Hans Zimmer has been tapped to score the upcoming superhero movie X-Men: Dark Phoenix. The film marks the directorial debut of writer/producer Simon Kinberg (X-Men: Days of Future Past, The Martian, Deadpool) and stars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Tye Sheridan, Sophie Turner, Alexandra Shipp, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Evan Peters and Jessica Chastain. Kinberg is also producing the project with Bryan Singer (X-Men, The Usual Suspects), Hutch Parker & Lauren Shuler Donner (Logan).
Zimmer’s involvement was mentioned by actor Evan Peters on the Happy Sad Confused podcast. We previously heard that the composer was scoring the film this past December, but it was unclear whether he would be sharing scoring credit with anyone else. Zimmer has previously scored the Kinberg-produced sci-fi movie Chappie and Kinberg-scripted Sherlock Holmes. X-Men: Dark Phoenix is set to be released on November 2, 2018 by 20th Century Fox.
How should you use your email list in between new releases or gigs?
Setting up an automated (and authentic) stream of emails that will interest your fans.
Email can be a drag. I write a bit on how to make the most of it here. But in this article, I want to dig in with you. Deep dive style.
Let’s start with a simple question: How do you use your email list in between projects?
I mean, it’s easy to send an invite to your next show or to tell people about your newest album, single, or video release.
But what about in-between that stuff? And how can you write and send emails without having it take up a ton of brain power and time? (Every time I knew I wanted to send a newsletter out, I would take an entire afternoon thinking, outlining, writing, editing, testing links, re-reading, sending.)
A plan to rock your email list for over a year
It starts with a content-creation challenge…
Write 30 emails.
(You’ll see why and what to write in a minute).
There are a bunch of ways to do this. You could take one day and just bang out all 30. Part of what took me so long every time I wanted to send out one email was that I really needed to focus and transition into email-writing mode to do this. Writing a bunch at once came WAY more easily than writing one at a time. Another way to bang out 30 emails is by writing one email a day for a month. Or by taking downtime on a tour and have all your bandmates each write 5-10. Either way, set a serious goal.
Reminder: you’re just writing these emails, you are not actually sending them… yet (we’ll get to that in a second).
If you’re using MailChimp or another email system, it helps to write these in Word or Pages first before formatting them. Formatting and posting take different brain power, and for now you want to focus on the writing, not the technology.
Here’s how to split the 30 into different kinds of emails, covering different topics:
First ten emails: Grab 10 of your favorite songs and write a short (2 paragraphs, tops) essay on how you came up with the lyrics, what the recording process was like, or some anecdote about the tune. Then, of course, link to that song on iTunes or Bandcamp or wherever you sell your music. That’s 10 emails.
Next ten emails: The next 10 emails you’ll write will tell your story. Not just “I was born here and went to college here.” But 10 little secrets or moments about yourself or your past that people don’t know yet. Pro Tip: The first place to look for these moments is in transitions. Where were you deciding something, choosing to live in one place over another? Choosing one job over another? One guy over another? If you can come up with 10 of these, you’ll have a great bunch of content emails ready to go. Bonus points if those memories inspired a song. Again, you can link to your own music.
Next five emails: Next, write five emails about what you love to do most. For example, this may be touring. Here you can share a specific story or two from your past tours, and/or sell tickets to your upcoming shows if you have any. Include photos, videos, anything. Pro Tip: ideally, you will send readers to a page on your website that is kept current so you can automate this email and not have to change it… see below. You won’t want to say specifics in the email, like “Come to our show February 23rd,” but instead “we’ve got a show coming up and you can get tickets here [link to your SHOWS page on your website].”
Last five emails: Lastly, write 5 emails asking your fans their opinion of something. You can create a poll, ask them their opinion of songs they want to hear next, or what their favorite song you play live is, or what the next video should be.
Now, once you have 30 emails, you can schedule these to go out once a week, or once every two weeks. If you do the latter, you will have created awesome content to send to people for over a YEAR.
They don’t need to be in order. In fact, I’d mix them up just a little. The story series can be just that, a series. And you can let people know what you’re doing. “Over the next few weeks, I would like to share some stories I haven’t shared anywhere else.” In between, you can pepper some of your other emails based on where they fit into the story.
