From Idea to Spotify

If you've ever wondered how Skrizzly Adams (or other artists) take an idea and bring it to life - to production - to Spotify - then you'll love this episode. We dive deeper than ever before, with Skrizz sharing a behind-the-scenes looking into the A to Z process of how he brings an idea to life. 

Transcript

Adam   0:02
Talking music, building businesses, and the grit in the journey. We're Skrizz and Adam and welcome to The Rise.

Skrizz  0:17 
What's going on? We are back with the rise. It's Skrizz and Adam. I'm here in Saskatoon, Canada. Adam, where you located right now?

Adam  0:25 
Right now I'm in a place called Rorschach, Switzerland, which I pronounced very wrong. It's called Rorschach. But I was just out last Saturday at this like super cool cigar lounge in a place called St. Gallen. And we met some locals and they asked, where are we staying, I said Rorschach. And they're like, where's Rorschach? I'm like you're from here. How do you it's 20 minutes away? How do you not know where Rorschach is. And they're like, You are pronounced that like such an American, that is the wrong way to pronounce it. I'm not going to try to pronounce it. Basically, it's in the middle of nowhere in Switzerland, my business partner and I came here that we would be away from distraction and can actually get some work done.

Skrizz  1:05 
Nice. That's great. Um, cool. I want to ask you later what you're working on out there. But um, let's jump into this. Adam, you had an idea for our special episode 10. You want to? You want to lay it all out on the table for our listeners?

Adam  1:19 
Yes. So I feel like a lot of times when we see people like you, and we hear your end product, right, so we like we hear the inversion of one of our favorite songs. Or if you follow an athlete, like you see them killing on the baseball field, the soccer field, whatever that might be on your field, I don't watch.

Skrizz  1:39 
They're on the basketball court for X amount of minutes. Little they know there are 1000s, if not 10s of 1000s of hours leading up to those, you know, whatever my minutes,

Adam  1:47 
Exactly. I've seen some of the behind-the-scenes with you, like you work out with obviously, Ken Lewis, who we had on the last podcast episode, they think to give it a listen. But he was showing you in the studio, you guys working on some stuff together, or review or when you're on like the last bit before you actually release the song, you're like, Oh, it's just as a little bit more to go before we release it. And I thought it'd be interesting for me to learn about what that process is selfishly, but I figured the audience might be interested as well.

So I really want to learn more about the A to Z of how you go from conceding an idea of, hey, here's a song that I want to put out there, here are the lyrics that I want to put out there to actually put it on Spotify performing that shows and so on and so forth. So that's what I want to talk to you about.

Skrizz  2:30 
So we're going to go over everything that happens totally behind the scenes before it's released, leading up to the moment it goes from the idea of becoming artistic intellectual property creation to the moment it switches into a commercial entity, essentially.

Um, all right, cool. Yeah. Again, so this is, this is just me, I'll say my process, and my process is probably very different than a lot of other people's processes. Um, for me, it all starts with the idea. Like, I mean, it's obviously like, the most obvious thing to say, but um, it's all about like harvesting ideas, like I'm in Canada right now staying with Kat, and I've come up with six ideas, you know what I mean?

It's hard to really kind of pinpoint what an idea is idea can be three chords and a few lyrics or the title of a song or a chorus. But for me that the idea is less of a tangible thing, the ideas like an emotion, the ideas of vibe, like, the idea is that the second you turn on that record, once it's released, you're in that world. So the idea, even though it's not a full on song, full on record, it has to hold that weight. So it's like, bah, bah, bah, and then the lyric like, it has to bring you there immediately. So that's, that's the idea. And I'll make 1000s of those.

So I think this is where I'm probably different than most people is, I don't, I don't nurture the idea of analogy that people are gonna hate. But like, it's a horrible analogy, but it's like, it's like you have a puppy and you leave it on the side of the road. And if that puppy comes home it was meant to be and if it doesn't come home, poor puppy, awful analogy, but that's kind of the way I treat some of my ideas.

Adam  4:10 
But I see what you're saying.

Skrizz  4:13 
Like I don't nurture that. I'm very very very proactive and not nurturing them very often. I don't even record the voice memo of it. And very often I don't file it I'm just like,

Adam  4:22 
You are not forgetting it because like I'll so I'll wake up midnight and have a great idea. I'm like, I'll remember this in the morning. I wake up I forget it. I totally forgot that idea. It really wasn't that great of an idea if I say I wasn't good idea. Is that what you're saying with the song?

Skrizz  4:34 
Just funny because I'm so neurotic. I'm so neurotic. I overthink everything. But with songwriting, I really trust the universe. Like I definitely have this way of like a song that just came out. I wrote when I was 19. Like that made its way, I never had like it happen 11 years later, it was from the inception to the release was 11 years. So the journey that went on, they could be like six episodes right there explaining that.

But like what I'm trying to say like I'm not. I'm not like, I'm not really calling it like a dog sled guide, whipping the dogs, charging them home. I don't, I just kind of let it happen. I love music so much.

Adam  5:15 
You are not gonna force the concept.

