Welcome back to Why I Make Music. This is episode 2 of the podcast, Why I Make Music.
I'm ThinkTimm…. Why I Make Music is a podcast that is basically asking the question or making
the statement, Why I Make Music. Music is something that everyone has in their life.
Everyone has their own favorite playlist. Everyone has their favorite artists, their favorite style
of music to listen to. Everyone hums, sings along, air guitar, beat boxes, bang on tables,
you know. We all have music in us. In this podcast, we're going to talk about the influences
that I have for the reason why I make music. Like I said, my name is ThinkTimm and I am the
curator of this podcast. I want to thank everyone for tuning in to our first episode last week. It
was a great response. I was very, very humbled by the fact that many people tuned in and listened
to the things that I had to say. We're going to keep it very light. I'm a little bit more organized
week number two. So this week, we're going to talk about early influences. We're going to speak on
a question that I had to fill out in one of the bio forms for some streaming service that basically
said, what was your earliest memory of music? Well, I mentioned before that I am a, I'm not a
professional musician. I'm not a professionally trained musician. I am a hobbyist. I've been
playing music for the majority of my life. Just something I do around the house. Back in the day,
I had a few bands. I was always into music production at home, so forth and so on. I know
this might sound repetitive, but I do understand that you might have first time people listening,
so they might want to know a little bit about me. So each episode I might go into a little situation
where I should explain and reintroduce myself again. In the background, playing is one of my
older tracks done with some live instruments. Most of the time I do compose with, I do make music.
I won't say compose, but I'm not like a composer like that. But I normally use FL Studios, Apple
Logic Pro, Akai, devices, you know, basic regular things that most people have nowadays. Technology,
that's the thing. Best plug in the world, technology. So, as I was saying, my first experience with music,
or my first memory of music, was when I was a young guy and basically my grandmother had a house.
It was more like an apartment, but it was like the whole first floor, so it was kind of chill at the time.
In the 70s, I didn't date myself again, but my uncle was in a band. So we're talking, he was in his,
I guess late teens, early 20s, and I was under the age of three, I'm assuming, somewhere around there
with my memory. But his band used to rehearse in my grandmother's neighborhood. Now, when I'm talking
band, I'm talking full set of drums, bass player, two guitar players, I would say keyboard players,
but back then they were basically just organs, you know, like no synthesizers that we know of nowadays.
Tambourine players, you know, singers, background singers, and a crazy horn section. I say crazy horn
section because my uncle, he played the trombone, and he played the trombone very, very well. And he
also sung, and for a little guy, he had a very deep baritone voice, and he would do the full subtle
thing, you know, it was the 70s. And that was his recreation. And that was my first experience being
around music. Of course, I've always, as everyone, you tend to listen to things, you know, like I grew
up in an era where there were TV shows on every Saturday, and we had the guest artists week, and you
would look and you're listening to it. Fortunately enough, I was around when hip hop jumped off. I was
paying attention to the tail end of disco, you know. So I never shied away from any particular
genre of music. So when it came time for me to want to make music, I kind of made music that was
reflective of everything else going on. So in the background of all the podcasts, you will hear
music. This is my tracks. These are old tracks. The tracks are all done by myself. So there are
samples that have been cleared. These are not necessarily tracks to be published or tracks that
were published. These are just tracks as I'm going through my hard drive, and I'm pulling things up.
And it's gonna be a good time. So once again, let me welcome you to episode number two of Why
I Make Music. And in the last week, what I discovered that this situation of trying to be a
musical person and trying to get your music heard could be a very, very busy, time consuming thing.
But I love it. So I can't complain about it. And fortunately enough, my life is structured so that
I have time to spend doing this. Like I said, I record from home. I take care of my other
responsibilities, and then I spend time getting this in. So this week, what has gone on and
transpired was that I was supposed to take part in an event, which I had to cancel my involvement
due to conflicting scheduling. I think I might be missing out at the same point. You have to do
what you have to do. Because like I said, this is not my gig, and I am not necessarily drawing a
paycheck for this. So therefore, my obligations have to be around real life. So with that being
said, I also had the opportunity to try my best to experiment and go further and deeper into social
media. Social media is such an interesting tool to use in this day and time because it's the
platform that most people use to connect. And when it comes to me, I'm not saying I'm a recluse or
an introvert because I think most creative people will claim that they are, but at the same point, the
fact of creating means that you do want to somewhat share. So what I've been doing is I've been
reaching out and I am trying my best to build a musical community. Someplace where you can go and
you can talk and I've been trying to find my place on social media platforms that are engaging and
are not necessarily filled with negativity. And by no means am I saying I'm a overly positive person
by no means, but I just feel as though that it's best if you're being creative and you're sharing.
