We’ve had some really cool production tips and opportunities on the blog in recent weeks. There was our massive competition with Community Music to win a studio day. Last Friday we heard from Vegas on how Bad Taste want to hear your new material and even this week we’ve had words from Cyantific on how his and Wilkinson’s label are on a major drive for new talent. Cool, right? Well, here’s a little more food for thought on the production tip, and it comes courtesy of Ram’s latest signee, Canadian badman Rene LaVice…
“My advice to any budding producers is very simple,” says the man behind the bountiful beatfest that is the Absolute Monster EP on Ram. “Don’t make so many tracks! Don’t just churn them out but properly focus on that tune that shines through. It means so much more and is guaranteed to last longer. We need more tunes that stand the test of time. You’ll be glad of the extra hard work you put in.”
Inspired yet? There’s more… Something a lot more basic that Rene learned during the whole process of getting on board the good ship Ram: name your tracks!
“I was kinda stupid about putting my name on stuff,” admits Rene. “I never put my name on anything. Finally my buddy Gremlin was like ‘dude, start putting your names on your tracks! How are labels gonna find you if they don’t know who the track comes from?’”
Case in point: the mighty Headlock. First aired on Ram’s Dimensions 5 EP, and now available as a killer VIP on Absolute Monster, Andy C was playing Headlock for months before he even knew Rene had made it!
“I sent it to him but I never thought he’d actually play it!” he laughs. “But sure enough, I was out of town for a few weeks and when I came back one of my friends was like ‘hey, Andy’s been playing your tune’. I thought he was fooling around, you know? He showed me a YouTube clip of it. I was like what the hell? He kept on playing it. Turns out he was playing it almost every show. YouTube clips kept surfacing. Sub Focus came to Toronto and he played it. It was pretty crazy… But it turned out they didn’t even know who’d made the tune!”
Motivated by his friends to send a few more track to Ram – this time with his name plastered all over the metadata – then one night, while cooking steak for tea, guess who popped up on AIM?
“He was like ‘yo Rene! It’s Andy!’ I was like ‘nah it’s not!’,” chuckles the art college graduate. “It went from there. Immediately he was listening to stuff and loving it. We did a bit of negotiating, worked something out and he signed it for the Dimensions EP. It’s mad isn’t it? Ram really put the time in and make the effort to listen to everything they get. They take it seriously and I think it really shows.”
Inspired yet? Absolute Monster is out now. Listen and download here.