How to Start a Career in Music Production w/ SEIDS

Welcome one and all to this week’s episode of Boomcast. The guys were stoked to sit down with the amazing singer, songwriter, producer and content creator “SEIDS” aka Sabrina to learn all her secrets on how to start a career in music production.

If you’re interested in learning where to get started on your journey, take a listen and let us know what you think.

Listen:

CREDITS:

Host: Lukas Ray (https://www.instagram.com/musicbylukas/)
Host: Noize (https://www.instagram.com/noize_london/)
Guest: SEIDS (Instagram) (TikTok)
Filming & Editing: Lauren Z. Ray (https://www.instagram.com/laurenzray/)

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Video Transcript: How to Start a Career in Music Production w/ SEIDS

Fabio: Welcome to Boomcast. The official podcast from Boombox.io

Lukas: I’m MusicbyLukas

Fabio: And I’m Fabio from Noize

Lukas: Store, organize and collaborate like never before. Boombox.io is the new home of music collaboration.

Fabio: Also don’t forget that Boombox.io is giving away $500 of studio equipment, so don’t forget to hit Like, and subscribe below.

Lukas: And comment below – you can comment anything – but the question of the day is, “If money were no object, what would you get for your studio? What would you have in there?”

Fabio: Today we are with the super talented, fantastic producer and content creator SEIDS, aka Sabrina. Who is based in…?

SEIDS: Las Vegas.

Fabio: Tell the audience a bit about yourself.

Sabrina: So, I am a singer/songwriter/producer, and now a content creator and educator. I started out singing; I graduated from Berklee in 2012, and the first thing I did was got a job on a cruise ship, singing on the high seas. I was singing in the club band for about a year, and then moved to New York City. I was singing in like professional wedding bands, and event bands. I did that for a number of years. And was basically just, like, singing. And then I was building a girl group to go on cruise ships, in 2016, and that was gonna be like my business. Like, my big business. You’re supposed to do a bunch of shows and then eventually cast other girls in the shows. I spent a lot of time and money, blood, sweat and tears, building that project, and we got gigs, but it was May of 2020. As you know, everything shut down in March. Gigs were gone for ages. And in the meantime I started learning to produce, and posting on TikTok, and that’s when everything changed. So by the time gigs came back, I was already like, “I’m good. I don’t need to run around and go on cruise ships anymore.”

Lukas: Yeah

Sabrina: So now I just get to work by myself, whereas that project I had to work with other women. So yeah, that’s pretty much my story in a nutshell. It was random how I landed on this career, if it wasn’t for a global pandemic I wouldn’t have learned how to start a career in music production…

Lukas: I just love this story. It’s very unique, and I love how recent it was. And I’ve seen you grow, specifically I’ve seen your… I remember seeing you first come onto my Instagram feed, and being like, “Wow, this is really cool.” I remember showing Lauren, my partner, being like, “This person is really talented.” Um, and then just seeing your following start popping off, and continually getting recommended your videos, and then seeing you work with brands, and all this stuff, and it must be exciting going through that process, especially so quickly. It sounds like you’ve always been kind of entrepreneurial-minded, though, which is really cool. And I like how you’re just open to flexibility, ‘cus you know, that’s how it has to be in this industry. You have to kind of be open to it. It’s so funny, like, one goal that you have can completely shift to another goal, and that’s ok. You don’t have to stick with… I mean, you didn’t say, “Ride or die with this girl group. I’m not switching anything.” You even started producing! Why did you start producing? What was that inspiration?

