Advertise on podcast: ProducerHead

Whatever you delegate to AI is something you will forget how to do. If you neglect a muscle group, you expect to find it underdeveloped. Your creative skills are no different. AI is not a solution to your problems as an artist. The more you lean on it for creative work, the more you sacrifice your own creative capability. As an artist, your work remains constant. Make music. And if the blinking lights of an intelligent slot machine lure you into neglecting your creativity, you have decided that music is a scalable, manufactured good. That you prefer to be an unskilled laborer, responsible for nothing more than pulling a lever. You may find yourself more “productive” as you find yourself with more “songs,” but you have surrendered your own creativity in the process. And the less you make music, the more your music-making muscles atrophy. More on avoiding creative atrophy: Nothing Is Static ProducerHead is a publication for independent music producers. Subscribe free and get access to Sonic Stimulus Vol. 1 — a free sample pack, The Invisible Instruments — a series of creative frameworks for producers, and The Pocket — behind the scenes production sessions from guests on the show. Share this with a producer who belongs here. Get full access to ProducerHead at producerhead.substack.com/subscribe

Goals are un-experienced experiences. They are places we have never been. Destinations are directional. They do not represent finish lines. Upon arrival we will select another. Choosing one is valuable because it focuses our attention, enabling us to discover the path. Choosing a destination does not limit what we can do, it is a mechanism to align our varied activities, moving us in a particular direction. The path is revealed to us as we move toward the desired destination—we do not choose it. Keep this in mind as you encounter obstacles along the way. Bad weather, road work, and traffic jams are beyond your control. You are not lost, they are the conditions of your path. To leave the path would be to abandon your destination. Enduring will strengthen your conviction. As Underbelly tells us: It is hard to be more than one thing to people on the internet. So, the work is not to do everything at once, but to pursue a single destination at a time. Underbelly’s consistent effort as a teacher has split into various types of opportunities, including the collection of his experience offered through BeatSpark, an Ableton Live education app. This also represents a platform of stability that supports his ongoing pursuit of artistry. ProducerHead is a publication for independent music producers. Subscribe free and get access to Sonic Stimulus Vol. 1 — a free sample pack, The Invisible Instruments — a series of creative frameworks for producers, and The Pocket — behind the scenes production sessions from guests on the show. Share this with a producer who belongs here. Get full access to ProducerHead at producerhead.substack.com/subscribe

The marketing obsession leads artists to forget a fundamental truth: musicians make music. Content is about discovery. Catalog is about depth. Content is the doorway to the house that is your catalog. Good content is like a set of good directions – it makes your house easy to find. Giving good directions, however, does not necessarily make you a good host. Whether or not someone decides to stay depends entirely on what’s inside. A house containing a well-curated collection of your work is a place for someone to spend time. If you help someone find an empty house, how likely are they to return? Spending all your time on content is like mapping a route without a destination in mind. Be sure that you have something to share with your guests when they arrive. ProducerHead is a publication for independent music producers. Subscribe free and get access to Sonic Stimulus Vol. 1 — a free sample pack, The Invisible Instruments — a series of creative frameworks for producers, and The Pocket — behind the scenes production sessions from guests on the show. Share this with a producer who belongs here. Get full access to ProducerHead at producerhead.substack.com/subscribe

Gnarly is a finger drumming artist and producer based in the UK, ten years into a career she built without a single viral video. In this conversation we get into her five year goal system and why she puts it in a drawer, what full time independent music actually looks like month to month, the line between self-belief and self-delusion, and how she thinks about building an audience without chasing the algorithm. Subscribe free at producerhead.substack.com and immediately receive Sonic Stimulus Vol. 1 (a sample pack), Invisible Instruments, and access to The Pocket (in-studio production videos from guests). Get full access to ProducerHead at producerhead.substack.com/subscribe

