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

Hi Nicholas, thanks for joining 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?

It was a gradual process gaining the knowledge I have to help me do my work today. Before I even thought of working professionally in music, I played saxophone in school band from elementary school through high school which helped me learn how to read music and play with others. I started playing bass, then guitar in middle school and played in bands outside of school where we would play covers and I started to write and record my own music. I was lucky enough to go to a public high school that actually had a great music program where I took music theory classes. Eventually I had a personal key to the recording studio they had set up where I was able to learn and troubleshoot on my own. I then attended Berklee College of Music to expand my knowledge even more. All of the music related things I’ve learned in my life have informed how I compose or mix. I think formal education is only one part of how you get better at something. You really need to want to do the thing and continue to fill your brain with new ideas on your own.

I think the main obstacle for me learning more in the past was myself. When I first started to record my ideas I learned just enough to make it work instead of really diving in to learn the best way. Over the years I would learn a little more to get me over whatever hurdle I had. Eventually I sat down and focused on learning everything I could about the software/hardware I was using so I wouldn’t have those blocks in my creative process anymore. My advise for myself in the past would be to take your time in the beginning to save yourself the future frustration.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Nicholas Setter, I am a composer/music producer/mix engineer. I have always loved creating new music and finding new ways to inspire creativity for myself. I got into production and mixing originally out of necessity for making my own music the best it could be. Eventually I started producing for other artists and doing the mix as well because of limited budgets. That opened a whole other area of work for me and now I have a really nice balance of doing all of the things I love within music. One day I’m working on composing music for video, another I’m mixing an EP for a band. Regardless of what I’m working on I try to maintain the same approach to each project which is to let each piece of music be the best version of what it wants to be. I try to not get in the way of letting things happen as naturally as possible.

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

I love being able to make something out of nothing. Having an idea and seeing it through to the end to find out what it becomes is very fulfilling. Same feeling when I’m able to help someone else see their vision come to fruition. And of course getting to share that final piece of music with others feels great too.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

I just wish I had the internet of today back when I started out learning my craft. There’s so much information out there if you get stuck and need help figuring something out. Personally I love watching other peoples processes to see what their workflow is like because it may spark some new inspiration for me. Within all of this great information is also bad information, which makes it difficult for people starting out to know the difference.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.arcydriverecords.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/nicholas_setter/
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/nicholas-setter-57417759/