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00:00:01
What means music production ?
133 Plays2 years ago
In this episode we talk about music production. With us in the studio is TayOG, a Chicago-based artist, who has been a hip hop magnet for fans since the release of his newest EP "Feelings Of A Savage." His light compositions allowed him to underlay the songs with the colours of his passion and pain. We get the insights of how it is to make a song release, what's the process behind, and the decisions that an artist need to take during his journey.
Did you hear the news. The GenZers to rise! Podcast has now a social change app. Check it out here!
Follow ChangemakerZ https://go.changemakerz.org/follow
TayOG social media handles at https://lnkfi.re/tayogart
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- MWTP
Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YfBPDuD-Ks
Spotify link: https://open.spotify.com/track/6YSbzwx5VzFbWPJ9G6r4Ry?si=U6tEhTa2RuqxEU_bSA8HHw
Apple Music link: https://music.apple.com/ph/album/mwtp/1602293025?i=1602293030 - Don't Play With Me
Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bSFjFt4g-Q
Spotify link: https://open.spotify.com/track/51JYdVycfWJh1pUfMUaZx6?si=GYosFDWzR4e7VkHki-3GpA
Apple Music link: https://music.apple.com/ph/album/dont-play-with-me/1620983297?i=1620983300
Produced by Vasilis Skarleas
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Transcript
Introduction to Changemaker-Z
00:00:01
Speaker
Hello everyone, I'm Kennedy. And I'm Vassilis. We run Changemaker-Z, a student-run initiative that aims to empower, educate, and connect in zeros interested in entrepreneurship. We interview teenagers with impactful projects and create resources to help you change the world. If they can't do it, so can he.
00:00:23
Speaker
On this podcast we discuss the logistics of creating different types of projects with Jin Ziers who have already done it. We will leave our social media and website information in the description.
Introducing Teo Ji and Topic
00:00:47
Speaker
Hello, everyone. Welcome to today's episode. I'm so excited for today because we are covering a topic that we want to talk about for a very long time. You may have noticed that on all of our podcast subjects, we have talked about technology, environment, science, development, trends and art expressions while combining the entrepreneurial spirit of all the different guests and companies that we have featured so far.
00:01:08
Speaker
Today, we'll talk about music production. With us in the studio is Teo Ji, a Chicago-based artist who has been a hip-hop magnet for fans since the release of his newest EP, Feelings of a Savage.
Teo Ji's Background and Musical Journey
00:01:19
Speaker
His light compositions allowed him to underlay the songs with colors of his passion and pain. Welcome to the show. It's so nice to have you here. What's going on? Thank you for having me. That was said so well. I appreciate you guys. Of course. We're excited to have you.
00:01:36
Speaker
So Tay, we always like to start off with just, for people who don't know, just a little bit about yourself and what you do and know you're in the music production. Just tell us a little bit more about yourself. Yeah, so I'm 26 years old. I'm from Illinois, I'm from Texas. I say Illinois and Texas because I bounced around a lot as a kid. You know, my family is predominantly from the South Side of Chicago.
00:02:01
Speaker
Then when we moved, you know, for better lives in Austin, Texas, and then coming back here as a kid, 15, 16, south side, west side, you know, the city of Chicago is super big. So, you know, there's always different aspects. You know, the north side will have different from the south side, east side, west side. So that's predominantly, you know, and I love music. I started music maybe about two years or three years ago as well.
00:02:28
Speaker
Oh, wow. So it's kind of relatively new. Would you what like, let's just tell people what kind of music do you do first off? Man, to be honest, my team asked me that all the time. What kind of music? Yes, because the question. Yeah, for me, for me, it's just I
00:02:48
Speaker
I fall in love with, I fall in love with the melodic sense of music. Growing as an artist I feel that, you know, you always just have to adapt, you know, adapt, adapt, adapt. And I just feel like I
00:03:03
Speaker
I want us to do more than just spitting bars. I want us to do more than just write reading off of my phone so you know I came up with a lot of I hear other rappers you know you hear other music and you think to yourself oh I can do something like that I can do something that you draw inspiration from your favorite artists and um
00:03:22
Speaker
You know, that's why I really just fell in love with making melodic music. So, I don't know, they could go anywhere from hip-hop to alternative, that's what they call it, alternative to a pop, to a pop, you know, with the melodic sense.
