We recently connected with Ian Mckay and have shared our conversation below.
Ian, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us 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?
As an electronic music producer the learning curve I encountered at the beginning of my journey was quite steep. I was listening to all this electronic music at the time and I would dissect it with my ears but had no idea where these people started. My production journey started by me using a trial version of Logic Pro in my dad’s laptop. Learning as much as I can from YouTube tutorials and google, I didn’t have any one to give me a formal education on this stuff. So I put my head down and used countless YouTube videos as my music teacher. From sound design to composition, I learned everything I know now from free YouTube videos. There’s a ton of information out there that can help you learn how to produce music. And it’s free! Just takes time and commitment to getting better.
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?
I’ve been producing music and deejaying for over 10 years. I spent the first seven years or so as a bedroom dj, never wanting to perform infront of an audience. That was until about 3 years ago when I was invited to play a live show in my hometown St. Louis. After that set it was all over for me. I had been bit by the performance bug and I needed to do it again as much as possible. I spent the next 2 years playing a lot of shows and perfecting my production craft. I love making all different kinds of music so it’s hard to put me into one genre or category. Now I have played my fair share of shows and feel like that itch has been scratched. Now I get more satisfaction from seeing my music do well online. I love to dj and I always will! But the pay-off I get from strangers on the internet interacting with my music will never be matched.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
I think my journey in the music industry is the definition of resilience. Even before getting an ounce of success, I was driven to keep getting better at my craft. So many times I have spent countless hours on a song just to have it get less that 100 plays. As an artist there is not a worse feeling than seeing your art flop. But I was never in it for external success. I just wanted to keep getting better and keep raising the quality of my music. I didn’t care about likes and views and plays. It’s extremely hard as an artist to stay true to yourself while trying to please other people. If I would have listened to every piece of advice I’ve gotten in my journey, I certainly wouldn’t still be making music. I had to come to the conclusion that I was the only person I needed to impress.
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.
I think everyone is creative in their own way. I really think the saturation of everything on social media is contributing to people struggling with creativity. There are so many different ways to be creative now but all I see is copy/paste content. Meaning original ideas are far and few between. I think there’s so much out there on the internet that people don’t bother trying to be original. People self doubt their own creativity and assume that because some other kinds of content do well, that’s what they need to do. This often leads to seeing 20 different versions of the same video. I find it extremely frustrating, and encourage everyone to try to be original and don’t fear trying something new because that is what will break through to the main stream. Not copying other people’s content.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @idroppa.dubs
- Facebook: Idroppa Bass
- Youtube: @idroppabass
- Soundcloud: https://on.soundcloud.com/8pqQRsujYsqacppt5
