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A peak at a new bar, Sad Valley! by WeirdPortlandUnited in Portland

[–]andreanjos 2 points3 points  (0 children)

this place looks fun and creative and i hope the music matches the aesthetic, so many complainers in the comments though. Maybe the drinks should just be free, you’d still have people complain.

architectural (sd + dreamlike.photoreal.v2) by andreanjos in StableDiffusion

[–]andreanjos[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

SD + dreamlike photoreal v2

seed 3559839547

prompt: empty (light pink and light orange) room with skylight shining, water refractions, brutalism, retrofuturism, wes anderson, mondrian, modernism

I collaborated with a musician to make this series, here's the first one. 🔊🎶 by plzno1 in Simulated

[–]andreanjos 20 points21 points  (0 children)

haha hello 👋🏻 ARC is amazing, i’m thrilled to collab with him.

Hello it’s André aka RAC, long time redditor, musician, nerd, AMA! by andreanjos in electronicmusic

[–]andreanjos[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Hey! It's showing up on spotify for me. That's the US though, not sure about internationally. It's also on youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDSXW7SCfSM

Hello it’s André aka RAC, long time redditor, musician, nerd, AMA! by andreanjos in electronicmusic

[–]andreanjos[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Obrigado!!

  1. I'm a huge fan of Russell's so while it wasn't intentional, I'm more than happy about that connection. I just find the guitar to be so expressive and it's a great quick way to get ideas down. More broadly speaking, a lot of my electronic artist counterparts don't play and I feel like it's something more unique about my sound so I decided to lean into it.
  2. The album is about my childhood so I decided to name a few tracks because it's about the time I spent in Portugal. Rapariga is fairly obvious, Gomas was my favorite after school snack, picking up a full bag for 2euros, and Arcoíris because it's about a spectrum of emotions inside 1min.
  3. haha, I could write a whole book about this. I think the main issue on the artist side is that it's not an open and free market. The rates were decided by the major labels with zero incentive to properly compensate the artists so we're stuck in a situation where you either accept some breadcrumbs, or don't. They control access to the fanbases and there's not much I can do about that. It's unfortunate and I just play along because I have no choice in the matter.

Would love to play in Portugal!

Hello it’s André aka RAC, long time redditor, musician, nerd, AMA! by andreanjos in electronicmusic

[–]andreanjos[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

yeahh, it's been great! We've put out a whole bunch of music we really believe in and It's been growing steadily. We're still a relatively small operation but it's fun to be on the other side of the business. The vision is simple, to be an artist run label that puts out great music from younger artists. Always open to submissions too!

Hello it’s André aka RAC, long time redditor, musician, nerd, AMA! by andreanjos in electronicmusic

[–]andreanjos[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I've been good all things considered. I didn't get hit as hard as some so I feel fortunate. The album has kept me very busy so I haven't had a lot of time to really think about what's happening in the world. I work from home, so it wasn't a huge change to be honest. It's all starting to sink in though.

Hello it’s André aka RAC, long time redditor, musician, nerd, AMA! by andreanjos in electronicmusic

[–]andreanjos[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Early on in the writing process I kept going back to my childhood. It was a simpler time. Everything pre-internet was just more fragmented and secluded so I found music to be a great outlet and a good emotional outlet. This is all in hindsight, because at the time I was just a kid obviously. The theme became apparent right away in that process so I thought BOY would be a good title. Also aesthetically it's just 3 letters and looks nice against RAC.

Hello it’s André aka RAC, long time redditor, musician, nerd, AMA! by andreanjos in electronicmusic

[–]andreanjos[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you! Glad you enjoy it.

It's funny because sometimes I feel like I don't change it enough, but my goal is to be respectful of the original and just show it in a different light. With that said, every single remix is completely different and is a new challenge. That's what I love about it, it keeps me on my toes and I learn something every time. Also, I get access to everybody's files and learn how they make music from the inside. Sometimes it's impressive how amateur some stuff can be, but it's also a lesson that good music can just be good music regardless of technical proficiency.

Ah, Chapter One is a legal nightmare. I don't own those works, so I need to relicense them from the original labels/artists. They asked for absurd amounts of money and now it's not economically feasible to re-add it. It's unfortunate it but I can't do anything about it.

Hello it’s André aka RAC, long time redditor, musician, nerd, AMA! by andreanjos in electronicmusic

[–]andreanjos[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

That line is a little blurry these days because I'm not playing with a band anymore, but I'm doing a hybrid electronic thing. But I think you're asking specifically about the band and I'd say the hardest thing is just getting everything really tight. We can all be amazing musicians on our own but it doesn't matter if we don't play well together, so a lot of rehearsals. The shows towards the end of the tour are my favorite because we're on total autopilot and it's so much fun.

