3 HACKS TO DISCOVER YOUR SOUND

The number one hack for finding your sound is you need to look at the music that you listen to mainly.

So what you're trying to do is find the genre that you work in. You need to attach yourself to a genre, and I'd say the fastest way to do that is asking yourself "What are you listening to the most, what do you like?"

Amateurs say this all the time: "Oh, it's very difficult to find my genre because I'm into this and that." It's like, "No, just pick a genre." It's what you're into; that is what you are. Own it and say, "I am this." And then, what you say is "I am this, but with a bit of this, right?" That gives you a sound in that genre.   

The number two hack is you need to write a lot of music within that genre. You need to write tracks every day, but just writing isn't enough. You'll also need to listen to other people's stuff and copy what they're doing. That's standard procedure. You're not going to come out with a hit on the first track, so take all their drum loops and their samples; keep putting tunes out.

Eventually, you'll start leaving things in the mixes and in the sounds that just become natural, that you're drawn to every time. Slowly but surely, you'll emerge with a sound that is your own.

Finally, number three is, don't worry about it. Stop worrying about your sound. If you follow the first two steps, a natural sound is going to develop. Don't worry about it yourself because other people are going to point to it and you will own that sound. You might not even notice that you're doing it. That's a good thing because that means it's you; it's your style.

But that's something that you can't do for yourself, and it's not something that you can fake. It needs to come out naturally, and that will only come out by exercising the devil of copying people. Just get it out of the system and then you'll start to develop your sound.

That has to be something that happens naturally. Then just let it go, let it come to you and then let it flow. But the fact of the matter is you just need to write a lot of songs. That's it. Keep it going.