ProducerHead

toru
  • 0.0 (0)
  • MUSIC INTERVIEWS
  • EVERY TWO WEEKS

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. 055. Did You Plan to Finish? | feat. Fog Chaser

    1 DAY AGO

    055. Did You Plan to Finish? | feat. Fog Chaser

    The thing about art is that it’s never finished. It’s a fact that presents a fundamental challenge: you have to decide to let go. To accept imperfection. To move on or to live inside the maze of one project your entire life. Fog Chaser’s song a month project addresses this challenge directly. His commitment to deadlines and accountability to himself resulted in four, 12-song volumes completed in succession over the past four years. Now, with thousands of subscribers waiting for Volume 5 he faces another form of the same question. Does he repeat the cycle expected by his audience or change directions? We make music wanting it to be heard, but what do we do once we’re heard? Fog Chaser acknowledges the privilege and gratitude for the audience and the pressure that accompanies attention. He reminds us that the attention arrived because he began by creating something deeply personal and meaningful to him. The point is to create and to gift and then repeat. Because the work is never done. 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 Practice — behind the scenes production sessions from guests on the show. Get full access to ProducerHead at producerhead.substack.com/subscribe

    1hr 27min
  2. ProducerHead Loops: POV: You've spent 30 minutes looking for a kick drum | feat. ELPHNT

    13 MAY

    ProducerHead Loops: POV: You've spent 30 minutes looking for a kick drum | feat. ELPHNT

    ELPHNT is an Ableton authority. His extensive experience as a producer, performer, and educator has allowed him to see a common trope play out over and over again. It’s accepted as the norm, but as he explains here, it doesn’t have to be. On the one hand, scrolling endlessly for the perfect kick drum is funny. On the other, it is creative self-sabotage by disorganization. Here, ELPHNT provides a clear and direct path forward. Hear the full conversation in Episode 035 — Soul-Crushing Success feat. ELPHNT. What are ProducerHead Loops? Gems from past conversations worth running back. Perfect for when you need a quick hit of inspiration. ProducerHead is free to subscribe. Subscribers get access to The Practice — an ongoing video archive of in-studio sessions from guests on the show. Get full access to ProducerHead at producerhead.substack.com/subscribe

    6 min
  3. 054. Make Good Music, Lie, and Don’t Be a Douchebag | feat. Late London

    6 MAY

    054. Make Good Music, Lie, and Don’t Be a Douchebag | feat. Late London

    Show up to the studio 100 times and make 10 dope songs. The pressure to create content distracts from the basic truth: making good music is the goal. In order to make good music, you must find yourself in the studio. If you’re not showing up to the studio, you’re not going to make anything, let alone anything good. Late London says: “Show up to the studio 100 times and make 10 dope songs.” This perspective also speaks to respect for the challenge inherent in making good music. It represents a conscious setting of expectations to prioritize showing up, removing pressure, and enjoyment in the experience of making music. Output is an artifact of process. Late’s respect for the challenge of making music is also seen in the way that he participates and interacts with his community. Not having seen each other since college, he immediately asked me to send him a track and did not hesitate to say “this vocal should be loud and proud.” He limits himself to three working sessions on tracks to avoid over-thinking and exchanges works in process with other producers. They help each other across the finish line to get the best — not the perfect — version of a song and then they move on. This is because he also values forward motion. More can be learned and experienced through continuing than from staying in place. All of this is filtered through his expansive and dynamic lens of what it is to be a professional. Late London regularly shape-shifts between DJ, Music Producer, Event Producer, Engineer, and Educator — he is mentally flexible in how he arrives. There are many ways to make it as an artist, he reminds us that how we define it is our choice. ProducerHead is free to subscribe. Subscribers get access to The Practice — an ongoing video archive of in-studio sessions from guests on the show. Late London built a track from scratch in 30 minutes and it is available now. Get full access to ProducerHead at producerhead.substack.com/subscribe

    1hr 13min
  4. ProducerHead Loops: Define Success or Be Doomed to Fail | feat. Freddie Joachim

    29 APR

    ProducerHead Loops: Define Success or Be Doomed to Fail | feat. Freddie Joachim

    Freddie Joachim has placements with Joey Badass and J. Cole. Those are proud achievements — but not what he set out to do. They’re a consequence of defining success on his own terms, within what he can actually control. Define success or be doomed to fail. Hear the full conversation in Episode 042 — Craft Over Clout feat. Freddie Joachim. What are ProducerHead Loops? Gems from past conversations worth running back. Perfect for when you need a quick hit of inspiration. Get full access to ProducerHead at producerhead.substack.com/subscribe

    10 min
  5. 053. Music Without a Plan Is Silence | feat. Brainorchestra

    22 APR

    053. Music Without a Plan Is Silence | feat. Brainorchestra

    Brainorchestra is a producer, rapper, and vinyl archivist from New Jersey. He puts out records independently, runs a devoted Patreon community, writes a newsletter, and holds down a job outside of all of it. In this conversation we get into how he digs, how he structures his time, what sustains his belief in himself as an artist, and what it actually looks like to build something independently with intention. Find Brainorchestra: brainorchestra.net patreon.com/brainorchestra brainorchestra.bandcamp.com ProducerHead is a podcast about the creative, psychological, and business dimensions of independent music-making. Subscribe free at producerhead.substack.com — subscribers get access to The Practice, an ongoing video archive of in-studio sessions from guests on the show. Brainorchestra's session is already up. Get full access to ProducerHead at producerhead.substack.com/subscribe

