We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ray Price a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Ray, appreciate you joining us today. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?
After being honorably discharged from the United States Army in 2012, I moved to Austin, TX to pursue an Audio Production Degree from the Art Institute of Austin. I had been writing, recording and producing music since my teenage years however, I wanted to learn more about the business of being a creative and expand my knowledge of the music industry.
While in school, I worked at a Guitar Center and the combination of working there, learning a ton about media production and business while attending school, and continuing to develop my skills as an artist certainly prepared me to comfortably seek and accept work in all aspects of the entertainment world. I started an entertainment company while in school which focused on event planning, graphic design, music recording and production, videography, performances, and overall content creation. I made decent money as college student but at that time, it wasn’t enough to pay all the bills.
Immediately after graduating college, I accepted a position for an Audio System design company which was short lived. I just wasn’t fulfilled and was unable to utilize any of the skills I had developed and was passionate about. I left that job and decided to try my hand at busking full time with hopes of generating enough street buzz that I’d stumble across a sustainable opportunity I could be proud of. The day that I ventured out on that busking journey was the very day that changed my life in an amazing way.
I parked my car at an open lot in East Austin and was greeted by a gentlemen who noticed I had a guitar strapped across my back. He asked what I was doing there and I told them that I was going to busk across the street. He stopped me there and told me that they had just finished building a music studio inside the building connected to that parking lot and invited me inside to check it out. Immediately upon walking into the space, I was completely blown away. There were tons of guitars, basses, amps, pianos, synthesizers, drum kits, dj equipment, mixing consoles and every other piece of equipment you could imagine that would be in a professional music studio.
There were four gentlemen sitting inside the studio who I was introduced to and they were the staff personnel from this organization called Notes for Notes. They told me about the organization and why they were there and then asked who I was and why I was there. We shared small talk and then they challenged me to play some of the instruments in the space. With all of my training and experience, I was able to play everything they had in that studio and was also given the opportunity to play them some of my original music.
They seemed impressed, so much so that they offered me a job right on the spot. The job would allow me to run that beautiful studio as if it were my own and apply everything that I had been learning and doing over the previous decade or so. It was literally a dream job offer and I was honored to accept the position. I was hired as an entry level program director back in 2017 and currently, I moved up the ranks to become an Area Director where I run and manage 8 different studios in the country including, Austin, Milwaukee, Las Vegas, Washington D.C., Santa Barbara, and Santa Monica.
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?
My name is Ray Price but many people know me as Syx Synce which is my artist name. I grew up in Okinawa, Japan where breakdancing and Hip Hop were very popular so naturally, that’s what I gravitated towards. I was also very interested in athletics and living on a Military base, there was an abundance of kids that were also active in playing many of the sports that were present in our environment.
Starting at age 6, I armed myself with countless notebooks, almost obsessively writing lyrics every chance I got and the same goes for the hours I put in practicing sports; primarily hockey and football. By the time I was 11, I remember watching streams of cars pass by my window everyday at the same time and it just seemed so robotic. I saw everyone in Military uniforms and while I knew it to be an honorable career choice, I didn’t see how they were able to express themselves as individuals. I was still just a young kid but I had this unwavering feeling that whatever I did as an adult would have to be something that I was truly passionate about and could express myself freely. So, at that point I had given myself two options. I was either going to be a professional athlete or a professional rapper.
Fast forward to high school graduation and you have me as this 17 year old kid that wasn’t on track to be either of those things. Once I turned 18, I became a car salesman and even though I was pretty good at it, I hated it so that job was short lived. I tried a few other “normal” jobs and didn’t enjoy those that much either. At age 19, I decided to follow in my parent’s footsteps and join the Military. Both of my parents did 20 plus years in the service but that wasn’t my plan. I just wanted an experience that would challenge me and give me an opportunity to see more parts of the world. Luckily for me, my first duty station was Hawaii which was a paradise especially for someone my age. However, a year after being there, I received deployment orders to Iraq and that would change my life forever.
One day while sitting in 120 degree heat, my Command Sergeant Major approached me about an opportunity to boost the morale of the troops. There had been a little buzz about me being an aspiring rapper so I was challenged to make a song for my division that would help lift the spirits of the soldiers I was deployed with. I accepted the challenge and the song I created would become the theme song for the division. Following that, I was empowered to develop my own band consisting of other military musicians and my new job while deployed, was to perform original songs for different divisions as they visited our FOB (Forward Operating Base).
I remember being honored at an award ceremony and the speech that was given about me from the Colonel and Command Sergeant Major moved me to tears. I was totally inspired and motivated and I knew that music is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.
I created an entertainment company called “The Official Party” which was inspired by the high ranking officials in the military. My company focused on everything that had to do with entertainment and media production but the most commonly sought after service from potential clients was graphic design, music production and recording services, and live music performances. I pretty much taught myself how to do all of the things my company offered and never said no to an opportunity. If I didn’t know how to do something, I’d say yes anyway and figure it out later.
That mentality stuck with me and I still operate the same way, however, most inquiries that I get nowadays, I’m able to fulfill confidently. I’ve been fortunate to experience some wonderful pinnacles in my musical journey and I’m blessed to say that I’m able to comfortably provide for myself and my family with my talents. But, I think the thing I feel makes me feel the most fulfilled is making other people feel like stars and I’m able to do that with the services I provide.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
I think the most rewarding aspect about being an artist or creative is creating timeless artifacts that inspire people. There are times when someone has reached out about a particular song, piece of art or an event in which they describe how positively impacted they were by it and that’s such an amazing feeling.
How did you build your audience on social media?
I started uploading videos of me rapping to youtube and myspace back in 2004. After generating a little buzz, I started editing simple music videos which also garnered a lot of attention. I was consistent in doing that for several years while also uploading my music to different websites such as SoundCloud and Datpiff.
Some videos got way more traction than others, however, I adopted this mindset that once the music was released to the world, the right person would eventually stumble across it and that motivated me to release an abundance of music weekly. I never really spent any money on marketing or advertisements and even though it took me a while to have a strong online presence, it eventually happened organically.
It certainly is wise to have a good promotional campaign for your art depending on where you’re wanting to go with it, but I also think that content is king and creating tons of it and sharing it randomly with the world has some great benefits as well.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @syxsynce85
- Facebook: Ray Price
- Linkedin: Ray (Syx Synce) Price
- Youtube: www.youtube.com/syxsynce