Skrizz  5:16 
I never force it. I never force. I'm obsessed, like, I'm just so obsessed, that like these things just happen. I think another analogy I constantly use is like New York, New Jersey Shore, you have like those water gun things with the ducks. And they're all going up at different rates. Like I work on like 20 Something songs, I mean, more than that, to go outside of my music at once. And they just,  ones gonna charged the top and four months, one's gonna charge to the top and 12 years. So I just kind of let it happen. So that's that's the philosophical disclaimer and how I write songs.

Adam  5:49 
I want to stick on that for a quick second. Are most people, you said it's a little bit different than others. So are most people like I have one song, and I'm going to finish the song idea, or is it like, alright, I, I do it your way where I have a bunch of different ideas. And I'm going to approach each one of them at the same time, and then the cream will rise.

Skrizz  6:12 
Everyone's different, I would say more people are most people in like the music industry that have you know, teams and people working for them. They're very proactive in setting up lots of sessions, in the session, they walk out with a song, when they walk out with a song, they walk out with a demo. And then the label picks which 15 songs are gonna be on the album and they're produced, that it's not like shitting on anybody.

It's definitely more like factory based where it's like, you're gonna harvest 50 We're gonna take into the level.  Where's me is like, I can I can wake up one morning and just charge it all the way to the 80% line, and then forget about it. You know what I mean?

Like, it's just, I really believe I think it was like Spielberg or someone who said or something about Spielberg saying like, like, great art is a perfect balance of strategy and spontaneity like strategies, that process like we have this process where I know like, I write the first verse, I write the second verse, I write the chorus, I write the pre-chorus, maybe I'm gonna bring in a co-writer, I bring in additional production, we get the violin player, like, that's the process, that's the strategy.

Spontaneity is being you know, not necessarily knowing exactly how it's gonna unfold, or being willing to take a left turn, or all those things. I really, really, really, really believe in spontaneity even that like video. Ken was on our side earlier, he recorded me sang a song. And we're working on a song right now. It's gonna be the second album. And I think even in that session, there was so much spontaneity, that was a really old song. I was like a four year old song, I think the vocals that we live with the that we live with on the demo, were four years old that we went into the studio, we said, like, hey, like, I was improvising lyrics, there are lyrics on the final version of the song, they're completely improvised, and make absolutely no sense.

So it's like, I definitely believe in spontaneity, whether it be the nitty-gritty of literally, like improvising lyrics, or spontaneity that we're gonna throw the song away, and it's gonna resurrect itself in whatever way later you know what I mean? So that's, that's, that's the philosophical, but I mean, I get to talk more about the actual process. And like, it was, like,

Adam  8:22 
Yeah, my biggest takeaway from that. And I think it's interesting because I didn't know any of that. And I give you credit for this, because it can be really tough. Like when you're building a business, it's easy to get hooked in that business and get like emotionally tied to that business. And I can only imagine the song, you would get even more hooked to it.

So the fact that you have the patience to write a song when you're 19 years old, let it sit in one way or another for 11 years and then be like, Alright, now is the time now I got it over the hump, whatever that might be. Now let's push it out like that. That's pretty interesting to me because I would imagine that's got to be a battle for most people. Even just from an emotional ego standpoint.

Skrizz  8:57 
Oh, for sure. I'll say like with age, with age with more release, that becomes a lot easier. Like definitely as a younger individual. This is the way to do it. And I'm like looking back at some recordings like man, I really wish I didn't do it that way. You know, I mean, I think the irony of it all is like by the time we let's call it the 90 by the time we get to the finish line of the song. You should fucking hate the song you should like out of all healthy non toxic reasoning you should hate it you should.

Adam  9:26 
Is it because you've listened to it so much.? Why should you hate it?

Skrizz  9:29 
I listen to it so much. You overanalyze every detail. You've lost perspective. If you overthink everything, just hate it. So it's like, in that sense, that makes it easier. Like for someone like me who releases so much music, it's like, when we get to that point.

It's funny like it's, it's funny, like, I'm sitting here listening to me talk and I'm like, Oh, this sounds very I don't say corporate but it sounds very like we do this and we do that and but the fact that there's so much spontaneity to it is what actually makes it completely uncooperative, completely artistic for lack of a better sense or like authentic. It's like, like I like to believe like songs are of the moment which is funny because I'm a very emotional neurotic person. And like, for some reason, I have no problem.

In the process, I get intense. It's like very intense. I was literally, like, I live, I have received a vocal the other day, and I was telling Kat, I was just like, I'm gonna be crazy for the next two hours. Just bear with me, you know what I mean? But once you're done, you're done. You know? I mean, is that answering any question?

Adam  10:35 
Yeah, I mean, well, no, I guess I don't fully understood what you mean. What do you mean, when you're done, you're done. Like, once that song is on Spotify, you're like, alright, relax and move on. Or how do you mean by that?

Skrizz  10:46 
By the time I, by the time I have the final master, I've mentally moved on. And it wasn't like that. When I was younger. I was like, I'm not I don't listen to the till the day comes out. And then I'm like, Oh, this is better than I thought. I thought it's like total last, this isn't terrible.