I'm like, you're not gonna like everything and everybody's not gonna like you. And it's nothing
wrong with hearing criticism, but sometimes I realize that in 2024, there is a lot of people
with a lot of opinions that don't necessarily do anything. So it's very interesting more or less.
But anywho, so what I've been doing is that I've been trying not to flood people's timelines with
spam. I've been trying to post regularly and make it be interesting quality stuff that might catch
your interest, might not catch your interest. But it's a learning process, as I say, it's a learning
process. I want to talk about, go back to the earlier days of influences of music. So in episode
number one, I basically said that we're gonna keep it above board, nothing negative to say. So I just
want to speak on the fact that the things that influence you, the people that mold the way you
think or the music you want to listen to, they're very important. Music should have a longevity that
hangs around and lingers. And those who influence me, when I do listen to music, you take a deep
dive into their catalogs, and you lose yourself. And you sit back and you think like, wow, like I
know, as someone who I said, like, oh, I'm not a trained musician, I am not a person who took music
lessons or knows everything about music theory or whatnot. But sometimes, the simplest two or three
chords could capture every emotion that you want to feel. And as you're listening to it, it takes
you. It takes your memories, it allows you to relax, it allows you to want to create. I want to
know, for those who are listening, like, I don't know how you guys feel about commenting, and I guess
whatever platform you're listening to, the comment box or the comment chat scenario, and leave
questions. I'll check back in. I want to know, what were you influenced by? What were you listening
to that got you interested in making music or got you interested in listening to a particular
artist? Today, I see that after the world being shut down for a while, that live shows have made
a comeback very, very strong. I think that's kind of like a twofold scenario, because people were
really looking forward to going back out and performing and audiences wanted to go see their
favorite artists. But I also think that during COVID, during a time that we all had to be
isolated in our homes, that it's been such a boom on music, that people started getting their music
from other scenarios that weren't necessarily what we would call in the early 2000s, late 90s, late 80s,
definitely the traditional pathway that music was put out. So now you have so many people, so many
young, talented people that are putting out music without any type of restraints. And that goes from
pop to hip hop to R&B, K-pop, popular in America. I'm not sure how it originated, but it seems like
it is a very marketable scenario of sound that is very familiar and hit at you in such a way that it
comes at you and it's kind of infectious. I know a lot of you. There are a lot of new artists that
are very self-contained. By self-contained, I mean that basically they are writing and producing full
sledge albums that are winning awards that are critically acclaimed. And they are basically writing
these projects in their homes. And fortunately enough, because of technology, media, social platforms,
you realize, like if I say, it doesn't sound like I'm old, but everybody has basically a whole entire
documenting crew in your phone that you can videotape, audio tape, record, everything you want to do.
And these young talented people are basically recording their whole entire process and then sharing it with us
after the fact. And I'm so proud of them because they are basically taking control over their music
and their future. And hopefully we have come to a point in life that we won't be having this argument
that this is music that we made that a third party, a larger conglomerate of folks who don't write
or play music are taking the majority share of the money. I say that as I am trying to understand
the whole entire streaming process and streaming revenue, which is very, very crazy because basically,
from my understanding, the rough version of this is if you were to stream a million, if you were to have
a million streams, I think your payout for a million streams is somewhere around $3,500, which is very
strange. And the thing is, I'm nowhere near a million streams, so I'm nowhere near $3,500 as far as
bringing money in, as far as music is concerned. But it's kind of hard for folks where back in the day
you used to be able to sell physical albums and the physical album might have cost $9. Go back further
where it was $17 or $19. And granted, as an artist, you didn't necessarily receive the majority of it,
the least if you think about it. If you received a dollar or $2, I think they broke it down into points
and percentages at that time frame. If you sold a million albums and you received a dollar off of every
album you sold, hence you at least had $8 million. So nowadays, when you have streaming services that
basically you hear of artists doing astronomical numbers like billion streams, is a billion streams
equaling up to a million dollars? I'm like, if a million streams is only going up to under $4,000,
and I think for the average person and sit back and think that a million people have listened to
your material and you didn't quite get $4,000 from it, that's wild. But it's not about the money,
it's about the creativity, but the thing is that with all these platforms,
there's a little bit of change to be made. So it's best that you be versatile and try your best to
do what you can do. If you're fortunate enough to be an artist that can go perform live,
perform live, that revenue will become your revenue. You pay your expenses and you do your thing
and you walk away with the bag. But streaming right now, making music and streaming music,
I think it's more or less just a platform that is used to maybe be a gateway into bigger things.
