We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Blaqout a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Blaqout thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. One of the toughest things about progressing in your creative career is that there are almost always unexpected problems that come up – problems that you often can’t read about in advance, can’t prepare for, etc. Have you had such and experience and if so, can you tell us the story of one of those unexpected problems you’ve encountered?

When I first started producing music the narrative was simple; produce good music, get it signed to labels, releases get you fans, you play shows and festivals. An unexpected problem I had was realizing that that’s not at all how it worked at the time, and it’s not at all how it works now. When you release music with a label, that label shows your music to its fanbase and markets it towards their audience but the retention isn’t always fantastic. This means that you could release on ______ Records (not naming anybody in specific) and be shown to their 250,000 total followers, but that doesn’t do much for you if you only make 1,000 new fans from it.

You could make 1,000 fans self-releasing your music through your own channels and marketing efforts, and then you have the audience locked in to your network! You’ll have fans looped into your social media, email lists, text lists, streaming profiles, show announcements, all of that data comes with you when you cultivate it yourself. This is why I, 13 years deep into doing this, am essentially starting over. All the labels (who I have no bad blood with whatsoever, thank you all for supporting my music) over the years didn’t really get me fan RETENTION.

We live in an age now where it’s more accessible than ever to aspiring musicians and new projects via things like Hypeddit, RepostExchange, Laylo, Meta Ads, Pre-Saves and SongKick. You can be your own label now.

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

I got into the music industry because I wanted to be a DJ. Music was always something I loved, even at a young age I would imagine and hum songs all the time – to the point where I’m sure it was annoying for some. I played the trumpet and other brass instruments in middle school, but fell out of it after that. Never had a singing voice, can’t figure out the guitar (so no bass either), and I didn’t have natural rhythm so being a drummer was off the table as well.

Then the concept of producing music and DJing it on computers (and turntables which are now basically computers) was introduced to me! I was into software development and coding, was a complete computer game junkie so this seemed like a match made in heaven. I saw people like Skrillex and Deadmau5 performing and thought, “whoa… how do I go do THAT?”

Nowadays I produce all genres of music (with EDM and Dubstep being my public-facing focus), produce/mix/master music for my clients, DJ at clubs and festivals around the country and teach people how to do it. When I got into it I had ambitious goals (playing EDC, Shambhala, Bonnaroo etc.) but now, waking up every day and working on music in some capacity as my primary job is what makes me happy. That’s what I’m most proud of. No boss at a job I hate, just music.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

There are many hurdles and challenges you’ll face when you pursue being an artist or creative, and you may not win a lot of them. To be honest, a majority of the things I try to do just flat-out don’t work. I take a lot of L’s on a regular basis but when I don’t? When there’s a legit and genuine victory I can celebrate? It makes all of the trouble worth it. The victories make it all worthwhile.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I could tell you about the time my car got broken into an a majority of my music equipment got stolen, I could tell you about lightning striking my car while I was going 75 down the highway in a tornadic storm between shows and was stranded underneath a bridge for hours in the middle of nowhere, I could even tell you about putting my all into a project and being stabbed in the back/left with nothing… but none of it did me in. There were many times where throwing in the towel seemed like the best move, but that’s never the right move. If you wake up every single day and do SOMETHING – even 1% – to stay on the path and trust your process, no one incident or experience can break you down.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.blaqoutofficial.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blaqoutdubstep
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/blaqoutsounds
• Twitter: https://www.x.com/blaqoutsounds
• Soundcloud: https://www.soundcloud.com/blaqoutsounds

Image Credits

Devon Dubree
Ian Adcock