But by that point, I've mentally moved on. Like, I've definitely. I just moved on, trying to bring it back to. I think it just comes with age, you know what I mean? Like, you just you just learn to like, you learn to appreciate the song for what it is. And you'd like to believe that, you know, I mean, you got to think that the greatest records of all time, like, like, like Dark Side of the Moon happened in 1976. And maybe the end the technology of 1970, I think was 76. I could be wrong with that. Whatever. That's like the best album ever made. The technology of 76 made it sound like the 70s but it's not a tight like, like maybe the engineer walked in, like you don't like so many things happen, that you just can't control that you just got to be like, like a basketball game, you just show up and do your fucking best. Like, I'm definitely like, with my old older age, my mustache, and

Adam  11:50 
I think this might be the most wise I've ever heard you talk. I thought because if the mustache now, I think you'd become wiser,

Skrizz  11:58 
Yeah, the wisdom. But um, yeah, you just like you can't a song as a product of the time it's gone through a record as a product of the time it's gone through. Like, I look back on my old, some older and the first time that ever publicly even said this, and I hear some of that my saying, and I'm just so unhappy with my singing.

But that's what I sounded like when I was 23. And that's what I sounded like when I was 24. And like, that makes the whole catalog so much more authentic. You know, and I mean, it's like, Man, I really wish I didn't say it like that, or man, I really wish I didn't use that snare. But I'm like, hey, that's the way things kind of were in 2016. You know what I mean?

Adam  12:34 
But this is going to be kind of jumping ahead, then I want to bring it right back. Because that exact note, like there might be a song you wrote when you were 23. Or that you put out there that you produced when you were 23. You're like, I love the singing that. Now when you play that song live? Do you put a new twist on it? Or do you try to sing it in performance?

Skrizz  12:53 
I am as I'm always trying to improve as a performer specific specifically now. So like, I would like to believe every performance of a song, you're just tapping into the songwriting intellectual property, which is just a lyric and the melody. And the way I perform it is going to be exclusive to that moment in that day. If I had a rough day, I hope that reflects in the performance if I had, you know what I'm, saying, like, it's always like, just like the record, like the record was made on that day, like that day I went to Kansas to record it. And I decided to improvise that lyric. And I was doing that thing. And that's what we decided to keep that's just is what it is, you know what I mean?

Again, it's all very philosophical, just like big pictures. I just believe that whatever the best thing in the moment was, that's what it's gonna be. And I think every show should be exclusive to that. I think as a performer, I've a huge room for improvement on giving exclusive, you know, like, it's almost like every, every live time from the sunlight. It's a new recording, because it literally is a new recording. It's a new, it's a new record of the songs new interpretation of the song. Like dance with darkness has like 12 million streams, I never go back and think I want to sound like the record, if anything, I want to sound better than the record. That's my goal.

Adam  14:04 
You're performing. Like when you're going into a set, and you're playing. Let's even just say dance with darkness. Sure. Are you? Are you saying here's how I want to perform it today? Or is it like literally as you because a lot of at least every performance I've seen with you, it's just you in the microphone, your guitar? Sure. Like are you just feeling the crowd feeling your own energy? Or is it prepared?

Skrizz  14:24 
No, it's definitely not prepared. I'd say set. All you are working on is the core intellectual property, which is lyrics melody, harmony, harmony on the guitar, Melody and lyric, the vocal so you are just working on to that. I don't want to say this because sounds bad, but it's like that's running on autopilot. The rest of it is the performance. So if I'm in my head and being erotic and rushing through the song that's me not holding on my end of the bargain as a performer, but if the crowd is loving something and I'm getting into it, then you're It is very much like making records I've ever thought of, like making records is like, you know, you, you turn the kick drum off and suddenly things start to happen. I don't know, you know?

Adam  15:09 
Yeah, well, is that like a pretty so I don't want to get too far off it just all this stuff is kind of taking me down a little bit of like a rabbit hole, like when you're evaluating new artists like is that something that you look at their ability to improvise? Because a lot of what you're talking about is like the ability to improvise and go with the flow. Would you say that's mandatory touring an artist being successful? Or is it just like a skill that some have and others don't have, but it doesn't really matter? Either way.

Skrizz  15:34 
I'm sure there are tons of artists who are like the bay stars, I didn't have something come to mind. I won't say the name. But that are like clever when they're very bad at pivoting in the moment. Then there are other guys, like I just come to mind like some like Bruno Mars, like you know Bruno Mars, probably at any situation ever. He's gonna thrive, he's gonna thrive, like, it doesn't matter. It's like, Hey, here's a you in a inflatable pool with a piano and two clarinet players, like, give me some Sinatra, you know what I mean? Like, he's gonna figure it out. Like, there's a lot of people that aren't gonna figure it out, you know what I mean?