Chris Mazuera is a guitarist and producer based in New York whose work spans hip hop, R&B, and jazz. In this clip from episode 040, he makes the case that pursuing music at all requires a kind of healthy delusion — and that every artist you admire operates from the same conviction. This Loop is from episode 040 feat. Chris Mazuera. Listen to the full conversation wherever you listen. The essay accompanying this episode is up at producerhead.substack.com. As a thank you for listening, subscribe at producerhead.substack.com and I'll send you two things for free: Sonic Stimulus Vol. 1, a curated sample pack, and access to The Pocket, an ongoing video archive of guests breaking down their process and workflow in real time. Get full access to ProducerHead at producerhead.substack.com/subscribe

In this conversation, Machado Mijiga explains the relationship between studying and making music, self-imposed limits as a creative tool, and what it actually felt like to play Lollapalooza and remain anonymous. Machado Mijiga is a multi-instrumentalist, producer, and composer based in Portland, Oregon. He plays saxophone, piano, and drums across jazz, electronic, and experimental music. Machado has also performed with Portugal the Man at some of the biggest festivals in the US. Connect with Machado Mijiga: Machado Mijiga on IG Machado Mijiga Official Site Machado Mijiga on Bandcamp Free To ProducerHead Subscribers: Subscribe free at producerhead.substack.com and immediately receive Sonic Stimulus Vol. 1 (a sample pack), Invisible Instruments, and access to The Pocket (in-studio production videos from guests). Get full access to ProducerHead at producerhead.substack.com/subscribe

Your skills are either growing or decaying right now, there's no neutral. Let's talk about training creativity. Part of a six-part series called The Invisible Instruments, this episode breaks down the parallels between physical strength training and creative development: why one session matters less than the streak, why talent is a gift but training is a choice (borrowing Jerry Seinfeld's "thoroughbred horse" idea), and why plateaus aren't dead ends but platforms for the next climb. Also covered: the recency bias that makes growth feel invisible day to day, why most of what you make will be bad and why that's the process rather than a problem, and the one metric worth tracking instead of chasing daily proof of progress. Subscribe free at producerhead.substack.com for all six Invisible Instruments write-ups, weekly curation through The Pocket, and the ability to submit your music to Beats in Progress. Get full access to ProducerHead at producerhead.substack.com/subscribe

You cannot achieve your way out of loneliness. Said another way, success won’t necessarily bring connection, which is the goal of art: to connect by demonstrating that individual experience is unique and universal. Still, most of us work tirelessly, and alone, in pursuit of goals motivated by the idea that reaching them will bring us closer together. I am not saying do not set goals. Goals, when thoughtfully defined, are useful to focus energy and develop skills. The expectations and beliefs in them as escape routes to a better life are misguided at best. When you achieve a goal, you will not stop what you are doing to catch the falling confetti. You are more likely to immediately pick another mountain and continue climbing. If the goal was 1,000 subscribers, the next one will be 10,000, and so on. Extreme focus on the current goal is powerful. When you take aim at a bullseye, it is in your best interest to be staring right into it. And as you do, you are ignoring the rest of the world, including the people around you. In moments of obsession with a goal, it can feel easier to do it alone – and it may be. But, when we remember that this goal will be replaced with another, we remember that how and with whom we travel is more important than whether or not we arrive. Set a goal. And see it for what it is: a tool, not a substitute for a life or relationship. ProducerHead is a publication for independent music producers. Subscribe free and get access to Sonic Stimulus Vol. 1 — a free sample pack, The Invisible Instruments — a series of creative frameworks for producers, and The Pocket — behind the scenes production sessions from guests on the show. Get full access to ProducerHead at producerhead.substack.com/subscribe

In this clip from episode 045, AudioHaze makes the case that monumental leaps are complete fantasy. What looks like a breakthrough from the outside is always the product of quiet and invisible labor. This Loop is an excerpt from episode 045. If you haven't heard the full conversation, start there. The essay accompanying this episode is up at producerhead.substack.com. Subscribers to the ProducerHead Substack get: Sonic Stimulus Vol. 1, a curated sample pack, Invisible Instruments, a collection of writing on the creative and psychological side of making music, and The Pocket, a video library of guests sharing behind the scenes of their sessions. Subscribe for free at producerhead.substack.com. Get full access to ProducerHead at producerhead.substack.com/subscribe

