We recently connected with Eric Wink and have shared our conversation below.

Eric, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

A very meaningful project of mine is my cover of Amy Winehouse’s, “Valerie”. The summer after my third year of college, studying engineering, I took on arranging and recording a few covers. This entails writing out parts, learning to play the parts on drums, bass, guitar, sax, keyboards and vocals, and orchestrating a lead vocalist, a sax player, a trombone player, and a trumpet player to perform the parts while I capture audio, but also video in front of a green screen. After all of that, I edited together a video showing all the different parts being played at once. Valerie was done in 2018.
Later, after graduating college in 2020, I worked a few different jobs. One of them was teaching lessons on the side.
In 2021, I applied at a local school that teaches private lessons, and I got the job! It is now my main gig and I have 40+ students. I came to find out later from the staff that my “Valerie” video was a hidden gem that spoke louder than a written resume. It demonstrated my ability to arrange, learn, perform, record, mix, master, edit/sync takes, and edit video, seeing a gigantic project through.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Bio: Eric is a producer, composer and multi-instrumentalist who loves nothing more than music production. Eric’s diverse tastes result in genre-melding music with influences of pop, funk, soul, disco, jazz and bossa nova. As a keyboardist, Eric’s smooth sound comes from his love for vintage keyboard tones and his rhythmic style of playing comes from a lifetime behind the drum kit. He began recording in his early teens, picking up sax, bass and guitar along the way. Self taught, he dedicated daily to his love for playing instruments, playing in local blues-rock & funk groups as well as jazz & latin ensembles. Today, a music educator based in Madison, WI, he is focused on collaboration with other artists.

I have been in love with music since I can remember. However, I have really started embracing a strong work ethic toward music creation about 18 months ago. In that time, I have put out 17 tracks, and over the next year, I have about 20+ more in the queue.
I think something that sets me apart is that I’m not just an artist, and not just a producer, but am very much both. Producing is my favorite aspect of music, and through that process, I’m writing, arranging and performing on my instruments, giving the Eric Wink artistry aspect, that’s then produced by me, giving my tracks my sound.

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

I find it’s incredible to be alive today, because I can create music on my laptop to a professional quality, in my apartment, then share it to the entire world with ease. What a time to be a creator!

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I have had many phases. Some notable ones that have inspired me:
My collaboration with mintsoup lead to 5 original alt indie funk-pop tracks on the EP, “Seen”

Jacob Collier collection. I have released 3, and have 6 more covers of a soulful artistic alternative pop inspired by Jacob Collier’s incredible mastery of music, and unique flavor on the music scene. I collaborated with many artists including
6 singers and 3 guitarists.

My work with Tara Luthar resulted in 2 of her originals, 2 of my originals and 5 of my covers. Many of these to come very soon!

I have 5 covers I’m working on using live instruments. I aim to release an EP soon.

I have 7 more electronic tracks as well. I aim to release an album in 2025!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ericwinkmusic/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ericwinkmusic
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ericwinkmusic
• Other: https://linktr.ee/ericwinkmusic

Image Credits

The photo were taken by friends, Tara Luthar and Bryce Johnson
The art is AI generated! ..and photoshop touched up