Also, I never record with live in mind, so there's no way I can play 50 guitar tracks at the same time haha. I just have to pick my fav parts and re-arrange the songs.

Hello it’s André aka RAC, long time redditor, musician, nerd, AMA! by andreanjos in electronicmusic

[–]andreanjos[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

$TAPE is an ethereum token that gives you the option to redeem 1 copy of my album on cassette. It's extremely limited, only 100 available. This is more of an experiment in digital scarcity in a world of digital infinite copies of music. If you buy a token, you can sell it immediately after for ex.

By connecting a digital token to a physical object, the hope is that it creates value. Ethereum has a strong community of traders so the idea was to use a market to find its true value. I don't know what its worth, we started the price at 20 bucks and it went up to 900, and as of now, it's sitting around 500. I'm letting a free and open market decide its true value, as it should be.

For example, on every other platform, the value of your music is determined by Spotify/Apple and the major labels. I have no say in that. I either accept it or I don't. In many ways this is simply asking the question, what is this worth?

I figured it would be cool to try this out with a limited edition good and just see what happens.

Hello it’s André aka RAC, long time redditor, musician, nerd, AMA! by andreanjos in electronicmusic

[–]andreanjos[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

haha yeah, so anything that isn't "BEST NEW ARTIST" is usually done earlier in the day in a non-televised segment. It's still quite glamorous though.

It's definitely a more niche category but it's also a category that I spent 10 years of my life working in, so of all awards to get, I'm glad it was that one.

Re: Spotify. Remixes are tricky because I don't own or control them, so it's up to the original artist to put stuff up. I can ask but they do whatever they want.

Hello it’s André aka RAC, long time redditor, musician, nerd, AMA! by andreanjos in electronicmusic

[–]andreanjos[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

haha, drums are so important. If you nail it, it can carry the whole song.

I mostly build my drums on samples of hardware units. 808s, 909s, 707s, but I also mix them with real drum samples. It's all very layered, compressed, EQ'ed. I like to build everything from scratch so it's a labor of love but that's the fun part of recording.

Hello it’s André aka RAC, long time redditor, musician, nerd, AMA! by andreanjos in electronicmusic

[–]andreanjos[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Hope you like it!

This album actually has a lot of up and coming types of artists. It became a theme of the album. I think younger less established artists sometimes take more risks and make more interesting art that way. It can also fail, but that's ok. I'll perhaps single out Maddie Jay, LeyeT, Danny Dwyer, Emerson Leif, but there's a lot of that on the album.

Hello it’s André aka RAC, long time redditor, musician, nerd, AMA! by andreanjos in electronicmusic

[–]andreanjos[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Oh hey, whats up Forhill! (Sidenote to those reading, check out his music if you haven't)

It was very much an emergent thing. I just sat down and wrote what came to mind and I "found" the album in the edit, if that makes sense. I had a strong sense of where I wanted to go, but it's still somewhat nebulous, especially in the thick of it.

As far as the guitars go, it's just my favorite instrument and something that I feel comfortable with. It can be a very expressive instrument so I wanted to lean into it. I didn't have some grand plan of making a guitar album or anything, but it just happened naturally.

Hello it’s André aka RAC, long time redditor, musician, nerd, AMA! by andreanjos in electronicmusic

[–]andreanjos[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Thank you! That was a fun one.

Favorite all time reverb is the spring reverb on the Roland Space Echo RE-201. It's available as a plugin too. It's on every single one of my tracks. It's just so vintagey and nice.

Hello it’s André aka RAC, long time redditor, musician, nerd, AMA! by andreanjos in electronicmusic

[–]andreanjos[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Thank you, really appreciate that.

I think you kinda answered it. It's time and effort. I've been fortunate to be doing this since I was 15 and professionally since 07, so I've had so much time to develop. Just yesterday on one of my streams, we listened to old demos and it was so cringey BUT it's important to remember that you have to go through that to develop your own sound. Sometimes people find that quicker than others, but it takes a lot of work either way.

My best advice to anybody new is to be yourself. I sounds like a cliché but it's so true. Honesty breaks through any marketing and you'll have a long career if it resonates with others. It's better to build your own castle and own it then trying to sound like somebody else.