Now, let’s talk about how to AUTOMATE all this!
What about new subscribers?
In a perfect world, your list is growing. You’re playing out and telling people about your email list and requesting that they sign up. You are sharing the signup link on social media.
So how do the new subscribers get all 30 emails? You can automate. All of the main email list providers like MailChimp allow you to do this, depending on the plan you have. I PROMISE this is worth the small monthly fee to have it set up (if your platform doesn’t offer it for free).
Automation is just that, automatically sending emails for you. This is different than scheduling because instead of sending an email on a specific date, the email program is sending emails out drip-style over a specific length of time. You can have a whole welcome series automated, making sure the new subscriber knows where to buy your music and how to find you live. Then you can assign the delay on each of the 30 emails… so 2 weeks after the person subscribes they get email #1. Two weeks after that email is sent, they get sent email #2. And so on and so forth. So it is not date-dependent.
Pro Tip
I would schedule all of these emails for the same day of the week, say, a Tuesday. I do this for when I want to send out a real-time update. Like something cool happened or I have a big last-minute show I want to share with my whole list. I don’t want people to get two emails in one day from me, so if I know that my list gets the automated emails on Tuesday, I can schedule my blast for Thursday.
Yes, it’ll take some time to write these emails, BUT once they’re done you’ll have some great content to build relationships with your fans, and hopefully make some sales.
What about authenticity?
If you’re concerned that your emails won’t feel as “real” or “you” if they’re not sent hot off the press, then take a look at how you’re writing them. Just because you’re using a marketing strategy doesn’t mean you have to sound like a marketer.
Keeping it present is important, as in, I write each of my emails as if I’m about to press send. Additionally, I also write each of my emails as if I was writing to ONE fan. I don’t say “hey guys” because chances are, each person reading my email is actually alone, by themselves. I say things I’d say in person. Because, after all, we’re all people, wanting to connect.
Let me know if you have questions about automation. I love diving into this newfound love I have and would be happy to geek out on it with you! If you liked this article, please share with your networks!
How indie musicians can monetize music on Facebook With CD BABY
Facebook music monetization for indie artists: What you need to know!
Big news: Facebook has been inking deals with labels, publishers, and other rights administrators in order to properly monetize music usage across the still-dominant social media platform, plus Instagram and Oculus. If you’re an independent artist, label, or songwriter, CD Baby has got you covered for all three of those platforms.
CD Baby clients have already seen enormous value in collecting royalties for the usage of their music on YouTube via Content ID, and we can expect the same thing with Facebook. Think of it: all those videos people have posted to Facebook over the years containing your music can now earn you money.
With the massive amount of music being used on Facebook, and with the introduction of a system-wide solution to help avoid copyright issues, this is going to be huge for the music industry — and it’s not just a win for the majors; independent artists and songwriters will greatly benefit too.
If you’re a CD Baby artist, it’s easy to start collecting money for your music on Facebook
IMPORTANT: a lot of reports out there are encouraging artists to “act fast,” with messages that suggest you only have a limited window to opt in to a direct license with Facebook, or urging you to create a new account with some third party where you have to add all your release info to yet another database.
Once Facebook starts paying, many existing CD Baby clients won’t even have to lift a finger to start collecting revenue. More to the point, you don’t have to do anything else assuming you’re already taking advantage of CD Baby’s YouTube Monetization Program and CD Baby Pro Publishing.
CD Baby can help you earn money from your music on Facebook in two ways
Depending on your contribution to the music, there are two different Facebook revenue streams that artists and songwriters can tap into. To make sure that your music is usable on Facebook and you’re collecting all applicable royalties, take advantage of:
YouTube Monetization — This service is a free opt-in with our Standard and Pro Publishing distribution packages, and you literally just check a box (no need to create a new account or upload your tracks elsewhere)
There are two rights at play when your music is used on Facebook
The sound recording
Whenever your song is used (on ANY video on Facebook, not just ones you’ve uploaded to your page or profile), a royalty is owed to the owner of the actual recorded track.
If you’re already taking advantage of CD Baby’s YouTube Monetization Program, your music will also be set up to collect revenue from Facebook as soon as they start paying.