00:03:38
Speaker
We're gonna get a pop ballad sometime soon. Yeah, I mean, you never know. It depends how I feel, you know. I wake up the next day, I might feel like a little bit more pop, I might feel like a little bit more alternative, but I keep it hip
Influences and Inspirations
00:03:51
Speaker
-hop, you know. So, it's just really, I always try to make something for everybody, no matter what the instance is, you know.
00:03:58
Speaker
Yeah, I love that because it's like, I don't know about you guys, but I love rap or whatever. But I'm getting tired of all the people with littles in front of their name. It's just easier, the same thing over and over again. Kind of getting tired of it, same flow, like, okay. Yeah, you can change it up a little bit. Yeah, I think that the dimension of every artist has his unique sound. And I think that that's the best answer to the question. And I love that we touch this.
00:04:27
Speaker
And I am assuming that your name, T-A-Y-O-G, is your artist name. What do you like to say? What's the story behind it? Yeah, man. So my name is T-A-Y-O-G. I spelled it like that. T-A-Y, uppercase O-G. My name's Matteo. My name's Matteo. And growing up, my mom called me Teo. My family called me Teo. People call me Teo.
00:04:55
Speaker
And really it's just, you know, Teo, and then my last name happens to be G. So Teo G kind of just fit into my rapping and how I wanted to make it, you know what I mean? Yeah, a lot of people who don't, who just meet me or a little nickname, they call me Teo. So just fuck the Gianna and I thought I was, you know, thought I was doing something, making it cool, how to write it. No, it is though. It's a nice, I like it a lot.
00:05:24
Speaker
It's short and that's very helpful for marketing and also very easy to pronounce it. It would say from that perspective. And also it has like the uniqueness, like it's coming from how your friends were calling you, your last name and it makes it unique.
00:05:44
Speaker
Yeah, because it's not hard. Thank you. Yeah, because it's not hard. It's really just me at the end of the day. And that's what I kind of, like, you know, my name's Teo. My name's Jesus. Boom, it's that. And it's not being anybody that I'm not. I just, you know, I'm not a persona. I'm not a this. It's just, this is me. You get the whole me, the ins and outs and everything.
00:06:03
Speaker
So I know we talked a little bit earlier about inspirations. What are some of your musical inspirations? Is your music inspired by Chicago or anything like that? I definitely would say it's heavy, inspired by Chicago, inspired by... I don't want to... I want to say Texas too. Everything that I've been through.
00:06:27
Speaker
Um, but I definitely said the artists that I'm inspired by, like, you know, of course, the Lil Wayne, uh, Juice, Juice WRLD, Mac Miller. I like a lot of, and then, um, like, I like a lot of bands too, like Panic at the Disco, the leading singer from yearly, uh, Michael Jackson, Chris Brown. Anybody really with a melodic sense that can just, is different, you know what I mean? That's just different, that, that, like, the way, the way I say Lil Wayne and the way I say Juice WRLD is like,
00:06:57
Speaker
you know, Lil Wayne was a rocker rapper. Great, one of the greatest rappers, right? And it's like, one of my favorite songs, ironically, from him is How to Love. I know it might sound corny, but it's the one he's singing. And it's just, it just, for some reason, as a kid, that song is just
00:07:13
Speaker
Like, he doesn't have the best voice, but the way you make the sound, the way you're in the studio and engineer it and put it together. And it's like, you could do anything if you know how to use your vocals as an instrument, play it correctly. And to me, it was just, that's what I like to hear. I like to hear more components and more music and more melodic. And that's why I draw from all the artists that I am inspired by.
00:07:38
Speaker
Yeah, that definitely gives me some more insight, because Lil Wayne is one of the most lyrically creative people, rappers, I'd say. Yeah, of course. I feel like you have to listen to his songs a couple of times to actually get all the intricacies of what he's actually saying. Yeah, of course. And that's why the same thing with Juice WRLD as well, Juice WRLD, and if you're sticking out on the rap side, yeah.
00:08:08
Speaker
the cadences are really what gets me. And I'm like, oh, I can do that. Or not that, but I could do something like that, you know what I mean? Yeah, that's what gets you excited. Yeah, of course.
