ProducerHead

toru
  • 5.0 (34)
  • Music Interviews
  • Updated Biweekly

Welcome to ProducerHead. A podcast for the Music Producer, Artist, Creative, and, Entrepreneur. I’m excited to present the ProducerHead podcast in the form of a series of conversations with accomplished producers who will share what’s in their heads to help you unlock your own. Whether you’re just getting started or you’re a professional producer, these conversations are here to offer information, encouragement, and community — a place to belong. ProducerHead will explore the entire spectrum of topics that are experienced as a producer. So, whether you’re interested in Growing your social media following Improving your Spotify release strategy Or Managing impostor syndrome ProducerHead is here for you. Connect at with ProducerHead at torubeat.com and @torubeat on social media. producerhead.substack.com

  1. 3d ago

    I Gain Nothing By Keeping It Hidden | ProducerHead Loops feat. DJ Grumble

    The marketing obsession leads artists to forget a fundamental truth: musicians make music. Content is about discovery. Catalog is about depth. Content is the doorway to the house that is your catalog. Good content is like a set of good directions – it makes your house easy to find. Giving good directions, however, does not necessarily make you a good host. Whether or not someone decides to stay depends entirely on what’s inside. A house containing a well-curated collection of your work is a place for someone to spend time. If you help someone find an empty house, how likely are they to return? Spending all your time on content is like mapping a route without a destination in mind. Be sure that you have something to share with your guests when they arrive. ProducerHead is a publication for independent music producers. Subscribe free and get access to Sonic Stimulus Vol. 1 — a free sample pack, The Invisible Instruments — a series of creative frameworks for producers, and The Pocket — behind the scenes production sessions from guests on the show. Share this with a producer who belongs here. Get full access to ProducerHead at producerhead.substack.com/subscribe

    I Gain Nothing By Keeping It Hidden | ProducerHead Loops feat. DJ Grumble

  2. Sep 23

    060. So, You’ve Never Had a Viral Video | feat. Gnarly

    Gnarly is a finger drumming artist and producer based in the UK, ten years into a career she built without a single viral video. In this conversation we get into her five year goal system and why she puts it in a drawer, what full time independent music actually looks like month to month, the line between self-belief and self-delusion, and how she thinks about building an audience without chasing the algorithm. Subscribe free at producerhead.substack.com and immediately receive Sonic Stimulus Vol. 1 (a sample pack), Invisible Instruments, and access to The Pocket (in-studio production videos from guests). Get full access to ProducerHead at producerhead.substack.com/subscribe

    060. So, You’ve Never Had a Viral Video | feat. Gnarly

  3. Sep 16

    Use Delusion | ProducerHead Loops feat. Chris Mazuera

    Chris Mazuera is a guitarist and producer based in New York whose work spans hip hop, R&B, and jazz. In this clip from episode 040, he makes the case that pursuing music at all requires a kind of healthy delusion — and that every artist you admire operates from the same conviction. This Loop is from episode 040 feat. Chris Mazuera. Listen to the full conversation wherever you listen. The essay accompanying this episode is up at producerhead.substack.com. As a thank you for listening, subscribe at producerhead.substack.com and I'll send you two things for free: Sonic Stimulus Vol. 1, a curated sample pack, and access to The Pocket, an ongoing video archive of guests breaking down their process and workflow in real time. Get full access to ProducerHead at producerhead.substack.com/subscribe

    Use Delusion | ProducerHead Loops feat. Chris Mazuera

  4. Sep 9

    059. Ways Out Of Your Box | feat. Machado Mijiga

    In this conversation, Machado Mijiga explains the relationship between studying and making music, self-imposed limits as a creative tool, and what it actually felt like to play Lollapalooza and remain anonymous. Machado Mijiga is a multi-instrumentalist, producer, and composer based in Portland, Oregon. He plays saxophone, piano, and drums across jazz, electronic, and experimental music. Machado has also performed with Portugal the Man at some of the biggest festivals in the US. Connect with Machado Mijiga: Machado Mijiga on IG Machado Mijiga Official Site Machado Mijiga on Bandcamp Free To ProducerHead Subscribers: Subscribe free at producerhead.substack.com and immediately receive Sonic Stimulus Vol. 1 (a sample pack), Invisible Instruments, and access to The Pocket (in-studio production videos from guests). Get full access to ProducerHead at producerhead.substack.com/subscribe

