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Here are the job opportunities (or as we like to call them, Grind Opps) from this week's show.
02/13/17
GRIND OPP #1
Position:
Audio Mix Engineer
Industry: Recording
Location: Santa Clara Valley, CA
Description
Work with in-house video production team to provide audio engineering services for a variety of high-production-value live events
02/13/17
GRIND OPP #2
Position:
Producer
Industry: Radio
Location: San Antonio, TX
Description
Coordinate production administrative activities
02/13/17
GRIND OPP #3
Position:
Audio Archive Engineer
Industry: Recording
Location: Santa Monica, CA
Description
We are currently seeking an eager, dynamic and exceptional audio engineer.
02/13/17
GRIND OPP #4
Position:
Production Engineer
Industry: Recording
Location: Atlanta, GA
Description
Prepare and execute audio and broadcast infrastructure-related projects.
02/13/17
GRIND OPP #5
Position:
Video Editor
Industry: Film
Location: Rock Island, IL
Description
Creative editor to work with team on array of projects.
02/13/17
GRIND OPP #6
Position:
Post Production Coordinator
Industry: Film
Location: Scottsdale, AZ
Description
Work with head of Post Production to develop schedules and budget needs for each project.
02/13/17
GRIND OPP #7
Position:
Program Director
Industry: Radio
Location: Portland, OR
Description
OPB is looking for a Programming Director to grow and maintain public media audiences with primary focus on TV and video.
02/13/17
GRIND OPP #8
Position:
Audio Engineer, Lighting, Video Engineer / Editor
Industry: Recording
Location: Houston, TX
Description
We are seeking to hire Audio, Lighting, and Video Engineers with experience in Live Event Engineering.
02/13/17
GRIND OPP #9
Position:
Executive Chef, Farm to Counter Restaurant
Industry: Culinary
Location: New York, NY
Description
Mission focused, rapidly growing “farm-to-counter” fast casual concept searching for Executive Chefs and Sous Chefs to join their team for current and future openings.
02/13/17
GRIND OPP #10
Position:
Sous Chef
Industry: Culinary
Location: St. Louis, MO
Description
The Sous Chef is responsible for supporting the Executive Chef in leading a team of culinary professionals that deliver high-quality, great tasting food; proper food safety and sanitation procedures and profitability.
Transcript
DJ IZ: Welcome to Connected. I’m your host, DJ IZ. I’ve got my lovely cohost. Say, “What up.” Cloie.
Cloie: Hi, guys. Happy Monday. I’m just Instagram living it.
DJ IZ: You’re doing you’re thing, you’re doing your thing but check it out. Today’s extremely special. Today is Connected’s first takeover with music’s finest, The Audibles. Ya’ll say, “What’s up, man.”
DJ Mecca: What’s up, world.
DJ IZ: Now, Cloie, these are like my brothers. These are the creators that keep me going and keep me want to stay fresh and big news. They just came out of yesterday’s Grammy Awards Show, Grammy nominated. Man, shout out to you guys. We want to hear about the journey, the process. As you know, as faithful Connected viewers, they already know my story. Our viewers know my story but to have a cast like this at this caliber share their story means the world to me, it means the world to Connected, man, and congrats, man. You guys look like you…was it a long night? Was it…
DJ Mecca: Very.
Cloie: Have you slept yet?
DJ IZ: Run us through that real quick. The day you got in town, where you’re checking in, you’ve got to pick up your credential. As a matter of fact, pull out the medallion, man. Why are you hiding the medallion, bro?
DJ Mecca: I wear it for good luck for next year.
DJ IZ: Man, that’s dope, man. Congrats to you guys on that, man.
Cloie: Can I?
DJ Mecca: Of course.
DJ IZ: So tell me, were you nervous? I mean, what was that process like? You get there, I’m assuming you put on something fly, you get there, you get your seat and the show rolls. What was that like?
DJ Mecca: Well, first off, I left my phone in the Uber.
Cloie: No.
DJ Mecca: Yeah, before literally…30 minutes before we had to be there and the Uber drove…well, an hour and a half before we had to be there. The Uber drove all the way to Santa Monica to the airport or to the beach and then he called me and said…did you leave…or I called my phone and he was like, “Yeah, you left your phone.” So he had to drive all the way back downtown and that’s at 12 during the day, during a Sunday so it took him forever and I was nervous that I wasn’t going to get my phone and it was not charged so I went downtown…and I didn’t have the right shirt. I was going to wear a [inaudible 00:03:22] shirt but then I changed [inaudible 00:03:23] shirt so I went down to the [inaudible 00:03:26] and bought it.
DJ IZ: Got your getup together.
Cloie: You sure do. [inaudible 00:03:30] sometimes.
DJ Mecca: Sometimes.
DJ IZ: So fellows, when you got in that venue, the Staple Center, huge…I mean, LA, Staple Center, right? When you got in your seat, man, what was that like, bro? Just being in that environment, being a part of that class. So talk to me now. Let me know what that was like for you guys.
Jimmy G: Yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, it was just a blessing to be there. I mean, all our hard work coming to life and it was…to me, it was more just a fun vibe all night. I mean, being with my best friend and my partner, how hard we worked to be there and bringing my mom and his girlfriend and…
DJ IZ: Man, that’s a celebrating. Just to hear you say that…I mean, Cloie, we always talk about just the journey here and the hard work, the day to day and what…trust me, we’re going to dive through all those fundamentals today and I think it’s important for our viewers to understand even outside of what we do to hear guys like you and what that roadmap looks like, what that template is.
Cloie: Because you’re out in it making it happen.
DJ IZ: Making it happen and here’s what I loved about yesterday. I saw my man with his mom. See, when you see a cat rolling with their mom like…because you know how I am with my mom. My mom’s at all our events so that means something to me, man. That means something and within respects to the foundation, what keeps you grounded and then you’ll find in this game, those are the things that keep you grounded [inaudible 00:04:55] man and when I saw that, bro, it was like…I was like, “Yes. That’s how you do it, man.”
Cloie: Well, you were telling us a story earlier about your mom and what she was saying about you all making beats at six in the morning too. Can you repeat that?
DJ IZ: Beats at six in the morning.
Cloie: Beats at six. Hustle.
DJ IZ: And your mom is like, “Yes, son. That beat right there.”
Jimmy G: No. I mean, I just…I know…I hear about a lot of people’s parents that don’t support them like that or they don’t think their dream’s realistic and she’s just been down since day one for us and our biggest supported and that’s something I want to pass down to my son.
DJ IZ: Man, that’s amazing, dude. That’s amazing and just to touch on real quick…they mentioned the work, the grind and we’re going to dive into a bunch of just information. We call it privilege knowledge because it’s taken X amount of years on your journey to acquire that and just so we’re being faithful Connected viewers…by the way, guys, they’ve been tuning in since day one.
Cloie: Sure have. All of our [inaudible 00:05:54]
DJ IZ: Right, so this ain’t nothing new to them. The great thing…we’re about our jobs, we’re about our education but most importantly, we’re about the connectivity like this and we like to share information and tips, man, and Cloie put together a great clip and it’s a grind tip clip so let’s roll that and check it our real quick.
Cloie: Job tip 14. Voicemail etiquette. Make absolutely sure your mailbox is not full.