The composition
Any time a sound recording is used on Facebook, the underlying song composition should also generate a royalty. This money will be owed to publishers/songwriters.
If your publishing rights are already being administered by CD Baby Pro Publishing, we’ll collect those royalties for you as soon as Facebook starts paying. If you’re not, upgrade today!
As a Pro client, we’ll also help you earn publishing revenue that is almost impossible for independent artists to collect on their own, including royalties for:
That zero rockers made this year’s Big Four categories isn't shocking: In 2017, the only rock act to score a Big Four nod was Twenty One Pilots. But as recently as 2015, Beck won album of the year over Beyoncé. In 2018, the genre is all but invisible. Imagine Dragons and Portugal. The Man -- rock’s biggest recent crossover acts -- earned pop nominations for their genre-melding hits. The rock categories simply feel stale.
Take the best rock performance nominees: Foo Fighters, a Grammy favorite closing in on the quarter-century mark; San Antonio quartet Nothing More, which -- though it may lack name recognition -- had a Billboard 200 top 20 album in 2017 and has been around since 2003; and (deceased) legends Leonard Cohen and Chris Cornell. Only the 20-something Icelandic blues-rock group Kaleo actually qualify as young.
So what about acclaimed Philadelphia rockers The War on Drugs; or The Killers, back and glam as ever; or even Harry Styles, who made a well-received, classic rock-infused solo debut? All three released albums that cracked (and, in The Killers’ and Styles’ cases, topped) the Billboard 200 top 10 while making strong cases for an enlivened genre.
The best alternative music album nominees, too, feel like textbook Grammy-world acts. LCD Soundsystem, Father John Misty and The National all made vital new music in 2017, but Arcade Fire put out the most inert album of its career, and Gorillaz’s cartoon-band concept didn't deliver anything daring this year.
The category seems particularly tone-deaf in the wake of a year in which women fought so hard to be heard. Only Arcade Fire and LCD Soundsystem have female members. HAIM, Paramore and Feist all released lauded albums during the year, and female-led indie acts -- Waxahatchee, Priests, Charly Bliss, Julien Baker -- made some of 2017’s most exciting music. The Grammys ignored them all. (Two woman-fronted acts, Alabama Shakes and St. Vincent, have, however, won the category in the last five years.)
Which makes the best rock song nod for 32-year-old rapper turned rocker K. Flayespecially noteworthy. Her “Blood in the Cut”-- a propulsive, darkly sexy track that hit No. 4 on Billboard’s Alternative Songs chart -- makes her the only stand-alone woman in a rock category. With her sinister synths and hip-hop swagger, she is proof that the genre’s nominations need not feel moribund. More like her in 2019, please!
Why no woman has ever been awarded the Grammy for producer of the year, non-classical -- and what female producers face behind the boards.
Eight years ago, when Alex Hope was 16 and first interested in music production, she Googled images of "female producers." "I only came across Linda Perry," recalls Hope, who has gone on to produce Troye Sivan and Tove Lo, among others. "We just learn early on that it's a man's job to be at the mixing desk."
Nowhere has that notion been reinforced more than in the Grammy category for producer of the year, non-classical. Since the trophy was first handed out in 1975, no woman has taken home the golden gramophone. Just a handful of women -- including Janet Jackson, Paula Cole, Sheryl Crow, Lauryn Hill, Mariah Carey, and Lisa Coleman and Wendy Melvoin from Prince's band The Revolution -- have been nominated for producing their own music. Only one nominated female producer was not also the recording artist: The Matrix's Lauren Christy in 2004. (The situation is less bleak for producer of the year, classical: Three women have won in that category, including quadruple-winner Judith Sherman. Imogen Heapand Trina Shoemaker have earned Grammys for best engineered album, non-classical.)
It's not just a Grammy issue: During the last decade, only two women, Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift, have landed on Billboard's year-end Top Producers chart, for their own songs.
Why does record production remain the ultimate boys club of the music industry? There are myriad reasons, including a lack of role models. "I just don't think there are that many women interested," says songwriter-producer Perry, who, along with Missy Elliott, has been arguably the most successful female producer in pop and R&B, having worked with such hitmakers as P!nk, Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears, Courtney Love and James Blunt. "Where are they if there are?"
