In my early years of growing up, I was given the nickname “DJ” because I was the neighborhood ‘beatbox kid’ that all the kids would come to. When I say all, I mean just three or four, because the rest of them were in their late 20’s to mid 40’s. I was into a lot of things as a kid (including cartoons and anime), but I never thought I would find myself having a deep passion of producing music. My mother brought me my first synthesizer when I was about seven, and to tell you the truth…I actually had a lot of fun with it. Did I make any beats with it? No, not really. Whatever kicks and snare drums that synthesizer had lacked any excitement you’d find in many of the digital synthesizers and drum machines of today.
In 2007 (about ten years later) my mother brought me my first DAW called MAGIX Music Maker. It was simply a ‘graduation’ gift from synthesizer to computerized music. There was a time period where only a handful of people had access to Digital Audio Workstations (DAW). Now just about anyone can get their hands on one; even a ten-year-old kid can produce a DJ Snake-like club banger track in this day and age. I think we live an exciting age where millennial kids (90’s kids) are super creative in the arts; be it music, dance, or performing. As for me, I just found myself producing, cutting, and editing tracks. Basically, I was a beatmaker before I was a producer.
Back then I never really took it seriously; like upload my beats on Soundcloud, Youtube, Spotify, or any of the music listening apps that are on the web right now. It was also at that time I didn’t really know about Compression, Mixing, Mastering and Limiting when it came to Music Production. I was just a teen who went from the keyboard to the DAW. Somewhere around 2013 I still found myself producing music unreleased to the rest of the world, but six months prior to that a crazy new anime called Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt came out and I fell in love with the show so much, that not only did I produce an original track, but also an Anime Music Video with original lyrics (which I rapped)!
The last time I produced any music was back in January of 2014, as any music I produced prior to that was used in various fashion shows that my mother put together. After that I decided to pursue other interests for the time being; one of those being the inception and creation of this anime blog. While going out to anime conventions with my D&A partner, A. Goldman, I went to a lot of late night rave parties and looked at what type of gear the DJ was using. It was then my dormant passion for creating music was once again ignited with energy and drive, however at the same time I was unemployed for two years; but thanks to a few pocket-change jobs I was able to go to anime conventions.
So here I am in 2018 with a newfound drive in wanting to produce music again, of course thanks to several classes in mixing and mastering, I can make my projects sound better on a nightclub level! Now with the knowledge on how music is being mixed, EQ’ed, and mastered in the depths of my brain, becoming a DJ is the next step on my musical goal list!
Every producer has a signature ‘sound’ that makes their music stand out from everyone else. Mine of course consists of an uptempo fusion of Chiptune, Hip-Hop, and Electronic music. I don’t know what the future will hold for me in taking this path, but one thing’s for sure, I’m gonna have fun doing it!
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