We were lucky to catch up with Gregory Oakland recently and have shared our conversation below.

Gregory, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Do you think your parents have had a meaningful impact on you and your journey?

My parents have always been extermely laid back and allowed me to really explore my sensibilities. Especially rare considering they are first generation Japanese Americans.

My mom spoke virtually no English when she came over in her mid twenties. My dad came to the US at a much younger age but also had to learn english on his own.

Just like alot of parents from my generation, they kept their head down and worked CRAZY hard to give me everything that I have. While most parents would probably feel entitled to tell their children to do what they felt was best, my parents would really let me find my own way and just support me on whatever endeavors I was passionate about at the time.

My dad is a very musical person, I would attribute a lot of my musical talent with him. He’s extremely jovial and showed me that it IS very cool to let good music show in you. Some people try not to get too emotional when listening to stuff that they like if that makes any sense. He is also the most stoic and composed person I have ever known in my life. I try to emulate his attitude and approach to my own life philosophy every single day. I don’t know how he does it but I admire him so much.

My mom is the most hard working person I’ve ever known with a go getter attitude that has led her to be named as one of the most infulential lenders in Los Angeles (also a banker). She got her MBA while raising two kids and working full time. Reflecting on her accomplishments now knowing how hard it is to juggle even half those responsibilities makes me feel dizzy with pride.

Both of them leave so much for me to live up to. Not because they forced it upon me, but because they left such a great example that I intrinsically want to be better. I couldn’t be more thankful for my parents and hope that someday I can make them as proud as they make me.

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 trance/techno/progressive trance and house producer and DJ.

I’ve been into electronic music since I was very young. But it really started to materialize when I went to college and joined my fraternity Alpha Sigma Lambda. My first rave was Insomniac’s Together As One on New years 2007. I saw Armin Van Buuren and Deadmau5 and life was never the same after that.

I’ve always had a passion for music. However, this was the moment where I knew I wanted to become more engaged in my interests. So I picked up DJing and FL studio to just mess around. It took about 10 years of on and off production and around 2020 I decided to really commit myself to get better at my craft and really attempt to reach a professional sound.

Fast forward a couple years of really applying myself and I’ve now released on some of the biggest labels in my respective genre, Peaked at 26k monthly listeners on spotify and have many more releases down the pipeline.

I think what really sets me apart is the fact that I enjoy several genre’s and have really tried my best not to put myself into a corner in regards to what I would be categorized as. A lot of trance fans are admittedly purists and don’t like when the artists deviate from what they preceive trance is in their minds. Which is fine and totally cool, I just like to make everything though.

I like to make stuff that you can play on the radio as well as bang in the clubs and festivals and hope that I can keep signing with a diverse selection of labels.

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

Well the first thing that immediately comes to mind is getting rejected by labels constantly and finding some way to penetrate the barrier to entry.

This is especially tough in the beginning, because there are always thousands of people trying to do the exact same thing as you and how do you stand out if you have no resume or respectable catalogue?

The mental fortitude it takes to get rejected 100 times and say “yeah let’s keep going, I still believe I’m good enough” is something that not alot of people will ever understand. But if you really want something, you find a way.

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.

There are a lot of things I can recommend. Here is a short list of some of the most important things I can think of off the top of my head.

1. treat it like school for a while, you need to commit a certain amount of time every single day to learn even boring stuff. It’s the only way to master your craft and if you really are ready and willing to commit, you will agree with this part and willingly do it.

2. Quit your vices. This means drinking, smoking, video games, eating too much junk, sexy time. Whatever it is you know that you are doing too much that is stopping you from getting better at what you want then stop doing that. I can’t even begin to describe how much easier it was to get better at improving my sound as soon as I decided to quit drinking and smoking.

3. Get a mentor. School, youtube tutorials, masterclasses, all these things will help you learn in a structured linear way. It’s important. However, having a mentor that’s in the scene is the quickest way to literally skyrocket you into learning what actually works. If you want to get in shape, what is the easiest way to learn how to do that? Find a dude that is in shape and ask how they did it. Much better than only reading about it.

4. Listen to a LOT of different music. If you want to sound different then you will have to take inspiration from things outside of your respective genre or you will end up just sounding exactly the same.

5. Collaborate with people. Most people don’t get super good on their own. You get there by sharing ideas and surrounding yourself with likeminded individuals. Sometimes you’re going toh ave to give away some of your own secrets/concepts. And that’s okay if you are gaining something out of it as well.

There you go. Five things that I can almost GUARANTEE will help you get better at whatever it is you want to do.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gregoryoakland/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GregoryOaklandMusic/
• Linkedin: https://www.twitter.com/gregoakland
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHUxwSzk2_oe2SEghl-heeg
• Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@gregoakland?_t=8gbVk5CcONz&_r=1

Image Credits
Photos by Joanna Guererro