We recently connected with Konstantin Ladurner and have shared our conversation below.

Konstantin, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

One of the biggest advice I give to younger musicians who are just starting out is to move out of their hometown and to the biggest city possible. And it’s not only because of opportunities in the industry but mostly to fully learn their craft. Because the best way for musicians to learn their craft is to be around other musicians who are better than them. To be around true professionals. Sure, you can spend all day on YouTube learning how to make beats, etc. but the best and fastest way to learn something, in my opinion, is to see someone else do it. It’s inspiring and daunting at the same time because you realize “damn I need to step it up”.

I am a perfect example of this because I grew up in a small town in the Italian Alps where I was basically one of the only music producers in the whole region. I was super passionate about music production and I always made beats but I never saw a professional music producer work until I moved to Berlin in 2018. I’ll never forget that moment because until then I always thought I was already great and then when I saw this producer in Berlin work I realized how slow and inefficient I’ve been working my whole life. It changed my whole perspective and after that moment I really honed in on the craft and in a matter of a year of living in that city I improved more than all the years before that put together. All of that just from seeing a pro at work.

That’s why it doesn’t surprise me when I see 19-year-olds, who grew up in LA, already be light years ahead in terms of skill vs. music producers in their late twenties who stayed in their hometowns. If you’re in a music environment like LA you’re able to see the best of the world at work and soak it all up.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I’m Kontent (real name Konstantin Ladurner) and I work as a music producer for artists. I produce, write, and sometimes also mix full songs for artists here in LA but also internationally. The genres that I work in are Hip Hop, Alt Rap, Pop and Latin. I got into music by playing piano as a kid and then bass guitar as a teenager. Around that time I also started to write songs and play in a band with my friends. When I was 15 I also began to make beats in Logic, which introduced me to music production.

I kept producing over the years and in 2017 I produced the song “Need You” for my artist friend Maxiz which blew up and gave him a record deal in Berlin. The song, as of now, has over 4 million streams and is still his biggest song. Because of this, I was able to move to Berlin in 2018 to work with music production legends Patrik Majer and John “PNut” Harrison on Maxiz future releases.

Because my favorite music has always been American Hip Hop, I decided to move from Berlin to Los Angeles in 2020. There I worked with many American artists and became introduced to the American music scene. In 2022 I produced the song “sardines” for the artists Audrey Nuna and Deb Never, of which I’m both a fan of. The release was featured with a YouTube Music billboard in Downtown LA and they performed the song together at the Head in The Clouds festival in Pasadena in front of 40,000 people. The song was also synced in the reality TV show “Are You The One?” on Paramount+ and in the online game “Fortnite”.

This year I’ve had 3 releases with the artist Akshara, out of which the song “EYES” has been streamed already 350,000 times on Spotify and our newest one “Universe” reached 100,000 streams after only being out for a little while. We’re currently working on our next single which should come out at the end of October.

What sets me apart from other producers is that I feel like I’m able to give artists a unique sound that makes them stand out from others. I was definitely able to curate my own style as a producer and artists prefer that uniqueness in a day and age where a lot of music sounds the same.

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.

I think a misconception about the music industry is this whole idea of having to “make it”. Like no one really knows what that means but people think that’s what you need in order to live from music which is really not true. Because when you really work in the industry you realize just how many artists there are on Spotify who make a great living and are not “famous” like your Top-40 artists. And when you get into sync music for film and TV you also realize how much money there is to be made in the industry where most of the times the creators are not famous at all.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

It’s that feeling in the studio when you listen back to something amazing you just made and you’re just proud. And you’re not just proud of the fact that you created that song but the fact that you never gave up and grew into the person who can create a song like that.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/onlykontent/