So I don't think it's necessary. It's funny, like, I am doing a lot of talking with new artists and thinking about signing new artists. And I haven't thought about that. So literally, the second show that I'm like, ooh, this person evaluating, like, let's see how they will they pivot, you know, because, like, pivoting in the moment isn't a matter of like, damage control. It's a matter of like, creative, forward motion, you know? leaving one thing

Adam  16:26 
Leaving one thing, like I, we talked about this a bunch of different times, but when I saw you in Boston, for I think it was the first or the second time and you know, tipping point is my jam, you know, me and my friends are all like, play tipping point you play the three, four times play a little different. You extended it?

Skrizz  16:39 
Sure, with the slow version? Yeah.

Adam  16:43 
Anyway, let's get back on track. Okay, so first I get is like, Okay, you're you, you'll write things, you'll let it sit for 11 years, three years, two years, whatever, you'll be the studio, whatever you feel, and you'll improvise, you'll have a certain beat in mind or melody in mind. But then a lot of it is going with the flow and allowing, like the song to hit to come to you at the right moment at the right time. Alright, so after that.

Skrizz  17:05 
It's, I'm not waiting, like, I'm not proactive, and I'm not waiting. It's like a neutral. It's just happening. Like, this is what I explained, explained all the loved ones, all my family and friends, everything like, it's just always happening. Like if they're, I don't say I was born with a gift that wasn't born with the gift, if there's just something I was born with, it was just like, that's just always happening. And I'll wake up in the middle of night and be like, Oh, we need that backup vocal. Cool. You know, I mean, so that's very, like,

Adam  17:33 
It's very similar to how I approach business and startups like, or

Skrizz  17:37 
I feel the same way as I approach business as well. Like, I think the, the creative process kind of, it kind of makes me wonder like, what do like, hipster artsy people who wear like, we call it some scarves or like, what what is their creative process? Because I feel like mine is the most authentic and I want something an asshole. But like, this feels very authentic to me. Like, here, we are comparing it to business. It's like, well, being business minded is being creative, isn't it? Yeah.

Adam  18:05 
For sure. But there are different approaches where like one way is like very, like, focused. Here's the concept. I'm gonna do it, like the very professional buttoned up way that like the VC world, the typical star world would

Skrizz  18:17 
It was like, at all like, yeah, exactly. We're just pivoting all the time.

Adam  18:21 
Yeah. Like that's the reality of starting a business or having a song. It's just you're constantly pivoting, what sounds well, what's working in the moment, etc. So alright, so you got that? Right. Then what happened? So in what part of it like the song is written now, the melody?

Skrizz  18:37 
I'll give you the Skrizzly Adams way of doing it. And this is this is what I do. And this is Skrizzly Adams 2021 way of doing it. So like, I got a I got a I got an email on my phone says did mom song, Saskatoon, Canada, like 15 seconds, voice memo, four chords and, like four lines. And let's just tackle that one. I'll just give you my mindset. That's where I am. I can't I can't record right now.

And I'm like, so there's, in terms of writing the song, I have two options. I pretty much run with you either I am going to sit down and write the whole thing myself, which is the majority of the time, or every once in a while I work with a writer who's also a fellow artist named Bryce. He is Bryce Fox. He's been featured on my song skeletons. He's co-written a lot of my songs. And I really like I think Bryce is really witty. He's really good. Like it's funny like I'm a I'm, I consider myself a strong songwriter, but I'm not great with wordplay. I'm not like, like I'm just not a great wordplay. I'm not good with the mechanics of writing. I'm very good at the improvisational element of writing very good at the like.

The yellow light shining behind your green hat like I don't really know looks like it just sounds cool. It looks cool. Doesn't necessarily mean anything, but it just emotion evokes motion. So sometimes I like to work with Bryce I think has a lot of like commercial value too, and you bring stuff home for me. So either decide, like, Hey, I'm putting this in the stash, and we'll work on with Bryce or I'm gonna get it done myself. Now they get it done myself. That's method acting, 100% that is method acting. I'm not sitting down with a pen and pad being like, what rhymes with green cap? That's just not the way it is.

It's just like, I got to get my headspace into like being in your hotel room in Switzerland. And like, you might have had too many drinks, and you got a text you didn't want to get and like, what is your mindset? Like, to me, there's always a deeper story to every song that is not explained in song. And like, that is where I'm like, Okay, what is that? And then I write that out. And it just doesn't. And it doesn't necessarily always make sense. But it, but I like to believe you receive receiving the same emotion that I'm getting out. You know?

Adam  20:48 
So are you saying like, you reverse engineer to like you'll pick? And then you work backwards?

Skrizz  20:54 
Yes. Absolutely. Absolutely. Like, I'm reverse engineering and emotion. And I'm not taking full credit for that, as I've heard for Pharrell Williams and interview literally use that exact same line. He reversed engineers and emotion. And that's my method of songwriting.

When I heard Pharrell Williams say he does the exact same thing. I mean, very happy because that's exactly like, I'm in the moment. I tried to get like, really, really exact emotions, like I don't want to have like, heartbreak, happiness, euphoria, I want something just way more specific. But I don't include the specifics in the song. Like, I might include a specific in the beige tile, but I'm not gonna include the specific and the complexity of the relationship that broke your heart, you know, I mean,

Adam  21:36 
Yeah, talk to me. So like, let's use tipping point as an example. Because I think that's always an interesting one.