Woman: Zero, zero, zero. He’s not available. The mailbox is full and cannot accept any messages at the time. Goodbye.
Cloie: Ya’ll, if an employer can’t leave a message for you, how in the hell do you think you’re going to get hired?
DJ IZ: After video. And I’m going to ask you straight up.
Cloie: That’s fine.
DJ IZ: Yo, how in the hell do I get hired?
Cloie: Oh, baby, baby, baby.
DJ IZ: What do I got to do to get hired? What do I need to have in place?
Cloie: Well, so before anything, you need to know your craft.
DJ IZ: Okay.
Cloie: So let’s start there.
DJ IZ: I like that.
Cloie: Be good at what you do.
DJ IZ: Be great at what you do.
Cloie: Be fantastic at what you do and then you show up and you…as we always say here, #overperform.
DJ IZ: Always.
Cloie: Can I get a Monday hello for #overperform.
DJ IZ: You can get a Monday amen but go ahead.
Cloie: So that…be on time, right. Being on time is not showing up five minutes early which is…we always say because late is late. Traffic and the dog and whatever. No. Late is late, okay.
DJ IZ: Late is late.
Cloie: And also show up with the mindset of just ready to be of service as opposed to what am I going to get out of it. Show up to be ready to be of service and I think that those are some big, big…
DJ IZ: I like that and that’s some…when I saw that phrase, how in the hell do I…I wanted to make sure we got to expand on that a little bit so…
Cloie: Listen, how in the hell do you do it? You just make it happen.
DJ IZ: You make it happen. You make it happen. And kind of like what we did. We made it happen.
Cloie: We made it happen.
DJ IZ: I reached out to The Audibles. I was like, “Yo, I’ve got to have you on this show.” And today is special because not only is it our first Connected Monday Takeover with The Audibles but we are also in a new house. I don’t know if you guys noticed but we are now in the house of Roland and shout out to Roland because they are one of the few that have actually…
Cloie: Wait, say that…shout out to the Roland. Yeah.
DJ IZ: And I say that because they are one of the few companies that I know of to really be infusing the culture and really making an impact with creators like ourselves, musicians, people who are passionate about music, music lovers.
DJ Mecca: Yes.
DJ IZ: And I just want to make sure that we respect the house because we’re at Roland now.
Cloie: The house that Roland built.
DJ IZ: The house that Roland built.
Cloie: [inaudible 00:08:47]
DJ IZ: We’ve got the fly…I already know you guys know what those drum machines are about.
DJ Mecca: Oh, of course.
Jimmy G: Yeah.
DJ IZ: Classic, right? The beginning.
DJ Mecca: The beginning right here.
DJ IZ: That’s the essence.
DJ Mecca: And it’s crazy because I’ve seen DJ [inaudible 00:09:02] bro. Crazy. All this stuff you’re doing with the effects, they took it to a whole another level.
DJ IZ: They did, man. You know what’s great too? I think just…I love…what I love about it is it lends itself to how I even create with drum machines and be able to put a beat together while a capelling the [inaudible 00:09:20]
DJ Mecca: Sequencing, exactly.
DJ IZ: Sequencing. Come on, man. That’s forward thinking at its finest, man. So let me get off that and me. Let’s get on you guys, man. I mean, come on, man. Grammy nominated, man. I mean, I’m sure…is there any still…is the adrenaline running still or anything?
Jimmy G: I mean, we’re ready to just go in, get there next year.
Cloie: Yeah.
DJ IZ: Yeah.
Jimmy G: Take one home. You know what I mean?
DJ IZ: That’s what’s up, man. And just briefly, man, how long have you guys been together?
DJ Mecca: 2007.
Jimmy G: Yeah, 2007.
DJ Mecca: For 10 years now. Yeah.
DJ IZ: Yeah.
Cloie: And how did you first link up? For the people that don’t know.
DJ Mecca: So Jimmy was working with his artist and I was working with this group called I15 that was signed to Interscope. Two of the guys in there are really close high school friends, brothers and he wanted JR Castro who’s an artist. He got a couple of records out last year that were crazy. He wanted him on one of his artist’s songs so we met at the Lost in love video shoot. [inaudible 00:10:24] by the way.
DJ IZ: Yeah, wow.
DJ Mecca: Yeah. And that’s how it happened. We went to the studio, played music and he loved what I was working on and vice versa. I loved everything he was working on so that’s how we started collaborating.
DJ IZ: And you…just from being around you guys, man, I mean, you guys seem like that brotherhood is…now you guys are inseparable, man. That connection, man, and that’s always great to have. I mean, you guys know I’ve had my brother Bobby since day one and I always say, man, “Nobody really does anything by themselves. It takes a team, man.” Just to see you guys complement each other the same way me and my brother do. I mean, that’s amazing. Yeah, it’s amazing, man. And you guys are out of Las Vegas, Nevada.
DJ Mecca: Las Vegas, yeah.
DJ IZ: The only…I’m sure the only cats out there doing it at that level. You know what I mean? And I commend you guys on that.
DJ Mecca: Thanks, boss. Can I add something? I have to talk about this guy real quick.
Cloie: Please do.
DJ Mecca: He is literally the most giving…I couldn’t do it. You guys don’t understand. There’s been times when our friends, everybody were broke. You know what I mean? In the beginning, it was a rough, rough time for all of us and he would give his last dollar to everybody. Even going back 2007, I was living with him and his parents. We all lived in the same house for two, three years and his mom would cook for us every day. Every single day. She’s Sicilian.
DJ IZ: Wow.
DJ Mecca: She would even sometimes do our laundry. Whatever it took. Seriously, I’m just putting it all out there.
Jimmy G: And the laundry, literally.
DJ Mecca: Yeah, exactly. And the laundry.
Jimmy G: Yeah.
DJ Mecca: So she was amazing. She had names for every beat. She’d say, “Can you please play me the big Jay Z song?”
DJ IZ: Was she doing a catalogue?
DJ Mecca: Yeah. She was our catalogue, bro, and it’s crazy to see the songs actually getting placed now and seeing everything happen and come to life. She was one of our biggest supporters back then. Her and his dad.
DJ IZ: That’s dope, man, and I think too, man, at the same time, that’s so important for our viewers to hear, man, is the journey and what that…because for everybody, it’s different and nine times out of 10, we both share the same story as in the struggle. Not having any money.
Cloie: The struggle is real.
DJ IZ: Being broke. Your car payments…
DJ Mecca: Sleeping on floors.
DJ IZ: Sleeping on the floor. Man, what are some of the things you guys have experienced along those lines of just the struggle, man, to be where you’re at today?
Jimmy G: I mean, you’re not getting the money you would get from a nine to five. You’re set making sacrifices to relationships, living how you want to but I mean, at the end of the day, I mean, I think anyone’s dream…if they’re going to really go hard with it, then their parents should support them
DJ Mecca: Yes.
Jimmy G: If you really show them that you’re serious about it, I just don’t see how you can’t get behind your kid if they’re willing to put the work in so…
DJ IZ: Right, absolutely. And just also [inaudible 00:13:29] what does the work ethic look like for you guys on a day to day when it’s time to…
Cloie: The daily grind.