Sabrina: Well, I’m really bad at not doing anything. Like, I need some sort of project, you know? I didn’t have any work. I was stuck at home. My boyfriend at that time was working, so I was just alone in a New York City apartment for hours and hours. I can’t go outside, and I was just literally going crazy. I was just scrolling on Facebook one day, and there was an ad that said, “Learn how to produce in 30 days.” And I was like, “This is the stupidest thing. I went to Berklee, and I didn’t learn to produce there. I’m not gonna produce in this online class, or whatever. I clicked on it, and there was a sale. It was like $75. And I was like, “Let me take this class.” I promise you, ‘cus I had been using GarageBand for years, doing the vocal arrangements for the shows; the arrangements were pretty intricate for what they were. You know, we had to jump around all the parts, and I really pride myself on making interesting vocal arrangements, and stuff like that, and cool little mashups. So I really knew GarageBand, but producing always seemed liked rocket science. But once I learned how to program a drum pattern, I was good. I was like, “I can do this.” Once I figured out that, and then I just got really into it, and everything just all tied together. Like you said, I have an entrepreneurial mindset. I also have a vocals background. I was really trying to figure out a way to combine all my talents, but I needed a product. And I needed a product that I could be creative about. So that’s where the girl group came in. But then it was just me doing a lot of work for other people to reproduce as well. I was like, “This is perfect because I can do everything on my own. I can be the captain of my ship. I can have products. I can be creative.” And it all just folded into what it is now.

I think the most important thing is – and this what I tell people all the time – you need to have honest conversations with yourself about what it is you exactly want to do, and what it is you exactly want to lead ith. You know, because, as a child I was like, “I’m going to be a performer.” And I did performance for so many years, and then I was like, “I don’t want to run around for gigs anymore.” I don’t want to do that. And like, they can be really fun. It can be like you’re singing and thinking, “I can’t believe I’m getting paid to do this.”

Lukas: Yeah

Sabrina: But there’s times when you’re like…”No.” And those times are not enough to make it worth it.

Fabio: I was a singer/songwriter for years… and I don’t know how I got so far, because I was terrible at singing. But somehow I did.
Lukas: I don’t know about this, I’ve never heard it. I have a feeling he’s probably pretty good and just being modest.

Fabio: No, we will do the big reveal one day.

Lukas: That job wasn’t really a thing: to be an influencer in this capacity. And so none of us really thought of that, but then as it started happening, we all went with it, which I think is really cool. And we were able to bring all these talents. I think we all probably – I don’t know if Fabio has – I think we all have sales backgrounds too, which is funny. It’s all like part of the package. Um, and, yeah just that transformative… I never knew, I always wanted to be an artist, but I never knew that I was gonna run a coaching website, and all these different things. Like, you don’t thnk that when you’re a kid. But, yeah, who knows what the future holds for all of us. Who knows what we’ll all be doing in 10 years, but that could actually be an interesting question too.

Sabrina: Yeah, I think it’s all just about being creative. You know? I get called out all the time, people saying, “Oh, you’re not really a music creator.” And well, I mean, I work with Splice regularly making content. The content that they hire me to do actually requires me to take their samples and build music. Like, not anybody can just be like, “Do this.” It’s not like I’m just sitting there pretty, or whatever, just pointing at something. You know, I have to actually make music to do the content. So I hate when people say that.

Lukas: Yeah.

Fabio: You’ve told me some pretty… some pretty interesting stories on people hating on you in the past. Would you care to reshare some of that? I mean, some of them are quite shøcking. My jaw was on the floor when you were telling me them last time.

Sabrina: Yeah, I mean, they just get outrageous. I don’t remember which one I’ve told you but I’ve duetted (or stitched) with a few of them, just because they’re hilarious. I don’t know if you’ve recently, like… Rectenly, this guy just tried to say that I’m a terrible musician. And he made a three-minute TikTok. He made TWO three-minute TikToks about how terrible I am. He was like, “I just got blocked by this girl who just graduated from Berklee.” And I’m like “Bro, I’m 32. I graduated 10 years ago.”

Lukas: Oh my God.

Sabrina: And he’s like, he’s kind of like my dad’s age. Like, I showed my dad this video. My dad was like, “Why would he do this?” Like I don’t even understand the point of his video. Like do you want people coming to my house with pitchforks? Like, hunt down this girl?

Fabio: You can tell he’s your dad’s age because he made a three-minute TikTok video expecting people to watch it. He clearly doesn’t know how the bloody algorithm works, does he?

Sabrina: It was just so beyond.

