We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Raven K a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Raven, appreciate you joining us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?
I had always had a passion for singing, ever since I was a child, I’d always been involved in something musical in school, whether it be chorus or symphonic or concert band. It wasn’t until I was twelve years old and I’d befriended a girl named Sydney, another Black girl who was into alternative art like me, who slipped me a copy of Fall Out Boy’s “Infinity On High”. This was about 2007. It was one of the first albums I’d listened to as a kid that I’d genuinely couldn’t put down. Fall Out Boy was a band that I was superficially familiar with, having had “Sugar, We’re Goin’ Down” stuck in my head for a smooth two years at that point. But by the time I’d listened to “Infinity On High” from front to back, they would go on to serve as my first favorite band. I’d became intoxicated instantly and it would ultimately go on to ignite my interest in pop punk music. I would go on to seek out Green Day, Blink-182 and all those bands that had influenced Fall Out Boy themselves, as well as their contemporaries like Paramore, Armor For Sleep and those bands like that.
Once I’d deeply immersed myself in that world, I knew I wanted write songs forever. I’d became enamored with it because these were people who were outright saying that they weren’t okay. It might sound entirely nonsensical, but in my conservative Black Jamaican upbringing and the uppity suburban environment that I went to school in, talking about how screwed up you were inside was not something that was done at ALL. It was already enough that my parents were stressed financially with maintaining the household. I was scared to express any sort of negativity and I was terrified to add to the discordance at home. The expectation was that you kept it to yourself so as not to pose an inconvenience to those around you. I was entirely flabbergasted that they were expressing their sorrows so freely. I’d finally felt okay about NOT being okay. From the songwriting perspective, it’s pretty much been up and stuck ever since.
Fast forward until I’m about twenty years old and that’s when I’d known that I’d wanted to be a beatmaker. This is around 2015. I was hanging out with some folks from my audio engineering class at my local community college. Their names were Scotty Banx and Kam Williams. They’d invited me to the studio just mess around and listen to some beats they’d made. I remember watching patiently, listening to them while they made the sickest beat I’d ever heard in my life. Hard trappy drums, crazy guitar sounds. I couldn’t believe my ears; I couldn’t believe that beatmaking could not only be so simple, but so masterfully done in such a short amount of time. Being a musician who’d learned to play music with actual instruments like the guitar, the piano and the clarinet, it was like cavemen discovering fire. In retrospect, I’m sure my shock was comical to witness. Anywho, I’d found out about FL Studio shortly thereafter and immersed myself in YouTube tutorials trying to figure out how I could make beats like that, too. I was up until like 3:00 AM on nights I’d had to work for a year straight just to learn how to do it. I was borderline obsessed. This would also go on to aid my songwriting process as well. I’d been in a couple failed bands before this, so I was overjoyed to finally be able to learn how make my own music to write to by myself. While I do absolutely love making beats, it’s very seldom that I don’t prefer playing actual instruments, though.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I do a few things at the moment. When I’m not writing my own music, I do take on one or two clients who I can focus on to produce original music and vocal work. While I do have a beatstore at RavenKMusic.com where I have a few original productions available for instant purchase, I actually very much prefer to make custom work privately for rappers, singers and content creators. I am very, very particular about who I work with these days, due to experiencing some unfortunate situations in the underground music scene like theft of my work and things of that nature. I try not to lament too much on those things, but it taught me to be proactive in legally protecting my work, such as copywriting my work and also registering my work with performing rights organizations like ASCAP.
One thing I’ve been told from my previous clients is that I provide value to them beyond the work we create together. I’d actually had a great conversation about value in music with my friend Kold Kwan, a Boston, Massachusetts based rapper. We’d met on the most serendipitous of instances, through him finding one of my beats, “Speak To Me” on a local Baltimore rappers Instagram story. He would go on to buy a few beats off of me and we would go on to create the song “Mazoku” together, which was produced by me and is currently available on all streaming platforms. Throughout our various conversations, he’d always expressed how much he appreciated that I honored his time and how I’d actually helped him become privy to certain things such as taking the business and legal sides of music seriously as well as the creative side. Personally, I thought it was just the right thing to do, but he’d actually made it clear to me that it’s actually a rarity for beatmakers to be so thorough on the business end, which I found to be a great disappointment. I’m all too familiar with how cutthroat working in music can be, even just on an underground level, so to me, it’s INCREDIBLY imperative to cover yourself and be transparent with your clientele.
