Sound Business with Akash Thakkar

Creative Flow, Following Your Intuition & Loving the Practice with DiViNCi

#10: DiViNCi (aka Glen Valencia) is a producer, world-class finger drummer, and creative coach who has toured with acts such as Ms. Lauryn Hill, The Soliloquists of Sound, The Fugees, and so many more. 

 

DiViNCi also runs Studio Sensei, where he coaches creative of all types to create freely, without shame, while following their intuition. I've worked with DiViNCi before and he's rocketed my career and life to insane levels while spending a whole lot less time stressing or overworking. 

 

In this podcast, we talk about everything from fighting through down-points in our lives and careers, how every creative can follow their intuition and get into the flow daily, and how we should not only love the practice, but how we must practice loving the practice. 

 

Find DiViNCi and Studio Sensei at:

 

Instagram: @divinci | @studiosensei
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/studiosensei
Websites: https://studiosensei.com/
Studio Sensei Discord: https://studiosensei.com/dojo

 

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

Creating Sound Libraries, Pivoting Careers, and Building Teams with Jason Cushing of SoundMorph

#9: Jason Cushing is a sound designer, entrepreneur, and founder of both SoundMorph and Sinematic. SoundMorph is a premiere sound effects library company that serves sound designers from all over the world, and odds are you've heard their sound effects in some of the biggest games, TV shows, and movies in the world. Jason's newest company, Sinematic, is a repository of some of the highest-end curated sound effects that are out there - simply search for what you need and use it in your project.

In this episode, we talk about building a team, what someone who wants to bolster their income with sound effects libraries should be thinking of, how Jason pivoted from focusing on a 9-5 game audio job to building his own company from scratch, and much more. 

Find Jason, Soundmorph, and Sinematic at:

Instagram: @soundmorph 
Twitter: @soundmorph
Websites: http://www.soundmorph.com | https://www.sinematic.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

Mental Health, the Myth of Talent, and Impostor Syndrome with Sydney Kjerstad of Smart Game Piano

#8: Sydney Kjerstad is a pianist, entrepreneur, and founder of Smart Game Piano, an online piano teaching site that teaches musicians of all levels how to play piano through incredibly well-produced video game music tutorials. To date, Sydney has created *over 550* piano arrangements and tutorials for Smart Game Piano and shows no signs of slowing down. 

 

In this episode, we talk about the myth of talent in the world of professional music, the mental health swings all creatives deal with, the impostor syndrome that we all feel, the birth of Smart Game Piano, building a team, how none of us can do anything entirely on our own, and so much more. 

 

Find Sydney and Smart Game Piano at:

 

Instagram: @smartgamepiano
Twitter: @smartgamepiano
YouTube: Smart Game Piano
Website: www.smartgamepiano.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 www.bit.ly/soundbizpod

Creating Plug-ins, Non-Traditional Careers, and Starting a Business with Ivo Ivanov of Glitchmachines

#7: Ivo Ivanov is a sound designer, modular synth artist, circuit bender, and is the Founder and CEO of Glitchmachines - a company that makes incredibly unique, sound-design-focused plugins for audio designers. On top of all of this, Ivo has been a full-time touring keyboardist, and has created custom instruments for the likes of Trent Reznor and Richard Devine. 

 

In this episode we talk about the ins-and-outs of starting (and sustaining) a business, what it's like to create plug-ins, how to thrive in the world of audio without a formal education, and how a true professional should behave when working in the field. 

Find Ivo at:

Instagram: @ivanov_sound | @glitchmachines
Twitter: @Glitchmachines
Website: www.ivanovsound.com | www.glitchmachines.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 www.bit.ly/soundbizpod

Punk Music, Orchestral Mixing, and Audio Engineering with Jason LaRocca

#6: Jason LaRocca is a producer, mixing engineer, scoring mixer, and punk rocker based out of Los Angeles. After forming and touring with his successful punk band, The Briggs, Jason is now focused on being an engineer and scoring mixer on big name projects like Bad Boys for Life, God of War: Ragnarok, Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Fortnite, and so many other huge hits.