Lukas: Beyond that, that could be an interesting topic to get into, like how you handle that. And you spoke a little bit on that, but I thought it’d be cool in general, just to have some of your tips for people who… because, again, you know, you had this kind of growth happen in a pretty quick amount of time and basically, if you took a step back and you were to break it down, what were those kind of things you did to get there? I know you said creativity, but are there any kind of other like, you know, tips in your work belt that are tools in your work belt that you use that have helped you get to where you are today?

Sabrina: I mean, I’ve become like a big nerd about social media, and I’m strategic about social media. So I think for me, it was just like really deciding, like, who my target audience is, and what kind of stuff they would want to see. Yeah. I feel like so many people, like, missed the mark on that. Like, you guys are both really good at that, but so many people missed the mark at it, and it doesn’t really matter. I don’t really focus on, like, going viral. In fact, I’ve never gone viral. Like, both of you have had videos that have gotten way more views than I’ve ever had. I literally don’t go viral, I’m telling you.

Lukas: Consistency. Consistency.

Sabrina: I don’t have one video, I don’t have one video on Instagram with a million views. I don’t even have one video on Instagram with like three, like 400K.

Lukas: But that consistency, right?

Fabio: But all your videos were just showing on my feed endlessly. So that’s virality to me.

Sabrina: Because I focus on who sees my video versus how they see my videos.

Fabio: Of course.

Sabrina: And that’s always what I try to preach to people. Like I know producers that I, that I work with or help them with their social media and stuff. And they have 5000 followers on TikTok, which is not a lot for TikTok standards, but all of their work, all of their artists and clients are from TikTok. And that’s what I try to show to people: you should be using this as a tool for whatever it is you want to do. Instead of just focusing on going viral or being like an influencer, you know, like metrics.

Lukas: That’s a really good point. And I one thing about you that I really like is how you’re able to work with brands, but also stay authentically yourself. And I think that is something to speak on because I think a lot of people think like if they work with brands that they’re going to like sell out or they don’t know how to do it without being salesy. And I think, you know, that’s pretty common. Like, I think most people struggle with that. How do you kind of approach that? How do you work with brands? How do you deal with, you know, being in charge of the creative content? Do you have any like methods that have worked with you?
Sabrina: Yeah. A lot of people don’t know this, but I’m very picky with the brands I work with. Everyone thinks I just like to select anything, but like I don’t. I’ve gotten brands reach out to me about e-cigarettes, brain pills, necklaces, tequilas…

Fabio: Wait, can you pass that brand onto me?

Sabrina: And I don’t even do that. And even like a lot of the like, you know, certain like music production start ups and stuff like they’ll come to me and they’ll offer me like a ton of money because I learned early on that I’m a yes person to work because I’m really nervous that work won’t always be there.And I don’t remember who told me this, but somebody told me this. “Don’t say no to the project. Say no to the budget.” So I’ll give kind of like a really intense number in my opinion. And if they say yes, then I’ll be like, oh, I got to do it. But usually they won’t. And especially with startups and stuff, I’ll be like, you’re not ready for this commitment yet. You’re not ready for this yet. So I think it’s mostly just like also being authentic with my audience and just making sure I don’t just post, right? I don’t just I’m not just out here just like just taking the bag I know people think that about me, but it’s not true. I can make money doing anything. I’m really good at sales. I could I was on my way to be like a sales shark. I could sell anything. Yeah, but it’s like, I don’t. I don’t want to just do this for the money I’m focusing on, like, the right community. So honestly, all of the brands I work with, our brands that I know and love already, you know? So it just, like, makes sense.

Lukas: I like how you said that. You also sometimes just pitch the, you know, price really high and see what happens because like that’s that’s a good way to to like know your worth and to not just be like, like you said, like having that fear in the back of your mind that, “Oh, I better go low because who knows when the next time the brand is going to come.” Like, I like how you have that abundance mindset.

Fabio: I want to know, and I’m going to put you on the spot creatively here. Let’s say the e-cigarette brand did match your let’s say was $3 million. Sell me the e-cigarette.

Sabrina: Oh, sell you the e-cigarette.

Lukas: Okay, what is this like the wolf of Wall Street where you have to sell it and or whatever. There you go.