Songwriting and Studio Process
00:08:22
Speaker
So now I kind of want to talk about your process a little bit about, you know, how you write a song, you know, kind of how you start writing a song, maybe to the finish, to the studio. And also, like, with that, do you play any instruments or
00:08:39
Speaker
So, no, I do not play any instruments, but I would say my music process, I just, I listen to beats. I listen to music every day, you know, all day long. I'm listening to beats, the beats, the beats, the beats, and you know, certain beats just
00:08:55
Speaker
certain beats it's kind of like when you hear that song that song that's like the summer of 2014 or 15 and you're it brings you back right that's type of how that's kind of how my uh perspective i see things the beat wise i hear a beat and whether the 808s are knocking whether the another part of the beat is knocking more i just like it takes me to a specific time and then i just start writing to it on my phone and then you know you get the hooks and you get the this and
00:09:25
Speaker
You know, and it really helps being yourself, because I know that music is a very hard thing to get into anything that people criticize. It's very hard to get into. But at the same time, it's like, you can't be afraid to, let's say like,
00:09:41
Speaker
You want to sing a little bit more. I don't feel like I have the best singing voice, but I know that if I make it singing like this, I can go into the studio and make it how I want. So I just trial and error. I got to play the beat at least like 50 times. One song, I got to play it at least. I'm like, OK, I like this. Let me stop it. OK, I like this. Let me write a bar. Let me write a line. I'll go back. Let me hear it again.
00:10:06
Speaker
You know, and I just draw from my past experiences and maybe my current experiences and everything I just go through how I'm feeling, how I'm this and how I'm that, you know. Right now that you mentioned about when you go to the student, you use this trial and error, would you like to say more about the steps that you're following with your producer? Like, how much time does it take to create an app or a single, like, how is the day?
00:10:35
Speaker
in the studio looks like? Yeah. Um, I'm one of those people that I'm very, uh, I'm very, I'm work savvy. Like I, it's, I feel like I go in the studio, uh, I don't go with a lot of people. I go maybe one, two, two, maybe like two other people and I go straight to work. I actually, before I'm even at the studio, I have a whole, my, my, my hook, my verses, even my ad libs are scripted. You know, I script everything cause I just,
00:11:05
Speaker
I can go into a studio and, and, you know, 45, 45 minutes, like 30 to 45 minutes. I lay down the track as I'm laying down the track. My engineer Chanel, she'll just boom, boom, boom. She'll mix it as I'm recording. And so maybe like, maybe like 40 minutes and I get out five to 10 more minutes. She's mixing and then we go on to the next track.
00:11:27
Speaker
Okay, that's crazy. I know it's not the same at all. But like, I you know, I do musical theater, sometimes I have to film a self tape. And sometimes those self keeps can take hours. So I have like 45 minutes. That's like, very, very good to get a song out and reported vocals. See, what, what if if think about it, like you said, you're in you're in theater, right?
00:11:49
Speaker
if you were to go and like if you already knew what you were doing before you got there right you were just like yeah you're prepared and i just feel like i don't i'm not one of those person who makes music that is going to go into the booth and freestyle everything because i just i won't i'm not going to freestyle everything
00:12:12
Speaker
because I feel like I can say better things, I can say more meaningful things if I take my time and I write down and I can reach more people rather than just saying anything.
00:12:23
Speaker
Um, so I just, I come, I come scripted, you know, I come with the whole, with the whole ad libs and the whole intros. And I just, I go to work and I just, I don't take any time for granted. It's what I do, you know, I just got to keep going. And if the song is garbage, then we won't use it. If the song is good, then we don't use it. But I'd say I got five hours, six hour blocks, you know, is the time I go to the studio and we can get maybe like nine, 10 songs done.
00:12:51
Speaker
Seven eight seven songs six songs seven songs that are actually usable I'd say something like that That's really interesting and I kind of want to ask you so who's who's on your team? Like is it just is it you you you know, you write all the music you have help writing the music You said you always have an engineer
00:13:12
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, just me and my engineer. I just find beats that I like off of like, you know, YouTube, or I got a lot of people who send me beats into my emails and, you know, I just go, I get to write in sometimes and I have like five, six, seven beats.
