Akash Thakkar interviews successful audio professionals from every corner of the music and sound industries. From educators, performers, pop stars, game audio professionals, voice actors, composers, sound designers, plug-in designers, audio programmers, and everything in between, we dive deep into the business and mindset skills it takes to ”make it” in the worlds of music and sound.
Episodes
Wednesday Jan 26, 2022
Wednesday Jan 26, 2022
#22: Unlike Pluto (AKA Armond Arabshahi) is a music producer, singer, and songwriter who has amassed hundreds of millions of plays of his songs, has had his music featured in commercials for Dell, and is known for releasing at least 3 ultra-well-produced songs a month for years at a time in multiple genres.
In this episode, we dive deep into what it's like to be a full-time creative, the highs and lows of releasing monstrously successful #1 hits, producing music when you don't feel like it, what it's like being the child of immigrants, and so much more.
Find Unlike Pluto here:
Website: www.unlikepluto.com
Twitter: @unlikepluto
Instagram: @unlikepluto
Spotify: Unlike Pluto
And if you're interested in making music and sound for games, I have a newsletter and free courses that will get you started, and help you find paying work in games. Just go to http://www.bit.ly/soundbizpod
Wednesday Jan 19, 2022
Wednesday Jan 19, 2022
There’s a lot of great advice out there on what to do with your career, but very little of it tells you *when* you should execute on it.
Is it really a good idea to do a bunch of self-promotion when you have tons of clients? Is it a good idea to stop networking when you have no work coming in? Should you always be looking for work even if you’re good where you’re at?
The Four Seasons Method helps you know exactly where you’re at and what you should do at any given time. Just like we have four seasons in real life, we can break our career down into similar “seasons”.
❄️ Winter: no gigs are coming in, no work, no nothing. This happens to everyone and can feel hopeless.
🌧Spring: We have a little work, but it’s not enough
☀️Summer: We have TONS of work. Maybe even too much.
🍂Fall: Our work is done, the money has come in, and life is good.
Each of these “seasons” can last a day, a month, a year, or decades. What you do in each one (outlined in the post up above!) determines how well your next season will go.
In this episode, we dive into what you should do in each of these seasons, and how, exactly, you should spend your time.
Send me a message:
@akashthakkaraudio on Instagram
And if you're interested in making music and sound for games, I have a newsletter and free courses that will get you started, and help you find paying work in games. Just go to http://www.bit.ly/soundbizpod
Wednesday Jan 12, 2022
Wednesday Jan 12, 2022
#21: Dallas Taylor is a sound designer, creative director of DeFacto Sound, and podcast host of the #1 podcast Twenty Thousand Hertz.
DeFacto Sound has worked with brands like Tesla, HBO, National Geographic, Cartoon Network, and so many others. On top of that, he and his studio produce Twenty Thousand Hertz, a #1 audio-focused podcast that takes at least 200-300 hours per episode to create.
In this episode, Dallas and I talk about running an audio business, how to choose your clients, why creating content online can be so helpful to us as audio creators, and so much more.
Find Dallas Taylor and Twenty Thousand Hertz at:
Website: www.20k.org
Twitter: @20korg
Instagram: @defactosound
Spotify: Twenty Thousand Hertz
Apple Podcasts: Twenty Thousand Hertz
And if you're interested in making music and sound for games, I have a newsletter and free courses that will get you started, and help you find paying work in games. Just go to http://www.bit.ly/soundbizpod
Friday Dec 17, 2021
Friday Dec 17, 2021
We'll be taking a short holiday break until January 12th, 2022! New episodes will be coming out then!
In the meantime, I announced 4 new game audio courses for those of you interested in working as a full-time game audio designer! These will all be coming out in 2022.
First up is The Game Industry Professional, which focuses on the business side of working in game audio - how to get paid, how to negotiate, how to find work in the first place, and how to make a great full time living off of game audio.
Next, I'll be re-opening my course Step-By-Step Sound Design, which sold out in less than one minute last month. This is the course that will help you create great sound design, faster, with less randomness, and more confidence. This one is totally beginner friendly, as well.
After that, there will be Step-By-Step synthesis, which will teach you how to make great sound design from scratch using the synthesizer Serum. If you really want to know what you're doing in a synthesizer and want to stop just twiddling knobs, this will be for you.
And last up is Step-By-Step FMOD. If you want to be able to actually get your sounds into a game, this will be the course for you. I'll be teaching Unity, FMOD, and C# programming to help you be more flexible and confident on every game you work on by giving you the power to place your sounds in a game. No programming experience required here.