Sabrina: So the trick or sales and a lot of people don’t know this. Oh, some people know this. But you need to find the pain point, right? So that’s where you need to be spending like the first bit of time. Getting to know somebody is the pain point. So if I was to sell you a cigaret or an e-cigarette, I’d be like, Fabio, do you smoke cigarettes?

Fabio: Sometimes

Sabrina: Ok, when are smoking cigarettes?

Fabio: Socially.

Lukas: Probably while everyone is up at 4 a.m., when he’s DJing.

Sabrina: Why do you only smoke it sometimes?

Fabio: Because I don’t need to. Because I don’t need to smoke them all the time.

Sabrina: And why don’t you want to?

Fabio: I feel like I’m under so much creative pressure right now. This is this has gone the wrong way. I’m not this out.

Sabrina:
I’ll just show you. Like, theoretically, I’d be trying to get your pain points, so, like, I know. Okay. Why do people smoke?

Fabio:
Because they’re unhealthy.

Sabrina:
Yes, so then I could go into the thing role. Like, well, this e-cigarette, you can smoke. It’s way healthier…Like, you can still get the high that you want when you’re going out to the clubs, but you’re in the repercussions of the thing. So then I can go into that or, like, dig into that, but basically, like, you need to find that.

So one of my I’ll give you an example just to close this argument – not argument just. Yes. Yeah, I worked at Equinox, which is like a luxury gym. You guys know it, right?

Lukas:
There’s some like a nice gym. Yeah.

Sabrina:
Like an obscenely priced gym, like. Yeah. And you’re already living in a very expensive city usually or town. So it’s just like another additional like to $300 a month. So people come in and my job was to sell them a membership and they would come in and like, let’s say they’d say, Oh, this is too expensive. And I’d be like, well, you can workout for free.

Like, you don’t need to spend any money to work out. Like you can run outside and you can pump yourself. You know, you can, you can lift cans of tomatoes whatever. Right? Are you going to do it? Are you going to do it? And they’re like, no. And I’m like, But you want to lose 10 lbs, right? Sign up. All right.

So then you go into like selling them their dream.
Lukas
And but I think the best part, though, is that when it comes to the stuff that because like I think all of us kind of worked in sales for things that we didn’t necessarily totally love because the back in the day, it was like a job. But now that we kind of are the job because we’re selling like our own knowledge and we know the experience of what it’s like to be our own boss and what it’s like to excel in the thing that we actually truly love.

I think it’s a different type of sale as well, though, because like we truly believe in what we’re where, you know, in the stuff that we’re telling people about to a point that it’s like the trick is that it’s not even a sale at that point. It’s literally just like giving that kind of like positive vibes and showing, you know, what can happen and I think that that’s the special part is when you can do that because otherwise it doesn’t obviously feel as fulfilling as it could.

Fabio:
We want to get special thanks to Boombox.io for allowing this collaboration to happen and bringing myself and Lukas together.

Lukas:
And don’t forget to check out Boombox.io to start your collaboration now. So our out of the box question for today is where would you live if you didn’t live in the city you live now? So if you live anywhere else in the world, where would it be?

Fabio:
Bonus points if you say London.

Sabrina:
No, there’s no sunshine there. Yeah, there you go.

Fabio:
We have great Summer’s okay. Great.

Lukas:
With no air conditioning, you’ll love it.

Sabrina:
London is like the grandfather of New York. I want to be on like on some sort of, like, tropical place. So maybe, like, maybe like an island in Greece. I love ruins.

Lukas: Oh, it’s pretty well set up
Fabio, where are you going to live? Mexico, obviously.

Fabio:
No, I don’t know. I like Mexico, but I don’t know if it’s like.
Sabrina:
I don’t drink the water.

Fabio:
I mean, I love Southeast Asia. I’m with I’ve always had this idea of living in Thailand somewhere. I mean, the same idea is I think because of being close to the Mediterranean my whole life, it would be nice to explore elsewhere. But similar vibes, beachfront villa, open studio, a walk to the beach, you know, waves crashing in the background.

Lukas:
The tough one for me is because we do travel all the time and that’s like our thing is I love all these different places. And I don’t have actually gotten to the point now where I don’t know physically if I can settle in the same place for too long at a time without getting restless because that’s like our routine now. Like we get to a point where we both are just kind of like, Meh, we could go now.

