Behind The Beats | Episode 001 Finding the Right Key & Tempo

When you’re producing music, first of all, you work with what you have. You don’t always have the artist with you that will be using the beat. In those situations, I imagine the artist I hear on the beat by mimicking their voice and flow, mind you, this is in the skeleton part of the process for me. It’s easy to get that studio high in the moment and think that the beat is ready to send out because of the adrenaline you feel when creating, but that’s why I have to ground myself to stop listening as a listener, and think about whether it’s functional at that key and tempo.

The beginning skeleton of an instrumental is the most important part of the process. If you get it wrong here, you’re messing with the tone that the artist will be using and will directly affect the cadence that is used. I find that when you take your time at the beginning to find the right key and tempo, the rest falls into place. Writing the song becomes more natural. The recording doesn’t sound forced.

In this Behind The Beats series, I’ll get into the fine detailed decisions that shape my final album, The Hollywood Cobain Show. But this isn’t about my album. This is about the journey. I wasn’t a musical prodigy as a kid. I didn’t even consider myself a producer for the entire duration of my 20’s. I held the title PRODUCER at such a high respect, it wasn’t until I hit 1 MILLION streams on a single as a producer that I started letting people call me one. To each their own, but if you’re here and reading this, it’s because you respect the craft.

Everything I share in this series is made up of the micro decisions that give my production its own sound—a montage of my mentors, favorite producers, years of learning, trying and failing, and pushing myself to get better. Maybe one day I will be a part of your sound.

It’s not about creating perfection, it’s about finding YOUR VOICE.

— Hollywood Cobain