Just head over to bit.ly/soundbizpod to sign up for my newsletter so you can know when those are coming out
Wednesday Dec 15, 2021
Wednesday Dec 15, 2021
Most people think you absolutely need to live in a big city to make a living in music, sound, or just art in general. But is that true? Let's cover that in today's episode.
Also, this is a new format for me! Did you love it? Hate it? Let me know!
Send me a message:
And if you're interested in making music and sound for games, I have a newsletter and free courses that will get you started, and help you find paying work in games. Just go to http://www.bit.ly/soundbizpod
Wednesday Dec 08, 2021
Wednesday Dec 08, 2021
#20: Omniboi's path toward a full-time music production and performing career isn't like what you see in so many other musicians. He doesn't have a musical family, didn't go to music school, and didn't start music lessons when he was 3 years old. In fact, he didn't even have a love of music when he was growing up, either.
Omniboi is a perfect example of how you don't need to be a childhood prodigy, or even focused on music early in your life to "make it" in this field.
In this episode, we talk about finding your own way into music, how practice doesn't have to be a torturous process, and so much more.
Find Omniboi at:
Twitter: @omniboi
Instagram: @omniboi
Spotify: Omniboi
And if you're interested in making music and sound for games, I have a newsletter and free courses that will get you started, and help you find paying work in games. Just go to http://www.bit.ly/soundbizpod
Wednesday Dec 01, 2021
Wednesday Dec 01, 2021
#19: Cory Shackelford is a music attorney who has been working exclusively in music law for over 10 years. He's represented everyone from video game composers to world-famous songwriters.
In this episode, we talk about music law, how Cory made the transition to working in game audio law specifically, when every audio designer should consider getting an attorney, and so much more.
Find Cory Shackelford at:
Twitter: @coryshack
Website: https://www.musicrightshub.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/coryshackelford
And if you're interested in making music and sound for games, I have a newsletter and free courses that will get you started, and help you find paying work in games. Just go to http://www.bit.ly/soundbizpod
Wednesday Nov 24, 2021
Wednesday Nov 24, 2021
#18: Thomas Powers is a singer-songwriter, music producer, and frontman of the band The Naked and Famous.
In this episode, we talk about the rise of The Naked and Famous, Thomas' next steps in his musical career, how to actually think about self-promotion and social media, staying sane as a pro musician, and so much more.
Find Thomas Powers at:
Instagram: @thomaspowers
Twitter: @thomaspowers
Spotify: The Naked and Famous
Website: https://www.thomas-powers.com/
And if you're interested in making music and sound for games, I have a newsletter and free courses that will get you started, and help you find paying work in games. Just go to http://www.bit.ly/soundbizpod
Wednesday Nov 17, 2021
Wednesday Nov 17, 2021
#17: Luna Shadows is a producer, songwriter, and vocalist based out of Los Angeles. Luna has one of the best aesthetics I've seen when it comes to being an indie artist, and does an incredible job of keeping a sustainable music career while staying totally independent.
In this episode, we talk about not being talented and not coming from a musical family, the grind of becoming a better producer, and why she focuses so much on being an independent artist.
Find Luna Shadows at:
Instagram: @Lunaxshadows
Twitter: @Lunaxshadows
Spotify: Luna Shadows
Website: www.lunashadows.co
And if you're interested in making music and sound for games, I have a newsletter and free courses that will get you started, and help you find paying work in games. Just go to http://www.bit.ly/soundbizpod
Wednesday Nov 10, 2021
Wednesday Nov 10, 2021
#16: Ryan Ike is a BAFTA-nominated video game composer and sound designer based out of Seattle WA. Ryan's worked on a ton of games, including Where the Water Tastes like Wine, Frog Fractions 2, Gunpoint, Wizard with a Gun, West of Loathing, Reigns: Game of Thrones, and many many others.
Ryan has a super diverse set of compositional styles, from writing beautiful Americana folk music all the way to banging electronic music, Ryan is able to do it all.
In this episode, we talk all about the struggles of breaking into an industry, getting good at a craft when you have no time, the persistence it takes to become known, working side jobs, creating a life with balance, and much much more.
Find Ryan Ike at:
Twitter: @RyanIkeComposer
Instagram: @RyanIkeAudio
Spotify: Ryan Ike
Website: https://www.ryanike.com/
Bandcamp: Ryan Ike
And if you're interested in making music and sound for games, I have a newsletter and free courses that will get you started, and help you find paying work in games. Just go to http://www.bit.ly/soundbizpod