    059. Ways Out Of Your Box | feat. Machado Mijiga

  5. Sep 2

    Meet Your Limitations | ProducerHead Bars

    Your skills are either growing or decaying right now, there's no neutral. Let's talk about training creativity. Part of a six-part series called The Invisible Instruments, this episode breaks down the parallels between physical strength training and creative development: why one session matters less than the streak, why talent is a gift but training is a choice (borrowing Jerry Seinfeld's "thoroughbred horse" idea), and why plateaus aren't dead ends but platforms for the next climb. Also covered: the recency bias that makes growth feel invisible day to day, why most of what you make will be bad and why that's the process rather than a problem, and the one metric worth tracking instead of chasing daily proof of progress. Subscribe free at producerhead.substack.com for all six Invisible Instruments write-ups, weekly curation through The Pocket, and the ability to submit your music to Beats in Progress. Get full access to ProducerHead at producerhead.substack.com/subscribe

    Meet Your Limitations | ProducerHead Bars

  6. Aug 26

    The Hole In Your Goal | ProducerHead Loops feat. Matt Wyatt

    You cannot achieve your way out of loneliness. Said another way, success won’t necessarily bring connection, which is the goal of art: to connect by demonstrating that individual experience is unique and universal. Still, most of us work tirelessly, and alone, in pursuit of goals motivated by the idea that reaching them will bring us closer together. I am not saying do not set goals. Goals, when thoughtfully defined, are useful to focus energy and develop skills. The expectations and beliefs in them as escape routes to a better life are misguided at best. When you achieve a goal, you will not stop what you are doing to catch the falling confetti. You are more likely to immediately pick another mountain and continue climbing. If the goal was 1,000 subscribers, the next one will be 10,000, and so on. Extreme focus on the current goal is powerful. When you take aim at a bullseye, it is in your best interest to be staring right into it. And as you do, you are ignoring the rest of the world, including the people around you. In moments of obsession with a goal, it can feel easier to do it alone – and it may be. But, when we remember that this goal will be replaced with another, we remember that how and with whom we travel is more important than whether or not we arrive. Set a goal. And see it for what it is: a tool, not a substitute for a life or relationship. ProducerHead is a publication for independent music producers. Subscribe free and get access to Sonic Stimulus Vol. 1 — a free sample pack, The Invisible Instruments — a series of creative frameworks for producers, and The Pocket — behind the scenes production sessions from guests on the show. Get full access to ProducerHead at producerhead.substack.com/subscribe

    The Hole In Your Goal | ProducerHead Loops feat. Matt Wyatt

  7. Aug 19

    Are You In Love Or Committed? | ProducerHead Bars feat. AudioHaze

    In this clip from episode 045, AudioHaze makes the case that monumental leaps are complete fantasy. What looks like a breakthrough from the outside is always the product of quiet and invisible labor. This Loop is an excerpt from episode 045. If you haven't heard the full conversation, start there. The essay accompanying this episode is up at producerhead.substack.com. Subscribers to the ProducerHead Substack get: Sonic Stimulus Vol. 1, a curated sample pack, Invisible Instruments, a collection of writing on the creative and psychological side of making music, and The Pocket, a video library of guests sharing behind the scenes of their sessions. Subscribe for free at producerhead.substack.com. Get full access to ProducerHead at producerhead.substack.com/subscribe