DJ IZ: Your daily grind.
DJ Mecca: 24/7.
DJ IZ: 24/7.
DJ Mecca: Literally. When me and Jimmy aren’t together, we’re online looking up new sounds, new techniques, new equipment that’s out, new sounds like…not just the sounds but what people are doing, what’s current right now, what’s experimental, what can we take from that and be influenced by and we’re listening to old songs. Literally, Jimmy, what artist, what girl artist did we listen to from our drive from Vegas? Because we’ve probably don the Vegas, LA drive…last year, 200 times. You know what I mean? Seriously, every other day. Because our families are at home but we stay out here too. So what female artist do we listen to?
Jimmy G: I mean, Janet.
DJ Mecca: Literally, we bump Janet all day. That’s our favorite go to because of the core progressions and everything and Usher’s Confessions album. Classic albums, bro. We’re big 90s R&B. So we’re constantly studying no matter what. Even if we’re in the studio, we’re studying and trying out new techniques and if we’re not in the studio, we’re checking up with new artists and new sounds.
DJ IZ: And that’s so good to hear, man. A lot of times, when we get to our Q&A part of the show, people want to…
Cloie: Get your questions ready. Get your questions ready.
DJ IZ: And by the way, get your questions ready. People want to know that information like is it…do I need to know this or should I be doing this? And really, it’s a combination of everything, right. It’s a combination of being a student of your craft, putting in the work, up and awake when everyone else is asleep, going online, learning what didn’t…familiarizing yourself with the community, the culture of different genres. And I always stress, man, it’s so important to have more than one gear that you can shift to, right, and the only way you do that is by being a student of your craft and learning everybody that came and did it before you.
DJ Mecca: Yeah.
DJ IZ: And just…when I listen to The Audibles and I go through your guys’ catalogue, I know you guys are students of music and it’s so important. I think even for the younger generation of creators to understand…cool. I’ll rock with the trap, I’ll rock with the hip hop but if you’re a true music lover, embellish all that’s out there for you to grasp on to. Because…I’m sure when you guys are creating, right, you’re creating and you might run into a roadblock as far as, “Okay, what core progression?” And guess where you pull from? That library of your music you have in you and you’re saying, “Ah, okay. We’re going to go here.”
Jimmy G: All right.
DJ IZ: You know what I’m saying? So just to be able to stockpile that information is incredible, man, and…
DJ Mecca: Yeah, thanks, bro.
Jimmy G: I think that’s one cool thing about us too. When I first met him, he was one of the only people I knew that loved everything I love from the Stevie and [inaudible 00:16:26] fires to when alternative was great in the early 2000s to the current hip hop and that’s a big part of our sound because we love every type of music too.
Cloie: You speak a common language is what it sounds like. You speak the same language basically.
DJ Mecca: We love music. We actually just did a reggae album, this group called the Common Kings.
DJ IZ: Common Kings. Dude, it just came out on iTunes. Let’s talk about it.
DJ Mecca: Oh, it’s number one on iTunes.
DJ IZ: Congrats.
DJ Mecca: It was awesome and the album sonically is our best work to date. You know what I mean? That and the Bieber album is our best work to date and we’ve progressed so far from…we went to our past catalogue with Lupe and just sonically every year we keep getting better and better and the thing that I love about us, especially him, is that we could do a rap song, a hip hop song and then we can do an alternative like our artist Sasha Sirota and then we can go and do a Common Kings reggae album. There’s no format to our process and Jimmy’s willing to tackle any obstacle that comes our way.
DJ IZ: And that’s a great thing because you guys have gears and one of the things we’ve talked throughout the course of our show since day one is having gears, man. Being able to navigate and do this and not just this. You know what I’m saying? And that’s great. And we’re going to get into more of that later on in the show because I want to hear…we want to talk about what you guys were nominated for, the Justin Bieber, what you guys did and everything you guys got going on with the Common Kings and stuff. So we’re going to get to that, absolutely. But as you know, our show…we like to give jobs out, man.
DJ Mecca: Yes.
DJ IZ: So here’s the great thing.
Cloie: [inaudible 00:18:11]
DJ IZ: We’ve got some guests that really, really know what they’re talking about so when we go to these grindopps, man, feel free to chime in. If you see some things, you can add them in. Hey, kick your feet up, man. Lounge out.
Cloie: [inaudible 00:18:22] couch.
DJ IZ: It’s your show today.
Cloie: You’re welcome.
DJ IZ: It’s The Audibles takeover, man. So Cloie, before we jump into these grindopps, what do they need to have in place?
Cloie: Guys, you know the drill.
DJ IZ: Break it on down, honey.
Cloie: Breaking it down. Get your pens, get your pencils. If you’re green, get your texting thumbs and your…what is this? Devices. Make it happen.
DJ IZ: Twitter fingers. We call it Twitter fingers.
Cloie: Twitter thumbs, Twitter thumbs.
DJ IZ: Yes.
Cloie: Get it all, get it down and get your positive attitude for some Monday movement.
DJ IZ: Here we go. First grindopp of the day is in the field of audio mix engineer. This is Santa Clara Valley, California. Here we go. Work with in-house video production team, provide audio engineering services for a variety of high production value live events. Must be proficient with the entire audio production lifecycle. Understanding the various microphone and audio processor types and their performance characterizes. So fellows, you know that’s extremely detailed, technical and…
Cloie: Which we get sometimes.
DJ IZ: Which we get sometimes but have you noticed going from studio to live are two different things?
DJ Mecca: Totally.
DJ IZ: Right? And you can usually…your ear will be like, “Okay. This guy is a studio guy. This dude’s a studio engineer.”
Cloie: Really?
DJ IZ: Really.
Cloie: You can just pick it up like that?
DJ IZ: You can pick it up. Another thing too, with this grindopp and this is something we talk about often in our show…the importance of knowing an array of software, right. Some cats use Ableton Live, some cats use Pro Tools, some cats…how important do you think it is just before going into a gig just knowing all the gear that your job comes with?
DJ Mecca: Yes.
DJ IZ: I mean, when you guys walk into a studio, right…I’m sure you guys are at a point where you touch knobs, right. You know your go to plugins. You know what I’m saying? How much would it slow up your work if you got into an environment and you couldn’t navigate?
Jimmy G: I mean, it would be…
DJ IZ: It would be lights out, right?
Jimmy G: Right.
DJ IZ: It would be like, “Hey, yo, Jimmy. Time is money, man.”
Cloie: [inaudible 00:20:28] just shutting the lights off. Just turn it out.
DJ IZ: And we get grindopps like that that are very technical and some of the things we stress to our viewers is it’s really easy to get the information like…YouTube is the run to dictionary. Anything for everything. So when you get into the technicalities of a grindopp like that, it’s not rocket science.
Cloie: No.
DJ IZ: You can familiarize yourself really quick with what is required in those particular job settings as far as knowing all the gear.
DJ Mecca: Knowing the dos.
DJ IZ: Knowing the dos, bro. How important is that?
DJ Mecca: Shortcuts.
DJ IZ: Right, shortcuts.
DJ Mecca: Oh, man. That’s everything. It’s so crazy. When we get in…because we dabble between a few dos and we’ll go from Ableton to Pro Tools to FL. We started out in FL so a lot of the songs that get placed that are old are on FL so I have to remember…and Jimmy too. We have to remember the shortcuts because it’s speaking three different languages.