Ebony Oshunrinde, aka WondaGurl, a 22-year-old producer who has created beats for JAY-Z, Rihanna, Lil Uzi Vert, Drake and Kanye West, is one rising star who has been busy in the studio. Like producer Trakgirl (Luke James, Omarion), WondaGurl was spending time with computer programming and beats machines in middle school. By the time she began working with artists, "I knew what I was doing and how to make a good song," says WondaGurl.
Former M.I.A. drummer Kiran Gandhi, aka Madam Gandhi, meanwhile, is working to push other female producers into the spotlight. In October, she released a remixed version of her Voices EP with each track produced by a woman of color. Last summer, Sister, a collective started by Swedish producer Toxe, released Sister:Volume One, featuring 20 tracks helmed by women and non-binary producers.
But when women first start to produce, some say that uncomfortable moments can arise.
"There have definitely been times you'll [suggest] an idea and the artist will pass over it and the guy in the room will say the same idea and they'll say, 'I love it,' and you're like, 'Oh, my Lord,' " says Hope. "You can't really show any signs of not knowing what you're doing. You are at the helm."
"Sometimes people are like, 'Why is this girl in the room?' " says WondaGurl. "Earlier, I would never talk; I'd just play the beat. I wouldn't give direction much, because they wouldn't take it. Now they take it seriously."
Catherine Marks, who has produced Manchester Orchestra and Wolf Alice, says the initial leap from engineer to producer was "a difficult and unexpected transition ... When I first started out I always thought, 'Ooh, I can't wait to be in that role.' And the more I learned and the more I began to understand the studio dynamics and the responsibilities that come with that role, I was like, 'Maybe I'm pretty happy where I am.' "
Many female producers say they were mentored by men. Marks studied with noted British producers Alan Moulder and Flood, Hope has worked with Bleachers' Jack Antonoff, and pioneering engineer-producer Sylvia Massy, best-known for producing Tool's breakthrough album, Undertow, in 1993, took notes from Rick Rubin. Perry praises Interscope co-founder/Apple executive Jimmy Iovine and former Warner Bros. CEO Tom Whalley as being particularly supportive, and after her rock band 4 Non Blondes ended, Perry also learned the ropes from producer Bill Bottrell. "He sat me down in front of the console," she recalls. "I had asked those questions before and people were hush-hush. They didn't want to give up their secrets."
Whalley, now Concord Music's chief label executive, says the omission of female producers has never been by design. "I don't think myself or any other A&R person I know would say, 'We don't want to use this person because they're female,' " he says. "I just know there's always value to having unique, talented people making records."
While many male and female executives have been supportive, several female producers expressed dismay that more female artists don't seek out female producers. "It's interesting that a lot of female artists have this feminist message and they'll make their record with all men. It seems kind of hypocritical," says Hope. "This [woman] will get up to accept an award and be surrounded by straight, white, middle-aged men."
Massy thinks it is hard for women to balance the rigors of having children with the studio's isolating 14-hour days, so they choose a different path. "The risk in losing the ability to have a family is too great. They'll find better things to do. I know it's an unpopular position, but I've always felt that," says Massy. "I think there will be [women] like me that have decided, 'I can do without a family because the young musicians I work with have been a substitute for family.'"
Others posit that the general lack of encouragement for young women to enter the STEM fields -- science, technology, engineering and math -- bleeds into the gender gap in music production as well.
"[Fewer] females go to audio engineering schools," says one major-label A&R executive, who has never worked with an artist that's requested a female producer. Perry suggests any women interested in production should offer to produce a track for free, like she did with Stone Fox. "We cannot wait for people to find us," she says. Marks agrees: "We need to promote the women who are kicking ass so the next generation feels like it's something they could do too."
Lyor Cohen Says Hip-Hop Should Dominate 2018 Grammys
Music executive Lyor Cohen says hip-hop should dominate the top categories at the upcoming Grammys.