Are You Working Blind? You have a process. You have a way of doing things. And, if you can’t immediately describe it, you’re unconsciously following an invisible process. My point is not that it’s right or wrong, but that it is a choice to work blind. Process is personal and if anyone aside from you designs it, it’s not going to fit. I’m not here to prescribe process. I am here to share three principles to help you ask yourself better questions, so that your process is consciously bespoke according to your answers. 1. Make Something and Finish Something Daily When I first started producing, I was lucky enough to ask someone who has made it: “What do I do?” Their response was simple: make a new idea every day. The ever expanding responsibilities of the modern musician make it easy to forget that you started making music because you heard music that inspired you to try. The catalog of other artists inspired you to explore your own musical capacity. Your catalog is the best of your ideas, and you find your best ideas by making a new one each day. The first step to building your catalog is documenting your ideas. The only potential downside to making a new idea every day is that you may never finish anything, which is why I suggest developing a daily habit of finishing. It’s not a reasonable expectation to complete a song each day, but you can perform an act to nudge it forward. When implementing this practice, define progress and success expansively. Making music is not easy. Genuine effort counts, even more important if this is something you plan to do indefinitely. 2. Define Progress in Time-Bound and Input-Based Terms You know how much time you have to dedicate to music. If you only have five minutes in a day to make music (for more on this, see frequency), don’t make yourself feel bad because you don’t write a whole new song that day. Apply genuine effort to those five minutes to make a new idea. Maybe all you found was a drum loop that you like. Drop it into a track, save the session, and move on. What you started today, you pick up tomorrow. What you have at the end of any particular session is irrelevant. It is about harnessing momentum and linking sessions together over an extended period of time (for more on this, see the marathon method). The individual session is meaningful because of its representation as commitment. You were here today, you will be back tomorrow. 3. Decide what you’re going to do beforehand. Know what you’re going to do before you sit down. This is especially important when you are working with smaller blocks of time. If you only have 10 minutes available, decide ahead of time that you’re going to spend it programming drums or writing a chord progression. For inspiration, here’s one of my favorite examples of what can be done in 10min. Counter Argument: “The blocks of time and the wins seem too small to be worth the attention.” I hear that. And this is less about objective progress as much as it is about your mindset and relationship with what work looks like. The difference between unconsciously viewing five available minutes as time to kill versus useful to your creativity represents optimism of what constitutes opportunity. It is acceptance that ideal circumstances don’t exist and we therefore seize available moments, not to optimize or squeeze out every last drop, but to express our creativity. Final Thought To Keep In Mind We are not as good at estimating task duration as we think. The only way to improve is experience and observation. As you try this out, it’s important not to jump to judgments about something taking longer than it “should.” The goal is not to optimize work, it is to work. ProducerHead is a publication for independent music producers. Subscribe free and get access to Sonic Stimulus Vol. 1 — a free sample pack, The Invisible Instruments — a series of creative frameworks for producers, and The Pocket — behind the scenes production sessions from guests on the show. Get full access to ProducerHead at producerhead.substack.com/subscribe

Fog Chaser is a producer and artist based in Portland. In today's Loop, he shares the challenges and pressures that emerge while building an audience. Subscribe free at producerhead.substack.com and immediately receive Sonic Stimulus Vol. 1 (a sample pack), Invisible Instruments, and access to The Pocket (in-studio production videos from guests). Get full access to ProducerHead at producerhead.substack.com/subscribe

There are two types of motivation. One is macro. This is your greater sense of purpose. The micro is the day-to-day. And, in my experience, I’ve found it to be a little more variable. The most helpful way to maintain micro motivation is to create situations for yourself that generate genuine interest. That has meant to end sessions at the moment where I perceive the most potential in an idea, which is accompanied by a sense of feeling as though I could work forever. This sounds counter intuitive and counter productive, but as you’ll hear in this piece, it’s a helpful frame to develop self-awareness and a practical tactic for sustaining your creative process. For the complete breakdown: The Marathon Method: A Producer’s Tool for Managing Studio Trauma ProducerHead is a publication for independent music producers. Subscribe free and get access to Sonic Stimulus Vol. 1 — a free sample pack, The Invisible Instruments — a series of creative frameworks for producers, and The Pocket — behind the scenes production sessions from guests on the show. Get full access to ProducerHead at producerhead.substack.com/subscribe