Yeah, like commercialism, a lot of entertainers want to have other aspirations to branch off into
some type of bigger marketing scenario, which is brilliant. I'm like, it was the thing that
it was a by chance situation back when entertainers became spokespeople for or a spokesperson for a
brand. And it was kind of like, oh coincidental, but now you assume that everybody who might mention
a said brand and their project and their music might be eligible, eligible by some means or some
way to some marketing firm that wants to further their gains. Back in the nineties, I recall a
situation where an artist basically openly revolted against the music industry. And at the time frame,
no one seemed to really understand the severity of what the person was saying at the time.
And it's so crazy that you fast forward 25 years later and
and the things that this person was speaking of, have basically became what the music industry is
today, where you can distribute your music directly to your listeners. And you can make
as much money as you are willing to make. But that's basically built on the fact that you do
have a musical following. So I think gone are the days that you might necessarily have
an A&R department, a marketing team working for you. Where more or less that the more you do on
your own, the more assistance, the more assistance you might get eventually. But I don't think that
there's anyone who's particularly coming, locking on folks doors, because like I said,
the music industry currently, from my understanding and my getting into it,
is very saturated with very talented people. So it's a situation that you have to work and find
your spot to get in because what you do might be the same thing that someone else does.
And they might have a prettier small than yours. They might have a cooler video than yours.
They might have a better vocal range than yours. Their lyrics might be
slightly different than yours. Not saying that they're better, but they might be slightly
different, which is cool. I'm like, I'm down for it all. I'm like, I told you in episode one that
music is what makes the world go around. It's in everything. I'm like, you really have to think
about it. It's amazing. It's been a constant situation in everyone's life.
This past week, there's been situations where folks have been using songs to gain followings
and politics. And that's been a whole entire scenario that has gotten out of control.
I looked at an article the other day and basically a major artist that had a song that wasn't
necessarily doing great all of a sudden just because it was aired. During a certain period
of time, his sales went through the roof. And it's hard to talk about music and not talk about
the marketing part of it. But that's not the reason why I make music because I realize that
sometimes I think that I just want to share. I just want to put it out there a little bit.
And I just want to be able to generate that buzz or maybe even stimulate someone else's creativity.
I'm a very realistic person, so I cannot sit back and say that I think that the reason why
people make music is solely to get paid. I think music is something that is in you.
If you think about the history of music, if you go back in time, I'm sure you come across
people who use music to communicate drums from a distance, whistles, howling.
It's all very tribal and very, I guess, natural to make music. The rhythm in which one speaks,
the rhythm of a dialogue from certain cultures, our musical accents kind of flow.
You listen to people talk and it can kind of mesmerize you. It's funny that you think about that
because I like to consume information. And I say consume information because when I was younger,
I read a lot. I wasn't overly over-read or anything like that. But with the popularity of audio books,
just to sit back and listen to information being disseminated, whether it be entertaining
or whether it be factual, just to intake information, hours at a time is a great way to do it.
And the way the person's voice flows as they say the words in the book. And a lot of times,
it's not the person who wrote the book that is reading or quote unquote narrating the book.
And the time it takes and the effort they put into a steady flow to draw you in, it's perfect.
It's why I make music. It's something that you cannot necessarily put your finger on.
So, another influence I had was a painter. And I tend to like people who do their own thing.
I'm not saying that if you could recreate an image one to one, it's excellent. It's perfect. I'm like,
it is what it is. But you need to be able to put your spin on it. And that's also part of music.
If you sit back and think about the first time you were introduced to a musical instrument,
the first time that you stood in school or in that place that you go, I guess folks do the church thing
and they might be introduced to music through that. Or your school or your recreation center or your community center
or your family events, family gatherings, gathering around the piano, singing songs during the holidays.
It gives you a good feeling. Tell me, if you're listening, what are your favorite songs to sing?
If you had to, because I know karaoke is a big thing, when you go up there and you grab the mic,
what's your go-to song? What do you like to sing? And when you sing, are you singing because you enjoy it?