DJ IZ: Right, right.
DJ Mecca: And when you’re going from Pro Tools to Ableton to FL, you’re trying a shortcut and it’s like, “It’s not working. Oh, it’s Pro Tools shortcut and I’m Ableton.” It really helps to know all of your shortcuts and know all of your dos. As many as you possibly can in my opinion.
DJ IZ: No, you got it Jimmy.
Cloie: Go head.
DJ IZ: Go for it, man.
Jimmy G: Just one thing I always say about engineers since it was brought up, the best engineers we’ve worked with always have a music background.
DJ IZ: Yeah.
Jimmy G: I think that’s so important because there’s a lot of people that know nobs and effects but the engineers that are really good with timing and editing and…
DJ IZ: They’re musicians.
Jimmy G: And musicians. They just have a huge leg up and make that much of a better sound.
DJ IZ: Yeah. And that’s a huge pointer, guys, what you just said and it’s crazy you said that because I don’t think I’ve ever really covered it like that throughout the shows and what you said is very, very key for…because we have a lot of aspiring engineers [inaudible 00:22:32] house guys and that’s so important, man, because I’ve been in situations where I’m working with the engineers and I can tell just by the time, the edits that they’re not rhythmically there.
DJ Mecca: Right.
DJ IZ: But I have found that when I work with engineers that either play the guitar, play the drums…
Cloie: They have a working knowledge of it, yeah.
DJ IZ: You can walk out of the room, go get whatever you need to get and come back and be confident in knowing that the timing on that…you’re not going to have to say, “Hey, man, can you slide it over just a hair?” You know what I’m saying. And that’s key because we do have a lot of cats who are looking to be engineers and want to do the live events and things and to…what I’ve also noticed with this particular grindopp is knowing your venues.
Cloie: Well, well…
DJ IZ: Because sometimes in this setting, you can get to an open venue or a closed venue and knowing how to compensate for those sounds that change, right. When you’re in an environment and there’s no roof, sound is different. I just got done…actually, I just got done meeting with a huge church back out where I’m at in San Bernardino and they have a great room and they can’t dial it in. They’ve got sounds bouncing off all the walls and everything so they reached out to me and said, “Hey, IZ, can you just come and check it out. Maybe you help us figure it out.” So I walk into this room. Beautiful church and I notice they don’t have any soundproofing on the walls. So sound is just going here, going here and the engineer cannot dial the sound in and it’s really like you’ve got to treat the walls which means you’ve got to put some acoustics up like fabric, soundproofing…
DJ Mecca: [inaudible 00:24:04]
DJ IZ: Yeah, and those are the things that are definitely…just from an engineer [inaudible 00:24:09] house aspect that are extremely important. So I think those are some things that you definitely need to take into the consideration for this grindopp. So that is our first grindopp of the day.
Cloie: But before we do move into our second grindopp, I mean, we should also do a super special shout out to one of our people, to Angel Ayala who is…
DJ IZ: Shout out to Angel.
Cloie: Yes, shout out to Angel.
DJ IZ: Shout out to Angel.
Cloie: He is a recording connections student and he is externing with Joey Higher at Crystal Clear Studio, Crystal Clear Recording in Philadelphia and Joey says about Angel that he plays guitar, he raps, he records, he does everything and that he can work a mac better than he can.
DJ IZ: Wow.
Cloie: Another thing that’s crazy is Angel’s blind and he’s just making everything happen. So just shout out to Angel.
DJ IZ: Yeah, that’s even…that makes it even more amazing.
DJ Mecca: Wow.
Cloie: This guy…there’s just people out there doing it, doing what you love and then the rest will speak for itself. So to learn more about Angel and about Joey and Crystal Clear and all that stuff, check out our newsletter which will be coming out later today.
DJ IZ: There you go. Amazing.
Cloie: [inaudible 00:25:19]
DJ IZ: Shout out to Joey again. That’s beautiful. I love hearing stories like that. So moving on.
Cloie: Did we say Q&A? Did we say get your Q&A ready? We said that already.
DJ IZ: Let’s tell them all the time because we want to make sure…listen, The Audibles are in the house so whatever you need to ask or want to ask, let’s make sure we have that in hand, all right?
Cloie: Yeah, don’t mess it up now.
DJ IZ: So here we go. Grindopp two of the day is in the field of…oh, terrific. Producer. This is in San Antonio, Texas. Assist in the creation of radio advertising and station promotions, research stories and book guests, edit audio segments, proficient in Microsoft Office Suite, social networking platforms and basic audio production tools. Okay. So not quite a music producer.
Cloie: No, but things we talk about all the time, there’s detail.
DJ IZ: But still the fundamentals, right. Take in some of that start and finishing it.
DJ Mecca: Yes.
DJ IZ: And that’s something that I think we need to clarify in this day and age of the actual tittle producer.
DJ Mecca: Right.
DJ IZ: And I’d love to hear what that means to you guys. When you hear the word producer, what does that signify to you guys?
Jimmy G: I mean, I think making…from a great record to a great body of work is more than just making the beat. It’s making a song, it’s striving to make a hit song and it’s overseeing, it’s making sure the mix sounds right. Just I think as a whole what…when we’re talking about a record or a body of work so…
DJ Mecca: Yeah, from conception to finish.
DJ IZ: To finish. And that’s great. I think when people ask me that question, I think the best thing I can point to is Quincy Jones who’s not making the beat. Might not be playing his horn but he knows how to take an idea, put the right team around it and get it to the finish line and the word producer is thrown around so loosely today, man, and it’s like…
Cloie: We talk about that here.
DJ IZ: And I have an idea of where it got that way because in hip hop music, the beat maker was the producer in hip hop and he was the dude making the beat and DJing a lot so when it started to transition over into just pop culture and other genres of music, the producer then took on a different meaning which still to this day, even on the hip hop side, the dude that’s making the beat and starting it is the producer. But on the other side of the spectrum, when you’re dealing with R&B and you’re dealing with vocals, melody, song structure, you have so many more other components that come into play. Like the horn guys or the guy on keys or the base player and the dude sitting behind the console who might not be a musician but can still produce. Knows how to hear and finish a product and then be the dude at the end of the day at the mastering lab mastering for the album. So I think just it’s great to share that information because I think even with this particular grindopp, the fundamentals of what producer means is really taking an idea, seeing it all the way through its journey, its process and then finishing it.
DJ Mecca: Yes.
DJ IZ: And we talk about it all the time too. Just…
Cloie: You’re talking about follow through too. It’s just a super important thing. That’s what you’re touching on right now.
DJ IZ: Yeah. And the ability to work with people. For this grindopp, you’re going to be working with people. You’re going to be having to make sure deadlines are right, make sure you’re looking at the right footage for an event or something and those are the things you’ve got to work with.
Cloie: And not everybody’s a producer and that’s okay.
DJ IZ: And that’s okay.
Cloie: Not everybody’s a DJ. Just because you have a computer and some speakers doesn’t make you a DJ.
DJ IZ: Yeah. Doesn’t make you a DJ.
Cloie: That’s okay too.
