We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Stephen Riesen. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Stephen below.

Stephen, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear your thoughts about making remote work effective.

I basically built the foundation of my business remotely. In 2020, John Riesen and Marina Arsenijevic commissioned me to mix and master their piano and voice recordings sometimes done in completely different houses. It challenged me to find a way to make the audio sound cohesive while knowing the recordings had different spatial qualities.

These commissions led to me taking mixing work for different artists, such as South Dakota’s own Strat on his album Stratosphere. I ended up mixing six of the songs on his album and providing background vocals on two.

Other skills I’ve developed remotely include collaborative efforts such as my current project with my old friend Lee Alexander, artist name Le$Lie. We are writing an album that we plan to have a fully funded electronic promotion plan for. I have also sung background vocals for projects such as many of John Riesen’s singles and doing last minute edits on professional albums, such as a few of MET-level tenor Eric Ferring.

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

My brand seeks to offer many services to a large variety of styles. I have done work in the field of Classical, Jazz, Blues, Pop, R&B, Hip-Hop, Trap, and several fusion projects. My ultimate goal is to team up with a few of my peers to create a talent label focused on a more modern style of promotion. I want to use the label to help artists who previously had no image for their brand find it, or create a digital identity so they can pursue success in the industry regardless.

I was encouraged to get into this industry by a dear family friend who saw my passion and understanding for how to create a song and assisted me in searching for the necessary equipment to learn how to produce one. I would then practice my skills with rappers and singers I met at Madonna University in Livonia, Michigan, and Detroit’s own Wayne State University during my time there. Soon after I challenged myself to fully produce an album in 30 days. I succeeded and used the momentum from that project to create other branches of my business, such as my Beat store, and my mixing services.

I’m most proud of the sheer variety of things I can offer to my clients. Generally a producer can offer services such as instrumental composition and possibly mixing and mastering on top of that, but I also can offer aesthetic options, such as background vocals, a different main singer (myself), songwriting skills, and I can even offer initial promotion ideas and strategies to help my clients get a start on the direction they want to take their songs.

On the Singer side of my business, when I’m not releasing music under the moniker Stevie the Vibe, I also do work in the art of choral music. I have an annual gig at the Henry Ford Museum where I sing Christmas Carols in a quartet. I would like to also begin to perform Oratorio works such as Hansel’s “Messiah” moving forward.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

The best source of new clients for me has been my immediate circle. While social media has also provided me with my many of clients, the majority of the last minute projects and even most of the larger works have come from my association with other acts. Emitha Studios has provided me with a healthy chunk of my clients. Le$Lie and Strat have led me to some of my newest projects. Healthy relationships with people can often be the difference between not having a client that day and having four or five.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

When I was younger, I believed that talent was the most important aspect of being a musician. I was raised to be very purist when it came to music. Tonal, recognizable music made up the vast majority of songs played in my house growing up. I had no other perspectives offered to me in this department, because kids often feel this way. Even adults often feel like their innate skills are the thing that’s going to save them from financial ruin, without an additional plan to back that talent.

But as I matured and learned more about how people think, I realized that talent is only part of the experience. Hard work, branding, visibility, and connections are equally as important. And most of all, staying humble and keeping a mentor close matter just as much as the natural ability you have at birth.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5QpkBWZZsmhCeSLCCPupSa?si=xQ_uMIJxSASdhz6sMkmNRw
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/steviethevibe/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/steviethevibe
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephen-riesen-580907188
• Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/steviethevibe/

Image Credits
John Riesen Leslie Alexander Elle Schwiderson James Dale Jr.