Years and years now just going wherever life would draw me to, I’ve reached the culminating moment of my hard work.
Limited Edition CDs with cute pictures and the Cover Art is also available. Contact me on social media if you’d like a copy 😀
So this is how it all started
Well, long story short, My passion in music has lead to delve into electronic music production. Inspired by the ever so easy to access variety of electronic music from the record label Monstercat, I’ve set out to create works of art of my own.
How I did this
Step 1: Inspiration
Making music does not start from arranging pre recorded loops and to claim you made something original. It starts from listening. It starts from being in awe of the sounds around you, organized or otherwise. Draw inspiration from there.
Step 2: The Context
It’s one thing to listen, and it’s another to know how to listen. I didn’t get formal theory education when I was a kid, but I did listen to a lot of music. I didn’t know where else to access music but from my sister via bluetooth on the old nokia phone I owned. I kept on repeating songs and analyzing the lyrics and patterns to the music (ABABCB, 4 chords, drum patterns).
Step 3: Learning an Instrument
For most electronic musicians, piano training is essential. The piano is a historical invention made to put the capabilities of the whole orchestra in the hands of a single player. It’s fitting that electronic music made the piano it’s instrument of choice.
Step 4: Making Actual Music
Maybe start with just composing on the piano. Maybe whistle a tune you made and write harmony for it. Get some original ideas buzzing up there.
Step 5: Sound Design, Recording, Mixing, Mastering, and More Magic
Youtube tutorials will be your friend for this. It’s a whole new set of theory that you’ll have to understand the technology used in an electronic music song. At this stage, you will need an actual DAW (digital audio work station), studio headphones (monitor speakers might not be worth investing for at this point), a midi keyboard, and other gear that you feel would be necessary. Just don’t go over the top.
Step 6: Releasing Music and Getting Feedback
It’s exactly as it sounds. Create a soundcloud.com account and share your music to your friends and the online community. Take in suggestions and keep grinding at it. This might be the most difficult and time consuming part of all.
Step 7: Selling Your Music
To create CDs are really expensive, but they might be worth it. I wouldn’t like to disclose how much I spent on sketch, but I don’t expect to make profit. It’s never about that with art, anyway. It’s about getting yourself and your ideas out there – do not lose track of this.
Bandcamp.com is a good website for indie artists to distribute their music online. It might be a better option than creating CDs. Who buys those things anyway nowadays?
So who is “DJ Nestryle?”
Music, whether during a concert, thumping in the club, playing through ear buds on a bus ride home, blasting in your room during a sleepover, or in the background of an emotional scene in a movie, adds flavour to life. Just as art decorates space and makes views more beautiful, I see music as a way to decorate time and enhance the aesthetics of a situation. The arts is the toolbox wherein DJ Nestryle is set to change the world and make it a little bit more beautiful one song at a time.
The release of Sketch EP really is a defining moment for me. It inspired people to follow through and pursue their art, and that means everything to me. The fact that friends and family would pay for my music means a lot, even though I might have bad prospects of breaking even.
I’m so darn excited to showcase my music to market collectives, my piano recital, old friends, new friends in university, and to anyone else willing to take the time to listen.
But Sketch has never been just about me.
It’s about friends eager to share my music to their friends. It’s about my piano + band + electronic music teachers who have not only taught me but inspired me. It’s about my music friends who pushed me to be the best. It’s about my family and my neighbors putting up with the loud noises in our house. It’s about my parents who knew music lessons and equipment would’ve eventually been worth the time and the money.
It’s about each and every one out there who believed in me; because really, you are the magic that made this all happen. 🙂
