When I tell people I make music, I generally get flooded with generic questions.

• "Why do you like making music?" 

• "Where does your sound come from?"

• "How do you do it?"

• "How long have you been making music?"

So I'm gonna take this section to answer these wonderful questions, and just some general context as well:

Background:

I started making music when I was roughly 7 years old. I started off on an oldddd MacBook Pro, using GarageBand loops to create my music. I also used headphones that I had gotten at a K-Mart (they literally came with a T-Shirt), so I had no idea what sounded good and what didn't. This is where we all start. Slowly, over time, I began to develop and understanding of what the different instruments could be used for, as well how the effects I added to my music did. Unfortunately, being 9 years old, everything sounds really cool when it's distorted and (now) trashy sounding. I have only recovered one of my songs, but that's probably for the better.

Later down the line, after many GarageBand projects, CDs burned full of my music, and several failed rap collabs with my friends, when I was 14 years old, COVID-19 hit. I built my own computer and downloaded FL Studio. I had messed around with it for a bit, but I never had the motivation to finish a project into a song. That was until my final assignment of 8th grade, a passion project. For the project, I decided to make my first real song called Twilight. Twilight was the very song that kickstarted my music career. Yes, I had been making music for around 7 years, but it was far from this level of uniqueness and character. 

Since then, I've been making music almost every day (or more accurately, in my free time). 

My Sound:

If I had to guess where my sound came from, it would definitely be my childhood. I grew up on music like HOME, lots of synthwave and chillwave music. This along with the countless of hours I'll never get back from video games and their respective soundtracks (Most notable: Minecraft & Terraria). Another genre that dominated my upbringing would be EDM. As a kid, intense EDM like Dark Techno and Hardstyle, stuff that me and my friends listen to now, just simply did not exist to me as a kid. I listened to mostly Dubstep, occasionally Trance. 

I would say that my sound is caused by growing up in the age of electronic music and computers. My exposure to actual instruments was through the symphony, not rock and roll like my dad, and his dad before him. But, that was a rare occasion. Mostly, it would be me and my iPod or MacBook, listening to tunes that I had discovered on SoundCloud or Pandora. 

How It's Done:

It all comes down to commitment. Every one of my friends gives me the same lame excuse when they stop trying,

• "I can't figure it out."

• "Nothing I make sounds good."

• "It's too confusing."

I hate to break it to you all, but that's generally what the beginning career of an artist looks like. Using digital audio workstations (DAWs) like FL Studio, Ableton, Reason, hell even GarageBand, you can experiment with different sounds, instruments, and styles. There is a learning curve, but you just have to push through and keep at it. There are tons of wonderful tutorials on YouTube for how to use each and every one of these DAWs.