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

Redah, appreciate you joining us today. Do you feel you or your work has ever been misunderstood or mischaracterized? If so, tell us the story and how/why it happened and if there are any interesting learnings or insights you took from the experience?

Today I’d like to share a real struggle that most of my fellow creatives, artists, and myself are often going through.

We are often misunderstood when it comes to sharing the work we’ve created. Some may see it as a way for us to only get external validation and feel better about ourselves, which could be true at some extent knowing how insecure and vulnerable artists can be, but ultimately the main goal of any creation is to be shared with an audience to make them feel a certain way. We truly want to share something that brought us a strong emotion during the making process hoping that the audience gets that same feeling. Any positive experience is enhanced when it is shared with other people and creates a deeper connection between us.

Now in today’s world people’s attention is very hard to catch and promoting our work heavily is sometimes the only way to have it seen or heard. It can sometimes come off as creators being pushy or even desperate.

Today I would just like to encourage people in general to be supportive of creators and artists as you would be for friends or relatives. It is totally ok to dislike their work but there is no need to be mean or for hate speech, which unfortunately happens way too often, especially on social medias, blogs etc. I encourage you to support the content you like, and eventually ignore the content you don’t but most importantly stay kind.

I would also like to thank online magazines like CanvasRebel for giving us the opportunity to spread those words.

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

I am a record producer, singer, songwriter, audio engineer and most importantly music lover based in Los Angeles.

I originally pursued Architecture & Arts studies after graduating from high school but soon dropped out of it to study music at the school of my dreams: Berklee College Of Music. I have always been passionate about music and started playing guitar and singing around the age of twelve but I wasn’t sure I would even be accepted in a music school. My theory knowledge wasn’t great and I had always been a less than average student. I worked really hard on improving my singing and guitar playing alone in my room. It was what made me feel best. After auditioning at Berklee, I was surprised to be offered a scholarship. Seeing that one of the greatest music school not only believed in me but offered me a talent based scholarship was a true confidence boost and a day I’ll never forget.
I feel like too many academic systems tend to make kids believe that they are either smart and great students or not that smart and destined to remain bad students. It is unfortunate. I believe that each one of us is great at something. The hardest part is to find it and it sometimes takes a lot of emotional strength to do so without giving up.

Following my Music Production & Engineering Degree at Berklee, I moved to Los Angeles and applied to intern in any recording studio I could find. After working in a few different ones around town, I finally felt home at WAX LTD studios in Hollywood. Over the years, my hard work has allowed me to get from the intern cleaning and serving coffee to the record producer, songwriter and audio engineer that I am today. I am now working as an independent contractor not only with WAX LTD but also with multiple other artists and companies for various projects.
I believe what got me there is my work ethic. I always did my best in any task I was given, going above and beyond even when I didn’t have a particular interest in the task. I avoided being pushy or inpatient when it came to learning new skills, but wasn’t shy when I had the opportunity to ask for feedback on my work. Thus, through the criticism I have received from multiple veteran music producers and songwriters, I have been able to drastically improve my skills until I was ready to handle bigger responsibilities.

I have been hired on major projects especially for my ability to vocal produce artists by putting them in the best conditions in the studio to capture their greatest performances.
My vocal production skills in music have been recognized on shows such as NBC The Voice, American Idol, and movies such as Spider-Man Into The Spider-Verse.
My music production and arranging on various songs and covers used by companies such as CBS, Wells Fargo and Big Lots.
My engineering skills on multiple songs for artists and bands but also on commercials for companies such as Chase bank, Google, Venmo, Ross and AAMCO.

Most of my clients come to me because of my high enthusiasm and attention to detail on the projects I am working on. For me the end result of anything I work on should clearly answer the following question: Do I believe it? It doesn’t matter wether it is a voice over on a commercial, an audio book, or a performance in a song. If yes isn’t the answer, I change my approach and keep looking for the magic until the final result feels truly authentic.

I think that what sets me apart from others is my ability to adapt by being flexible and putting my ego aside to match the energy of the person I am working with. From my personal experience, being confrontational or too attached to my ideas has never been really effective. I have learned that my perspective, my way of doing things is only One way and not The way. It is being able to find the way that works best with both my collaborator and I that is the right way at that time.

