As I intend to become a music producer after I graduate, I contact with a Chinese music producer that I have admired for a long time. His Chinese name is Zhong Ziqi and his English name is Chris. Currently, he is a producer and DJ of Europaculture, a music company in China. His expertise lies in the area of electronic music and he has already won the favor of a great number of fans in China. I got to know him for his wonderful performance in a music festival that I have participated. His music works and articles on his blog render me a lot of inspiration. By writing an email to him, I finally got an opportunity to have half-an-hour telephone interview with him, in which has generously offered me his personal experience and insight of his profession and the music industry.
He has two roles in his work, one is DJ and the other one is music producer. Through his introduction, I have gained an understanding about the job responsibilities of a music producer, which is also the part that he likes the most. Per his description, as music producer, he is responsible to oversee the recording and distribution of songs to ensure that each track is as high-quality as possible.
As he is an independent artist himself, his main task is to compose and refine his own works. This can be very tricky as he is both the writer and the advisor to himself, which means he should monitor and control virtually all the sound elements of his work. To me, this is very fascinating as there is a great deal of freedom in the music composition process. In addition, I have acquired some information that have I am not aware before, that is, the role of a producer involves a fair amount of interpersonal skills, as well, because they are also responsible for reviewing artists with potentials and negotiating contracts. Clearly, this is out of the creation scope, thus it acquires the producer to have some interpersonal and negotiation skill.
This is the part that he does not like very much, mainly because reviewing other people’s work can be a waste of time sometimes and this may deviate him from the major production work. As a DJ, he will tour around in the clubs in China and music festivals to play his music for the audience. On one hand, this is a good chance for him to test if his works are good enough to win the favor of the audience; on the other hand, the performance ability is a necessity to make the show come to the climax one after another. This is very exciting for me, since it is the fundamental ability for a music producer to provide good music for his audience, and the sense of achievement and satisfaction will be great if one can get the immediate response from the crowd.
To my surprise, when asked about how he ends up becoming a music producer, it turns out he becomes interested in electronic music because of the music games. Because the nature of music games is very similar to music production, he becomes addicted to it after playing for a while. Step by step, he starts to work on his own music through the online music software. Before that, he has zero music background.
He has offered me two pieces of advice to be a music producer. The first one is to learn to play an instrument. One may not have to be a master of an instrument to be a music producer, however, this is to train the ears and the learning of musical theory will significantly benefit the career development. Secondly, he advises me to master the technology of creating music, especially the music-processing program.
Reflecting on the interview, I have received the first-hand experience from a music producer that has remarkable achievement in his career. I have sensed his happiness in making a career out of what he truly loves. This has inspired me to devote myself in things that I am really interested in and good at, as that will be the most endurable motivation for me in the long course of professional development. Also, to be a music producer, one must put himself in a very nourishing environment so he can learn enough to do the output.
Therefore, continuous study is a must for me, which means that I should remain open to different cultures, people and experiences. In addition, hard skills are the fundamentals to become a music producer. I will enhance myself with music theories, instrument and software learning.