00:13:31
Speaker
All hooks are done. No verses will be done. And then maybe a studio session's coming up and I'm like, man, I need to get this done. So I sit down and I'll write more and more and more. And I go with the same couple of engineers that I always go to. And that's pretty much it. You know, I write the lyrics myself, the cadences flows and it's off to work after that. Yeah, that's awesome. I had like one more question. Are you signed to a label or anything?
00:14:00
Speaker
Um, I'm in like an independent deal. Um, like an independent little art Chicago thing. Um, that's how we got productions.
00:14:09
Speaker
I just wanted to ask that because I feel like in this day and age, it's not even the dream to be signed to a label anymore because it's starting to come out how restrictive they are. And with TikTok and stuff, you can self-make yourself. Do you have any opinions on that?
Music Industry Insights
00:14:27
Speaker
Independent versus being on a label? Because I feel like Halsey posted the other day, she's a huge artist. She's like, you can't release the music that you want. It's not that simple.
00:14:36
Speaker
So is that it's your dream to be on a label or do you like independent route? You know Me personally like I feel like I wouldn't I wouldn't talk about other people's situation, you know, everybody's contracts to be different Yeah, you know everybody's could be different you never really know but I say, you know for me personally, um
00:15:02
Speaker
I wouldn't mind, you know, if somebody's to come and reach out, I wouldn't mind, you know, doing business or when I'm on haggling. I wouldn't just, I wouldn't mind hearing people out because I'm a type of person. I really, really enjoy this music. I really enjoy doing it. It's like an everyday thing. It's life to me.
00:15:21
Speaker
And, you know, what I got going on with my independent label is, you know, it's just, everything has to work right for you. You know what I mean? It's not just about, it's not just about the money. It's about, okay, well, what's going on with this percentage? What's going on with that percentage? You know, I'm a strict avid, like 10% of my, like 10% of my streaming sales actually goes to organizations that, you know, mental health and,
00:15:50
Speaker
stuff like that, bipolar and all stuff like that. So there could be all kinds of stuff in people's situations that you never know. And so that's why I never, I just, whoever was willing to work with me and actually deeply cares about my music rather than just putting me here, putting me there, putting me there. And that's what I feel like I would want from a major or from anybody else. It's just a vibe, I guess.
00:16:21
Speaker
the contracts and stuff. Yeah, we all make sense. Just read your contracts basically. Yeah, just read your contracts. They're gonna tell you, you gotta go here. They're gonna tell you, you gotta go there. They're gonna be like, listen, your likeliness, that's up to us, the label, sorry. Like, if you just read your contract, you can negotiate everything. And people just don't, they're just like, oh, they see the money, they see this. I tell everybody, I don't want no, I don't want no,
00:16:48
Speaker
What is it called? I don't want to advancement. I want all those stuff into my music. I want actual content. I just, I don't really care for the money like that, you know? It'll come with whatever, but I'm just not one of those people that's worried like that. I just rather you hear my music, you know, have my team and I work really well with my team. They do the most amazing jobs sometimes and
00:17:11
Speaker
You know, we work very well. It's always a, they take into consideration what the artist does or what the artist wants. And that's always, you know, and like you said, you're in music. So I know you understand how you don't want to do some stuff sometimes. And you're like, I'm not trying to do that. And sometimes they make you sometimes, you know, they don't. Do you use pre-saving for your music? Oh, to do the pre-save like before your music comes out. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:17:39
Speaker
I mean, I feel like, of course. Let's just say, for instance, you're a fan of somebody, I feel like if you see your pre-save, even if you don't physically pre-save it, you're gonna be like, oh, in the back of your head, okay, okay, I guess, he's dropping a tape, he's what he called it, I'm gonna be on the lookout for it. So I feel like in some aspects of marketing, I feel like it works pretty well.
00:18:08
Speaker
No, yeah, I recently actually used a pre-save link. Yeah, I didn't even really know about the pre-save links. They just kind of made one for me. And it was nice having it pre-saved since we're kind of on the topic.
00:18:25
Speaker
I kind of want to get like behind the scenes because a lot of people don't know like the actual process of like Spotify and streaming and stuff like how do you get your music on Spotify and like other streaming and like how did the listens actually corresponded to like value I'm guessing like is it like is it like what like one cent per listen or something I feel like I feel pretty low like that.
