it. You're able to like, what are keyframes basically to like do automation and things happen. So I kind of jumped into Ableton and it felt quite natural. And then I just, you know, you learn as you go on, you start to learn more things about the program and explore different parts of it. But yeah, I guess even to this day, I'm still learning things. I'm still like, I didn't even know how to even do that now, you know. Do what, like, control shift K is like a this as it does this?

And okay, fair enough. And is it like an industry standard? It sounds very popular or is it just the one you picked because it worked for you? It's in music, a lot of people, it's more so preference. So, like, I would have said there's necessarily one program that, like, everybody uses. It's not like, I guess in film it would either be like Premiere Proho or Avid Media. Yeah, or W&2 maybe. Whatever.

Or, yeah, or even DaVinci, like, basically. In music, it's more so like whatever you just are using. It can either be Ableton, it could be Logic. It could even be garage band if you're like, you know, whatever. No, it's on Mac, isn't it? Or Apple. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

I was so close to getting Logic. I was like, I want to work in Logic just because, but I don't have a Mac. So I was like, man, am I really going to like dual boot Mac OS on my Windows PC just so I can get Logic? I was like, no. What else can I use? I found Ableton. I was like, okay. I guess I'll just use this one.

So happy with the choice you did? I think Ableton is very powerful. Like it has a lot of options and like capabilities and what you can do with music. When it comes to recording, not composing, but recording your singing, what do you use for that? I have this mic, this exact mic that I'm using.

Oh, this one? Podcast, yeah. You can't even see it. Hold on me bring it up. Oh, nice. Shout to the podcast listeners. You have no idea. I actually got this for Christmas

a few years ago, and my brother got it. for me just because he knew I wanted to do music. I was just like, yeah. And it's this exact same mic that I've just been using ever since. I haven't upgraded it. I know it costs like 20 pound.

It's very cheap. I thought you'll say like it was several hundred pounds because it's professional. I know, I googled it. You can get on Amazon. It's like you can get the mic and you can get the little mic stand and like the little pop filter thing.

Like 25 pounds. It really doesn't cost a lot to do this stuff. And does job? Yeah. The music you edit in the same software as you compose? Yes, so everything just happens in Ableton. Like, you record into there, you can make the, you know, record chords.

You can do all sorts of stuff and then you kind of mix. You can even mix and master in Ableton if you want to. Yeah, that sounds good. Yeah. And where do you record? Is it at home or do you go somewhere to studio? I literally record right here in this bedroom. In my bedroom, I have this mic here.

I generally kind of like set up maybe some clothes around the area just to like dampen the sound. Or I mean like, you know, dry out the room, it absorbs sound. Like, you know, you go to a little studio, there's like sponges and stuff like around. Yeah, like on the walls. Yeah, because it just soundproof the room and just stops reverb and echo and stuff like that. So I just put a lot of stuff around the area where I'm recording just to absorb extra sound. So it sounds a bit more clean and, yeah, just record it right here.

And have you tried to record in the studio? I also have recorded in a studio before. I recorded at Pirate Studios because they had another mic and it was cool. Did you see the difference? Like in the recording? It wasn't really that much different. I think they had a more professional mic, but like,

I mean, it sounds just like my mic, to be fair. It was a similar process. It was just me recording it as well. So like, it was a similar kind of vibe. I was just paying record, going over there and then just hello, I'm just sticking into the mic. It was a similar thing. And I can imagine it might be quite expensive

to book like a studio to record there, or isn't it? When you start going to like the more like independent studios or like professional studios, they all charge different rates. I guess I like Pirate because Pirate Studios is like a local studio. It's 24 hours. You can book it whenever. Is it somewhere nearby where you live? They got loads of locations around.

The my nearest one is Tottenham. So I just go to that one. It's literally like 20 minutes away. Hop in there. Bring my laptop in there. But I mainly use Pirate Studios now. I use that studio as more of a rehearsal space than a recording space. space. I can record in my bedroom, but like, you know, only at times because, you know,

to perform, you're singing loudly. You don't want to disturb everybody else. I was going to say that. Or you don't want to start recording and suddenly listen to your neighbor doing the lawn or something. Or I can hear my parents speaking downstairs. I'm going to stop. Terrible. So, yeah, I mainly do use it as a rehearsal space nowadays because, you know, you're able to, like, do all sorts of stuff. You can be loud. You can play music loud. And when you are recording, how many attempts do you need to make before you are happy? It can really vary. Sometimes I get it like, you know, one take.

I'm like, bro, I just killed that. Like, that's done. It can really depends. When you're recording, there's this concept called comping, which is basically where you might do multiple takes of a similar line. Or like maybe just kind of like, you know, in film when you punch in. It's like a similar concept, basically. You kind of like ADR.

Like you have a kind of one take and then you might. a little section of it you might just re-record and then like kind of drop that in and blend it into the rest of the thing so it sounds like it's one clip and all that comping is a similar thing you might just combine different takes from different areas of different takes into one

big take and it sounds like it's one take can vary from song to song sometimes I might do one sometimes generally a lot of the time I might begin recording I start singing and think yeah no I flop that it doesn't even count as a take I don't even have it safe they just literally delete it and start again

I got to get that first part right before I... It's more of an energy thing. Like, I'm going to nail this take, like, in the first two seconds of even beginning. It's just like, I know the energy. I call it. Generally, from what I remember, average, three or four takes. And do you, like, continue until we finally record it and are happy with it? Or do you also finish and say, like, I'm going to continue tomorrow?

