My journey from beats to vocals
As a true New Yorker turned LA transplant, I’ve previously shared how I carved a niche for myself in the heart of the house & techno scene, evolving from the decks of global music festivals in iconic locations like London and Ibiza and making a name for myself in many circles as a “DJ’s DJ.”
However, as the rhythm of life evolved, so did my aspirations. While the thrill of DJing remained, a new passion beckoned — diving deep into the intricate world of audio engineering and music production. And today, I want to dive further into this beautiful process.
The audiophile’s ear
I became an audiophile when I took an Electronic Music Synthesis class at NYU. The class required us to make music using all analog equipment. We recorded from modular synthesizers to reel, and our finals had to be turned in on a DAT tape. I immediately fell in love with the richness of analog synthesizers and the warmth of tape recordings. From then on (after understanding why), scientifically, it was these sounds that sounded so much better to me. And, I became a high-fidelity girly. I started DJing with lossless files (WAV and AIFF) and refined my sonic palette to enjoy high-quality sounds.
Precision and attention to detail
I am the type of person who loves to learn. That combined with my passion for passion means I love enjoying things that are high quality, well made, and made with care. That translates from music, to food and to clothes. My grandmother was a seamstress and liked to cook and dance. I’m not sure whether it was nature or nurture but either way, being raised in New York allowed me to access the best of all of these things at a very early age. My parents met at a fine dining establishment in Manhattan and my grandmother loved to take me shopping with her.
Capturing my voice
Singing became necessary to get my song ideas down while studying music composition with Phil Ramocon, in London in 2015. I was the type that choked when singing Happy Birthday so I had a hard time singing my ideas when writing lyrics. I had no intention of ever singing on my own songs, but writing songs and lyrics came very easily to me. Phil and my classmates convinced me to practice with the London Gospel Choir in Nottinghamshire Hill and shared vocal training exercises with me. Once I’m done laying down an instrumental track I start hearing a melody in my head for a vocal top line. Once I get that melody down, I write the lyrics and feel a need to get the idea down.
To this day, I get a lot of encouragement from peers in the industry to sing, despite my natural aversion. I usually start songs with the intention of hiring a singer to record the vocals, but sometimes I give in to the pushback that the vocal I recorded for the idea is good enough.
The tech involved
Vocal recording and vocal production are a beast in and of itself. I was fortunate to learn a lot of the basics when I became a radio host for Traxsource with an audience of over 4M worldwide. Brian Tappert from Traxsource bought me my first mic and pop filter, and taught me how to use it – the basics of mic recording, and vocal processing. However, once I started to use vocals in my own songs, I realized I needed help. So I got a certificate in Vocal Recording Technology from Berklee College of Music where I learned the art of vocal comping, layering harmonies, delays, etc. Music production is not cheap – vocal recording requires a microphone, pop filter, DAW, hardware, and/or plug-ins for processing. It requires practice, patience in the recording stage, and even more patience in the production stage. You need to be okay with listening to the same word of a song hundreds of times, listening to details like enunciations and breaths. You need to understand technical processes like compression, de-essing, and reverb, and not lose sight of the final work of art you are trying to make.
Further evolving
I always strive to keep learning. I’ve always done well in a classroom setting so I regularly enroll in music classes online or in person. What Steve Aoki stuck with me, for now, is that I am a DIY artist. I am still trying to figure out my sound and I am trying out different genres, slowly learning what I like and don’t like. I see myself continuing to make music. I’m not sure how my career as an artist will continue to unfold – it has definitely been a winding road for me full of surprises!
But what I do know for sure is that making music is something that lights me up and so I will continue to persist in it because I don’t think I would be happy if I didn’t.