Sabrina:
And you have your pseudo studio?

Lukas:
Like, yeah, yeah, I do. And that’s the thing is like now we’re at the point where it’s like, well, maybe we could get, you know, like a place that’s like more of a headquarters, but maybe not just in one location. Maybe at least two. So maybe you would be like one in the UK potentially and one on the East Coast US.
So that’s kind of where we’re leaning. But there, yeah, there’s so many places around the world that are super cool.

Sabrina
For so long I was like struggling financially that no matter how exciting it is to Fabio, like no matter how much money I make, like I still feel like I think like I, I behave like I have no money.

Fabio
I’m, I’m the same. I’ve had to learn to break out of that and be and I’d stop being so cheap, man. Yeah, you live once. You can’t take it with you, this money, and you just got to go.

Lukas
I kind of I feel that. I grew up with I grew up with very little money as well. And I’ve always been this, like, little entrepreneur, a kid. And even when I was a kid, I was, like, doing everything I could because, like, my family would all be getting food on, like, the dollar menu at the, you know, the Burger King or whatever. And I would find a way to make enough money to where I could get the value meal. Like, I wanted the fries and the, you know, the other stuff. And so I’ve always kind of just been kind of but I get really excited about it. And I just love that we get to, like I said again, that we get to work in what we actually like now because for the longest time, I was doing anything I could and now actually be able to make it happen.

Fabio:
I think it’s quite safe to say that the majority of producers in the industry are male. And what do you think is causing that imbalance? What are the boundaries, barriers to entry, that you think maybe females might be facing? Well.

Sabrina:
So the other hard part about answering this question is like, I’ve been I’ve been in the industry for ten years, right? So the women that are coming into it now, it’s changed so much. Like it’s way more accepting. I see way more female producers. I see even way more females on like making producing content on like TikTok and Instagram.

So I don’t feel like I’m the only one anymore. And so many organizations now and stuff. Now, ten years ago, like if I would write a room full of like jazz musicians, you know, because at that time I was doing a lot of like jazz singing. Nobody would look at me like, not even acknowledge my presence, right? I wouldn’t even exist, you know, until you would be like, “Oh, send me a thong pic or XYZ.” Right? Right. So it’s like, and these are my colleagues, but it’s changed so much now. And like, a good way to look at those like people, you know, that guy that I told you about that made the video about me, he was like, he literally did this in the video.

She claims she’s a “music producer”, you know, and it’s like, yeah, I have a DAW, I have a mini keyboard, I have a microphone, I have speakers. Like, I’m putting my own into it. Right. I didn’t say I’m a Grammy Award winning producer. Right. I’m a music producer. It just like it doesn’t really take that much to claim that title, you know?

So I just feel like there’s always going to be that. People are always going to, like, sexualize my posts, which is crazy because I don’t act sexual at all.I think I act like completely opposite you know, like I’ll put a lot of protip and someone will be like, “I want to Auto-Tune your boobs” or something.
And I’m like, well, “Good one bro.”, like, you know, and I’m just like, I’m embarrassed for you that for people to see that.

Lukas:
I’m excited to like what you said about how it’s gotten so much better in the last ten years. So I guess that gives us hope because obviously, like, in the next ten years, who knows how far we can take it. And I like that, you know, that good things are happening. I think one thing that could be cool is to maybe share like maybe to anyone struggling, like if you have any tips on like how you dealt with all those things over the last ten years or I don’t know, That that’s a big topic, but maybe if you could just bullet it.

Sabrina:
Yeah, I think, I think ultimately, like, it doesn’t matter if it’s like Drake in your inbox, like you need to find yourself with people that make you feel good about yourself. And if somebody that has, you know, more success in you but wants you around but is making you feel some sort of way, cut them like cut them off. There’s enough people in this industry that you could surround yourself with people that don’t treat you that way. But when I was younger, I would definitely stick around in situations that I shouldn’t have because I felt like they could help me or I felt like they had something to offer. And the whole exchange is just like terrible, you know?