Skrizz  21:41 
Sure. Tipping point is like reallysimple, where it's like, tipping points, literally about a car. I mean, that's like, it's literally like, it's like, if you turn the key. It's the moment you realize, once you turn the car off, it's never going to turn back on. I thought that was a really specific emotion that I had that I had a Ford car that you turn off and it wouldn't like I was like, This is it once said, once I turn the key off. Yeah, that aren't investing $12,000 into it, I'm not doing that.

So I just thought that was a really specific emotion. And I just heard around that. And obviously put it more into your relationship context. But even that a lot of them just don't make sense if you dig into them. So I just wanted to get that idea across. So I try to find really specific ideas. I like to do a lot of stuff that are like, I was just talking to someone about how like, I do a lot of stuff from the female perspective, but I always say she says, I always do a lot of songs or lessons on writing now, not sort of a lot of like she says, and it's like a lot of them are actually from a female perspective. It's like, I like writing a lot of stuff. It's like the male viewing the female experience something, which I think is interesting. I don't know if that applies to me. I don't know.

Adam  22:46 
So why do you do that? Why is, why do you like the idea?

Skrizz  22:49 
I don't have any idea. I just talk to my psychiatrist, I don't fucking I do. Yeah, I know, that was common when I realized, um, but let's get back to where we were. So yeah, we're kind of reverse engineering and emotion. So if I'm writing the song by myself, it usually takes a long time. That's very common for like me to get a verse or a chorus. You know, months, if not years apart from each other. Those take a while.

Sometimes I'm just off fire. Like, I know, this is my song new dress, which came out this year and was one of the more popular songs, like I just sat down, wrote the whole thing in 45 minutes. And that was like, a lot of lyrics. Where that was, I was just in the zone. But no, I will say this for new dress, I had the title and the concept. I had a title on the concept in my notebook for two years. I know that for a fact.

And I never and I always had the she's in a new dress. That's all I had. That's literally all they had. And I knew the exact concept is me and my ex wife were really, really popular at an Italian restaurant. And I know once I got divorced, and I was dating somebody else, I didn't want to bring her to that same restaurant, because it raised too many questions. I thought that was a good concept for a song.

But you can listen to that song and not even pick that idea up at all it just like it's just I would I would like to believe the lyrics are potent enough for you. You at least get the struggle feeling or you at least get the whatever and you can just make it whatever you want. I know the last line of the song is it doesn't it, that's why new dress really make sense. Because it's like, because they all know she'd never wear a dress like that because you're describing the same girl but you're not describing the same girl because that girl will never wear the same dress as another girl. And all my fans ever picked up on or something.

Adam  24:29
I did not pick up on that.

Skrizz  24:30
Yeah, didn't pick up on that. But still literally well. Sometimes the mystery is a good or maybe just terrible songwriter.

Adam  24:37 
I think it's one of your best drinks. I think.

Skrizz  24:40 
I think ambiguity goes a long way I think about like, like Fleetwood Mac or Nirvana.

Adam  24:46 
Well, it allows us to place our own meaning and experiences behind it instead like you're not forcing me to see the exact same way you did like tipping point. Like I said to you I had no idea that was about a car I related at all to my experiences work because you left it Look vague enough, where I put myself into those shoes, which is why I'm sure songs like that and your songs, in general, resonates so well, because you're not forcing the exact scenario for us or allowing us to create our own scenario,

Skrizz  25:12 
Reverse-engineering the emotion. We're not reverse engineering the story that I think is like the key. Yeah, that's exactly what it is, like, I'm here to get you an emotion, the story in the context saw you, you know,

Adam  25:25 
Can you share, just as like a little teaser in this might not come out for four years or 10 years? Either an emotion that you have right now that you're in the process of reverse engineer? Like, is there a song like, like, like you said, a new dress? You know, that was four years ago, you had that concept? Is there a concept you have today that you haven't dug into yet, but you think could be big?

Skrizz  25:44 
Yeah, give me one minute. It's funny, because I was making, like, hypothetical concept of, yeah, I have one I'm working on now. And I don't know what's, funny it has nothing to do with my life, like, at all. Like, stress. It's funny, because I've already made a song like this. And this one's like, just like a slight pivot off of it. But um, it's about, you know, not feeling guilty about a family member's death. Because like, you don't have perfect relationships with your family members. And then when they die, you kind of feel like shit, you know what I mean?

And it's like, taking that and there's some sarcasm to it. And I think I think that has a kind of universal thing. And I'm kind of working on that. Right now. That was like one of my newest ideas I like. It was funny is I literally just worked, had my song like he loved him as about like, you get the girl got in a car accident. That was a really specific and there's a girl got in a car accident and boyfriend dies. And you are trying to date the girl on the car accident. You're understanding like the complexity of loving somebody who's grieved someone who they've loved. It's a great not only attack on a song, but I think we tackled it very well.

