you know I don't know if the meaning of life is but that doesn't mean that I
can't make that meaning for myself and so for me it's music
what's up guys now I've been watching this guy for a long time on Instagram
I've been hoping that I can meet up with him when I got to New York I want to try
to do this interview in a very special location I know what it looked like
about 30 years ago from pictures but I have no idea what its gonna look like
today so we're taking a chance and just gonna see what we can do all right
it's almost 11 o'clock should be coming any minute by the way we're right
outside the original home of Def Jam Records that's right Russell Simmons
Rick Rubin set up shop right here when Def Jam
started we're going to do our interview on the stairs hopefully nobody kicks us out
how's it going do you know what this is no idea all right this is where a famous
photograph was taken there it is what Run DMC, Beastie Boys on these
steps right here who are you tell me a little bit about you oh yeah so I'm
Alejandro I go by the Phonetic I grew up in Brooklyn I was born in Colombia and
I'm a music producer I would say that my genre is a mix of chill hop and a lot of
boom bap I do some modern genres - I like to mix everything together you've
got almost 40,000 followers on Instagram I was just looking at your recent post I
think the last one you did has more than 200 comments on it one guy just a yes
damn cousin this shit is crazy fire fire one of my favorites was I'm
surprised your pads don't catch fire
I saw a post that you did some time ago but it kind of looked almost look like a
basketball or a sneaker commercial yeah for Nike but that was through Kid CQ so
he's a fashion model and he does this collaboration when he makes his videos
he's looking for you know hip-hop music and modern sounds and things so that
beat was for one of those collaborations
take me back to your first memory of you getting into music when I started taking
piano lessons I was eight years old and at first I hated it I didn't want to do
it it was like kind of enjoyable but I didn't want to practice I know what you
mean yeah but then by the time I got to middle school I started to pick up the
guitar start playing in a band and writing songs I think I was like 12 or
13 or something on my windows computer they had the little sound recorder yeah
and I had like one of those ninty's microphones and I
would just stack the audio on top of each other my dad's like what the heck are you doing
I like dad I'm making music I didn't really start making beats and getting
involved in music production until college and that was about two years ago
I feel as though I'm still trying to discover what my sound is what I post up
is genuinely what I'd like to make I don't really filter what I put up I only post
what I feel represents my art and I guess people just like it and I'm grateful where do you find motivation where do you find your
creativity lately it's just been life itself because you know I don't know
what the meaning of life is that doesn't mean that I can't make it myself yeah
make that meeting for myself and so for me it's music so just waking up every
day and knowing that you know I could die at any moment
anyone could die at any moment so why not make this meaning for
my life creativity I would say comes from just listening to a ton of music
and being open to everything I want to talk a bit about your workflow where do you
get your samples most of my samples are drum samples
doing sound design in Logic I don't really buy any plugins I use all the
stock plugins and kind of just going from there and then recording guitars
bass my drum samples are mixed between split samples and then also making drum
samples from scratch so also going into logic using the stock drum plugins
that they have available let's talk about your gear what do you use the most
that's a hard question I guess my MPD right yeah my MPD I use the most that
makes a lot of appearances if you were stuck on an island and you only had one
piece of gear with you what would you want with you
it's a tough one man because my instinct says MPD but the pianist in
me says where are my keys you know like I don't know if I'd be able to go without the keys so
a lot of people are making music in their bedroom but they don't put their
music out there for people to hear and I think some of it comes from maybe that
initial fear of getting yourself out there, criticism... did you feel that when
you first started making music how did you get past that I would
definitely say I felt that I mean looking back now if I listen to those old beats those first posts on Instagram like they
kind of suck you know like and that's okay yeah it's okay because you're just
starting out so it's understandable that people kind of have that restriction but
I would just say like don't give a shit how are we ever supposed to get a fan if
nobody ever heard of you so you just gotta do it
just gotta put it out there...don't care
tell us a secret about your music production that maybe some of my viewers
can learn I would have to say that you have to think about the drums as one
instrument
in terms of you know the the sound selection that you use and when you're
mixing making sure that things are sitting together using a bit of
compression and so a technique that you would use to achieve this would be
utilizing track stacks you're able to take different tracks drag them into one
summing stack and be able to mix that's all of those tracks just from one track
and so it really helps with achieving that one instrument sound the drums are
primary because without the beat there's nothing do you have something that you
could play for us today it's something that's gonna be on my album we're gonna see you
playing it live? yeah all right cool all right let's do it
all right so what would you tell somebody who's trying to get into this
and trying to get their stuff heard put your music out there
and always be exposing what you're capable of even if you're a beginner
even when you're just starting out there's no way that you're ever going to
get better unless you keep challenging yourself to really get your music heard
by other people always be networking with people who are trying to do the
same thing that you're trying to do surround yourself with people who are
better than you and just constantly giving yourself a reason to push
yourself thanks so much for your time keep making awesome beats thanks brother
great advice from the Phronetic he's been awesome keep doing what you're doing you
guys keep making the music that you love and we will see you later