    Are You In Love Or Committed? | ProducerHead Bars feat. AudioHaze

  8. Aug 12

    The Truth And The Lie: You Need More Time, Part II | ProducerHead Bars

    Are You Working Blind? You have a process. You have a way of doing things. And, if you can’t immediately describe it, you’re unconsciously following an invisible process. My point is not that it’s right or wrong, but that it is a choice to work blind. Process is personal and if anyone aside from you designs it, it’s not going to fit. I’m not here to prescribe process. I am here to share three principles to help you ask yourself better questions, so that your process is consciously bespoke according to your answers. 1. Make Something and Finish Something Daily When I first started producing, I was lucky enough to ask someone who has made it: “What do I do?” Their response was simple: make a new idea every day. The ever expanding responsibilities of the modern musician make it easy to forget that you started making music because you heard music that inspired you to try. The catalog of other artists inspired you to explore your own musical capacity. Your catalog is the best of your ideas, and you find your best ideas by making a new one each day. The first step to building your catalog is documenting your ideas. The only potential downside to making a new idea every day is that you may never finish anything, which is why I suggest developing a daily habit of finishing. It’s not a reasonable expectation to complete a song each day, but you can perform an act to nudge it forward. When implementing this practice, define progress and success expansively. Making music is not easy. Genuine effort counts, even more important if this is something you plan to do indefinitely. 2. Define Progress in Time-Bound and Input-Based Terms You know how much time you have to dedicate to music. If you only have five minutes in a day to make music (for more on this, see frequency), don’t make yourself feel bad because you don’t write a whole new song that day. Apply genuine effort to those five minutes to make a new idea. Maybe all you found was a drum loop that you like. Drop it into a track, save the session, and move on. What you started today, you pick up tomorrow. What you have at the end of any particular session is irrelevant. It is about harnessing momentum and linking sessions together over an extended period of time (for more on this, see the marathon method). The individual session is meaningful because of its representation as commitment. You were here today, you will be back tomorrow. 3. Decide what you’re going to do beforehand. Know what you’re going to do before you sit down. This is especially important when you are working with smaller blocks of time. If you only have 10 minutes available, decide ahead of time that you’re going to spend it programming drums or writing a chord progression. For inspiration, here’s one of my favorite examples of what can be done in 10min. Counter Argument: “The blocks of time and the wins seem too small to be worth the attention.” I hear that. And this is less about objective progress as much as it is about your mindset and relationship with what work looks like. The difference between unconsciously viewing five available minutes as time to kill versus useful to your creativity represents optimism of what constitutes opportunity. It is acceptance that ideal circumstances don’t exist and we therefore seize available moments, not to optimize or squeeze out every last drop, but to express our creativity. Final Thought To Keep In Mind We are not as good at estimating task duration as we think. The only way to improve is experience and observation. As you try this out, it’s important not to jump to judgments about something taking longer than it “should.” The goal is not to optimize work, it is to work. ProducerHead is a publication for independent music producers. Subscribe free and get access to Sonic Stimulus Vol. 1 — a free sample pack, The Invisible Instruments — a series of creative frameworks for producers, and The Pocket — behind the scenes production sessions from guests on the show. Get full access to ProducerHead at producerhead.substack.com/subscribe

    The Truth And The Lie: You Need More Time, Part II | ProducerHead Bars
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5
out of 5
34 Ratings

About

Welcome to ProducerHead. A podcast for the Music Producer, Artist, Creative, and, Entrepreneur. I’m excited to present the ProducerHead podcast in the form of a series of conversations with accomplished producers who will share what’s in their heads to help you unlock your own. Whether you’re just getting started or you’re a professional producer, these conversations are here to offer information, encouragement, and community — a place to belong. ProducerHead will explore the entire spectrum of topics that are experienced as a producer. So, whether you’re interested in Growing your social media following Improving your Spotify release strategy Or Managing impostor syndrome ProducerHead is here for you. Connect at with ProducerHead at torubeat.com and @torubeat on social media. producerhead.substack.com

Information

  • Creator
    toru
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    115
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © toru
  • Show Website
    ProducerHead

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