I Can Do It Too: DIY Music

­­The ease of DIY music production and the ability to share and distribute my music virtually for free has been the biggest change in belief recently in my life. I always assumed that to create and share quality music required large investments into a marketing/ publication team as well as a quality studio to record my music. After following emerging SoundCloud artists and seeing how they were breaking into the mainstream with little more than a genuine story to share and talent, I realized that it was something that I could do as well. Many of the artists I listen to create music out of their bedrooms with low quality USB mics and recording software costing little over a couple hundred dollars. They learned the technical aspects of recording music all on their own and they developed their own original sound through creativity and ingenuity. Take Lil Peep as an example. He created Hellboy a mixtape which in my opinion is one of the most revolutionary pieces of music that has come out in a very long time. He blended rock, emo and rap into a completely new genre that is now dubbed emo rap. He did it all in his own bedroom. He did it all with a shitty mic. He did it all as an independent artist. The opportunity is there for a person to turn themselves into an artist. Then why don’t more people do it? The answer to that question is, people either don’t have the drive or enough interesting material in their lives to turn that into a genuine enticing story. Lil Peep did not grow up in any “hood” and he doesn’t rap about it. The pain of chronic depression and coping of that depression with the use of drugs is what makes up most of his music. People are drawn to this as it is a similar situation many people find themselves in. One of those people is me. I had addiction problems and I couldn’t say were caused by the gripping hands of depression. Simply put, I partied too hard, associated myself with a certain group of people and my constant search for something new to cure my boredom put me into the hands of hard drugs. This brought depression into my life that I never thought I would have. But at the end of it all, I had something to talk about. Something I wanted to share with others. Something that others could relate too and find comfort in. So I began recording music. I spent 200$ on recording equipment and pirated 500$ worth of recording software. I recorded music when no one was in my house cause I didn’t want my parents listening to my poems as they were all songs written about long nights I had spent consuming substances that you would never want your child even seeing. Even with my cheap set-up, I made a song that everyone loved. Rocked Up by lil kunai shawty was a hit in my hometown. Now it has racked up over 10k plays. (Which to say isn’t a lot but to a aspiring recording artist, it’s a milestone.) I had the opportunity to perform at local parties and dances and everyone knew the words to my music. It was bliss and it was beautiful. These opportunities only opened up because I changed my mindset. Instead of believing that money was the only way that I could record music I believed that I could do it with a cheap set-up. I had a story. I turned that story into one of my happiest creations that allowed for some of the happiest times of my life.