No One Is Going To Put You On
I’m off to LA to write some music this week. I’ll be there when my sunset album comes out this Friday. I’m also playing a show with my other project Glass Petals at Sound Nightclub on Thursday. It’s the first night for Walker & Royce’s monthly label residency there! We have been working on some music together too. I love when things all line up and the schedule packs out.
Going to write new music in LA feels like a much needed break. It’s because I’ve been mixing and mastering my next single for the past 3-4 days. I've been adding the final touches for about 7-8 hours a day. The last 5% is a grind. It can be tough. The fucking pain cave. Sometimes it’s a bit much, but I always manage to power through. I’m not really sure how I started mastering and mixing all my own stuff. One one hand, it's a source of pride, but I also think I have a hard time letting go of control. I like that I do it all, I learn something with every song that I mix. The cynical side of me thinks I am slowly killing myself stressing over the final master, but the positive side of me says I learn more this way. So I guess it’s hard letting go of something when you also see value in it.
I also believe in not really depending on others to get shit done for you. I don’t think this is 100% right but it’s always felt like an excuse to me. Like it prevents you from trying stuff on your own. No one is going to put you on. I think that’s always been my advice for upcoming artists. Just work on your shit and don’t spam your music to people. If they like it they’ll find it. The DJ's, the people who perform dance music, are constantly looking for new stuff (it’s literally our job lol). I will say with 100% certainty that I have yet to play a spammed song from comment sections or DM's. If it’s good people will play it, if you have to convince someone to play something, they don’t fuck with it. Simple as that.
Also, self-promotion on your own page isn’t spamming. Something else to remember. Whenever I think of how to promote my own music, I try to frame it as another way to be creative rather than “annoying work.” I usually get better results this way because it’s more authentic / more fun. As a bonus if it does fail —which it often does — at least it wasn’t pure misery making the content. (But I do get it, social media is a slog. But life is also a slog. So slog on!)
Okay I’m officially tired. Off to write some music tomorrow, yippee ki-yay motherf*ckers!
-felix