Adam  27:00 
But that's a song that's coming out now?

Skrizz  27:01 
No, it's like you left him it's No, it's not even that popular. Oh, check it out. Yeah. Yeah. Listen to it knowing the story now. Yeah, no, no. I'm never gonna love nobody like you loved him. Interesting, interesting concept, but it's kind of in a similar thing is that in a way, I'm obsessed with family members dying? It's been fucked up.

Adam  27:20 
Yeah. Anyway, that's another topic. Another creative sense of that, but that that's, that's for another episode.

Skrizz  27:27 
Let's get back to the thing. So we're gonna write this okay, then then then then I'm, I'm going to produce out something, that something might be might take it really, really, really, really, really, really far. Or that something might sound like ass, but I'm going to produce out something and you're gonna have a rough version of that song. And I might dig into that.

Adam  27:45 
But just so everyone's clear it basically you're saying you go in the studio and.

Skrizz  27:49 
There's some guitars, there's some drums, there's some bass. You hear me singing it. Maybe there's some harmony,

Adam  27:53 
That's just you right? That's just all made of one other. You know, maybe if you work with Bryce's, you and him maybe.

Skrizz  27:59 
Sure. there are like, my friend Andrew plays a lot of guitar, maybe I don't play all the instruments, but I'm putting the whole thing together. Um, stuff like that, I spend a lot of my day doing kind of assembling tracks and you know, we take the 20% level to the 30% line. We're trying to get it done.

For a lot of songs, my first album I brought to Ken pretty early on, he flushed out way further. There's other songs on the album I took to the 90% line, and I brought it to one of Ken's partner Brent. Brent would like reprogram the drums add a few little bells and whistles we call it additional production and he mixes it, sometimes I'll produce the vocals myself sometimes Ken produces the vocals like you saw in that video.

It's not very many people involved. It's usually like four or five people, sometimes it's just one person. So yeah, that's kind of that's that's kind of it I mean, the thing I'm kind of just going back on is you don't there's no one way to do it. You know? We're just constantly just figuring out, I recorded a demo with Bryce on song he co wrote cold disarm you and like we're looking listening to it we're like man, we really liked this demo like with I think we might we might just keep the demo vocals and you know and having him send me the vocals and we're gonna edit them and then run the decay you know, Brent maybe you can I will tell Brent it just makes he's like hey, I want to do some additional production I think these drums could be better you know what I mean?

So I'm very open to like a dialogue I'll be like hey, like, I mean it comes down to dollars and cents to brush around to think about that I try to think of like hey, like what do you think you can do to this you know, I mean, I think Ken' song, okay, are you really into this? Like not Not really. Okay cool. I'm gonna you know, I'm gonna do my own thing with it. But if he is really doing it then he might

Adam  29:37 
You say so mix it you mean like they put the drums behind it? They'll put whatever

Skrizz  29:41 
No. it means like leveling make it sound smooth. Make it sound, make it sound ready for the radio. I'll say play your rough seemed like this sounds like ass. And like Yeah, sounds like ask because it was not mixed. I don't expand records. I have a mix, like two of my records in my life.

Adam  29:57 
So they're like, Okay, so someone mixes it then it sounds sounding like it's better quality and then you are where can I?

Skrizz  30:05
They will take the mastering? I don't take the mastering. I'm the one that doesn't do that. Every time mastering made it worse. Not every time I've worked some great mastering engineers, I just feel like, my mixers know my sound so well. Brent can mix all my stuff. They just know my sound and my sound is very commercial, but it's very custom to me. So I think some of the tricks they do to make things radio-ready just kind of work against me. Like I know, I brought it in a big mixer and he made it sound amazing. I was like, Yeah, but this doesn't the record isn't right. It's just not right. You know?

Adam  30:37
So when you, what is mastering then? What's the difference between mastering?

Skrizz 30:42 
Mixing is taking the 70 tracks in the song, the kick, the snare, the vocal, the backable. And making it all mixed together evenly, you know, I mean, mastering is taking that one final track, the one mix, and just like the compression EQ, the little tiny tweaks to make sure the bass is just loud enough. But my guys dial it in so good, that doesn't matter. They're essentially mixing is the 70 turning into one, the ones turning into one final track.

Adam  31:09 
You have this one file, it's mixed. Is that done? Or is it now? What so that's 100% of that

Skrizz  31:15 
It's over. It's over. I got a sitting in my Dropbox, I uploaded it to my distributor. And then in the morning it comes out, I'm supposed to wake up at midnight and tweet about it but I forget cuz I turned my alarm off and say fuck, I'm so tired. And then I get a bunch of messages in the morning. Oh shit. We got a new song out. There we are.

Adam  31:33 
So yeah, but you okay, there's something more than what the, because it's like you just put it out there, then it comes out. Like it comes out.

Skrizz  31:40 
The business side of it. I mean, I send out like a dozen emails. Like there's a ton of that too.