Cohen spoke with The Associated Press on Thursday about the Recording Academy giving rap a "deserving" chance. Both JAY-Z and Kendrick Lamar are nominated for album and record of the year. JAY-Z, the leading nominee with eight, is also nominated for song of the year.
"It's long overdue for the right artists to win the right category in the right time," Cohen said.
Cohen is now YouTube's global head of music, but has been an integral figure in hip-hop for decades as the former head of Def Jam Records. Next week, he's hosting a pre-Grammy event with Nas that will pay homage to rap and include appearances by Grandmaster Flash, Q-Tip, Fab Five Freddy and Chuck D.
The only rap-based acts to win album of the year are Lauryn Hill and Outkast, though Hill's album was mainly R&B and the Outkast album a mix of pop, funk and rap. A rap song has never won song of the year or record of the year.
Cohen credits the Recording Academy for inserting people knowledgeable of the genre to give hip-hop a "deserving" chance.
"I think they have new blood pumping through their veins that are actually aware of the present and future, and not just holding onto the past," he said.
Cohen said now is the perfect time to celebrate hip-hop with the 60th annual Grammy Awards being held in New York, the birthplace of the genre, for the first time in 15 years on Jan. 28. The show will air on CBS.
YouTube's Jan. 26 '80s-themed event will pay homage to the legacy of New York's hip-hop scene.
Graffiti artist Cycle created a colorful mural on a 55-foot-long wall canvas stacked by 400 boxes containing Google Home Max speakers. After he finished the mural, it was deconstructed and each box with a stereo speaker device inside was sent to prospective guests as an event invitation.
"We thought it would be original and unique," he said. "Our mission was not to do the typical same ole, same ole. But we wanted to do something thoughtful and exciting. It was fun. We had fun with it. ... It's about bringing the past to future. What better way to do it during Grammy week?"
Cohen said he's happy for his friend JAY-Z.
"Jay remains pushing our boundaries and creatively discovering more," he said. "He's a creative force. ... I'm pinching myself because I'm so happy."
Crafting Sound at Radium Audio: Creativity First and Foremost
First of all thanks to Fabio Di Santo for this article.
Andrew Diey, founder and creative director at Radium Audio tells us some pretty exciting stuff about workflow, reveals some techniques and share with us the evolution of his extremely creative sound studio.Â
From the early days of music-making, to the most recent successes, Radium Audio has become nowadays involved mainly with audio production for visual media, although that’s not just it.
Reading this interview is a chance for anyone interested in sound for media to read how pros made it and know craft their stuff; working on this interview made us all truly feel creativity and inspiration flowing. So, enjoy:
1. Tell us briefly how it all started. What’s the story of RadiumAudio?
AndrewDiey: I started out as an artist touring and releasing records under the name Black Faction on the Soleil Moon label. A director at ITV got hold of one of my records, and got in touch to ask if I’d be interested in creating a soundtrack for one of his productions “Secrets of the Dark Ages”. It ended up being BAFTA nominated, which was a nice validation for my first media project, but the truth is I really connected with creating music and soundscapes to picture, and I ended up staying in my tiny basement studio doing more and more of that, because I just loved it.
That’s when I finally understood that I’m really a studio head, the applause and attention of being onstage didn’t attract me, I just wanted to create. Eventually, after a short stint as an inhouse sound designer at the BBC, I started Radium Audio as a natural evolution, to make an environment for the creation of music and sound worlds, because I wanted to explore and push that creative space as far as I could.
2. Why do you personally think sound is vital to enhance a visualproduct?
AD: Whether sound is vital depends on the purpose of the visual product. If you’re looking to create an immersive storytelling experience for an audience, sound is an essential part of the stimulus a creative team uses to do that, just as are the visuals. These immersive experiences can range from watching a film, advert, or TV show, to getting into your car, entering a room, or putting on your headphones.Â
TO FULLY ENGAGE YOUR AUDIENCE, YOU HAVE TO ENGAGE THE PHYSICAL SENSES THEY WILL USE IN EXPERIENCING YOUR STORY
Throughout the 20th century age of media, visuals and sound have been used to tell stories, sound has been an integral part of that process since the 1920’s when the first “talkies”, came to the cinema and movies were no longer silent.Â
We’re entering a 21st century era of virtual reality now, where in addition to vision and hearing, sense of smell, touch and kinetic movement will also be engaged in storytelling for an audience. To leave sound out of the experience, is akin to cutting off the ears of the audience and still expecting them to have the same depth of experience. It simply wouldn’t work.