So ever since then, I’d always made it my mission that anyone who expressed interest in working with me would always walk away feeling secure in the fact that I worked honestly and transparently. I feel like the type of clientele that I’ve been blessed to attract appreciate that about me. People wanna know that you do honest business. Draft up the contract, have open candid discussions about the things you require as a creative, even if you guys have been friends for years. Be consistent about those things. The last thing you want to get around is that you’re charging different prices for different people or that you’re cutting corners on your requirements. I can say beyond a shadow of a doubt that as a creative entrepreneur, I shine in consistency with my clients and I am the picture of transparency about the business that I conduct.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
I would say that my personal development is a huge part of my professional development, which I definitely feel like people don’t talk about enough. I feel like due to the capitalistic society we live in, people tend to put their personal care on the back burner and overbook ourselves because we’re so pressed about that next opportunity, that next gig, that next client, that next shoot, you know?
I had to unlearn some hyper-independence trauma. I was definitely raised to do the whole “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” type of thing and honestly, it did me so much more harm than good. When I was first beginning my professionally journey as a creative, I was always fed the whole narrative that “the game is sold, not told,” meaning, figure it the hell out yourself. I was also told to be incredibly resourceful, which basically is a polite way of saying, don’t ask for help. But honestly, trying to be a do-it-yourself creative only ever inhibited my process, whether that be creating my own album art, my own photoshoots, my own hair and makeup and things of that nature. Now, listen, if you are genuinely good at a lot of things, please do not let me stop you from being great. Do you. But I, personally, only have a few strengths as a creative and I prefer to hone in on those. I am very much a strong proponent of outsourcing. Acknowledge your strong suits, kick ass at those and ask people to help you with the rest. Don’t feel like you have to be a one-stop shop for your own art.
I would also apply this to your personal life. Remember that you’re a person outside of the art that you produce. You are a human being. You NEED a community of people who care about you. You NEED friends who will be there for you when the going gets tough, whether it be emotionally, financially or anything else. I’m so incredibly fed up with people acting like they don’t need people. You do. You are a human being and we are a communal species who would have not thrived if not for what? Community. Ask your friends for help if you need to put food in the fridge, help with the rent, if you need gas in the tank or even just a damn shoulder to cry on. Hyper-independence is quite literally the antithesis of your prosperity as a human being.
You cannot service other people, you can not be of use to other people if you are not first caring for yourself and to adequately care for yourself, you need a network of people who care about your well-being in all ways, always.
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
Honestly, I would very much like people to understand that artists and creatives are the gatekeepers of human culture. We are the timekeepers, the authors, the painters, the songbirds of human emotion and enlightenment. To be written off as unimportant in comparisons to the sciences (which I find great value in as well, by the way), is insulting. We are as important as the equations used to program the technology that took us to the moon. We are as important as the instruments used to predict the weather, the ecology that allows us to cultivate food and remain in still communities as opposed to nomads and wanderers.
The support you can grant artists through this mentality alone is immeasurable. When you acknowledge our value in society, you WILL support us accordingly, be that financially, word of mouth. Our expressions of self allow us to hold a mirror up to yourselves. When you find us relatable, you’re more inclined to refer people to us, which can potentially turn into a monetary transaction, which leads to MORE exposure, MORE clientele, etc. It allows to thrive and reject the starving/struggling artist narrative. We deserve more than struggle. We provide the emotional comfort and relatability that people find refuge in. As long as we live in a capitalistic society, we will always require capital to thrive and thusly create in peace, continuing the cycle. It all starts with respecting the value we bring to humanity. Humanities and sciences should be working in conjunction in the human experience, not as adversaries.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://ravenkmusic.com
- Instagram: ravenkmusic
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RavenKEntertainment
- Twitter: RavenK_
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/channel/UCnCNJr1dN8lEtsXj7k4EzDw