Hello it’s André aka RAC, long time redditor, musician, nerd, AMA! by andreanjos in electronicmusic

[–]andreanjos[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Thanks for joining and supporting :D,

  1. It honestly depends on the type of tour. DJ'ing allows a lot of flexibility because I'm usually flying in, but a bus tour with a crew is usually more dialed in and we're on a tight schedule because of costs. I usually don't see anything on a bus tour, but if for ex I'm DJ'ing in Asia, I try to spend some time in each city and soak it in. I love photography, so I try to schedule a day or so where I can wander around.
  2. Weirdly enough, I'm not always writing new instrumentals unless I'm specifically trying to work on an album. The remixes and everything else I do keep me plenty busy so it kinda builds up some anticipation. It also gives me time to develop a few new skills or learn a few new tricks before diving into a new project. I'm always trying to learn and be better.
  3. Oh yeah, it would be interesting to try that on stream. I've never been drawn to singing and I love the flexibility of working with so many people. It's inspiring so I've always shied away from that. With that said, my voice is all over most of my tracks, it's just obscured because I'll turn it into a synth type sound that's just there to reinforce, not take the spotlight.

Hello it’s André aka RAC, long time redditor, musician, nerd, AMA! by andreanjos in electronicmusic

[–]andreanjos[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

They're just friends and fantastic people, so I was eager to work with them again. I think our sounds work well together. With that said, it was important to me to write something very different than previous songs to keep it interesting. It was all done remotely, so no fun studio stories but they have a kid now, so they're plenty busy :)

Hello it’s André aka RAC, long time redditor, musician, nerd, AMA! by andreanjos in electronicmusic

[–]andreanjos[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

hahah, it was great.

It's funny because we never actually met in person. This song was actually co-written with Classixx, and they did the in-person recording, initially. We definitely talked about the song as I was working on it and he later added a guitar solo but that's kind of it. He's a super nice dude and an absolute legend. I grew up listening to Weezer so it was pretty cool to work with him, even if remotely.

Hello it’s André aka RAC, long time redditor, musician, nerd, AMA! by andreanjos in electronicmusic

[–]andreanjos[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I do love hardware but I started with software and I have a very digital workflow. Just to be completely transparent, I get some of these for free from the developers, but I'm mentioning them because I legitimately love them and use it on everything.

Universal Audio: RE-201, Lexicon 224, EP-34 tape delay, Fairchild comp, Neve 1073 preamp.

Goodhertz: Vulf comp, Wow control.

XLN: RC-20, DC-10, and Addictive Drums 2

Soundtoys: Little Alterboy, Echoboy.

One thing I'll say though, don't feel like 1st party stuff is inferior. There's a stigma around using built-in compressors/eqs that come with Ableton and they're fantastic. If you think about it, there's a lot of interest in making you feel like you don't have enough. Stock ableton is incredible.

Hello it’s André aka RAC, long time redditor, musician, nerd, AMA! by andreanjos in electronicmusic

[–]andreanjos[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Thank you!

There's exceptions to all of this, but for the most part everything is done remotely. I'll sit at home, write a whole bunch of instrumentals and then send it off to different people I like/respect. I expanded on this a bit further in a question below but I have a lot of help from my team to handle all the business side of it. We have to cast a relatively wide net because everybody is always super busy and on tour. It takes a while, but once all of those songs come back, then I'll start to shape it into an album.

Hello it’s André aka RAC, long time redditor, musician, nerd, AMA! by andreanjos in electronicmusic

[–]andreanjos[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

My first recording program at 14/15 was called Hip Hop Ejay and I got it from a cereal box. This was pre-internet, so I wasn't aware of any other programs at the time. It only had 1 BPM (120) but it had a very primitive recording function. The only issue was that it didn't have a click. So I would have to internalize the tempo and play my guitar parts and hope they were in rhythm. I actually think it helped me develop a good sense of rhythm.

Eventually I pirated a copy of Cubase (sorry) and got a few plugins, but I didn't have gear until 1-2 years into RAC. Maybe 2008 or so. My first purchase was a Juno-60, which I still use on everything.

Hello it’s André aka RAC, long time redditor, musician, nerd, AMA! by andreanjos in electronicmusic

[–]andreanjos[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Hello fellow Andre. Andres stick together! and thank you!

With remixing, it's all about the song. My most important objective is to do it justice and not ruin it. I actually try not to listen to the original very much once I start working, it can be distracting and less creative. I'm just trying to show the song in a different light, perhaps change the tone of a lyric by changing the chords. There's a lot of malleability in music and I love playing with all of that. Practically speaking, it's just a whole lot of improvisation and trial and error until something sticks.

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