00:18:53
Speaker
I think so. I think it's something like that. I know that other platforms like Tidal probably pay the most out or something like that. I know they are trying to change it though. They are working to make it better for other people. But then again, see, that's why you have other artists go independent and they don't have the labels taking that away. But also you have to understand those people that want to go independent, you have to pay to make that song.
00:19:22
Speaker
You probably are going to pay a five hour, let's just say two, three, four, whatever, hour sessions, you know? So everything that involves, you have to pay for that independent artist. And if you put out your music, if you put out your music by yourself independently, you probably use, you know, the other distributions like TuneCore or DistroKid.
00:19:45
Speaker
and some of those you actually have to pay like $14 for like a mixtape but then you did the profits but that's just that's all the point about the music you know then it goes here it goes there if you want to put it on more streaming it probably like more money or something like that okay that makes yeah yeah that makes sense i had the chance to to participate in a program that's called spin out
00:20:12
Speaker
And it's like some of the platforms that you mentioned, but actually it's operated by Universal Music Group and it was free of charge. And right now they are closing the program because they had so many sign-ups since it's free. And actually they were taking artists, the best from the streams corresponding to this beta spin-up program in order to sign like real record labels with them.
00:20:42
Speaker
And it was a real opportunity for people that could have access to this amazing platform and opportunity. Seems like they were doing the whole promotion and pre-saving all the stuff without paying nothing. And it was extremely, really, really fast. And I was like, wow, that's amazing. And I was participating as a developer in the program because I was like correspondent for a person that makes music and we tested out the platform, but it was amazing.
00:21:12
Speaker
Yeah, you're actually right about that too, like I forgot about, there's a whole pre-save, there's a whole, you know... Actually, never mind, pre-save are free actually. Oh yeah, that makes sense. Alright, so last question.
Future Projects and Goals
00:21:33
Speaker
Which are your plans for the future? We heard that a new app is coming out soon.
00:21:38
Speaker
Yeah, the plans for the future. I just, I want to keep on, keep on making music.
00:21:43
Speaker
I want to keep on bringing different sounds to my Spotify, my profiles, my Apple. I want everybody to hear all types of music that I can make, not just a rap, not just a pop style, a singing, a trap, or this. I kind of want to always give everybody something like we said earlier. I have an EP coming out. It's called Unhealthy Obsessions, and it should be dropping on the 28th.
00:22:11
Speaker
Now, unhealthy obsessions is pretty much just everything that you do, whether you're toxicity, you know, your battles throughout the day, you know, everybody has hard times, everybody has, you know, good times, but at the same time, it's like, you don't want to be fueling, you don't want to feel the fire with your, you know, your toxicity and, you know, so.
00:22:36
Speaker
I just kind of put all the pain and all the things that I've been through and daily things that I go through and I know that people could relate. I know that people will find the melodics to help. I know that music helps or at least it helps me. It helps me adjust and I want to say it helps me
00:22:59
Speaker
What is it? Oh, Relay. It helps me, like, relate. It helps me relate to different artists and helps me, like, okay, he went through that. Okay, I understand that. I can make a song like this, or I can adjust a couple lyrics to like that. So, you know, I'm hoping for this tape, there's a couple songs that even you guys will like, you know, a couple people might like this track or that track, and, you know, I hope to just keep on going forward and keep on making more music. If you don't like this one, you might like the next one. It's not gonna stop, you know?
00:23:28
Speaker
Yeah, so we're wasting your big luck for the new release. Everybody will include the listening link in the description below so you can check out what the new app is all about. I think that this is the end of the episode. Thank you so much to AYOG for stirring your thoughts around your music and being part of this amazing conversation. We really enjoyed your company today. Awesome. Thank you guys too, you guys too.
00:23:56
Speaker
Yes, if you're interested, you can go check out Teoji's latest EP in the description below, as well as Teoji's social media handles. Thank you, guys. If you've reached the end of the episode, more content is coming out very soon. We have an exclusive interview with the youngest chef and one of the most successful junior master chefs, Logan Jucula. Until next time, don't forget to change the world, guys. Bye.
00:24:31
Speaker
Thank you guys for listening. We hope you enjoyed the conversation. We had such a great time. Make sure to leave us a review. If you want more Changemakers content, you can follow us on Instagram, at JinsearsToRise, and on Facebook, at ChangemakerZ.