So it doesn’t matter how talented they are, how successful they are, because your happiness goes beyond just being successful. You just need to put yourself in the right situations. And now because of the Internet like you have, you can connect with people all over the world, you know? Yeah, I’m not going to work with men that think of me in any other way and then just a colleague really.

Fabio:
That goes to the saying you are the sum of the five people that you have right around you. Right, closest to you. I think it’s so true to say when I was ten years ago when I was a singer songwriter and I was having a lot of success I can happily say that those people that I was hanging out with, I’m no longer hanging out. They were only friends with me because they latched onto the fact that there was a chance that I could be successful. So they were trying to help me based on that. And there was no deep connection. I think as soon as you build deep connections with people, it’s sort of all those vanity metrics that we were talking about earlier start to become irrelevant, because you realize that you can learn so much from not just working but being friends with that individual where you can be vulnerable and you can express your ideas and your opinions. And I guess that kind of leads me to my next question because I think Sabrina you and I connected very well like the first time I think that was like an instant spark. And one of the things that one of the topics that we would share and we would kind of joke about every so often as you know, content creator therapy session. And I, I wondered if you could maybe share any experiences that made you want to bow out, made you want to quit and how you overcame.

Sabrina:
So many things! I mean nothing that we do is, is easy right and right if you’re going to win, you know, like even and you you guys probably can attest to it like even when like a project goes well or a gig goes well or a video does well or you’ve made a bunch of money on one thing.
It’s just a fleeting moment, right? Like it’s not this is not a linear process. This isn’t like, oh, we get this thing and then we get this thing and then we get this thing like it’s an up and down thing. And something I learned early on, like one of my first cruise ship contracts, the piano player in the band was like a lot older than me, like in his sixties.

I want to say or maybe not that old, but he was older than me and he told me, “Sabrina, no gig lasts forever.” And that kind of really clicked with me. So maybe that’s why I always feel like, again, like this poor mentality because I’m like, this can all be gone in a second, you know, like, I have to save, I have to plan. So I live with that, like PTSD. I do, I continue with it. I continue with it because I love it, you know, like, I love what I and I always say, I didn’t choose music. Music picked me like, I wish I could have, like, wanted to be a veterinarian, you know, like, that would have been so awesome.
I LOVE animals and you get to get paid a lot of money to do it, like. Yes, you know, but unfortunately, alas, this is what I’m doing.

Lukas:
So, yeah, I was going to say, I see your future being very bright, though. I think that it has nothing to do with luck or any of those kind of things. It just shows over the years of what you’ve done in your mindset. And I think that’s what everyone kind of can get out of this podcast is that it all, you know, comes from up here and in your heart. And that you know, no matter what happens, whether it’s COVID or it’s this or it’s that, like that’s what steers you towards being able to have those opportunities come your way and being able to make the most of them I just think.

Sabrina:
Ultimately, like hard work triumph’s talent.

Lukas:
And creativity. Yeah, for sure.

Sabrina:
People say, “oh, hard work isn’t enough.” But I really feel like if you try enough times and you you listen, you focus and learn from your mistakes and learn different stuff. Like, for instance, like with my girl group, I won’t even say the name, but I invested so much money into it before we made a dollar.
And with this venture, I was like, no, like not today, I’m not investing anything. I was so DIY. I’ve only just started paying for things that I need. So yeah, you learn from your mistakes and like now I’m like, so in the green that it doesn’t hurt as bad when I need to spend you know, $200 or whatever.

Lukas:
All right, that’s it for today. And don’t forget Boombox.io is giving away $500 this month towards your studio gear. And all you have to do to enter is comment below. And the question of the day is:

What would you do if money was no object? What would you get for your studio? And make sure to subscribe below.

Fabio:
And if you want to get in touch with sides, a.k.a. Sabrina go to the link in the description below where you can find all of her details.

Lukas:
And if you want to get in touch with Fabio, it is @Noize_London. And for me it’s @MusicbyLukas and of course, Boombox.io is where you go to find Boombox and we’ll see you next time! Bye!

Fabio: Peace!

How to Start a Career in Music Production w/ SEIDS – Boomcast Ep. 7

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Video Transcript: How to Start a Career in Music Production w/ SEIDS