DJ IZ: So that was our second grindopp of the day. Cloie, I believe we’ve got some news to share before we go into our third grindopp.
Cloie: Oh, I believe it starts with the word face and ends with the word book. Messenger app.
DJ IZ: By the way, have you guys checked out the Connected Facebook app? I don’t mean to put you on the spot but I’m going to tell you, for creators, it’s amazing, bro.
DJ Mecca: Okay.
DJ IZ: I mean, so check this out. It’s an app that’s driven by artificial intelligence. So it learns your taste for any of the arts. If you’re on Facebook, talking about film or movies and stuff, through our app we can pop up and say, “Hey, we’ve got film opportunities that are X amount of miles away from you. Would you like to…” And it starts engaging with you and the great thing is creators connect with each other on it. So if you were a film dude and you’re like, “Hey, man, I’m a music guy. I’m looking for…” Or if you’re a film dude and you say, “Hey, I’m looking for music. I need a better music for my movie or whatever.” It’ll connect you with the dude who’s making music. Might be in New York and you guys are in Vegas but it allows you guys to do that. Instantly.
Cloie: But lessening the gap which is the most important thing and for everybody that’s here and you’re just hearing about it, maybe you’ve been under a rock and you haven’t heard about this app. You want to be included. That’s great. You want to send an email with Facebook in the subject line with your name, your city, your state, some links to your work and some samples of your work and the services that you offer.
DJ IZ: Yeah, and you can also…you can get hired. You can list your services. You can say, “Hey, I do this. I charge X amount.” And it’ll connect you with people that are looking for those services.
DJ Mecca: That’s crazy.
Jimmy G: That’s incredible.
DJ IZ: Right?
Cloie: Like a boss.
DJ IZ: So it even connects you more. It makes it that much easier.
DJ Mecca: Wow.
DJ IZ: Because I’m going to be honest with you. There’s a lot of creators out there that we’ve got to pull off their mom’s couch like, “Come on, man. Come on, man. Get involved, man. Get involved.” So…
Cloie: Nobody’s doing that for you. I mean, if you have the app and you can’t get it together enough for that, then maybe we should look in a different field.
DJ IZ: Yeah.
Cloie: And that’s okay.
DJ IZ: And it’s great, especially for what we do because there’s song writers, producers. You might…that lyricist. Let me get on the Connected app. “Hey, man. I’m looking for a cat who can write this event.” We can find them like that. And the great thing about what we do is it’s a Dropbox link. They can send a file. It’s…
Cloie: It’s crazy.
DJ IZ: It just makes it that much easier, man. So I want to make sure that you guys are fully aware of that. So when you’re on your way to Vegas, you’re like, “Let me check out this Connected app.” And you play around with it. It’s going to talk back to you. The whole nine, man.
DJ Mecca: That’s crazy.
Jimmy G: We’re going to download it right after definitely
Cloie: Please do.
Jimmy G: Definitely.
Cloie: You can even try it now if you want to.
DJ IZ: Download it…
Cloie: Connected. We have an app for that.
DJ IZ: We have an app for that. So here we go, guys. Moving on to grindopp number three. Grindopp number three is in the field of…five, four, three, two, one, zero. Audio archive engineer. This is in Santa Monica, California. This is an interesting one. Archive engineer. Okay. We are currently seeking an eager, dynamic and exceptional audio engineer. Must be able to meet deadlines in a high volume detailed focused environment. Broad knowledge of popular music of all genres, both current and historical is essential. Audio and video editing experience is a must and it’s crazy because we just got talking to…got done talking about knowing all the genres [inaudible 00:32:55] I think those are definitely key things for that grindopp.
Cloie: They have another point to this grindopp that you have to be proficient in Excel and we talk about that sometimes too. Because this goes along with knowing your equipment and your gear and your…on the music side of it, Ableton…this is the same thing with Microsoft Office Suite and all of its counterparts. Working both sides of your brain.
DJ IZ: Yeah, and I think too…along with knowing those different…like Excel spreadsheets and all that kind of stuff, it’s extremely important. Just the ability to put a decent email together. I mean, right?
DJ Mecca: Man.
DJ IZ: I always tell this story. Last year we were interviewing the CEO of Zoom, North America, Scot Goodman and last year, our whole goal was to pretty much talk to these execs and what they look for, what their day to day looks like, what’s their environment, what do they look for when they’re hiring and I say, “Hey, Scot, just tell me, man, when you’re hiring somebody, what is the one thing you’re looking for?” And he said, “I’m going to tell you. It’s simple. I look to see if they can read, write and spell.”
Cloie: You make that face. You make that face.
DJ IZ: That’s what he said, bro. That’s what he said. He said, “Within seconds, I can tell whether or not I’m going to give him a job or not.”
DJ Mecca: Wow.
Jimmy G: Wow.
DJ IZ: And that’s the thing. People equate success all the time to their talent and that’s not…nine times out of 10, that’s not how it works, right, because you can have the talent but there’s somebody who doesn’t have the talent that’s working harder than you, that is probably going to pass you up. I think it’s about all those things. Being able to not just be gifted at your craft or whatever but also have the other things in place. The knowhow, being able to work with others, no ego.
Cloie: And hunger too.
DJ IZ: The hunger.
Cloie: The hunger because that’s what’s going to set you apart because when you’re hungry, as opposed to when you’re full and comfortable, you will go out there and learn. Okay, maybe I don’t know this software. Now I’m going to go and learn it. I’m going to pull up the YouTube or whatever because I’m hungry and I need to be filled.
DJ IZ: Yeah. So when you guys are working…because I want to dive into you guys too, man. When you guys are working and you’re preparing for an artist, what’s that process? Do you guys…if it’s an artist you’ve never worked with. Do you guys familiarize yourself and then approach…how do you approach that? And what are some of the gears you pull from…let’s say if it’s an artist and it’s a different kind of genre and so you’re, “Okay, let me get…let me dive into this crate of musical information.” How does that go for you guys?
Jimmy G: One thing I like to do…I don’t know if most people do this. I like to do a little background on whatever artist we might be working with, what’s some of their favorite artists.
DJ IZ: Dope.
Jimmy G: And then I feel like, “Oh, maybe we could pull inspiration from something they love and put our twist on it because then it’ll be something like oh…” If they hear something they already love in a new, fresh way, then it’ll be something they connect with so…
DJ IZ: How about you, D?
DJ Mecca: The same thing.
DJ IZ: Same thing.
DJ Mecca: We sit there and we’ll figure out their songs, albums or if they’re a new artist themselves, then we sit and actually vibe with them and figure out exactly what they’re into and what kind of approach do they want from us but if it’s an established artist and we don’t have the opportunity to just be in the studio the whole time to vibe, then we try to figure out what they like and what really inspires them. Once we find that out, then we like to pull from that, the inspiration that they had from that and then build of off that.
DJ IZ: Has there ever been a situation where you not necessarily ran into a brick wall but was an artist of a completely different genre that you saw something dope in and you wanted to work with but you’re like, “Okay, shoot. Let me get…let me familiarize myself with this kind of stuff.”
