Releasing My EP: The Process, the Price, and the Payoff

On June 1st, 2020, I will be sharing my first coherent musical production, if you will, with the world. This is a moment in the history of my making that opened my eyes to the true possibility of a career as an artist. I have so many other ventures I want to pursue in this life, but the support I have gotten before and during the production of this project has kept this burning passion to create music alive.

The Dream Team

I went into this project with the mindset that it was my baby and I didn’t necessarily want anyone to touch her or distort her in a way that affected the vision I had for each song. I also wanted the satisfaction of being able to say I taught myself how to mix and put everything together by my lonesome, but as I soon realized, I had this pretty picture of how I wanted my music to sound and I didn’t yet have the skillset to achieve that alone.

I recorded everything on my phone meaning the quality was not the greatest. There was always this “static” that I couldn’t shake and eventually I came to embrace it by incorporating “The Static Series” into the title of the EP. It serves as a reminder of where I began my journey and how humbling this process was.

However, some songs will sound a bit more professional than others because I didn’t mix them! I was blessed with the most unexpected team who offered to help me achieve my vision and grow as an artist.

My audio engineers for this project were:

Erik Vann (Instagram: Piseth_vann)

*Mixed: Reflections and Runner-Up + Uke

Tekhano D. (Instagram: Tekhano)

*Mixed: Teasin‘

Maurice (Instagram: Madspill)

*Mixed: Good Girl

Niah Faye (me)

*Mixed: No End In Sight and Love Therapy

These talented dudes managed to take my static and work magic, and I am so, so grateful for the energy, creativity, and knowledge they brought to this project. (They also make music of their own, so check ’em out!)

Of course I consider everyone who gave me feedback and encouraging words as part of the team, an invaluable part.

My beats are primarily sourced from Beats By Con on YouTube, but there is one from prod. CLINT and another from prod. Eeryskies. Each song will credit the producer and audio engineers that helped make that track possible.

The Pressures of the Process

I began this project soon after we were quarantined, because I figured what better way to use this free time than to work on something I felt I never had the time or energy to do. Sure, I still had school up until about a week or so ago, but I still had a lot more time on my hands than before.

When my mom was at work and I had the house all to myself, I spent this time writing and recording. I spent hourssss recording and re-recording. I wrote entire songs and trashed them, totaling at about two months worth of work to produce 6 songs.

More recently, my schedule has been waking up between 7-9:30 am, finding beats, writing, recording, mixing, sharing files, reviewing songs, hating them, redoing them, forgetting them for a month and coming back to them. And somewhere in between it all, I found a few songs I was truly proud of.

I did not think it was going to be this difficult to sing into a phone and lay my vocals over a beat, but it goes to show I have a lot to learn. I fell in love with making music, though. I got to be more than the voice on the track; I got to really help create the track.

Recording in my mom’s apartment, on my iPhone, mixing on my Chromebook and in a friend’s car. . . it’s been a hilariously mediocre process, but I would not feel the same sense of pride that I do had this been produced in a studio.

However, I am very excited to work with some real equipment for my next project!

The Final Project

With that being said, The Static Series: Losing @ L<3ve will be released Monday, June 1st. Given the title, you know this is about to be similar to the Losing at Love category of posts here on my blog. It is a reflection of some of the experiences I’ve had whilst trying to love myself and others. Don’t be fooled, though, some of the songs are reminiscent of feelings from long ago.

I had a difficult time trying to categorize what kind of music this is, but the census seems to say rnb? I definitely drew inspiration from rnb, jazz, lofi, and hip hop, with some of my idols being Summer Walker, Jhene Aiko, and Daniel Caesar.

Though this project isn’t perfect, it’s as close to it as I could get and I’m so excited to give the world a taste of what I can do.

For now, the E.P. will be available on the following platforms:

SoundCloud

YouTube

Keep tabs on when I release new music by following my Instagram and we’ll see if I can extend my reach to other platforms soon.

If you find a track you like, please take the liberty of sharing it. This is something I gave my all to, and if you rock with the phone recordings, I hope you stick around for what the future holds. ❤

**If you are involving yourself in the BLM protests, please do so cautiously. There is a lot of violence, looting, and alternative motives that have selfishly intertwined themselves with the movement. There are so many ways our voices can be heard, but we do not need to lose more lives to do so. Be safe, please.