The Brutal Truth About Why I Failed as an Artist

Thank you for being so vulnerable this is extremely relatable. I’m going through a similar journey right now in my career and it feels really isolating sometimes. It’s definitely the road less travelled but I’m so glad I have been able to learn how to create music for myself top to bottom despite what people say. I would have never known you went through this, thank you 🙏

Hey man, I appreciate this video so much. While the technical side is important, we can’t forget to enjoy and have fun with the process

Our stories are quite similar. I spent a lot of energy trying to become a music producer, but along the way, I forgot the joy of making my own music. Even though I had written off the idea of creating personal music, this year life brought me together with some people with whom we now play a style of music I never expected to play. This became the spark to reignite my enthusiasm and inspiration for music creation.

I don't know if this will lead to any commercial success—probably not—but that doesn't matter much to me. What matters is that I'm enjoying music again. We often forget that music is a collective process. We isolate ourselves too much, and it becomes a joyless routine.

I'm at least 10 years older than you, and I know it sounds cliché, but it's never too late.

I totally relate to this, set up my studio to work on my own stuff for my band, became obsessive with trying to hit that 100% pro level, in the end the band stopped and I started producing others. I always tell fellow musicians that I produce that if you go down the production side say goodbye to your music career as it takes an extremely long time to develop your ears to know what you are doing. I tell them just to demo their songs quickly and find studios that produce a good sound to work with. Most studio rates are reasonable now.

oh the old engineer rabbit hole... you want to get better at mixing to save money or maybe your the only one in your friend group that actually has the determination to figure it out... its a slippery slope for us hard headed determined people 😅 once i set my eyes on something nothing else seems to matter and mixing has become that thing. i actually relate to this completely. maybe we don't have to make it but just making the music is enough... hopefully we see success along the way!

Damn this hit hard. Thanks for sharing

Appreciate your honesty there's a lot of lessons to be learned in the things that you said I hope young people are listening peace and blessings to you

The saying goes art is never finished it is merely abandoned.

Its a saying I live by when it comes to music.

I am a bit backwards, I failed as an engineer, but am succeeding thru as an artist. But through failures, you learn from those mistakes

I don went thru almost all of this. A couple of things for the ppl... finished is often times better than perfect. Sometimes, the imperfections can make the entire record. Don’t be so critical and technical that you nolonger have fun/ nolonger sound good/ follow all the “rules”/ or that you make yourself stagnant. Don’t get caught up in the new hype, what you have is more than enough. Don’t overthink it, majority of listens don’t care about what you’re tripping over. Buy gear with purpose, not bragging rights. Often times gear isn’t better than other gear, it’s just different. There is no 1 man band, no one does it all alone. Stop comparing so much gear, make a choice, make it work. Lol I can go on n on. Thanks for the video.

Use me as We all going through this 😢 button 🖐🏿

Needed this 😢 would love to work if your taking on clients

You didn't blow Diddy?

I felt this and can relate also. This is literally why I have a B.S in Sound engineering. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you 🙏 you are the last confirmation I needed to let go of my perfection mentality

You are blessed bro

I was there in the beginning when you were first dropping tracks, you showed me your studio. I was impressed then. I'm even more impressed now. Proud of you bro! Never say never. I will pray for you, always 🙏🏽

This resonates. Thanks for allowing yourself to be vulnerable in front of us.
I just hope you've managed to find that spark of having fun with music again, cuz that's truly why we all started this expensive hobby/career of ours.

the resonance is wild. thank you 🙏

I'm literally you but before the full time engineer thing... Although i will say, I always kinda wanted to be able to engineer for other people (particularly pop stars with big budgets to pay me) when i got older

Appreciate your perspective for real

The best years and the best music I made was made with the apogee duet FireWire… even got a song on the radio

Thanks so much really appreciate your channel. I am a bit in a rabbit hole myself. Got a u87ai and an Apollo x8 … but somehow find that chain a bit harsh. Shall I sell the mic or buy a better preamp? What would make the best impact? Still a bit nostalgic about my FireWire Duet. May be Prism Lyra?

We appreciate you bro .. thank you! 🙏🏾🙏🏾

There are many paths to the same place.

Hey! Love this vid. Personally going thru a bit of a rut myself and i'm just tryna take it one step at a time. I've been trying to find you on ig! Also would love to hear some of your work and songs you've done too!

I feel ya on the Audio Engineering thing.. Back when I started out there was no schooling for that in my state so went to Minneapolis to learn, (and as you know this was before this was cool and everyone was doing it). The way I see it is, to be able to make it as an artist you must collaborate, even now if you still want to make money as an artist. Set all your pride aside when working with other people don't do everything because you will make people feel intimated. Go with the flow and if you're working with other people as well don't force anyone to do anything. The most important thing is to have fun and not make it feel like work and that's what being a good artist is about. That's why it's an art form. Just try experiences

Oh Boy i'm in buying gear and i don't even have gear

Thank you for sharing the exact story of so many of us !!!!