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

    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

  2. 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

  3. Aug 5

    This Will Sink You | ProducerHead Loops feat. Fog Chaser

    Fog Chaser is a producer and artist based in Portland. In today's Loop, he shares the challenges and pressures that emerge while building an audience. 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

    This Will Sink You | ProducerHead Loops feat. Fog Chaser

  4. Jul 29

    Micromanage Your Music

    There are two types of motivation. One is macro. This is your greater sense of purpose. The micro is the day-to-day. And, in my experience, I’ve found it to be a little more variable. The most helpful way to maintain micro motivation is to create situations for yourself that generate genuine interest. That has meat to end sessions at the moment where I perceive the most potential in an idea, which is accompanied by a sense of feeling as though I could work forever. This sounds counter intuitive and counter productive, but as you’ll hear in this piece, it’s a helpful frame to develop self-awareness and a practical tactic for sustaining your creative process. For the complete breakdown: The Marathon Method: A Producer’s Tool for Managing Studio Trauma 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

    Micromanage Your Music

  5. Jul 22

    You Can't Optimize This | ProducerHead Loop feat. Late London

    Steps cannot be skipped. Late London believes the producer arc follows three stages: (1) mastering the basics (2) making volume (3) identifying quality. Whether you agree on the form or not is irrelevant. The insight is the substance underneath: your experience is unlike anyone else’s and you are subject to the same rules as everyone else. The most direct route to the next phase of your development is to accurately assess and accept your current stage and dedicate your attention to your most immediate challenges. Productivity culture pressures people to squeeze out every last drop. And artists divert their attention to the search for shortcuts. The belief is: the most efficient process produces the best art. The truth: an efficient process for mass production works because the goal is to make each piece indistinguishable from the next. In that context, uniformity is quality. In art, it is failure. Subscribe for free 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

    You Can't Optimize This | ProducerHead Loop feat. Late London

  6. Jul 15

    This Is Your Marketing Plan | ProducerHead Loop feat. Birocratic

    The obsession with content creation and a marketing-first emphasis as an artist creates pressure and an incentive structure that leads artists away from themselves. Birocratic reminds us of the truth: There is no better marketing plan than making good music. Nothing will endear you to potential fans more than that. It’s so simple and easy to forget this in the noisy world of content. If art is the artist’s product, then the rule of marketing is no different than for any other business. If the product isn’t of quality, no amount of marketing will develop a real relationship. Best case scenario, you sell one product, get one listen. That person’s trust is lost forever because of a hollow promise. Music is not content. Content is a container for your music. If you want to be an artist, yes you have to share your music, but you do not have to become a content creator. In the same way your art develops over time, so will the way that you deliver it. If you want to make music privately, you are not any less of an artist. If you want to be a content creator who makes music, go right ahead. If you want to build an audience, how will anyone discover your music if it isn’t consistently shared? If you want to be an artist, put your message in a bottle and send it out to sea. Over and over again. With practice, you will learn to adapt to the ever changing movement of the water. Subscribe for free 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

    This Is Your Marketing Plan | ProducerHead Loop feat. Birocratic

  7. Jul 8

    058. Success: Appearance or System? | feat. Greg David

    A company can be a source of opportunity, maybe even a partner, but if you want something to rely on, look to community. No matter what your goals or existing sources of income, a consistent component of a musician’s career is connection to a fan base. Today, this is represented through an email list. And in that sense, it is not different than any other business. Artists ignore this basic idea. They try to build a creative business without a fan base or believe that someone else will do that for them. An email list lacks the allure of a social media following and monthly listener count — the appearance of success. Social media and streaming platforms don’t ask you to build anything. They actually prefer that you don’t. Greg David didn’t take a day off in five years and he produced 200 songs in 5 years that generated millions of streams. This extreme focus is also, as he put it, tunnel vision. His life and career were out of balance. He developed a single source of revenue that was controlled by a label. When it came time to move on from that label, he realized that millions of streams meant nothing without an email list to back them up. Uploading your catalog to Spotify without an audience is like putting up flyers in your city. Millions of people pass by it, some will see it, few will read it, and none will remember it. The appearance of access is not a substitute for connection. That is found through the quiet and patient work of cultivating a community. The allure of reaching the entire world is a shiny distraction from the humble and meaningful possibility that you can serve your community of fans in the same way as a neighborhood butcher. If you feed people, they will take care of you. If you want to look successful, put your faith in a corporation. If you want to sustain a career, serve a community. Offer free meals and begin a conversation. Subscribe for free 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

    058. Success: Appearance or System? | feat. Greg David

  8. Jul 1

    Time: Are You Spending or Investing?

    You don't need more time. You need to decide when you're spending time and when you're investing time. That is about intention and organization. This is where Frequency comes in — a simple system to direct your time intentionally. If you've ever felt you don't have enough time to do what you want, this one's for you. Full post is up at producerhead.substack.com. Subscribe to ProducerHead on Substack at producerhead.substack.com and get access to 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. Get full access to ProducerHead at producerhead.substack.com/subscribe

    Time: Are You Spending or Investing?
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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
    109
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © toru
  • Show Website
    ProducerHead

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