We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Aaram Chase. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Aaram below.

Aaram, looking forward to hearing all of your stories 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?

A lot of what I’ve learned came from the art of “trial and error.”

When I started making music, it was just me and a couple friends, formerly known as Third World Records, in a closet rapping over the beats either one of us made or beats given to us by Seth Boogie.

I learned how to make beats by watching my friend The MZA. He could flip a sample up to par with any of the greats in my opinion. Thus that’s how I started my beat-making journey. I’d grab samples here downloaded and try to do my own thing with them. The first few came out TERRIBLE, but as I grew more accustomed to the program…they got better.

I don’t like to say my beats are good because I hate to come off pompous; but some people like them, some artists have recorded over them. I mostly used them to have something rap on when the time came and to grow more accustomed to the FL Studio program.

After years in-and-out of my musical aspirations, I finally began making my way to live performances. After years of refining my own musical styling, I had developed an extremely “solid” skill for rhyming and rhythm. I won’t say I’m the best with “off-the-top” freestyling, but sit me in a studio with anyone and I’ll hold my own rapping on the track. And the audiences agreed. I was able to go from get booked with friends in the artist community, namely Jennifer Simone and Sheldon Belcher (fka Super Origami), to booking my own shows and it was fun.

But while crowds were receptive during my live performances, I struggled to build a good fan base. People who would not only pay to see perform, but truly support my artistry in every aspect.

So I decided I needed more knowledge and went to school for Multimedia Production.

My digital music production background and affinity for television helped me ease through the coursework at the school and eventually landed me a teaching gig there.

But the knowledge I gained during my tenure was FAR from the most important gain. I built a team of creatives whom practically empowered to do more because they believe in me. They’ve placed me on somewhat of a pedestal and I aim to prove them right for putting me there.

Knowing what I know now, I probably wouldn’t have done much to speed up my learning process. I’ve grown comfortable with the mindset that every things happens that pace it should. But if anything, I’ve would’ve done a better job of investing in my equipment to enable me to not have build with “work-arounds” as often as I have. A great engineer is more important than expensive equipment, but proper equipment makes the work so much more efficient.

For my craft(s), I’d say the most essential skill I’ve developed is creative thinking. Not limiting myself to the understanding of myself or anyone who has instructed me. Allowing myself to create without expectation, because the creation is meant to be an expression. I feel expression is imperfect by nature and to place an expectation on imperfection is a recipe for STRESS.

The biggest obstacles are definitely time and money. It takes a LOT of time to figure out how and what you want to create, and even more time to afford the materials/equipment necessary. Compile that with trying maintain a reasonable livelihood and even more time and money is required. Beyond that, anything else is just another step to success.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I got into my industry by not accepting a normal lifestyle. I can’t find contentment in a 9-5. I crave creative expression in my “quests for income.” Without it, work becomes a burden for me. But when I’m providing video or audio production for clients, I feel at home within the work.

I believe what sets me apart from others is how much I care about my clients achieving their goals with their expressions. This may sound counterproductive to keeping expectations out of expression, but I believe goals are not expectations yet a target by which you measure what you determine to be success.

Everyone’s goals in this industry vary more often than not, but I feel my ability to understand my client’s ambitions gives us a common ground to build something magical.

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

I feel the most rewarding aspect of being an artist/creative is when my expressions resonate with another person. There’s no better feeling than being able to simultaneously speak for yourself and others.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I touched on it earlier, but after booking multiple shows monthly I learned that my audience or fan base was not where I needed and I had to find out a way to fix that by implementing more mediums for expressing myself and networking with people who push be better by telling me I’m great.

Contact Info:

• Website: Linktr.ee/SVP513
• Instagram: @ADDVantz
• Facebook: Vance Zavier Avanti
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaram-chase
• Twitter: @ADDVantz