Are you singing because you enjoy the reaction that people give you when you sing?
When you play an instrument, when you play a song, when you play something, if you're a songwriter,
what's your thrill? What's your turnoff? What's your thing that gets you out there?
Is it the fact that you're playing a song that you like and you see other people reacting to it
and it makes you want to play it better and more so go reverse it to this way?
Next time you do it, you're like, oh, wait till I do this and I'll throw them a little bit more this way.
What are the things that get you going?
It's crazy that there are so many folks that sit back and really say,
because I've been asking a few people lately in conversation because I had the material,
because I'm like, yo, I have a podcast and it's called Why Make Music?
And I'm like, so why do you make music? And then people are like, I don't make music, man. Timm, I don't do this.
Like not everyone makes music. People consume music. People listen to music. People don't necessarily dissect music.
I thought that was a normal thing that everyone did.
But it's cool because I say that because I've had the opportunity to watch people form musical taste.
And I've witnessed that sometimes there's a point in one's life where you just stop consuming new things.
You know, you stop consuming new sounds.
And I say that because this takes me back to my earlier memory of music.
As much as I like the music that I make, I love live music.
I feel as though there's nothing better than a band.
That's just my personal taste. But at the same point, I don't always, I rarely record with the things that I really, really like.
I'm not going to lie to you. Sometimes when I make music, I have to listen to it later.
Like I love it at the moment and then I move on to the next thing and then I have to come back to it and revisit it.
And then I see what was good about it. It's a weird thing.
Like I said, this is episode two. And today our topics were basically talking about your early influences and what's your first memory of making music.
Like I said, being a kid and growing up in the 80s, there were tons of music shows. They were video shows.
Now it's funny because the major video stations, every now and again when I flip by it, I just turn it on to see if there's a music video on there.
And I'll watch it for a couple of minutes. But when I was younger, I remember there was a time that basically there was a television show that came on like weekly at 1130.
And it basically showed four videos and then it went off. And then you had to wait again until like Friday night after all the talk shows went off to watch another video show that basically just showed the same four videos plus maybe four or five more was in the time frame.
And eventually time moved on and cable TV became prevalent and there were more music stations that were available.
And the thing is that we were so limited and so structured to watch and listen to the same thing that you had to know that there was more music out there.
So when I was listening to my favorite artists back in the day, I always figured like I was thinking I'm like, you know, you're young and you're thinking like, oh my god, I like this. This is great.
This guy is really killing it. This girl is really doing what she's doing and da da da da.
And in my head, I was always thinking like, yo, there has to be more. This person, these people just can't be putting out this album. And then all of a sudden they drop a video, they drop a single.
And back then, albums and singles stayed up for a good while. It wasn't like, oh, you got three and four things. You had to buy the album. I'm like, I ain't gonna lie to you. Like some of the greatest albums of all time, they have no more than 12 songs on them.
And those 12 songs, maybe six of them are really good and maybe two or three are great and then one was a big major hit and that had to last you for a year because the person had to basically put out the album, do commercial press so forth and so on.
And then they did videos, I guess they did shows or whatever, they did little live performances and then put the app in the videos and then touring and whatever. So they would stretch out an album and a single for six, seven months, an album a year, album year and a half, two years.
And then these, I'm not gonna lie to you, hell, my first project I put out a couple weeks ago were my full project of the EP that had nine tracks, which could have been an album back in the day by itself, had 26 tracks on it.
When you think of an album, what's 26 songs on an album if that was wax, that was what, side A, side B, side C, side D, EF, I don't know, like it's crazy.
One young lady put out an album recently and I think it had close to 30 songs on it after it was reissued surprisingly the first night that it came out.
It's insane that you can do it. I'm like it's insane. It's very good. I love it. I love the freedom.
If ever you're thinking about how much music can be put out, Google this. Use your internet, use your search bar and find out how many, what's the record for how many songs are on an album.
And you'll be shocked with the answer, but there is a crazy reason and meaning behind the answer. It's one of those, don't let the number count fool you.
Somebody playing a statistics game and it's amazing how that goes, but then it's going to go down in history as the album with the most songs on it because it hit a point that it hit the mark and hit the specifications.
Exactly.
So, my question to you is for this week. So next week we can follow up on this.
And I hope that you communicate, comment with me, talk to me, hit me up on thinktim at Instagram, hit me up at thinktim on Twitter, hit me up on YouTube, these videos, these podcasts are now going to be released on YouTube also so I haven't got to the point yet where I've started implementing video as of yet, but you can listen to it on YouTube.
