Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Drew Mantia. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Drew, appreciate you joining us today. I’m sure there have been days where the challenges of being an artist or creative force you to think about what it would be like to just have a regular job. When’s the last time you felt that way? Did you have any insights from the experience?

I’m satisfied with the creative life, but I’m not always happy with it. Happiness is short-term, satisfaction is long-term. Happiness is felt in moments when you get a reprieve from adversity. As soon as you’re in a new difficult situation, you’re not happy again until that’s solved. Satisfaction is enjoying happiness when it comes while expecting adversity and being confident the adversity you face is worth the stronger person and artist you become in its aftermath. Being a satisfied professional creative is to have multiple embarrassing failures in your wake but still stepping into your next adventure holding your head high. If that’s not for you, that’s what jobs are for – kicking back in the comfort zone, profiting off someone else’s already established success.

I think about having a “regular job” almost daily. It motivates me. I used to frame it in my mind as the ultimate failure. Now I accept that there is more to life than being an artist. Depending on what you want out of life, that 9 to 5 life could be the best vehicle to support your dreams. I know plenty of people that work an ordinary job, have a family, travel and are also talented musicians. I have great for respect for the balance they’ve achieved and I could do a lot worse than ending up like them. I’d rather be them than any of these old eccentric loner musicians I’ve seen. I remind myself often – you don’t have to stand on a decision you made as a child to become a musician; it’s OK if you want something different out of life as a grown adult. I’ve given myself permission to change my mind, to go be “normal.” With that in mind I ask myself – knowing what you know now and giving yourself permission to change, will you continue the fight for your creative life? So far my answer thousands of times over has been ‘yes.’

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 like summarize what I do with this sentence: I produce and mix Pop, Hip Hop and R&B for artists, advertising and TV with intent to make people feel good in these lonely modern times. I started because connecting with music as a child made me feel less alone when I went through some difficult times and I wanted to recreate that feeling for others. That’s the mission and it’s needed more today than ever. How that intersects with business is people hire me to produce and engineer recording sessions, mix and master recordings, make beats, play guitar, do live front-of-house engineering and provide songs & background instrumentals for TV show & video content.

The long story goes like this:
On the first day I brought home my beginner acoustic guitar, I recorded my first open strings song to cassette tape. In the 20+ years since, writing and performing music has been inextricably tied to recording and mixing it for me. I played in Rock bands throughout High School and learned just enough about Jazz to gain acceptance to Webster University in my hometown of St. Louis. I began my Bachelors of Music degree in 2005 and began playing my first paid gigs that same year. I bought my first copy of Pro Tools for home recording and enrolled all my elective credits at Webster U in audio recording classes, gaining me access to Webster’s studio full of classic mics and outboard gear. As I grew in the skills of creating recordings of my own songs and showed them to other musicians, they began offering to hire me for their recordings. By graduation in 2009, I was teaching guitars lessons, playing gigs and producing recordings. I was fronting my own band, cleverly titled Drew Mantia Band, which was booked at several of St. Louis’ largest venues in opening slots for acts like Slightly Stoopid and Flobots. In 2010 I made a move to Kansas City for what would end up being only one semester of grad school. In 2011 I took on an internship at Chapman Recording, longtime studio home of Tech N9ne and his Strange Music label. Throughout 2011 and 2012 I also collaborated with Kansas City choreographers to compose music for modern and hip hop dance. A particular highlight was my composition “Suffering in Dm” being performed by 40 dancers at the Kaufman Center in KC, choreographed by DeeAnna Hiett. By 2011 I was engineering and producing home recordings as a full-time freelancer. I made a successful move to Chicago in 2012 and become a full-time engineer at CarterCo Recording (2005-2015). I became a Hip Hop specialist in the exploding Chicago Hip Hop scene from 2012-2015 where I began work with artists that would receive millions of plays and views, sell thousands of albums and perform slots at large festivals. Some projects of note from this Chicago era include ProbCause “LSD” featuring Chance the Rapper (produced, mixed, mastered), The Palmer Squares “FINNA” (mixed, mastered, debuted #8 on iTunes hip hop chart) and my own collaboration with Saba, “Down” (produced, recorded, mixed, mastered). Other production and mixing work in Chicago led to collaborations with more notable artists such as Twista, CYN, Gangsta Boo from Three 6 Mafia, Lil Dicky, Griz, Gramatik and more. I also did some runs of touring with artists I produced for from 2014-2017, some highlights including Festival dates behind ProbCause at Summercamp and Hulaween, Running Wild Tour opening for Grieves and a Canadian run with The Palmer Squares. I worked in Chicago until 2019 when I moved back to St. Louis and found a renewed passion for my craft in my hometown. I have still been working closely with Chicago artists, taken up work with STL locals, and more than ever I am doing remote mixing, mastering, selling beats and custom production online. In late 2020, I opened Feel Good Music Recordings based in the Benton Park neighborhood of St. Louis, MO. Throughout my music career I’ve been told many times “you make that feel good music!” I was so pleased that I was having that effect on people that I made feel good vibes the cornerstone of what I do. I have a production album series called “Feel Good Music” and when the opportunity came to take over someone else’s already built out studio space, it was a no-brainer what I would call it. In 2021 I began my Sync Licensing career with placements on channels like The CW, MTV, VH1, BET, E! and digital ads for major corporations. Issues with the rented space I was operating my studio out of lead me to transition back into a home studio environment in Spring of 2022. I decided that I would trade physical space for increased technology. In the summer of ‘22 I began live-streaming creation sessions and working on my social media content in addition to my art.

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

I basically blew “my shot” early on at becoming a major label producer and changing the trajectory of my whole career. In 2013 I had produced a song that was a hit on the Chicago Hip Hop scene and the greater underground Hip Hop scene. Millions of streams, press write-ups from large blogs (at the time music blogs were highly relevant) and my name was out there on the Chicago scene, where I had only lived for about a year. I was in communication with major label A&Rs looking to get beats from me for big name artists and at least one artist that would go on to be VERY popular personally asked me for beats for his next project. And I totally flopped with all those people. The early part of my production career was working with bands, I was relatively new to making beat-style production at the time I had this successful song out. I happened to hit it out of the park with one of the first songs I ever produced a beat for and didn’t have more great beats to back it up with. I sent out a bunch of trash beats and all those major contacts faded with time. That made me more resilient in the game because I learned the hard way that opportunity comes at unexpected times and you have to be prepared for it. That experience led me to make thousands of beats to hone my craft and to be ready when people are looking to me for song ideas. I still grind everyday believing that my next shot at doing something big is on its way.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

Reading is important to me and I’ve read over 300 nonfiction books, mostly around topics of psychology, entrepreneurship and creativity. Here are some of my highest recommendations for creative entrepreneurs: The War of Art, Pressfield
Awaken the Giant Within, Robbins
The Icarus Deception, Godin
The Dip, Godin
The Obstacle is the Way, Holiday
What Motivates Getting Things Done, Lamia
Daring Greatly, Brown
Flow, Csikszentmihalyi

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @drewmantia
• Youtube: youtube.com/drewmantia