In this episode we talk about what it was like transitioning from being a touring musician to becoming an engineer, how Jason looks for new clients, and how people new to the audio can get their foot in the door.

Find Jason at:

Instagram: @jason_larocca
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1103924/ 
Website: https://www.jasonlarocca.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 www.bit.ly/soundbizpod

Touring, Music Entrepreneurship, and Live Show Designing with Laura Escudé

#5: Laura Escudé is a touring musician, violinist, show designer, and entrepreneur who has worked with people such as Kanye West, The Weeknd, Cirque Du Soleil, Porter Robinson, Bonobo and many others. She also runs the Transmute Academy, an online academy that teaches musicians how to design their shows and play their music both live and over streaming platforms. 

In this episode, Laura and I chat about wanting to do everything, FOMO, running an online course and education platform, burnout, taking care of ourselves, and so much more.

You can find Laura and the Transmute Academy at:

Twitter: @thelauraescude
Instagram: @lauraescude | @thetransmuteacademy
Website: https://lauraescude.com/the-transmute-academy-links/

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 www.bit.ly/soundbizpod

Working in Games & Film, Being Rejected, and Helping Others with Austin Wintory

#4: Austin Wintory is an award winning concert, film, and video game composer who's worked on video games such as Journey, Abzu, The Banner Saga, Assassin's Creed, and countless others.

In this interview we talk all about pitching for work, building a full-time composition career, working in film, games, and concert music, being rejected for projects, and much more. 

Find Austin at:

Twitter: @awintory
Instagram: @a.wintory
Bandcamp: https://austinwintory.bandcamp.com/
Website: https://www.austinwintory.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 www.bit.ly/soundbizpod

Loving Our Work, Self-Care, and Recording The World with Melissa Pons

#3: Melissa Pons is a field recordist and sound designer who is known for her beautiful nature recordings of wolves, rainforests, and natural soundscapes from all over the world. All of her albums are available on her Bandcamp page, including her most recent release Mata Atlantica, which is a stunning collection of recordings from Brazilian rainforests. 

In this episode we talk about Melissa's recording process, why she does what she does, dealing with bad clients, how to love your work, and keeping our creative work sustainable.

Find Melissa at:

Twitter: @melissapons1
Instagram: @melissagpons
Bandcamp: https://melissapons.bandcamp.com/
Website: https://melissapons.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 www.bit.ly/soundbizpod

Saying ”No”, Choosing Clients, and Building New Skills with Disasterpeace

#2: Rich Vreeland (Disasterpeace) is an award-winning composer, musician, and audio artist who's worked on video games such as FEZ, Hyper Light Drifter, and Mini Metro, as well as films such as It Follows, Triple Frontier, and Under the Silver Lake.

Disasterpeace has released over FIFTY music albums at this point, and is always pushing what music should sound like, how it's implemented in his projects, 

In this episode we talk about saying "no" to great projects, what's next for his career, negotiation, dealing with rejection, seeking out novelty, and so much more. 

Find Disasterpeace at:

Twitter: @Disasterpeace
Instagram: @dzasterpeace
Bandcamp: https://music.disasterpeace.com/
Website: https://disasterpeace.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 www.bit.ly/soundbizpod

Welcome to the Sound Business Podcast

#1: Welcome to The Sound Business Podcast! My name is Akash Thakkar and I'm a sound designer for video games with 11 years of professional experience. I've always been fascinated by people who manage to "make it" and create a full-time artistic career, so in this show, we're going to interview some of the top people from every corner of the music and sound industries and hear about their journeys to make it to the top.

We'll be interviewing musicians, composers, songwriters, sound designers, game audio professionals, educators, entrepreneurs, performers, pop stars, audio software developers, and everyone else from every corner of professional music and sound. We'll be talking about mindsets, business skills, rejections, transitions, and so much more. 

My goal with this podcast is to show you that there's no one path to making a killer living off of music and sound, and that anyone can "make it" given enough time and the right mindsets and skills.

Thanks so much for joining in, and I'll see you soon!