by Author Alex Green

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Rising Sounds 2018: Meet the Producers

You’ve heard from the participants of Rising Sounds, but what about the producers? We caught up with this year’s team of producers to get their take on Rising Sounds and their advice for anyone who’d like to become a producer.

Rising Sounds pairs unsigned artists with professional producers to record their own track. The result of this is an album – a compilation of all of the tracks made during this project – which is launched on 1 March.

What kind music do you normally produce and which unsigned artist did you work with?

Hannah Holland: Mainly music for the dance floor, house and techno, as well as a more live dancefloor mixed genre band. I worked with the talented Shakira during Rising Sounds on her atmospheric, electronica songs.

Ozzie Ojo: I normally produce Afrobeats fused with different genres ranging from Dancehall, Soca, Dance and Reggae. I worked with EMZI on the project whose sound is sonically acoustic with a touch of electronic. Dark Piano Chords with an 808 Bassline and luscious strings juxtapose with the angst of the aggression.

Chris McRory: I try and keep what I produce quite varied to keep it interesting. A good song, or groove is ultimately what’s important to me. I was lucky enough to work with Silva – to me, Silva sounds like the groovier aspects of Warpaint.

Bayoz Musik: I produce different types of music but my work has been recognised through hip-hop and Afrobeat artist. I worked with Dion D’Lucia as part of Rising Sounds. Dion’s sound is very soulful and eclectic.

Ronika: I make pop music inspired by sunshine, moonlight, good times and boogie. I worked with the ridiculously talented Marika who makes honey drenched RnB pop vocals with a London twang, over lo-fi grooves.

Why did you become a producer?

Ronika: I started by going to a local community studio in Nottingham where I’m from when I was 14 and learning the basics, then pretty much decided music was what I wanted to do with my life so I enrolled onto a music production/sound engineering course to get deeper into it, then went on to work as a sound engineer while producing my own music. But it took years for me to get to a stage where I felt I was good enough to release anything.

Hannah: I started off as a DJ and through my knowledge of music I had a strong passion to start making my own. At the time I was running a club night, we had exciting new performers and producers, so it was a natural step to start a small record label.

Could we have your best tips/ bits of advice for anyone wanting to become a producer?

Hannah: Practise every day or as much as you can and hang out with other producers at their studios / set ups and learn from each other.

Chris: Talent and imagination… and ask and you should receive. Be bold. The worst anybody can say is no.

Ozzie: Find your own library of sounds that will define your sound. Try and not use stock sounds that everyone else uses. Be creative. Be yourself. Your time will come. It’s paramount that as an up and coming producer you try and create your own sound and don’t always follow current fashion or trend.