We were lucky to catch up with Alex Ortberg recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alex, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I started performing music in elementary school, but had been immersed in it even before then. My father is a musician, so I was surrounded by pianos, guitars, and the sounds of classic rock coming through their vintage stereo. Once in school, my teachers recognized both my talent and my enthusiasm for music, specifically drumming, so they put be behind a drum set and in front of an audience. I’ve been performing ever since, and have honed my craft during my college years, both in undergrad and graduate school. I didn’t start taking an interest in music production until college, which is where I learned most of what I know about that side of music. Since then, I am always searching for ways to learn more about what I do, so that I can hopefully see (and hear) growth in my work.

I’m not sure I would change the way my learning process ended up panning out. Obviously I could have practiced more, but that can be said about everyone. Anyways, no matter where you are in your professional life, there’s always time to start practicing and learning more.

The most essential skill to a musician has nothing to do with what they do with their instrument. If you want to be a full time musician, you have to be good at marketing yourself to others. You could be the best guitarist ever, but if no one knows who you are, does it really matter? Get people to remember you, and more importantly, hire you.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Alex Ortberg, and I am a full time musician. I teach private lessons, perform, and own and operate my own recording studio in Rochester, MN.

As a teacher, I can teach drums, bass, guitar, piano, and ukulele. Drums are my primary instrument, and I will take students of all skill levels. Everything else I will take beginner students.

As a performer, I am a hired gigging and studio musician. Local musicians will call me to play drums with them live and in the studio. These can be bands I’ve played with before, or bands I’ve never played with. I am also a permanent member of several other bands:

– Winterstate: This is the band I write most of the music for, and also play drums in. We’re unique in the fact that me and my writing partner live in different states, so we send ideas back and forth over Dropbox and write and record our music that way. The usual process goes something like: I write the music to a song. Just the instruments, no singing. I send the whole song over to him, and he writes lyrics and a melody to it. Then he sends that back to me and I mix those in to create the final product. Then we go out and perform those songs when we’re together in the same state! We have put together a great band to help us bring the songs to life on the stage! We’ve released 2 records so far, and working on a new EP. Similar artists: Anberlin, Switchfoot, Angels & Airwaves, Incubus, Deftones, The Killers, Foo Fighters…
– Amateur: I play bass and sing harmonies in this band, and also do the recording and the producing for the records. This is a really fun band to be in, cause the music is great and singing 3 part harmonies is always fun. Plus, I don’t always get the chance to play bass, so that’s always a treat. We’ve released 1 record so far, and working on a new record! Similar artists: Kings of Leon, The Killers, The Bahamas, Dawes…
– Als Fona: I play drums in this band, and also do the recording and the producing for the singles. This band is fun and also a challenge because the music is slightly more complex than anything else that I’m a part of. Some of my favorite music I play though (besides my own, of course). We have released several singles, and will continue to release singles periodically! Similar artists: Incubus, Deftones, Tool, Thirty Seconds to Mars…
– Loud Mouth Brass: I play drums in this band, and am currently doing the recording and producing for their newest EP. This is my most recent band I’ve joined. This band is FUN and very unique to anything else I’m a part of. It’s a brass band, so theres a Tuba, Bari Sax, Tenor Sax, Trombone, Trumpet, and myself. We do horn band arrangements of pop tunes, as well as write our own material. We are currently working on a new EP! Similar artists: McNasty Brass Band, Lucky Chops, Dirty Dozen Brass Band…

I am also a part of 3 tribute shows. Tribute shows recreate the music (and image) of a popular artist. The 3 artists are: Sting and The Police, The Cars, and U2.

As the owner and operator of a recording studio, I record, mix, arrange, produce, and master music for both my bands and my clients. I have a dedicated space on the NE side of town, and have had that space for about 2 years. I am able to record any type of music, as well as anything else that you might think of: movie dialogue, voiceovers, audiobooks… anything! I currently am working on several projects, including projects for all the bands listed above, as well as several other local musicians/bands.

Each step of the process is quite different:
Recording is the act of capturing a sound and converting it to a digital waveform (at least for me, there are other ways to do it). I record guitars, basses, drums, and vocals on almost a daily basis.
Mixing is the process of manipulating the already recorded sounds to make them work well together.
Arranging and producing is the process of taking a song and deciding what parts go where, when instruments play and when they don’t, how long the song is going to be, and other creative things like that.
Mastering is the process of making all the songs on a record the same volume, as well as tonally similar so they aren’t too different.

I really enjoy the production and arranging side of my job. Clients come in with unfinished songs a lot of times, and I get to be the one to help them finish the song. We talk about song form, chords, melodies, what sounds we want to use, when different instruments should play… then a lot of times I get to play multiple instruments on their songs! A lot of times they come in with a song that has only acoustic guitar or piano, and vocals. After that it’s my job to put electric guitars, bass, synths, organs, strings, percussion, and drums on it, if it needs it. That’s something I enjoy doing and I think I’m pretty good at it!

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

I’m a musician so I’m going to speak about musicians.

GO. SEE. LIVE. MUSIC. Show up, pay the $10 to get in, and listen. Add them on your streaming service if you like them. Buy merch if you really like them. This is a CRUCIAL part of letting the music scene, especially when it’s small and local, thrive and continue. Nowadays, the only thing that makes musicians any money (cause the songs themselves don’t!) are live shows, merchandise (and that has a big initial investment for them), and sync deals (TV, Video Games, and Movie placements). No one buys music online anymore. It’s all streamed. And the streaming services pay very little to the artist per stream. CDs are becoming more obsolete every year… musicians need live performances to help them stay in the game. We can’t perform without an audience there!

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

No one ever understands how we make money.

As a musician, you have to have your eggs in many baskets, not just one. At least at first. So I teach, perform, and run a recording studio. Eventually I hope that one of these baskets will become big enough to allow me to put all my eggs in one basket. But for now, gotta hustle.

Contact Info:

• Website: bluelagoonrecordingroom.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BlueLagoonRecordingRoom