I know not everyone does the podcast thing on the podcast platforms or on the RSS distribution site, but everywhere that you could locate anyone that you're looking for.
So, go up and think to him at your favorite social media account and pick me up on one of the something I might even ignore it goes it's like you leave a comment.
I can see it. I'll answer back I'll hit it back I'll follow you. You know tell me what you like tell me what music you like.
I said this is our second podcast we are growing this is something that's going to be good we're going to grow a nice community where people can interact and talk about their influences.
I know once again I probably got way off track and was rambling.
But I think I enjoy this this is something that I can do.
I enjoy sharing sounds and sharing ideas with you.
Tell me what was the first concert that you went to, and how did that make you feel. There's a good question for you.
Live music.
Since that was my earliest memory, live music.
What was the first concert that you went to.
I'll just be honest, outside the live music that I heard in my house, or heard of my grandmother's house.
The first live concert I went to was with my grandmother.
And I guess I had to be maybe my early teens or whatever and it was a function.
We took a ride out to a venue, and I saw an older artist perform and to this day I still like that artist because of that. And the woman.
She's, she's very talented she's sung and we got back home and I recall my grandmother saying, Oh, because the show was early enough that we ended up getting back home and it was on the local news, and they interviewed the woman on the local news.
And my grandmother like yo, Timm, look at this. That's what we just saw. And I didn't recognize the woman because of her makeup on she looked completely different.
She was just like a normal person on like she looked so much like a superstar, when she was on stage.
And she was doing her thing but then when she was doing an interview for the local media.
She looked just like an everyday person. I think I think that stuck with me because it's like, that's the route you could choose you could choose to be a genuine person and sometimes you set up at your work clothes on and go out there and do your job and then when
you're off you're off. But then at the same time I do love the ones who are completely them all the time that they are completely themselves, or you find yourself in your music.
And that's why you make music you know, you got to realize that sometimes people look at music like it's a job.
Sometimes you do it because you know, you don't know how not to do it.
And it's like, I feel like if I could influence the future to tell folks to no matter what it is that you want to do, or that you think you can do.
And you do it to the fullest you do it to a point that satisfies you. You know like it's one of those things like, I understand sometimes people think that the world's going backwards but think about it.
Everyone
took care of themselves.
The way that they critique remind other people's business.
There's much greater things could possibly be.
If you just basically took care of your area, you took care of like what if you decided like oh, I'm going to make sure I make sure my area is cool.
What if you just cleaned up in front of your crib, but if you just clean up in front of your house, you kept your lawn manicure you kept your backyard straight.
And everybody did that.
What if you cleaned off your stoop you cleaned off your stairwell you cleaned off your porch.
You know you picked up your trash.
It could be something.
So that's why I say like why don't you make your music.
Pick up an instrument.
Find some software on your phone you could download programs on your phone that can make beats. You can sing into your phone sing into your message.
Listen to the things that you create, create the things you want to create based upon those who influenced you see how that sounds maybe you can then somehow influence another person.
What if not a situation of being influenced to influence the masses. What if you could just influence the people in your house, the people that know you that will sit back and say, damn, I knew this guy.
I didn't know you could do that. And he's taking his time and he's trying.
There's nothing wrong with trying to do something. There's nothing wrong with trying to express yourself. There's nothing wrong with trying to be expressive.
There's so many people in the world.
Everybody has emotion.
Everybody wants to be seen. Everybody wants to share.
I don't think really people really mean heart.
That's just me.
But once again, this is episode two.
Why make music.
And I am think Timm… t h i n k t i m m.
Thank you for joining in. Thank you for listening.
Please like this is subscribe to this podcast.
I'm going to keep it going.
Next week, we're going to do something new, something different.
I'm going to probably debut my introduction piece next week.
That will be episode three.
I'm feeling better about doing this and I'm enjoying it.
I hope that I'm not too much of a bore or an egg or drag.
You know, shout out to the people who want to double drag.
But anyway, any food I'd like to say.
ThinkTimm at Instagram, Twitter, Reddit.
I'm going to be posting a lot of stuff on TikTok.
TikTok. I haven't quite got into yet.
I do have a tick tock account, but tick tock makes me nervous.
I don't know how that stuff works.
Checking out.
I hope you enjoyed the podcast.
Thank you for listening again.
And you guys.
Be good.
Thank you.
Bye.