This one was a particularly unique success...
► Listen to Rok Sivante's "Other Spaces" on DSound
While I've produced music on-and-off for years - more time off - I've still been in the process of cultivating skills, which has resulted in projects taking more time than hoped to complete...
To jump tracks for a moment...
One of the most important keys to success learned from a top mentor, Roger Hamilton, creator of Wealth Dynamics, was that the speed at which we succeed depends on how fast we move through learning cycles.
You can't fathom my love, dude, lock yourself in a room
Doing 5 beats a day for 3 summers
That's A Different World like Cree Summer's
I deserve to do these numbers
"The kid that made that deserves that Maybach!"
So many records in my basement
I'm just waiting on my spaceship
~Kanye West, from "Spaceship"
Here, Kanye expresses that principle perfectly.
Just as superproducer, Alex Da Kid, has also spoken about having done hundreds of beats before "making it."
While I've made some excellent music, the 30 completed productions in my vault have been nothing in comparison - and there's been the realization that if I truly want to succeed in the game, my flow of output needs to rapidly accelerate to bring the experience necessary to rise to mastery.
Well...
A couple days ago, I published a post on The Bullshit Of Goal Setting. The following morning, I woke up to a comment from @oredebby, "When we don't set goals for ourselves, our dreams become unachievable."
At first, I almost wanted to get a bit defensive and drive home the point of the post I was trying to make. However, upon withholding the reactivity and considering how the statement might actually be true, there was some sort of "ah-ha" moment. And I made a commitment.
That day, I was going to complete an entire beat/track.
Typically, it takes me a few days from start-to-finish. So to put the time constraints on myself to finish an entire piece before returning to bed was a first.
And, I fucking did it:
► Listen to Rok Sivante's "Other Spaces" on DSound
This may not be my most favorite of everything I've done. Yet, it represents a small, once-in-a-lifetime victory that was/is perhaps essential to my growth as an artist. And, I'm still fairly happy with the way it turned out.
Thus, it's pretty dope.
It all started with the organ chords, which gave it a real Drake-ish vibe. And though I'm not typically thrilled about duplicating others' styles - stubbornly preferring to create something more "original" - I simply rolled with it and let the project evolve. And sure enough, it did evolve - to where I can't even hear it in that same initial light. (Probably that Asian-sounding African stringed instrument transforming the atmosphere).
In any case... time to shut up and let the music speak for itself.
Still a semi-work-in-progress, as needs a vocalist to fill it out and serve justice - and would probably end up redoing the entire chorus at that point. Nonetheless, it is what it is.
And may you enjoy the sonic journey it takes you on... :-)