    1hr 30min

  6. 15 APR

    ProducerHead Loops: Maybe You Don't Want This Very Much | feat. Basic Printer

    What are ProducerHead Loops? Gems from past conversations worth running back. Perfect for when you need a quick hit of inspiration. Basic Printer has a term for the gap between making music and doing something with it. Interfacing with the world. And in his view, that interface is a Rubik’s Cube most independent musicians haven’t even picked up yet. The full stack mentality isn’t about doing everything alone. It’s about understanding enough of the whole picture to have a real plan, not just a dream. Because as he puts it, there’s a road to run between here and that dream that won’t just show up for you. What landed for me was how he thinks about the plan itself. Not as a rigid structure but as a trick of the mind. Something to get you out of the chair and moving. The plan leads to the next question, which leads to the next skill, which leads to the show. And by the time you’re there, you’ve already become someone different in the process. He also said something that doesn’t get said enough: if you keep laying plans and can’t find the motivation to execute any of them, maybe the honest answer is that you don’t actually want this very much. Not as a judgment. As permission. The world asks how serious you are the moment you make your first song. Not everyone has to answer the same way. The part I keep coming back to is a moment he described on tour in San Diego. Mid-run, out of nowhere, a dip in confidence. Suddenly convinced his music sounded like the Wiggles. Talking to his keyboardist, genuinely questioning whether he could stand behind the stuff he’d made. He said you just know when that’s a real voice or just the dragon you’re slaying. The fact that he went on stage anyway tells you everything about what kind of stress he’s dealing with. The good kind. ProducerHead is a podcast and publication for producers who want conversations that go beyond gear. Subscribe free below and you’ll get access to two tools I made for this community: The Invisible Instruments, a creativity framework for in and out of the studio, and Sonic Stimulus Vol. 1, a royalty-free sample pack. You can also submit music to be featured or send in a work-in-progress for feedback. From Episode: 038. The Full Stack Musician | feat. Basic Printer Get full access to ProducerHead at producerhead.substack.com/subscribe

    14 min
  7. 052. Mo Playlists Mo Problems | feat. Ian Ewing

    8 APR

    052. Mo Playlists Mo Problems | feat. Ian Ewing

    At some point the streaming numbers start to mean something they didn’t used to. Not because you decided they would. Just because they’re there every morning, attached to rent, and slowly they become the thing you’re measuring yourself against instead of whatever you actually set out to do. Ian Ewing calls it golden handcuffs. He’s been making a living through streaming for years. By every external measure, it worked. And he’s honest about what that actually feels like from the inside. The part that’s hardest to admit isn’t the pressure. It’s how quiet it is. You’re not chasing playlists. You’re just aware of them. What fits, what doesn’t. And that awareness, over time, starts shaping decisions you don’t even notice you’re making. In Ian’s words, playlist music has to fit a cookie cutter mold — a McDonald’s french fry, you know exactly what you’re getting. Ambitious music is usually the opposite of that. He came up on SoundCloud. Cold DMs to producers he loved, no ask, just connection. Some of those became his longest friendships. That world looks nothing like how most people consume music now. You get playlisted, someone plays your track while they’re cleaning their apartment, and they never think about you again. The stream happened. The connection didn’t. The thousand fans theory was something Ian said he was describing before he had a name for it. Not as a growth strategy. As a different definition of what you’re making music for. He hasn’t resolved this. He’s mid-transition, working it out in real time, carrying the gratitude and the frustration together, trying to figure out how to reclaim something without walking away from the thing that’s been paying for it. ProducerHead is a podcast and publication for producers who want conversations that go beyond gear. Subscribe free below and you'll get access to two tools I made for this community: The Invisible Instruments, a creativity framework for in and out of the studio, and Sonic Stimulus Vol. 1, a royalty-free sample pack. You can also submit music to be featured or send in a work-in-progress for feedback. Get full access to ProducerHead at producerhead.substack.com/subscribe

    1hr 37min
  8. ProducerHead Loops: If You Own It, Why Aren't You Collecting? | feat. The Orchestrator

    1 APR

    ProducerHead Loops: If You Own It, Why Aren't You Collecting? | feat. The Orchestrator

    Most independent musicians think about ownership the wrong way. They think it means not signing to a major. They think it means keeping their masters. And sure, those things matter. But The Orchestrator — Denver-based jazz saxophonist, Guinness World Record holder, sold-out rooms from the Bluebird to Meow Wolf — is operating at a different level of that conversation. For him, ownership isn’t a stance. It’s infrastructure. “I can take all my music off Spotify if I want to. I can go sell it. I could throw it in the trash. I can never perform again. I own it. No one can exploit or benefit off of me in any way, shape or form without my explicit permission.” That’s not a philosophy. That’s a legal and financial position he built deliberately over years. What makes that possible isn’t just owning your masters. It’s understanding that the music business has multiple revenue streams running in parallel, and most artists only collect from one or two. This is not beyond your comprehension, it’s simple administrative work that often gets overlooked. Regardless of the amount, keep in mind that if your music is being streamed, you’re likely leaving that money to sit in the account of collection agencies. And, it is possible that this money, if left unclaimed for long enough, will end up paid to other parties. “People just don’t know these things.” He’s not bitter about it. He’s just clear-eyed. The system isn’t designed to walk you through this. So most artists don’t find out until they’re already leaving money on the table — or until someone in the room asks if they have a set list and they don’t know why. His message is simple: you made the time to make the music, make sure you are in line to receive the fruits of that work as they arrive. He saw it happen. Someone played Red Rocks. Incredible. And had no idea what they were leaving behind when the show was over. If this is your first time here, ProducerHead is a podcast and publication for independent musicians who think seriously about the work. Subscribe free below. From Episode: 037. Building Complete Creative Independence | feat. The Orchestrator Get full access to ProducerHead at producerhead.substack.com/subscribe

    11 min
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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
    96
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © toru
  • Show Website
    ProducerHead

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