DJ Mecca: Yeah, all the time. I mean, The Audibles means to be heard and it’s to literally be heard. So there’s all type of genres that we try to tackle that we’ve never done because…don’t get me wrong. 90s R&B is where our heart is and hip hop and all of that but we love music. We’re lovers of music so we try to tackle as many possibilities that we can.
Cloie: Here’s a follow-up to that then. Are there any genres to date that you have not worked in but you’re really looking forward to?
DJ IZ: That’s a great question.
DJ Mecca: I can name two. Jimmy?
DJ IZ: He’s got two, Jimmy.
Jimmy G: I would love to do some dope country stuff but some crossover cool country…
DJ IZ: Where you can infuse The Audibles?
Jimmy G: Where we infuse some soul in it too and…
DJ IZ: Nice. Yeah.
DJ Mecca: Don’t laugh at me guys.
Cloie: This is a judgment free zone.
DJ IZ: Yeah, it’s a judgment…yeah.
Cloie: This is a judgment…
DJ Mecca: Well, we want to score movies. That’s one. That’s our go to. We’ve been working…we scored a few music videos which is awesome but we want to score movies. But I really want to do some new age.
DJ IZ: Yeah. No, I’d like to do it. I love…
Cloie: [inaudible 00:38:29]
DJ IZ: He said new age in gospel.
Cloie: In gospel.
DJ IZ: That’s…
Cloie: I’m thinking Enya.
DJ IZ: That could be a dope concoction, bro.
Cloie: I’m thinking…yeah. When Enya meets Kirk Franklin. With some audible thing.
DJ IZ: That’s cool, man. Any…is there any challenges you guys have ran into just on the creative side? Like maybe the inspiration didn’t come that day. Maybe just personal things because I think it’s important for our viewers to understand at the same time not every day is a creative day. Not every day can be a music day and I think it’s important for them to understand that and hear it from guys like yourselves.
Jimmy G: Yeah, actually, we’re…it’s funny. We were talking about this yesterday. Somebody…it always works out like this for some of the biggest placements we’ve had. It always seems like when we’re totally just having fun and doing us and not necessarily worrying so much about some…are they going to like this. Those always seem by chance to be the ones that end up making the album. When they’re not forced. So once you…
Cloie: [inaudible 00:39:35] joy.
Jimmy G: Yeah. Once you get to a certain point where you have the ear for what’s good, I feel like when you just create what you really believe in and having fun with, then it seems to connect with people.
DJ IZ: I like that and I agree with that.
DJ Mecca: It sounds authentic and organic that way.
DJ IZ: Yeah.
Cloie: What about just talking about your music library. Have you had any things that were surprises to you like surprise hits where you’re just like, “I don’t even…in this vein and I don’t know where this came from but this is huge and it’s a hit.”
Jimmy G: Oh, yeah. I mean, sometimes we’ll spend hours on a particular beat trying to make it this epic thing and then sometimes the ones we make in 30 minutes are the ones that…
DJ IZ: Yeah.
Cloie: Like, “Oh, that was easy.”
DJ IZ: That’s great. And it does have…I mean, I’ve been in the same spot, man, where it’s like, “Damn, I spent three weeks on that one thing and here I am…”
Jimmy G: On the intro.
DJ IZ: Yeah, on the intro. And here I was just playing around with it and that’s what…and that’s how it goes and I like for our viewers to hear that information because we get a lot of folks who want to know even what you guys are using on the equipment side. They ask…Ableton or Pro Tools and…how about you, guys? What are some of the platforms you guys love to record on?
DJ Mecca: We started out in FL and Adobe Edition, Cool Edit Pro and then over the years, we ended up using Pro Tools and Ableton. I can’t even go back to FL, right?
Jimmy G: Oh, right.
DJ Mecca: We can’t go back to it at all because it’s just…I don’t know. Mac is just more efficient I guess and with Ableton we found that…in FL it takes 10 steps to do one step in Ableton and it’s so crazy. Shout out to Sasha Sirota who…artist who put us on to it and he was like, “Man, you’ve got to switch over.” I’m like, “No, man. We’re FL for life.” As soon as we switched over, I think the first track that we made was the Bieber record or it was one of the first, right?
Jimmy G: One of them.
DJ Mecca: Yeah.
Cloie: Wow.
DJ Mecca: Yeah, it was one of the…
DJ IZ: I mean, tell us the tittle, man. Don’t be stingy, man. What was that record?
Cloie: [inaudible 00:41:51] listening.
DJ Mecca: No pressure, right? Was it…
Jimmy G: I’m not. I think we did that on FL.
DJ Mecca: Oh, maybe we did it on FL.
Jimmy G: I think that was actually one of the last…
DJ IZ: They’re just going to call you. See how many records they’ve got [inaudible 00:42:03] market right now. Can’t even keep track.
Cloie: I love that. I love that.
Jimmy G: We also have a leg up. We’re a little spoiled because we got an engineer that’s part of our crew.
DJ IZ: Oh, cool.
Jimmy G: It’s this guy. Not only is he an amazing producer…
DJ IZ: He’s an engineer.
Jimmy G: The things he’s learned over the years and to get our sonics the way they are, it’s incredible.
DJ IZ: Yeah, you guys are students, man. Absolutely, no doubt. And that’s what it takes because the great thing is you don’t got to call on an engineer when you guys need to put that idea down, when you need to capture that vibe right then and there. And that’s what the information allows you to be able to do and that’s great, man. Self-sufficient. Self-sufficient.
Cloie: I just want to touch on this real quick before we move into the next grindopps and what have you. For people that are coming up, even people that are established, what do you do when you feel that block? When you have a creative block, how do you get through and come back? Because you have deadlines. The life is real.
DJ Mecca: Just listen to music, get inspired again. We do music because we love music. That’s what people fail to remember. It’s not just about trying to make money and trying to get on and get album sales and all that type of stuff. We do music because we love it. So sometimes you have to go back to the essence of why you do it and listen to that…what inspires you. We listen to Stevie so much. We listened…oh, my gosh. Prince, Michael. There’s so…I’m getting goosebumps right now just thinking about it because…
Cloie: That’s the air-conditioning.
DJ Mecca: Oh, okay. [inaudible 00:43:47] Literally, do I do, for instance. I can’t tell you…yeah. Oh, my gosh. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard that song and it’s never gotten old to me and even when I’m having a bad day and I feel like so sad because I lost my mom and sometimes I think about her. I play that song because it reminds me of her dancing and cleaning the house on Saturdays and Sundays and it inspires me that we can do anything and we can make good music.
DJ IZ: Yeah. That’s so dope, man. So dope. And that’s extremely, extremely helpful, man, and beneficial to our viewers, man, to hear not every day is a creative day but you’re able to still pull from some source. I know, for me, it’s all those things. When I get that roadblock, man…I’m going to be honest with you. I go fishing and it all comes back to me because when I fish, it’s the only time I feel I’m super disconnected and it allows me to just take in more and now my creative juice just opens up.
Cloie: With the bass and the trout.
DJ IZ: With the bass and the trout, honey. So with that being said, we’re going to move on to grindopp four.
Cloie: Oh, wait, wait. Before we do that, wait.
DJ IZ: Oh, slow me down. Slow me down. Slow me down.
Cloie: Slow me down.
DJ IZ: Professional [inaudible 00:45:07] Go ahead. Yeah.