Sound and music is the secret weapon of storytelling. The visuals show the audience what is happening. The sound and music helps them feel and experience the emotion of what is happening, and they live the story from the inside, not just watch from the outside.
Recording Fire Whooshes at Quarry
For example, an audience might not understand why they got so frightened by a horror movie at the cinema. Although the film may be fantastically acted, lit, directed, shot and edited, it’s very likely that the music and sound design is mostly responsible for that emotional response. Try watching a really scary scene with the sound turned off. Even though you can still see everything that is happening, are you still as tense and wound up, as you were with the sound on high volume? In most cases, the answer will be no.
3. We know you always aim to craft and create your own audio material in the Radiumphonic Lab. How much do you rely on on-line libraries during your creative process? Do you think that using them prevent a project to have its specific personality, or in the end, if it sounds good, it sounds good and no-one willcare?
AD: In sound design, except in extremely rare circumstance, we don’t use purchased libraries. We have a full time sound recording team who are tasked with continually capturing sound and adding to our internal library for our creative team to draw upon, and we prefer to work with our own self made internal libraries, because we’ve had total control over the technical and creative quality, and everything is very bespoke to the way we work, and for our clients.Â
WE’VE SPENT YEARS BUILDING OUR OWN LIBRARY AS PART OF THAT TOTAL CREATION AND EXPLORATION OF SOUND WORLDS RADIUM WAS SET UP TO DO
It’s a more expensive and operationally challenging way to work in comparison to simply buying off the shelf sample libraries, which is why many sound creatives, teams and companies understandably don’t take our approach. But Radium has always been about creativity first and foremost. So this is what we do.
Recording Fire Whooshes in our Soundstage
Purchased libraries and samples can be a good solution where budgets and deadlines are very tight, or it’s not necessary to have a unique sound, or to be totally immersive with the audience experience.Â
However, with a huge media production industry all using the same pool of available libraries for purchase, many productions across the industry by different teams and creatives will have the same sound flavour because there has been widespread usage of the same sound sources and material. Does anyone care if sample libraries or our own originated sound is used on projects ? Experience over time tells us the answer is a definite yes, it does make a difference both for our clients, and for their audiences.  Â
Clients who work with Radium know up front they’re automatically getting a different sound, because we don’t use those same industry libraries, we create everything ourselves. Our clients also have confidence that we really understand creative sound, because we’ve been obsessively exploring it from the ground up for years, and we’ve been able to translate that exploration into some highly successful commercial, artistic, and experimental projects.Â
AUDIENCES KNOW INSTINCTIVELY THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SOUND THAT WORKS, AND SOUND THAT DOESN’T
If the sound and music works really well, the audience either won’t notice it, or they’ll comment that it was interesting, or that they liked it. If sound and music doesn’t work in the right way, the audience knows immediately that something is wrong. Maybe they don’t understand exactly what is wrong, but the badly imagined and crafted soundtrack will have a negative impact on their entire experience and impression of the story being told.
Our client partners will often work with other sound companies, but come to Radium for specific projects needing a unique sound which isn’t the same as everywhere else, or a highly immersive sound and music experience in their projects. This could be for a physical product, niche brand advertising, aspirational tv or film director with a highly creative idea, or even a Hollywood film trailer, which we’ve been doing quite a lot recently.
4. What about the studio itself? Can you give us few more technical info about the Radiumphonic Lab?
AD: Our technical setup changes all the time, depending on what we’re working on, or exploring, at any given moment. We have the usual studio kit you’d expect, and we’re always building instruments and sound-making devices, and trying out new software and hardware, sometimes even creating our own tools in-house if we can’t find anything externally to do what we want. Our music studio and sound lab takes up 3,600 sq ft right now, and we’re about to expand our footprint further. We’re always evolving and growing.
Radium Sound Garden
5. Your creative process range from the most experimental sound art installations to media- related products. How does your team deal with such a wide productionrange?