Adam  31:45 
But you don't like putting it because you have songs that are done like you probably have. When's the next one you're releasing?

Skrizz  31:51
Can't say.

Adam  31:54 
You can't say? Okay.

Skrizz  31:56 
It's actually a surprise the day comes out. No one will know it's coming out.

Adam  32:00 
Interesting. What was the last song you release? Was it last night?

Skrizz  32:04 
That was like 10 days ago? Yeah, so

Adam  32:08 
Yeah, so about like, December 1st ish. When was when was it? When was it done? When was it mix? Ready to go?

Skrizz  32:15 
Four weeks before that.

Adam  32:17 
Okay, so about a month, you, at least you, you and or your team had time to like prepare to say we're getting ready to launch this on December 1.

Skrizz  32:25 
Yeah, of course. You want to upload early, the Spotify, your sister works on Spotify, like Spotify, Amazon, Apple, they all want in the system as early as possible. You're fighting for space. You can't you know, can't get in the system three days in advance expect to get support.

Adam  32:41 
Okay, cool. So, that, that's kind of so that that that's the finished product. About I know, it ranges obviously you got things that were 11 years, you probably have things that are I don't know what was the quickest? What was like the fastest from conception to.

Skrizz  32:56 
I was just thinking about this actually is I heard I heard it's like. The interview were like, the moment they wrote the song the session, the minute of being on the radio is three weeks, which is and as Carrie Underwood on the song, and like how did they do that? They brought it produced it recorded it director recorded, mixed it mastered it got into the radio in three weeks. My shortest is probably very long, is probably very, very long. Maybe a year. Like

Adam  33:27 
Or is it about a year average? We look at like three years, two years. 18 months?

Skrizz  33:31
I mean, my first started my career was so long was so long spread out that skews the average.

Adam  33:37 
Let's just say the last five years. So two years, like think about that. That's wild. Like that's for one song. And obviously, it's like you're just working on one song.

Skrizz  33:50 
They're all, they're all simultaneous with the ducks on the yeah,

Adam  33:53 
We're just thinking about like, from my standpoint, because you know, I'm no I put I hear your new song like, this is fucking awesome. I love this song. I don't realize, we don't realize how much time how much thought how much detail I remember. Like, like I said, be in the car with you. And you're like, this is like a night at the five-yard line. We're close to this being done. I don't wanna hear any feedback from you.

Skrizz  34:17 
Whatever you say. Don't say it.

Adam  34:19 
Exactly, whatever you think you're gonna say just shut up and just don't sit don't say anything. Yeah, you just it's such a play man. So you'd actually say that to me, but we're like basically don't talk. Don't tell me what you want. Don't, don't tell me.

Skrizz  34:29 
Yes. Sounds all right, sounds all right.

Adam  34:31 
But uh but yeah, like all those little details that go into it like the you know, and I don't know who you call but you call it somewhere like, hey, we need to make this minor tweak this minor tweaking here. I never would have heard but you know,

Skrizz  34:43 
Used two versions, you wouldn't know the difference. Right?

Adam  34:45
Right. So that, that's interesting. But then, so about how many music videos have you put out for your, for your music?

Skrizz  34:54
Four.

Adam  34:55
Four. When did you and why did you decide to do those music videos?

Skrizz  34:59 
I mean, you kind of just have to like, I mean, at the end of the day like YouTube is, like, I don't want to sound superficial here, like YouTube is a DSP, a digital streaming platform, it's like, you want to have millions of subscribers like it is a form of income. So just like making music like, I can I can show you my YouTube Analytics, because it's a horrible answer but the truth, like, like, I enjoy YouTube Analytics, like Skrizzly Adams, uh, you know, bad desires, official audio might get 50 plays a day, terrible, but whatever official video might get 300 today, so you do the math, which one's earning more money at the end of the day, the music, these are more of a promotional tactic. You know, I'm saying,

Adam  35:51 
But yeah, sure. But like, why do you not do it then for all your song? Right, But how do you choose which for to do? Are they like, are they the ones that like, you're just,

Skrizz  36:05
I mean, like, for example, dance of darkness, we never thought was gonna blow up. But then it was blowing up. And I was like, Well, we definitely need a video for this because it's blowing up. So we rushed in, when I did that. I'd say popularity, like we got, you know, stuff coming out for album too. And it's based on, like, it's not the best thing. I'm not the most visually-oriented artist, like in terms of like my artistry, then they just want to be transparent with my fans. I don't like I don't write a song. I see Bayesian or whatever. I don't this is not who I am. Like, I don't not even.

Adam  36:35
Like in the woods, you know, in a cabin for two weeks.

Skrizz  36:39
Yeah, that's just not who I am. I'm more like, oh, this song has 4 million streams, like let me shoot an email to this director and see what he thinks. And then be like, Okay, this is a business and be like, Hey, this is the budget, like, what do you got? He's like, great, cool, let's do it. Or like, Hey, we're gonna pass. You know what I mean?