Steps cannot be skipped. Late London believes the producer arc follows three stages: (1) mastering the basics (2) making volume (3) identifying quality. Whether you agree on the form or not is irrelevant. The insight is the substance underneath: your experience is unlike anyone else’s and you are subject to the same rules as everyone else. The most direct route to the next phase of your development is to accurately assess and accept your current stage and dedicate your attention to your most immediate challenges. Productivity culture pressures people to squeeze out every last drop. And artists divert their attention to the search for shortcuts. The belief is: the most efficient process produces the best art. The truth: an efficient process for mass production works because the goal is to make each piece indistinguishable from the next. In that context, uniformity is quality. In art, it is failure. Subscribe for free and immediately receive Sonic Stimulus Vol. 1 (a sample pack), Invisible Instruments, and access to The Pocket (in-studio production videos from guests). Get full access to ProducerHead at producerhead.substack.com/subscribe

The obsession with content creation and a marketing-first emphasis as an artist creates pressure and an incentive structure that leads artists away from themselves. Birocratic reminds us of the truth: There is no better marketing plan than making good music. Nothing will endear you to potential fans more than that. It’s so simple and easy to forget this in the noisy world of content. If art is the artist’s product, then the rule of marketing is no different than for any other business. If the product isn’t of quality, no amount of marketing will develop a real relationship. Best case scenario, you sell one product, get one listen. That person’s trust is lost forever because of a hollow promise. Music is not content. Content is a container for your music. If you want to be an artist, yes you have to share your music, but you do not have to become a content creator. In the same way your art develops over time, so will the way that you deliver it. If you want to make music privately, you are not any less of an artist. If you want to be a content creator who makes music, go right ahead. If you want to build an audience, how will anyone discover your music if it isn’t consistently shared? If you want to be an artist, put your message in a bottle and send it out to sea. Over and over again. With practice, you will learn to adapt to the ever changing movement of the water. Subscribe for free and immediately receive Sonic Stimulus Vol. 1 (a sample pack), Invisible Instruments, and access to The Pocket (in-studio production videos from guests). Get full access to ProducerHead at producerhead.substack.com/subscribe

A company can be a source of opportunity, maybe even a partner, but if you want something to rely on, look to community. No matter what your goals or existing sources of income, a consistent component of a musician’s career is connection to a fan base. Today, this is represented through an email list. And in that sense, it is not different than any other business. Artists ignore this basic idea. They try to build a creative business without a fan base or believe that someone else will do that for them. An email list lacks the allure of a social media following and monthly listener count — the appearance of success. Social media and streaming platforms don’t ask you to build anything. They actually prefer that you don’t. Greg David didn’t take a day off in five years and he produced 200 songs in 5 years that generated millions of streams. This extreme focus is also, as he put it, tunnel vision. His life and career were out of balance. He developed a single source of revenue that was controlled by a label. When it came time to move on from that label, he realized that millions of streams meant nothing without an email list to back them up. Uploading your catalog to Spotify without an audience is like putting up flyers in your city. Millions of people pass by it, some will see it, few will read it, and none will remember it. The appearance of access is not a substitute for connection. That is found through the quiet and patient work of cultivating a community. The allure of reaching the entire world is a shiny distraction from the humble and meaningful possibility that you can serve your community of fans in the same way as a neighborhood butcher. If you feed people, they will take care of you. If you want to look successful, put your faith in a corporation. If you want to sustain a career, serve a community. Offer free meals and begin a conversation. Subscribe for free and immediately receive Sonic Stimulus Vol. 1 (a sample pack), Invisible Instruments, and access to The Pocket (in-studio production videos from guests). Get full access to ProducerHead at producerhead.substack.com/subscribe