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

Erfan, 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?

Funny enough my now permanent process started out as a solution to procrastination. My music production mentor had a challenge going for some of his friends and I where we made a beat a week and submitted it.

Now I fell behind and felt like I needed to make up for all these weeks I missed so I had to streamline my workflow into something efficient to knock it out. So off the bat I had to decide what I was about to do, what instruments, key, vibe, etc. I was about to perform.

The trick was doing it all time under pressure. The form is this.

Write, track, arrange in an hour. Mix for 30-45 minutes and master for 15-30 minutes. Now you have a solid demo to go off of.

That’s probably not the healthiest way to learn production but it did put a lot of things into perspective on how to “cut to the chase” so to speak. Namely 3 things.

1. What vibe are you trying to make and what emotion are you trying to explore. (for songwriters, what is the main point of the story your telling. is every step of the way supporting that narrative in some way)

2. Is my workflow optimized and curated for me? That means hotkeys, tools, keyboards, plugins, mics, all the logistical things.

3. After some time working on something be genuine in asking “do I even like this beat or song, is this really worth my time to finish.” and there is no shame in being honest and saying no. Perhaps its meant for a friend or someone else!

And as a bonus theres 3 things you also learn from doing this.

1. You figure out what your sound is very very VERY quickly. You know what your go to instruments and writing styles are once you practice this daily.

2. You know what sounds good and what just doesn’t. Objectively. Similar to the above point.

3. That theres always something to work on.

A lot of this is work and realizations on the backend while your hangin’ in your studio, But make sure your sharing demos and projects with people and fans, laymen, what areas your growing in. Someway shape or form to your own little community of people.

Because at the end of the day we work on these things to share it on some degree with someone, and they wanna be kept up with what your working on.

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 a music producer based out of the Dallas/Ft. Worth area and I’ve been at it for over 10 years!

Similarly to all my peers, most musicians around here started in some way playing at a local church. I’ve found that this is something unique to Dallas in that since there are so many churches, theres a big need for musicians because they all sort of compete with one another. Production scales keep going up so theres need for musicians, playback techs, sound guys, etc.

So it’s not uncommon that most players in town have a resident church gig(s) that float them between shows or if they are on tour.

Coming out of that I got in touch with the towns many wonderful producers and songwriters, took up production on my own and started making stuff that I liked and fortunately everyone who hears it likes. It’s really a blessing.

Feel free to sub on YouTube or hang on TikTok :)

Any advice for managing a team?

If your in charge of a band or are putting something together, clarity, honesty and transparency are really at the forefront. Even if a gig isn’t paying a lot, you’ll be surprised how many people will come in on a favor for you to make something happen. And if they don’t (and believe me it does) don’t get discouraged. That just means you gotta pivot in some ways. In either the act, show lineup, goal, purpose, etc.

If you have the patience and the time to actually start a band. Like a true to form band, everyone has to be bought in at the same price at every level or else it will not work in the long run. Theres no shame in admitting you can’t commit to something. Nor is it shameful to be objective about your workload in a situation. Split everything evenly and keep a group chat going where everyone checks in every day. Eyes on the prize.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

For me, besides all the wonderful relationships and conversations I’ve developed, was the personal growth. Choosing to be an artist or producer or whatever, you really learn a lot about yourself. You add in and let go of things that need to be, or not be there very quickly. It’s not a method for everyone but for those whom it is, you stand to gain a lot of wisdom and perspective.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/erfan.j.e
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/erfan.j.e
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-j3Lpg9-mcslN3kRBZHbng

Image Credits

@brucejhudgins