NeezyThaDon Exclusive Interview
Today I interview NeezyThaDon a Music Producer who just released his new album “Better Late Than Never” , available on all platforms
Hi NeezyThaDon tell us a little more about how you first got into music ?
It all started freshmen year in high school when I figured out how to multi track record using a dual tape deck recorder and a cheap microphone, and once I discovered how to add a voice recording over a beat my life changed. This further led me into wanting to be a recording engineer. So I later found out how to download instrumentals on to a computer and using them to record my voice over them. Although I wasn’t a great rapper but it was good enough to practice my skills of recording. My mother seen that I was taking an interest in music so she encouraged me into purchasing a good computer and research the proper software to buy so I could do it the right way. I worked all throughout high school so I was able to save up my money to buy my own computer, and then stumbled across a software called Sonar, which is a multi tracking Digital recording software similar to Protools but much more affordable. In high school there were a lot of talented people that could rap which was a win win because I needed someone to record and they needed someone to record them, so once I became confident I would invite the best rappers from school to come over to be recorded by me. This went on throughout My Jr. year in high school till my mom finally got tired of people in and out of her house, which led me into saving up more money and with her permission and help from my Uncle I drew up plans for construction and converted one half of her garage into my very own recording studio. It had a isolation booth and all the equipment needed to record industry standard music. I had one problem, I didn’t just want to be an engineer anymore, I wanted to create my own beats instead of using someone else’s, so I went back to saving more money and buying my first Drum machine called Korg Electribe EMX-1, which I hated and was returned and replaced with the MPC1000 which was a game changer for me. I than became a master at sampling from vinyl and also have some skill at playing keys so composing a beat became easy.
Once I graduated from HS I attended Citrus College where I joined the Recording Engineering program to further my skills. I was known to walk around from class to class with a MPC in my hand, some days I would have crowds of people gathering around me as a create a beat from samples that I would chop up the night before, and by the end of the day I would have a masterpiece. As time went on my beat catalog grew bigger and bigger. I made music for multiple upcoming artist and local artist over the years.
What does your creative process look like when it comes to making music?
To be 100 percent honest the process is never the same. Beat ideas come at the most strangest times. In fact there would be times a melody would pop into my head and I would stop what I was doing to hurry and at least record the melody so I wouldn’t forget it, which led me into having a library of just melodies that I could later make full beats to, so I always had ideas to work from. This helped just incase I ended up in the studio with some one that wanted a beat made on the spot.
What would you say to any aspiring artists who look up to your work?
To be honest, instead of using the common clichés of “work hard”, “stay consistent”, “never give up”, etc. which all artist should do ,but I truly would say NEVER THROW AWAY, DELETE, or SCRAP ANY PROJECTS. Even if you hate it, because there may be someone out there that may love it. Not all hit records were the favorites of the creator, and all it takes is that one song for you to blow up and it may be your least favorite project.
Can you tell me the story behind your new album “Better Late Than Never” ?
After some bumpy roads while going into adulthood and some discouragements along the way, I decided to take a break from music all together. I later got married and started a beautiful family, and I finally got to the point where I could get back into the swing of things with music. So after some intense hard drive digging and learning the new ways of getting music distributed I recently decided to sit back and remaster my most favorite beats that I have created over the years. I put together a beat tape project titled “Better Late Than Never.” which is a collective of R&B, Hip-hop and Pop style instrumentals.
Why this title “Better Late Than Never” for this new album ?
The reason for this title is because I have music that the world has never heard before and it will be new to the them even though it may be old to me. So I feel that it would be awesome to share my music before it’s too late, because life is not promised and music doesn’t expire. Living through this pandemic made me look at life in a different perspective that my intentions for releasing this album is not even for monetary reasons although it would be nice, but I want something my kids can always go back and hear whenever they want. So I decided that all royalties for this project will go straight to my children for their future. So to sum it all up, it may have taken a while to put out my own project but it feels good to have done it then not to have done it at all, better late than never.
Thanks you NeezyThaDon for this interview it was a pleasure for me
