The Power of Production
What It Means To Be A Producer — And Why It Matters
The producer is a revered role in music; often seen as the boss, the visionary, the ‘real brains of the operation’. How much or how little a producer is involved depends entirely on the individual project. Sometimes it’s just bringing new ideas to the table. Other times, it’s technical skills; a plan to achieve a particular sound and direction.
Narrow your scope to electronic music, and the meaning of the word producer changes again. Names like Delia Derbyshire and Daphne Oram might not mean anything to those outside of electronic music, but these two producers helped pioneer the genre back in the 1960s. Since then, the evolution of the sonic landscape has come to embrace technology and new faces in the role of the producer. But what’s helping to shape the current sounds?
“Electronic music is no longer an elitist thing,” said Maya Medvesek (aka Nightwave). “It’s become democratized with the arrival of software and with it being much more affordable. I think it’s fabulous that anyone, anywhere can now make music.”
Medvesek has been a producer since she was 15 years-old. Slovenian born and now based in the UK, the grime and techno producer is a longtime musician who heads up her own label, Heka Trax. Over the years, Medvesek has become a seasoned producer, crafting beats using a variety of tools and skills that have changed over the years and evolved with her music and her experiences.
“These days I almost exclusively use software. I only have a few bits left from when I started — like an Alesis Drum Machine, Air FX Unit and some synths, but that’s all gathering dust. I do have some maracas. I like live percussion.”
On the other side of the world, in downtown Los Angeles, Edrina Martinez (who performs under the name Astronautica) is in the midst of transitioning from a job at a law office to running the social media accounts for Alpha Pup, the label she’s been signed to since 2013. Martinez has worked as a producer and musician and found support for her footing in the LA beats scene amongst the supportive ears of Daddy Kev and the Low End Theory crew.
“Daddy Kev has been super supportive since day one,” said Martinez. “Low End Theory is very close to my heart, because that was the place that I would go to, and that’s what really got me into making music and inspired me — all the artists who were coming out there.” A few artists who were early influencers for her include Daedalus, Tokimonsta, and Shlomo, all of whom she saw play at Low End Theory .
A self-taught musician, she writes mainly on her guitar, at least as a starting point, an approach that seems unorthodox when talking about electronic music.
“When it comes to playing the guitar versus playing with knobs and faders, it just comes to me more naturally that way,” she said. “Whereas having to program stuff and map things, for me at least, it takes out that element. I’ll even sample my voice and make instruments out of that, too. And that’s mainly how I approach electronic music, is making the sounds out of actual instruments.”
“Something I use a lot is a drum rack that I created from my own recorded samples,” she said. “I have hardwood floors and I was really trying to get creative making a kick drum just by recording me stomping on the wood floors, and my snare was me hitting a piece of paper with a pencil. I got a shaker sound by shaking a matchbox. Getting creative like that is half the fun of producing.”
Gear-wise, Martinez has found a groove and gotten comfortable with the tools she’s found work best for her.
“I wish I was more of a gear snob, but I do use a lot of the features on the Ableton Push, as well as the Novation Launchpad and Launchkey. That’s about it….Huh. I need to venture out more?” she said, laughing.
Venturing out was exactly how Medvesek got into music, too.
“I was 100% a club kid with a big imagination and lots of ambition,” said Medvesek. “I wish I was still as brave now as I used to be! I am mainly self-taught but I’ve always had people around me that supported me and gave me the odd bit of advice.”
Medvesek and many other producers have worked hard to help other women get exposure and education on production and DJing. Some of that has been in partnership with Red Bull Music Academy, with whom she often gives lectures and runs workshops for young producers wanting to learn.
“RBMA has probably been the most generous in their support and opportunities they offered. I would not be here now without them,” she said. “I have run DJ workshops for very young girls in the past and have recently joined the brilliant E.M.M.A. on her PRODUCERGIRLS project. We offer free production workshops for women and provide Ableton software to successful candidates. It’s been extremely popular.”
Having allies and supporters as a producer is important, particularly when it comes to fighting widespread misconceptions about doing the job. One of the most common examples that comes up on this subject is Grimes’ speaking with the FADER, where she expressed her annoyance and frustration to answering the question she gets asked repeatedly: “so, who produces your music?”.
Medvesek echoes that sentiment, “there have been accusations that I don’t make my own music, that a boyfriend or another man in my life makes my music, that I get gigs with sexual favors” she said. “Things are changing though and there is more community and peer support than ever, the press are becoming better at helping the situation (rather than themselves). As a result, more girls feel empowered and inspired to take the plunge.”
“There’s a demand for female engineers and producers but they aren’t being fulfilled,” said Shauna de Cartier, president of Six Shooter Records, a female owned and operated record label and management company. De Cartier, who also runs two large music festivals, helped organize a panel this past spring at Canadian Music Week called Her Studio.
“We wanted to call it the XX panel, but realized not all people who identify as female have the xx chromosomes.” The panel of all female producers ended up talking about gear and techniques and the role of a producer; there wasn’t much discussion of what it was like being a woman producer, the focus was on the job itself. De Cartier remembered the number of times she’s wanted one of her management clients to work with a female producer but had difficulty finding the right one. The question of gender is difficult to avoid, but might be an important one to ask: Do men and women work differently when it comes to approaching the creation and production of music?
“We still need to educate some people and dissolve old, stagnant and sexist beliefs. The future of music is going to look very different, we just need to make sure we nurture the talent.” — Maya Medvesek (aka Nightwave)
“Would the culture in the studio be any different?” asked De Cartier. “Would it perhaps be any more collaborative if it was a woman producing instead of a man? That could really make a difference. Maybe a woman would be more likely to take the opinions of a female artist more seriously.”
“Production is very solitary work,” Medvesek said. “I get more respect as a producer, definitely; I’ve often been addressed as a man online by people who don’t realize I’m a woman, either.”
“I think the biggest thing is trying to figure out if someone is taking me seriously or if they are talking to me for different reasons,” Martinez said.
Despite these hurdles, there are pockets of support groups popping up in cities across the world. Martinez is part of one such Los Angeles based event called Elevate, run in partnership with Dot (Kate Ellwanger), head of Unspeakable Records.
“We’re not gender specific but we try to encourage and to book more females,” said Martinez.
KOSO is another such creative collective based in Oslo, Norway, boasting a record label and a variety of events. These groups, along with many more, are gaining more recognition as resources for young people wondering where to start. New York’s Discwoman is another group gaining speed that acts as a booking agency and creative collective focused on electronic music, showcasing and representing talented DJs, producers and musicians.
“I just think that’s so awesome, especially through social media, to find these other female producers and to connect on that level,” said Martinez. “I feel like there are a lot of female producers but that they don’t get the same recognition that men do. And that’s part of the reason we don’t know as many women as we do men.”
When dismantling any old ideas, education is key.
“It is such a privilege to teach, share skills and hopefully inspire a music lover to take a step on the production path,” said Medvesek. “We still need to educate some people and dissolve old, stagnant and sexist beliefs. The future of music is going to look very different, we just need to make sure we nurture the talent.”
