We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Luke Demetry a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Luke thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

When I decided to transfer schools to pursue production I had no idea what I was doing. I had never picked up an instrument and knew nothing about music theory. Luckily for me, it was the beginning of summer and I had nothing but time on my hands.

So, I spent the next three months watching back to back tutorial videos on YouTube. I think YouTube is one of the most valuable resources out there and it sometimes gets overlooked as a way to learn a new skill. You can teach yourself to do anything with it if you can find the right video tutorial.

During that summer, I used my time trying to learn new tricks and skills and putting them into practice everyday. The only real way to get good at anything in life is through consistent hard work and practice, and that’s the only thing that can set you apart from others.

One obstacle with learning stuff through YouTube is that you have to sift through a lot of junk. Since it’s a platform that allows anybody to upload videos, you run into a lot of people who think they know what they are talking about but don’t. This is something that can definitely lengthen the learning process if you’re not careful.

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?

If you haven’t met or heard of me, hi. I’m Luke. I’m and Egyptian-American who’s lived in St. Louis my entire life. The music scene was something I just kind of fell in love with by chance.

One moment that sticks out to me is the time when I sold my first beat to an artist. I think months went by without me hearing from her before she sent me back the finished song. But, whenever it did get sent back to me, I can’t even describe the feeling I had when I listened to it. I think that there is something so cool about making a work of art, sending it off to somebody else with a different set of skills, and letting them build up on that. I love hearing the songs artists make using my productions and that feeling is something I’ve been chasing ever since.

In a studio/recording environment, engineers are very much so the “fixers” throughout the session. Whether it be something messed up with the signal, getting a good performance from the artist, or removing harsh frequencies from a recording, audio engineers need to have a wide variety of skills in order to have a successful studio session and a happy client. I’d like to think this is what sets me apart from other recording engineers in the city.

Aside from instrumental productions and audio engineering, other services I offer include studio time, mixing and mastering work, as well as DJ’ing at clubs & private events.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

The same year I decided I wanted to start making music was the same year I started working at a fine dining restaurant in downtown Clayton called The Crossing. The French/Italian restaurant has been owned and run for the past 20 years by Jim Fiala. If you’ve never been it’s a must in my opinion. The Crossing has been rated best restaurant in Missouri and Top 50 in the USA.

I have been working there for the last 5 years, starting as a bus boy and eventually serving guests. I’m very thankful to Jimmy for giving me this job because it is the only thing that allowed me to fund my passion in the beginning.

I think a lot of people get embarrassed when they aren’t making their money the way they want to. It’s sad to see our culture cultivate a negative attitude towards people in these situations. There is nothing wrong with doing something in order to fund what you’re passionate about. In most cases that’s the only way somebody can afford to chase their dreams.
While I’m trying to move away from work that isn’t audio related, I still serve a couple shifts a week to help pay bills.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

The best thing you can do to build an audience on social media is upload quality content consistently. When I was focusing more on my social media presence, I was scheduling three posts a week and responding to every single comment and DM i was getting.

During this time, I was also doing a lot of my own research on marketing, trying to find anything that might help speed up the process. I learned about Facebook Ads Manager and the services it provides. It allows you to pay to run ads that will show up on users Instagram and Facebook feed and stories. Furthermore it lets you chose specific age groups and demographics for your ads to be shown to. So, needless to say, it’s a very powerful tool that has helped me a lot.

It’s important to note however that spending money on ads is pointless if you aren’t posting consistently and creating content people actually want to see.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://pharaohmakinbeats.beatstars.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pharaohmakinbeats/?hl=en
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/luke-d-251671121/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCH1sLbZ6Tq4B5fIMAjwm0vw
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5cjrZqzboZiIHx05GjDH3u

Image Credits
Noah Keane Harvey Dale