What if you knew you could make it — Transcript

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1. 0:00We're talking like a span of like 7
2. 0:02years, you know, it's not like all this
3. 0:04[ __ ] [music] just happened one week,
4. 0:05next week, and the week after that. It
5. 0:06took a while, dude.
6. 0:08I wasn't scooped up by TS though and
7. 0:10piggybacked onto the stage of Ultra and
8. 0:12all of a sudden I'm a superstar. You got
9. 0:14to do some uh work.
10. 0:17I say this to a lot of guys. As an
11. 0:19independent artist, the kind of key
12. 0:21thing you got to realize, the internet
13. 0:23is such a vestibule for, [music]
14. 0:25you know, promotion and Twitter and
15. 0:27social networks and stuff like that. I
16. 0:29never had to do that. And I And I think
17. 0:31that's that worked out in my favor
18. 0:32because when you're starting out, you
19. 0:34want to make music for, you know,
20. 0:36people. If I had to do this again in
21. 0:38today's climate, it sounds crazy, but
22. 0:40[music] I would really focus on
23. 0:43being very offline.
24. 0:47>> [music]
25. 0:48>> Take your music and go to a nightclub,
26. 0:50meet a DJ, do uh you know, go to a radio
27. 0:52station, get like it's it's still old
28. 0:54school. I I and I'm probably going to
29. 0:56sound [music] old school, but honestly,
30. 0:58connections made in person are a
31. 1:01million, billion times more valuable
32. 1:03[music] than a spam link, an email.
33. 1:05That's how I kind of found out about
34. 1:08Sonny. I didn't invent Skrillex.
35. 1:09Skrillex invented [music] Skrillex.
36. 1:10There's no doubt about that. But Sonny
37. 1:12came He was in person. He [music] came
38. 1:14to an event. He delivered me actually.
39. 1:16It's Gary Richards and my Sprite on a
40. 1:18USB key.
41. 1:20That was a personal connection.
42. 1:22>> [music]
43. 1:23>> When I was growing up in Niagara Falls,
44. 1:25I uh found out about, you know,
45. 1:26electronic music and all that stuff
46. 1:28through friends that were into it. And I
47. 1:30went to a couple like small little raves
48. 1:32and then thought, "Wow, this [music] is
49. 1:33kind of you know, I want to get into
50. 1:34this." I had to investigate. So, I just
51. 1:37in my infinite wisdom figured I'd go to
52. 1:39the nearest big computer [music] store
53. 1:41and I said, "Hey guys, uh anyone you
54. 1:43guys know anything about making music
55. 1:44with a computer [music] kind of thing?"
56. 1:46And they were like, "Well, yeah, we know
57. 1:47some things." He says, "Well, you know,
58. 1:48we're DJs and we put together this radio
59. 1:50show." [music] And I was like, "Oh, wow,
60. 1:52that's really cool. You should come by.
61. 1:53Just Just hang out, you know." And then
62. 1:55that's what I did. I I hung out, and
63. 1:57that's it. It's just being there. I was
64. 1:59um producing or learning to produce. Not
65. 2:01[music] I I didn't turn out a tune
66. 2:04in the first 6 years of my [music] like
67. 2:07kind of just hanging out and learning
68. 2:08about electronic music and all
69. 2:10and the scene at the time. [music] I
70. 2:12spent so much time in that studio
71. 2:14learning and and downloading stuff and
72. 2:16you know, putting together things and
73. 2:17learning to make music and all that
74. 2:19stuff. My mom would be calling [music]
75. 2:21like, "Where's Joel? You got to come
76. 2:22home."
77. 2:23You couldn't get me out of that studio.
78. 2:25[music]
79. 2:27I found this one company and I
80. 2:28approached him. I said, "Hey, I'm a
81. 2:29composer from Niagara Falls. I make
82. 2:31electronic music. I'd like to be a part
83. 2:33of this thing." He was like, "Oh, cool."
84. 2:34I gave him some loops [music] and tracks
85. 2:36and stuff like that for him to sell on
86. 2:38his site. Oh, wow, this is like almost a
87. 2:40full-time [ __ ] job.
88. 2:42All the time I was doing that, as shitty
89. 2:44as it was in comparison of what I'm
90. 2:45doing [ __ ] now, I'm learning. You're
91. 2:47just sharpening [music] the [ __ ]
92. 2:48knife. And you're getting [ __ ] paid
93. 2:49for it, too. You don't have to [ __ ]
94. 2:51put out an EDM banger [music] to make a
95. 2:52million [ __ ] bucks a year. You really
96. 2:54don't. You don't need to [ __ ] worry
97. 2:55about that [ __ ] cuz you'll get there.
98. 2:59I would like to make music. I can make
99. 3:00money, all right, and I can learn.
100. 3:02Great. But [music] you're obviously
101. 3:04like, "Well, I have no equipment. I'm
102. 3:06not making hundreds of thousands of
103. 3:07dollars, so I can't buy [ __ ] this
104. 3:09[music] crazy equipment." You know, it's
105. 3:11all just a little out of reach. So,
106. 3:13again, there you go. Get on your [ __ ]
107. 3:15bike, go outside, [music] and and
108. 3:17[ __ ] meet people, you know, and then
109. 3:20I go to a studio, like a recording
110. 3:21[music] studio that had, you know, maybe
111. 3:25half a million dollars worth of [ __ ]
112. 3:26gear and
113. 3:27[ __ ] that I could never [ __ ] hope
114. 3:30[music] to own. And funnily enough, the
115. 3:32studio just so happened to be, you know,
116. 3:33a couple blocks away from my house. And
117. 3:35did what I do, you know, I I went in,
118. 3:37"Hey, dude, I make electronic [music]
119. 3:38music. I know it's not your [ __ ]
120. 3:39area, but, you know, I just like to hang
121. 3:41around and check [ __ ] out, you know,
122. 3:43like and just sit in on a [music] couple
123. 3:44sessions, learn a couple things, you
124. 3:46know, I'm not going to [ __ ] tell you
125. 3:48to pay me or anything, you know, cuz I
126. 3:49won't be doing [music] anything." But
127. 3:50just go be a [ __ ] intern. Be a
128. 3:52[ __ ] coffee guy, you know, whatever.
129. 3:54Just whatever gets you in that [ __ ]
130. 3:55room because [music]
131. 3:56sooner or later the opportunity for you
132. 3:59to use all this [ __ ] you've been [ __ ]
133. 4:00learning is going to come up [music]
134. 4:01like almost instantly.
135. 4:19You do that for [music] enough you
136. 4:20practice you learn things that you know
137. 4:22you just you impress yourself like holy
138. 4:24[ __ ] you know wow [music] last year I
139. 4:25didn't even know how to [ __ ] do this
140. 4:27thing and now I'm I'm already like
141. 4:28learning about mixing
142. 4:31you know techniques and stuff like that
143. 4:33just accumulating like [music] a [ __ ]
144. 4:35sponge that's that's so important.
145. 4:38You can download all the [ __ ]
146. 4:39software you want buy all the plugins
147. 4:41you [ __ ] want but if you don't know
148. 4:43how it actually [ __ ] works really
149. 4:46what's the point?
150. 4:47>> [music]
151. 4:48>> Just taking information. You got to do
152. 4:50that [ __ ] You know what I mean? Not you
153. 4:52[ __ ] clone the [ __ ] clone of a
154. 4:54clone, you know,
155. 4:56that's really important because that's
156. 4:58how you learn that's how you make you.