Cloie: What were we talking about? Oh, right. So we have a scholarship, ya’ll. We have a scholarship. We have a scholarship. This is actually the last week.
DJ IZ: This is the last week.
Cloie: It’s huge.
DJ IZ: \$10,000 scholarship that we’re giving away in the fields of film, music, culinary, recording, engineering. Am I missing anything?
Cloie: I think you hit it all, yeah.
DJ IZ: And what we’re…let’s let the folks know what some of the…what are we looking for as far as the requirements for the scholarship.
Cloie: Pasion, first and foremost because it’s not about GPA and doing things right. It’s about what lights your spirit on fire, right, because we’re the judges.
DJ IZ: Right.
Cloie: So we…it’s three videos and it’s talking about how the scholarship’s going to help you make your dreams, how do you spend a typical day, what’s the most amazing moments and anything that has been…as we talk about inspiration, right.
DJ IZ: Yes, yeah.
Cloie: What is it that fuels you.
DJ IZ: Yeah. And as being the judges for this scholarship, I think it’s important for us just to want to know you and want to know how you connect to your passion and what drives you. I think the most…I think for me, mostly, I just want to see how hungry you are because I know folks out here in the streets who are trying to get it anyway they can and that speaks in volumes for me.
Cloie: Listen, listen and listen. We could all use a little hunger.
DJ IZ: Oh, man. I’m…
Cloie: I’m starving right now.
DJ IZ: Here’s what’s crazy. Because I talk about this a lot too. The transition of success, right. You spend X amount of years going and going and going and then, you step into some success and you get your accolades, you get your rewards and then you get to be me, like 38. And I’m saying to myself, “I remember when I was 19 making 20 joints a day. How do I get back to that? How do I get back to that?” I’m going to be honest and I’m going to be straight up with you. When I see cats like you guys and younger cats creating and doing it different, that’s the fire. It puts that resurgence of fire in me. And as creators, everybody needs that competitive…we need that. That’s what fuels us. It’s like, “I’ve got to make great music because, man, that cat over there is killing it.” You know what I’m saying? So even for me, when I’m looking at our scholarship, I’m saying, “Okay. I need to see that. I need to see that fire. I need to see how committed you are.”
Cloie: Yes. And for folks watching and…if you have not applied yet and you want to apply…
DJ IZ: Time is running.
Cloie: I mean, you have until February 20th.
DJ Mecca: Can we apply?
Cloie: I mean, you absolutely…absolutely. [inaudible 00:47:46]
DJ IZ: \$10,000 is a lot of money for a scholarship. Think of it like this. When you guys were coming out of high school, how great would’ve it been for you to know that that’s even out there? The recorded radio film connection, what we do with mentors and the education…that was an event. I didn’t even know that even existed.
DJ Mecca: We didn’t have that. We didn’t even have the internet.
DJ IZ: Right.
DJ Mecca: You know what I mean? We had the internet but it was…
Cloie: Dialup.
DJ Mecca: Yeah. AOL. That…all that.
Cloie: You go and do something else and you come back [inaudible 00:48:15] Yeah, [inaudible 00:48:17]
DJ IZ: So there it is, guys. I mean, hey, get them in.
Cloie: US residents only.
DJ IZ: Yeah. US residents only. Now, we hope to be eventually in other parts of the…because we’ve had people tune in from across the water.
Cloie: The pond.
DJ IZ: And they say, “Hey, man, do you have any jobs out here in Australia or…” And we’re like, “That’s dope but we’re not quite there yet.” But we’re going, we’re going and we will soon. So definitely make sure you get into us because we are looking to give this to you.
Cloie: February 20th is the hard deadline.
DJ IZ: Yep, February 20th. So we’re going to move into grindopp four and Cloie, I feel like I’ve been hogging the grindopps today.
Cloie: No.
DJ IZ: And I’ll tell you what. Can you…you guys can see from where you’re at over here? So I’d like you to introduce the grindopp and let’s let The Audibles chime in on the details.
Cloie: Really? Okay. So grindopp number four is coming to you out of Atlanta, Georgia and it is for a production engineer. So the job responsibilities are to prepare and execute audio and broadcast infrastructure related projects, design, document, install, maintain and repair sophisticated audio and video production hardware, software and related systems. Maintain accurate and timely documentation of equipment maintenance systems, inventory and project details. Knowledge of large format digital audio console operation repair and maintenance. That’s a lot of maintenance. And coming to you out of Atlanta, Georgia.
DJ IZ: Georgia.
Cloie: Georgia.
DJ IZ: So guys, I already know that was a lot of technical information. My man’s reaching for the cheat sheet.
Cloie: Well, because the other things that you don’t…that we…that has space. We have the Pro Tools, audio workstation operation, technical support, troubleshooting, Mac OSX, Windows and [inaudible 00:50:06] systems administration.
DJ IZ: It’s a lot. But here’s what’s great, guess. Awesome realness. We’ve had grindopps come in where they don’t require you to have experience. They want you to come in. they want to be able to mold and shape and shape you and get you adapted to their system. Now, you look at a grindopp like this, very extremely detailed which would obviously mean you need to have some experience.
Cloie: For sure.
DJ IZ: You need to have some experience. I think that’s important.
Cloie: Just to read it, you need…and to understand it.
DJ IZ: Because that’s a lot of information to take and I hope if you were taking it down on your phone, I hope your Twitter fingers are on point. I hope…
Cloie: Or you have a photographic memory.
DJ IZ: Photographic memory, screenshot the show. I mean…
Cloie: This is real.
DJ IZ: That was a lot…
Cloie: [inaudible 00:50:50]
DJ IZ: But just to chime in on some of those details, I mean, what are some of the things that popped out to you guys as far as just preparation and being prepared for something like that?
DJ Mecca: Definitely. So I’ve seen the large format digital audio console. That stuck…operation. That stuck out to me the most and I’m guessing it’s probably some form of an SSL board.
DJ IZ: Yeah, that’s what I’m thinking too.
DJ Mecca: Or [inaudible 00:51:15] So getting familiar with those large format consoles would definitely help and when we first came in, people actually used the consoles. Nowadays, they’re just big…
DJ IZ: Volume knobs, right?
DJ Mecca: Yeah, they just look cool to take pictures in front of but we actually sat there and learned the whole channel of the SSL strip and figured out that’s EQ, that’s compression. What does it do? This is the bussing auxiliary section and the faders, the large fader, the small fader. Just getting familiar with those things and knowing how…you may not necessarily learn how to use them all the way but just knowing what it is. You know what I mean? And what’s its purpose.
DJ IZ: Yeah, absolutely. Because I think too…I mean, when you get into that environment where you’re dealing with those big consoles, this is a lot to take in. I mean, visually, it’s intimidating. You see over a 1,000 knobs and I think just being in that situation before…it’s important to me because being able to get into a room and just being able to flow, workflow and being able to get around on some degree on the board. Because in our environment, when a cat can’t really fly, it just stops everything. You know what I’m saying? It stops your creativity. Now you’re teaching. Now you’re like, “Hey, man, is there…can we get somebody else in here?” Because it just slows the process now and in this environment, you have to be able to fly and the only way you’re going to be able to fly is you’ve got to get some experience. And like I always say, it’s not rocket science, man. Go to YouTube, dial it in. There’s tons of tutorials that you can find for these environments, right. You type in a keyword like consoler XRZ or whatever and there’ll be a dude on there like…
Cloie: Maybe British.