You'd like to believe that the videos are gonna make you mean, was major label artists forget like, like, NF, like I work with NF sky a lot, like, the videos will cost them $60,000. But don't make that 120 The first two weeks, you know, I mean? So it's like a business in itself. And people get really into it. And yeah, I'm definitely more hands-off. But little visual creators be visual creators, you know?

Adam  37:20 
Do you think you're a visual creator?

Skrizz  37:21
No, let's be honest. Not.

Adam  37:24
Would you want to be?

Skrizz  37:26
Nope.

Adam 37:27 
just not interested?

Skrizz  37:28
It's just the truth. That's just the truth.

Adam  37:31 
Yeah, even in your music videos, you I feel like I'm trying to think all them, but I think I've seen them all. And you I feel like you always play a backseat in it.

Skrizz  37:40 
Never the main character. I'm working on it, though. actually mean? Yeah, I don't say anything. But I'm working on it. Yeah. I mean, I'm not the like, but it's not like eventually. I just don't like I don't I don't have the vision. I don't know. Like, I don't have the vision. Why should I? Does that make sense? Or is it?

Adam  38:01 
I said, I don't know. I feel like it's very, like, I think that shows a lot of humility even.

Skrizz  38:06 
I'll take that. Like, I don't know what he's doing. But I'll take it. Yeah.

Adam  38:11
But um, well, last question. I know that it's kind of a longer episode. But selfishly, I think it's pretty, pretty interesting. Like, is there anyone that either you followed at a young age? Or now that you're like, Okay, is there a reason why you do your songwriting process, and your production and your mixing? And how you produce your songs, or when you produce your songs in Spotify? Like every few weeks? And all that stuff? Like is, is there somebody or multiple artists or just people in the industry that you follow that? You know, you call it the kind of follow their blueprint? Or is this just something like that?

Skrizz  38:44 
Okay. I mean, there's separate answers here. But the quick answer is like the releasing constantly, like, you know, a lot of independent rappers in the world are doing that Russ, my friend, Chris, well, he does that as a no brainer. I mean, you can deploy a million articles on that, like, it's a no brainer, I'm not sure I'm just a rock artist doing it.

And honestly, if you're not doing it, I don't know what you're doing. So you're hearing it from me first, and you probably do it. But regarding the creative thing, like definitely, and I'm saying this like in like a, this person is God, they literally refer to themselves as God and I'm near peasant, but like the way I treated is definitely like, Kanye West like Kanye West is like, it's so funny, because like, he's the best record-maker on Earth. And this is what number 8000 talking about Kanye West. But he's the best at making records on earth. No one's better. He's better than the Beatles. He's better than all of them. But he holds no profound gift and I love that about him is like, he'll be the first to admit he's like, not the best rapper not even close.

Adam  39:39
He even says, he wants to he wants to say there's other rappers saying I wish I sounded like them.

Skrizz  39:44 
The best vocalist like, then the mechanics of producing these like so many people should on them in terms of mechanics, but he's just like hear as like the band leader. And he's just like, he's just, he knows how to direct his people. And he knows the vibe. And he, I've never written this for you with him.

But the you can just hear in his records and from everyone that worked with him to the point where I'm sure he drives everyone crazy. And he's just is so good at guiding the process. And I know Ken has worked with him, and he talked about it like him and Just Blaze who that producer also did a lot of the JC stuff like, they were so good at constantly flipping the record.

And I think I don't do that enough. I try definitely more when I was younger, where they were like, it's not done, let's do this. And they were constantly changing. They're constantly changing. They constantly reinvented. I think Kanye is just like, is a testament. I mean, you'll hear him say in every interviews, like I'm just a visionary, there's Walt Disney, there's Steve Jobs, like, that's really what it is. I mean, he's so good at that, that I like to think when I write the song and I'm okay, it's time to focus on how we're gonna make just do a record. It's like, you know, fuck the process, fuck the budget, like, just have the vision. And once you got the vision, and the confidence, I mean, Kanye's got so much confidence.

Adam  41:02 
He lives free, you know?

Skrizz  41:04
He lives free. Yeah, he has his own rules. Yeah, no barriers, He can do whatever he wants. And he just, but he did have barriers when he was younger, and he made like, amazing records. I mean, I'm sure he was screaming at the top of his lungs, like in the studio all night. But he, he made amazing records, they still makes amazing records. And I'd like to think I'm one 1 million the ability of that like that's, that's what I want to do as a, as a record making recording artist. You know what I mean?

Adam  41:34 
I love it. There's,  there's no, there's no better way to wrap up an episode of The Rise, the Kanye story because as you were saying that I just listened to a recent Kanye interview and it like they had like a ticker up of how many times he like name drops, like just some, like amazing celebrity. Just casual conversations like art was, which was like I mentioned Kanye in a podcast. I'm pretty sure we're like, at least eight out of 10 right now.

Skrizz  42:02  
Oh, definitely. Definitely. Everyone. Thank you for tuning in. Adam was a pleasure chatting with you. Remember to subscribe, share your favorite clip, if any questions drop in the comments or drop it on my Instagram or Adam's Instagram and we will get back to you and we'll see you next time.