I am proud to be able to make a living out of my passion. I am grateful everyday for that. However, I’d like you guys to know that it doesn’t come without big sacrifices. First, being in the music industry doesn’t necessarily mean working only on music that we love all the time. It is comparable to having a company where you have to wear all the hats for years before you eventually make a comfortable living, which can be draining. It is a constant fight between taking a few days off to avoid burning out (often no more than a couple of days because we miss it so much and feel miserable) and feeling guilty for not being productive enough and wanting to get back at it. Furthermore, since music is being played all around us all the time, it is extremely hard for our music producer/songwriter brains to disconnect. We are constantly listening/analyzing the music we hear, observing how people react to it, trying to understand what in specific songs makes them react a certain way etc. It takes a lot of emotional intelligence and strength to keep going and to stay creative. Mood swings are not uncommon. The main reason why I am sharing this is to show how invested a lot of creatives and myself are, putting our heart and soul into our work as if we were put on this planet for this purpose first.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

Music has undoubtedly a healing power. It has helped me countless times to overcome issues that I couldn’t exteriorize. We all have moments in life after an argument, a breakup, the loss of someone we love, or anything else, that are so painful that we feel like the world is falling down on us. It feels like nothing can ease the pain. From my personal experience as well as from stories shared by others, I know that music has the power of saving a life, of putting back a smile on someone’s face, of motivating the hopeless and of helping to overcome any challenge one might face. The right song, the right words, at the right time can be extremely powerful and life changing. My goal and mission in my creative journey is to make music that is authentic, hoping that it helps others at some point in their life to feel better and have a great experience listening. I am never coming from a selfish place when I am creating. I want to have an impact and help in any way I can during challenging times as well. Some examples of initiatives I took to help include a donation of almost ten thousand dollars to the healthcare workers fighting COVID-19 on the frontline at the beginning of the Pandemic. It was given from the proceeds made from a song I have produced and which has been used in a Big Lots commercial. Another example would be a song I wrote and produced in collaboration with artists from all around the world as a tribute to the victims of the deadly Earthquakes that struck Turkey and Syria. I have been able to promote official donation links through the song, which has had led to an increase of the donations. We can’t have an impact all of the time and help every cause but if each one of us gives a little bit, the impact will be noticeable over time. I encourage everyone to have that mentality. For donations, each dollar counts, on a daily basis in the streets, each act of kindness, each smile brightens someone’s day and help spread more positivity. At the end of the day, we all need each other.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

I am constantly working on myself trying to be a better person, a better creator each day, and to help people in any way I can. However, I am human and nobody is perfect. We all have our qualities and defects and we can’t change overnight but it is essential to keep doing our best trying to grow and learn from our mistakes.

The first couple of books I would recommend as they have helped me tremendously were written by Don Miguel Ruiz.
– The Mastery Of Love
– The Four Agreements
Both of these books have helped me to stay sane emotionally. They’ve helped me with acceptance in general. Accepting who I am, who people are and accepting their differences instead of judging and trying to change them to fit our idea of how we think they should be.
These books will help you with self love as well and most importantly with changing your perception in order to deal better with things that hurt you emotionally.

The next couple of books have helped me in the creative process.
The first one is “Atomic Habits” by James Clear. It has helped me when I have been stuck procrastinating and couldn’t be productive. It has taught me to stop constantly feeling guilty for not getting things done, but instead to stay calm and move forward one step at a time, breaking down the process in order to reach my goals.

The second one would be “The Creative Act: A Way Of Being” by one of my favorite record producers: Rick Rubin. This book has really helped me in so many ways but I would say that the main thing it has taught me is to be flexible creatively. By that I mean learning how to let go of all the rules I thought were right, by breaking them, by being more alert and open to the outside world in order to break my routine and allow my creativity to flourish.

I can’t recommend these books enough and I am certain that they would help anyone eager to grow on a personal and creative level.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.redahmusic.com
• Instagram: @redahmusic
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/redahmusic
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/redahmusic/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU1cV6bZcYfWnYIuui9SRDg

Image Credits
Photo Credits: Sarah Tazi Josh Kim Pierre Tsigaridis Erini Nomikou