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

Othering, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

The guitar was the first instrument I learned how to play. I learned by ear, mainly playing along to Metallica and Muse albums then moving on to the stuff that Bernard Sumner and Kevin Shields were doing. From there, I branched out into learning how to play drums through punk music and then synths through new wave.

I suppose if I was aware of my current interest in dreamy sounds and industrial rhythms early on, I could’ve started making the music I want now sooner. But that’s the long, endless road to finding your sound. When you start exploring new kinds of sounds, it’s definitely challenging to pinpoint the elements you want your music to have—especially if there are a lot of interests to choose from. You also come to find your tastes changing over time, so the outcome of your input changes with it as well. The trick to it is to just play your instrument without thinking about it. You’ll know the sound you want to come out of it.

Othering, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Othering is an Alternative electronic project from Dallas, Texas formed in 2021. The music fuses ethereal synths and loud, reverberating guitars with electronic drumbeats—incorporating elements from shoegaze, darkwave, and post-punk. The current lineup consists of drummer Isai Beltran and vocalist-guitarist Bryan Gems. The duo’s live performances are notable for playing their songs one after the other without interruption by improvising transitions in between songs.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

In the live music world, I think streaming and social media have given artists a new platform to interact with their contemporaries and fans alike. Whereas years ago you had to advertise a show through physical posters and word-of-mouth, bands can now create an event page or flyer virtually and promote it through their social media accounts to be shared.

Songs recorded at home can be released online for free and accessed within minutes through streaming platforms. You can work with others virtually when arranging artwork, mixing audio, promoting your work to new audiences—the creative ecosystem is mostly virtual now.

The issue as it’s always been is garnering enough attention and interest to your work, which is up against everything else trying to grasp the world’s attention and interest. Of course, people can always attend the shows and buy the music to express their support that way, but it seems like the main currency now is an artist’s following. It may be something we don’t think about much, but in my opinion, a band with a high number of followers probably suggests success to people who aren’t quite involved in that band’s creative scene to begin with. With a large following, they may get more opportunities to collaborate with others than those who don’t have that, and in turn, continue to grow their fan base.

Whenever an artist asks their audience to share and like a song, subscribe to their channel, follow their profiles—they’re not doing it because they care about the numbers; they care about the attention that comes with it, which results in more exposure of their art. After all, art displayed to the public is there to be shared with anyone who cares about it, isn’t it? So follow, like, subscribe.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

Reading Dostoevsky’s Notes From Underground and The Idiot have definitely shaped the way I think about the music business. It’s interesting, because one novel shows the egoism of others while the other novel shows the egoism in the self. They’ve helped me understand the reason why people do what they do or don’t do for their business. In the end, it’s all about the transaction of one thing for another; entertainment for money, image for respect, sounds for expression. We all want to get a fair amount from a transaction, but sometimes a fair amount for one person is not the same for another. There’s a reason why some businesses can’t work together, and I think learning that and understanding that there are people who have a different vision of their business than yours has helped make decisions in the music business easier.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/othering
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/otheringothering/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/otheringothering
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCt1ujAbQXZtleGfrw3drU1w
• Other: https://othering.bandcamp.com/releases