Generally, when I'm recording, I record it one go. Because, like, it might be... It's about getting the opportunity to even remember. record. You have to know there's the right conditions. I get kind of, I don't know, I do get a little bit embarrassed singing when there's other people in the house, because I know they're just listening to me singing loud. Didn't they get used to it yet? I'm sure they are. I do like announce it. I'm, I'm recording something now. Like, hey, fair enough, whatever. I don't like them hearing me flop. My voice might crack and I'm thinking, oh, God, I'm really struggling to hit. I know they can

hear me. So I just want to, you know, hang the opportunity to record. And when I do, I just do it all in one go. And is your family or your parents also musicians? No, literally. I have no musical ties to the industry whatsoever. I just decided I wanted the music and then now I'm kind of like getting into the world. Or are they filmmakers or not even filmaker? Not even, yeah, not even.

I do come from a generally artsy background. My brother works in architecture. He does like 3D visualizations or interior visualizations. And my sister is like a fashion designer. So generally a lot of like artsy people in the family. Nobody doing film or music, so I'm an offshoot. And when it comes to doing music videos, do you have a groove for it? Or do you do it by yourself or with friends or what's the process like?

Sometimes I do it by myself. Sometimes I might call my friend, hey, can you help me record this or whatever? And they're like, yeah, for sure, let's do it. Generally, though, the edit is left to me. So I just come through. And once, you know, I know I've got all the footage. because I'm making it for myself I'm way more loose with the process

like I kind of record knowing that I'm going to edit it so like I just kind of know just shoot it and then I know where it's going to go I know what part I'm doing it for and you know I'm lip syncing to the song I have the song in my phone in my phone's in my pocket and so yeah but then you know

done with the shoot and I come back and edit it and try to do it on a budget as well very much very much so I assume that's going to expand that's probably going to change at some point. I do have plans to do like big, you know, not really necessarily big budget music videos, but like music videos that I explore a little bit more,

and that's obviously going to require a budget. So, yeah, but at the moment, because it's just me, it's more about returns on the investment. Just want to save money because I know not too many people are looking right now, so maybe I wouldn't want to spend too much money in something that I know is not going to... And how do you pick the songs for which you make the videos?

I like doing music videos for all my songs. Really? Do you have so many? I know. I have a lot of videos. There's some songs that don't have videos, but like when it's a single, I do like to just tie a music video to it because I just think it's a fun part of, you know, a single release. For my EP in 2020, the EP was called Way to Go. It has five songs and four of them each have music videos just because, you know, I wanted music videos to be part of the release strategy and I wanted them to be to expand on the one.

world of the project. Don't you ever struggle creatively that you don't know what kind of video do for that? The thing is, I wouldn't necessarily say I struggle. As I said, like, I'm never stressing. Like, I'm literally just sitting with the song thinking, I'm just going to wait for some inspiration to strike on this. And then a lot of the times it just does. Or sometimes when I'm making the song, I'll have like a visual in mind that just

translates into the music video and then I just approach that. And from there it just expands out. But if I'm kind of ever stuck on a way I want to approach a concept, I might just hop on Pinterest and like... Yeah, Chris sounds like mood bored. Yeah, sounds good. Because I was going to ask you how you look for inspiration. I mean, yeah, inspiration, as I said,

a lot of the times it just comes to me. But if I really want to search out, I do kind of just like gather things online. Different music videos that I want to reference, different visuals that I want to kind of spring from Pinterest, other magazine sites. Or even from other artists, like other singers or repress? Other music videos even, yeah, other music videos from different artists.

Look at them and think, I don't want to try something like that in my own kind of way. I will need to have a look because I was curious if you do it rather like, you know, walking on a street, someone recording you're singing, or if it's like the opposite or something artistic that, as you said before, this AI with stuff and a lot of edits. The way I approach a lot of the music videos is I kind of base them around a single concept that I want to explore. So, or like maybe a technique that I want to explore. For example, for the most recent music video, the concept or technique that I wanted to explore was video collage. That music video is based around that.

And then like, that's the entire thing. The last video that I made was for a song that I released in January. It was called I'd make some changes. And for that one, I literally just wanted to make it a kind of like a travel vlog. I'd went on a trip last year to Greece with my friends, documented a lot of it. In the middle of it, I knew I wanted to make this music video, so I would maybe do some shots of me performing the song in different areas around Greece, and then ended up just compiling all of those videos into that music video,

just so it seems a more natural, it gives it a nice good vibe. For another video before that, the concept I wanted to explore was the one take. I know I wanted to do a one-take film. So there's a music video for one of my songs that's called To Stay Here. And the concept is, I mean, yeah, literally I just, I just know I want to do like a kind of pseudo one take music video. I was like, called my friend. He also studies film. I was like, Jonathan, well, what do you think about this?

Let's explore this. He's like, yeah, let's go for it. He has a little gimbal. And then we went around London and then, you know, basically doing a one take as me walking around doing different things and kind of crafted a story around that. So was it one take? in the end or did you fake it? It's one take, quote unquote. There are like really big, there's

long takes, but it is kind of spliced together to make it look like one take pretty much. So it's that. But yeah, now each music video, I approach it with the idea of I want to try this in this music video and it just kind of expands from there. Yeah, I will need to have a look. I should have probably research more.

That's fair. It's fine. It's fine. But it was great to catch up and I'm glad to hear that, you know, your person, your passion and working on it and doing what you enjoy. All same. I'm glad to hear that you started this podcast and you're really trying to go for it.

I admire it. Thank you. We'll see how it goes. No, I'm down. Good. Thank you, Simon. And thank you for having me. We'll get in touch soon.

Thank you. Thank you very much, man. I hope you have a good evening. Thank you. Same. Bye bye. Thank you. Thank you for listening to Produce Park.

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