Produced By - Insight #6 - Simon Attang: Never Ending Search For a Perfection In Music

Episode Date: May 26, 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   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.

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 do you basically just compose your own sound? Yeah, I started making songs. I made a project that 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,

Like, you know, when people go to Alcoholics Anonymous, like those kind of meetings, where they're in a group is saying 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 then 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. Before, 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, well, 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?

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 stylistically, it was kind of not going to say it all over the place, but it was like, it seemed quite unethical.

unfocused in terms of like the actual music of it. It was very conceptual. Like I was talking about things like France 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 read like it'd be like you'd hear what I'm saying and think I have no idea what the hell you're 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 water. Like, at least like to listen to it sometimes without like wanting to break down entire 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.