We recently connected with Aaron Troyer and have shared our conversation below.

Aaron, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. In our experience, overnight success is usually the result of years of hard work laying the foundation for success, but unfortunately, it’s exactly this part of the story that most of the media ignores. So, we’d appreciate if you could open up about your growth story and the nitty, gritty details that went into scaling up.

When I was in high school and college I would be in bands constantly, and helping other people write music. Naturally, bands need demos, and simple recordings to get ideas out, so I would usually start making simple recordings of songs I would write. I would use the only means I had at my disposable – so a simple Macbook, Garageband and my guitar. At first it was always demos leading to real studio dates where we would track the final version. During this process, I started to really love songwriting and production. After years of doing that, my knowledge and equipment started to evolve and it would eventually lead to doing an occasional released single by a band I would be in or something like that – something that was actually heard by people and not just a precursor to the real thing. After that things slowly started snowballing and a friend would hear something I did and ask to do a single with my help. Then a friend of a friend would ask me to record his acoustic EP, then another friend would ask help writing their new single. Eventually, after years and years of that, it was too much to just do all of this out of my basement, so I had to start renting a commercial space where people could come and work with me. I am wildly grateful for all the people who have come to me for help, and sincerely, they are the ones that have allowed me to do this in a much larger capacity. Now I work many hours each week crafting songs, mixing, producing, and doing everything else associated with making music.

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

I started playing guitar when I was 7 – my dad is a music instructor and owns a music store so that was a fairly natural thing to do. When I was around 12 or 13 I really got excited about music and would practice constantly and always try to find new and exciting things to learn. That lead to being in bands, writing songs, touring the country, recording, and everything else that comes with being a full-time musician. From there I realized I truly loved the writing and recording process and wanted to give more time to that.

These days the main things I do are help people with songwriting, production, and mixing. Everything from songs to commercials to podcasts to scores for short films. I truly get excited making new songs, new sounds, and coming up with new ideas. My personal flavor for stuff like this is trying to capture the human part of music and not just utilize the same sounds everybody else is using, I’d rather capture a real drummer’s performance in a room rather than program a drum beat in a computer. I’d rather work tirelessly to capture a human voice with all its imperfections rather than editing it endlessly to sound more perfect. Those little details are important to me and I want listeners to relate to it.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

So I know this is maybe not the most effective for everybody, but for me the biggest growth is almost always from word of mouth. I really try to treat every client as if they are the most important artist I’m working with. Even if it’s not my favorite genre, or favorite style, I want them to get the sound they are looking for. I think because of that people tend to get more excited about the final product. That leads to people wanting to come back, and wanting to tell their friends.

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.

Money does not equal success. A full-time musician typically does not make the money they deserve. If I spend thirty hours on a mix of one song, there is almost no way that at my level I can charge a client a rate that pays me for all those hours. But the thing is I love doing it. I put hours and hours and hours into this because when I get through a project and get to hear all the work and love that was put into it, it is so gratifying. When I hear the final product I can hear all those late nights trying to get mixes out on time, and I can hear the frustrating times when you have to grind to get the right sound or the right take. That’s exciting to me and makes it worthwhile. I am happy to make less money than some of my non-creative peers because I love doing it. To me – that is a success.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://redbirdrecordings.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/redbirdrecordings/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Red-Bird-Studio/100086439557694/
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0ecsEjvgrmYjhisagv0z9N?si=c7da6a2e7f1541b2&pt_success=1&nd=1&dlsi=39bca3e283f0463b