two years ago, I started a song that I couldn’t finish. it came from a writing session with a good friend of mine in London. I’d put together a quick instrumental idea beforehand, played it to him, and we spent a couple of hours writing a hook and a verse. and that was pretty much it. I went back home to Toronto knowing there was something special there. every few months I’d open the project again. change the arrangement. try some new sounds. add something. take something away. then...
26 days ago • 1 min read
my process when I start a song usually looks something like this. I'll spend some time throwing ideas around. most won't go anywhere. but eventually, one does. there's that moment where something clicks and I think, fuck yeah. this is special. so I start building it out. then I go deep. hours spent improving the production. layering sounds. changing instruments. working on the arrangement. adding things. taking things away. listening over and over again. I usually bounce the track and take it...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
last week, I wrote about the part YouTube can't teach you. the judgement behind the technique. the ability to recognise what a song actually needs, make a decision, and trust it. today, I can finally share what I've been building around that idea. the producer room. a live, collaborative two week intensive where we'll work directly on your music, together, in real time. inside the room: four live working sessions. two optional Q&As. a private WhatsApp group for questions, accountability,...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
when I first started making music, I thought getting better meant learning more. another tutorial. another plugin. another songwriting technique. another mixing trick. and to be fair, all of those things helped. they taught me how to create. but over the last few years, I've realised the biggest breakthroughs in my career didn't come from learning new techniques. they came from learning how to think differently about the techniques I already knew. this really hit me over the last couple of...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
lately i've been thinking a lot about creativity. not creativity itself. but the way we talk about it. i think we've romanticised the idea that great work arrives out of nowhere. one perfect idea. one magical afternoon. one moment where inspiration suddenly strikes. and then somehow... you create something incredible. if i'm honest, i used to think like that too. i'd wait until i felt creative. until i felt motivated. until it felt like the right day to write. but over the years, i've...
2 months ago • 1 min read
lately i've been thinking a lot about attention. not how to get it. but who it's actually coming from. everywhere you look, someone is trying to grab a few seconds of your time. another reel. another ad. another "you need this." and if i'm honest, i catch myself doing it too. trying to find better hooks. better ways to get people to stop scrolling. because that's the game now. attention feels like the currency. but i'm starting to wonder if we've become so obsessed with getting attention that...
3 months ago • 1 min read
i think one of the hardest things about releasing music is knowing what to measure. everything is numbers. streams. followers. views. playlist adds. and naturally, those become the things we chase. and i get it. i’ve done the exact same thing. for the last few years, most of my artist releases have been through labels. and when a song comes out through a label, you get used to a certain process. the song goes live. the playlists start moving. the numbers start climbing. and without realising,...
3 months ago • 1 min read
so something interesting has happened over the last few weeks. i’ve been pitching my new single to playlist curators ahead of its release this friday. after months of working on the music, finalising the mix, shaping the visuals, building the release plan and preparing everything behind the scenes, it’s finally almost out. honestly, this is usually the part where things get a little scary. you stop creating in private. and you start letting other people have an opinion. the response so far...
4 months ago • 2 min read
so i’ve been thinking about music releases completely wrong. for years, my process was simple. finish the song.sign the song.release the song. then move onto the next one. most of my leon taro. releases over the last few years have come out through different labels. which meant once the music was finished, i’d mostly hand the rest over. the artwork.the rollout.the assets.the release strategy. i’d still post about the release and push the song out. but looking back, i wasn’t thinking deeply...
4 months ago • 1 min read