Beat Making Pre-Production Steps - Interview with SLOWPITCHSOUND

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What is going on? This is episode two of the beat making pre-production process.
On this channel we've always gone over other aspects of music but we've rarely
touched on the process leading up to beat making; And what I've decided to do
is to interview other musicians in the Toronto area about their process. In this
episode we have SlowpitchSound an incredible musician that uses
turntablism and production to create outstanding soundscapes and music. I
highly suggest you check out his music and follow him on all the social media.
And you can find that info in the description box below. This video was
made with the help of my supporters on Patreon. Much respect to them for the
continued support. And with that let's get on to the interview. So my music
production process it starts out different than most might think and it
really goes down to practice is my first thing so I spent a lot of time just kind
of honing in on my skills the turntable is a big part of both my live
performance and also my music production in the studio so I spend a lot of time
really staying sharp on the turntable learning it inside out you know going as
deep as I can with it and it's something I really believe strongly and it's like
taking that time not being afraid of time really you know if you want to get
something something good out you have to like really take time to to learn the
tools learn the instruments and it is amazing how much it can open up and and
inspire you so practice is one big thing the other thing I really like to do is
isolate myself and it's it's got this kind of a weird one you know because a
lot of people think you know when you make music that you all you do is just
listen to other music but I find it actually one of the hardest questions to
answer you know when it comes to what do I listen to it's hard because I spend a
lot of time actually not listening to anything other than well let's just say
musically I just kind of listen to my environment a lot get outside you know
taking walks going into nature you know it's amazing
what you'll find out there just from your environments just being open taking
walks you know in the woods out in this bustling city on the beach whatever I
try to do that a lot so that it allows me to basically cleans it's like a
cleanser I don't really like getting influenced by you know whatever's kind
of happening in the mainstream whatever is on the pop charts or whatever I just
kind of avoid all that so I can have a pure mind going in and really it helps
me to find myself find myself and and be comfortable with the sounds that I'm
playing with so I definitely stress that get out isolate a little bit you know
don't get too caught up with things find examples in nature you know it I find it
helpful for when it comes to mixing my tracks to listen around see how things
sound when they're far away how does it sound on the right the left you know
these kind of things and I apply it to my work the other thing there is kind of
going back to practice even creativity is something that you can like practice
right like just opening up your mind so for myself doing those walks going in
the woods and things like that I imagine if I'm like what would it be like to be
a leaf you know what is a leaf here and see what is a little animal going across
like what are they thinking like just just these it's almost like you know
just taking a notebook which I like to do it as well - it just jotting things
down flipping things upside down pictures and just help to tweak your
imagination a bit I like doing that a lot and this is sort of my process
before I even get into the studio just to kind of get a clearer palette so now
when it comes to getting into the studio sort of an extension of what I was
saying you know about exploring preparing your mind and getting a clear
head I like to go into the studio that same mentality and I start off with a
clean studio I have to start working that way just tidying up it helps you
know I remember when I started out some years ago producing I would have
situations where you know a wire is not plugged in right or the place is messy
and by the time I get down into working my train of thought is just gone
you know so I just kind of use that moment to get preps clear head make sure
everything is in order pencils are sharpened all these kind of things and
then I go into work and how I usually start off is by jamming you know so I
really start off with just improvising using my skills on the turntable with
scratch some might know it as turntablism and I just play around and
manipulate sounds and start looping things and as soon as I find something
that makes me move a certain way I know I've got it you know and it's about
trust you start to develop a trust after a while of when your body starts moving
trust it right don't worry about what anyone else has to say and to add to
that I don't like putting myself in a box I heard someone say this before and
it sounded pretty cool I think it was an MC odd I see or Odyssey someone's call
him but he said I don't mind boxes just put me in as many boxes as you can
that's kind of what I'm like I don't think about a genre when I'm working
because I finally sort of closes things up for me I just want to be free and go
with where my body's telling me to go what the samples telling me to do and
and just sort of like an open freeform sort of initial creation process after
that I would say another thing in the studio trying to think yeah those are
that's that's like my main thing right there it's really just stay open-minded
don't just my approaches anyways like just staying open and just letting the
samples sort of guide me let my body sort of tell me like oh I'm starting to
like shake my hips a bit or my shoulders it's like let me work with that and keep
going and then whatever it turns out I let everyone else name it what it is you
know I mean but for me stay open-minded and just keep pushing forward
all right so I've done all that work I've played around and everything now
when I'm going into more details with my sound the sky's the limit really like
all sounds work for me I just kind of think of it like if you close your eyes
you're gonna and you hear something it's it's usable right it's a sound you can
bend it you can tweak it you know something that's really important and I
also practice as well is three important things volume panning and EQ in
equalizing those are like my favorite things so before I even touch filters or
plugins and things like that I actually try to really avoid using a bunch of
plugins and see how much work I could get done just with those three things
volume you can become a master you know it's like it's the same thing I said you
know I think when you stick with something for a long time
you'd be surprised about how much things you can get out of it I believe that
with just those simple three things with volume it can get a lot of work done
with panning you can get a lot of work done and EQ in so if you have that and
when I feel like I'm I'm good with that then everything else is just like tiny
spice on top so yeah it's open I'll use field recordings pretty much whatever I
like doing I like challenging myself as well where I'll just you know grab a
random sound and see how far I can get with it and the more I do that the more
comfortable I feel to use sound sounds that some might say oh that's a weird
thing but if you can kind of like crush that and just like nothing is weird
everything is open game like I said isolate you know when I do all that
stuff then it just gives me more confidence to go even further you know
so yeah when it comes to that it's just really about getting the sounds just
right for the project that's in front and usually like I said the samples and
how the groove is going will also help a lot too if I stay open to that so what
ends up happening is rather than me just physically making the beat soli me and
becoming this weird partnership of I'm listening to what the beat is telling me
to do or whatever the production is telling me to do and then we're sort of
communicating back and forth in a way like that so as you can see another
fresh perspective on the steps leading up to music making and my hope is that
you can gather little bits and pieces from each of these interviews to put
together something that works for you or to inspire a work process of your own
anyway thank you for watching if you liked and learned something today
subscribe to us here on YouTube I will catch you on the next one in the
meantime take care of yourself peace

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Beat Making Pre-Production Steps - Interview with SLOWPITCHSOUND

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