AD: Everyone on the team has a few key strengths, but also an openminded attitude and a strong ability to learn new things quickly. We also have a wide range of age, background and experience on the inhouse team, and a strong core of freelance associates who can join us on projects as needed. Sometimes a project requires us to learn something new, or to invent something that we can’t buy off the shelf to get the job done. We like the stimulation of new creative and technical challenges, that’s pretty much required from anyone who wants to join the team.
6. Your approach towards young aspiring sound designers and composer is stunning, we think your paths for graduates are helpful and unique to get closer to your studio. More in general, what would you suggest to anyone aiming to make it in the sound industry? How should they start building up a network, a portfolio and how should they present it to theworld?
AD: I’m asked this a lot, and I think often people are hoping there’s a magic piece of advice which is a shortcut to instant success in the industry. I can only speak from my own experience, and from what I’ve seen, that shortcut doesn’t exist.Â
IT’S TAKEN 10 YEARS OF CONSTANT HARD WORK AND FOCUS TO BUILD THE RADIUM TEAM AND SOUNDLAB TO WHERE WE ARE TODAY, THAT DIDN’T HAPPEN OVERNIGHT
Really focus on your own creative and technical development. Don’t try to fake it, get stuck in and do the work to develop yourself. You’ll have to train like an athlete and always be self improving to be really great at what you do, to hold your own with some of the serious talent out there. Sound and music is a very competitive industry. If it’s what you genuinely love then definitely pursue it, but don’t see it as an easy lifestyle choiceif you want to be successful.Â
In the beginning of your career, work with young directors at the same stage of their career as you are, take on their student films, treat it as an opportunity to learn and grow, and to make contacts. Some of those beginner directors you work with early on will become successful directors later, and if you’ve established a great rapport and really developed your own creative contribution, you may have a lifelong creative and professional collaborator.Â
Don’t be afraid to take on unpaid work. I did this a lot myself in the early days. Everything you do is an opportunity to learn and grow your creative and technical skills. Some internships, project opportunities and creative collaborations will be incredibly valuable opportunities to learn and make connections, so when you’re starting out, don’t get fixated on how much you’ll be paid on those. Work a second job to pay the bills in the early days if you have to, and focus first and foremost on learning and getting better at what you do.Â
Build your relationships carefully, always treat people as you would want to be treated, and take a long term view when disagreements happen. It’s more important to have a successfully completed project and happy collaborators, than it is to win the argument, and to be right. You can have complete freedom of creative choice when you work on your own, solo, self directed projects, which is why you should always be doing these, even when you have commercial projects on your schedule.Â
When you’re working with a project partner or team, often you have to find ways to make great creative even whilst compromising on your own vision and ideas. So be open to that, and don’t fight it. It’s all part of honing your skills.
IF YOU STAY FOCUSED, GENUINELY BECOME REALLY GREAT AT WHAT YOU DO, AND WORK ON YOUR RELATIONSHIP BUILDING AS YOU GO, IT’S VERY LIKELY YOU’LL EVENTUALLY AT LEAST BE ABLE TO MAKE A LIVING FROM THIS
And possibly even go on further to become highly successful.
7. Let’s talk about future: do you personally see, in 5 years time, everyone mixing and arranging with holograms and virtual reality devices only? Or do you think some aspects of audio production will remain confined to the realworld?
AD: We love to mix new technologies with traditional soundmaking methods. Mixing and arranging DAWs will undoubtedly evolve over time, and it’s entirely likely that we could soon be using holographic interfaces in the way we use ipad controllers or a keyboard and mouse now. One day, maybe interfaces could be thought controlled, without any physical action needed at all. Sound has to come from somewhere though. Real world sound has different qualities to electronically generated sound. So I think there will always be a place for organic sound in the mix.
Sound Designer Chooses His Tools
8. We know you have a lot going on, any anticipations about upcoming projects you can tell us about?
AD:Â Right now we’re working on a couple of theatrical trailers and a technology brand film with some of the most impressive visuals we’ve seen in a while. Also, we had a total blast making our recent Shadow Oscillations collection for the sound community, and we’ll probably have something similar coming up in the not too distant future.