DJ IZ: Showing you how to fly.
Cloie: With an accent.
DJ IZ: Yeah, so I think that’s extremely important man and I’m glad you were able to just touch on that. Do you see anything, Jim?
Jimmy G: I mean, who…also, who are you learning from?
DJ IZ: Yeah.
Jimmy G: Nothing against schools. These schools, I’m sure, are great too but…for example, back to DJ. He was already a great producer but just him wanting to learn engineering and the people…the time he put in and the want to learn it…I mean, it’s just incredible. He’s one of the best engineers I know. We’ve been around a lot of people so…
DJ Mecca: Oh, yeah. Shout out to Jason Joshua and Maddox. Those guys right there…Maddox was Jason’s right-hand man. Now he’s going on to do big things and Jason…I used to just sit there, me and him would sit there for hours just like this watching Jason work and there was so many questions that were answered because when it comes to sonics, people have roadblocks but a guy like Jason who just came off a number and has over 60 number ones. Learning from him is just mind-blowing and…
DJ IZ: And that’s key. What you just said, Jimmy, also too about it’s who you learn from. I think it’s extremely, extremely important because when I look at what we do at the recording radio and film connection, your classroom isn’t a classroom. You’re actually learning from a real dude, a real mentor who, let’s say, does have hits under his belt, does mixed records a certain way, does film movies a certain way and that’s your learning experience and I think my whole…just the whole essence of what we do here at Connected really stemmed from that approach, that information of who you’re learning from, your mentors, who they are. Not so much a teacher, not so much a classroom but on the field, in a studio, learning what the guy like Chris [inaudible 00:55:14]
Cloie: And we have a hashtag, #thisismyclassroom [inaudible 00:55:18]
DJ IZ: Yeah, and it’s so important. What you guys said, man, it’s so crucial as to who you’re learning from because you could be taught some wrong information and be whack and underperform. So when you have the advantage of being around cats that really are in the trenches day to day, have mastered their craft like that, that’s some incredible experience and yeah. I’ve got to shout out because that’s what we do here. We put folks who are learning…aspiring to be who we are and do what we do in a room with real folks that are doing it every day in and day out. So definitely glad you guys were able to chime in on that.
Cloie: Get your questions ready.
DJ IZ: Yeah, get your questions ready.
Cloie: Get your Q&A because we’re going to…
DJ IZ: My phone is going off so…
Cloie: Things are…
DJ IZ: Because we’re tech savvy, our Q&A now comes on our phones. So that’s another new thing for us today. So we’ll be doing that from our phones.
Cloie: Yeah. To get your questions ready…because we’re moving into our last of the grindopps and then we get to do that whole jammie.
DJ IZ: Oh, shimmy, shimmy.
Cloie: Shimmy, shimmy.
DJ IZ: So here we go, folks. This is our fifth grindopp of the day. This is in the field of video editor. This is in Rock Island, Illinois. Creative editor to work with team on array of projects, ability to manage multiple tasks in a fast paced deadline driven environment. Two years of editing experience preferably with faster pace editing and graphics. Proficient in Adobe Premiere or FCP. Now, I’ve got one question for you guys. How important is it to meet deadlines?
Jimmy G: It’s one of the most important things in the business.
Cloie: [inaudible 00:56:51]
DJ IZ: Right.
DJ Mecca: In life.
DJ IZ: Yeah. And just speak on that a little bit. The process of meeting the deadline. Laying it out, scheduling it, having your eye on the target. What’s the process with The Audibles when you guys are meeting deadlines?
DJ Mecca: We write on whiteboards and map out everything we need to do and then we check off when we get done what we needed to accomplish and everybody…I don’t care if you work for yourself. Everybody has someone to answer to whether it’s a boss, administration, your head of operations, whatever it is. They let you know this is what needs to be done now and there’s no questions of how it’s going to get done or excuses of how you’re going to get it done. You just need to get it done.
Cloie: Yes. Absolutely and we talk about that a lot here too.
DJ IZ: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, we do talk about it a lot. And a lot of what we talk about as far as deadlines, it’s from my own personal experience, from your own personal experience. So I think that’s why it’s important…The Audibles experience of what you just covered is extremely valuable because it’s different for everybody and everybody has a different way of tackling those deadlines but I know it starts with execution.
Cloie: It sure does.
DJ IZ: And like you said, taking it to the board. The fundamentals, right. Let’s write it down so we can see it and let’s start the clock. You know what I’m saying? That’s how you execute. You know what I’m saying? And it’s great to hear you guys talk on that too, man, because that’s extremely important.
Jimmy G: And I would say not procrastinating. If we get a phone call and it’s something important, we’re like, “All right. Let’s go right now so we could be ahead of everything.”
DJ IZ: [inaudible 00:58:40] Yeah. So there you have it, folks. Being ahead of the curve is always a great thing.
Cloie: And that was our fifth grindopp.
DJ IZ: That was our fifth grindopp but we have five additional grindopps.
Cloie: We sure do.
DJ IZ: Go ahead. I’m going to…
Cloie: We’ve got…this week, what have we got? We’ve got some post production coordinator in Scottsdale, Arizona. We’ve got a film radio for a film…program director in Portland, Oregon. Recording and film, audio engineer, lighting, video editor out of Houston, Texas. In culinary, we have an executive chef and that’s in New York, New York. Yes. And we’ve got a sous chef and also in the field of culinary and that is in Saint Louis. And so before we go into anything else, we talked about it a little bit. We have a whole series that we do called school of hard knocks which is sitting down and talking about all of these different faucets of life in the world of on the job training which is what recording Connection…what we do, right. That hashtag #thisismyclassroom. So the discussion for this week is the value of externships and everything that goes along with it. So I feel like we should just check out the video, right. Here we go.
DJ IZ: One of the ways that externships can pay off is ultimately, the experience you’re getting. If you’re a sponge and everything, you’re a fly on the wall. Those are the things that will allow other opportunities to take place and being around that environment…now, when you just meet people. You might get a number, you might get a business card and the cool thing with externships is you’re a fly on the wall. That’s the mentality. You’re learning, you’re sponging everything and you’ll find yourself in environments where there’s people around that might do other things that lend themselves to what you’re doing and you make that connection, you take that call, you send out that email. Who knows? Those are the kind of benefits of being in these environments and acquiring information.
Yes. Information is key and it’s all application and one of the things we always say, man, we can throw as much information out in the universe as we want but at the end of the day it’s like, “You’ve got to shop up.
Cloie: And do it.
DJ IZ: You’ve got to show up.
Cloie: You can only spaghetti on the wall for so much. Just throwing it and see what sticks.
DJ IZ: So Cloie, we’re getting ready to go into a favorite part of my show which is the Q&A and what’s crazy is The Audibles have actually sent questions in before just to show their skin in the game. They’ve been here since day one. Now I want to set up this Q&A properly and I want to talk about your Grammy nominations and the records you guys are nominated for. Share with us, man. Let’s talk about it. Justin Bieber. What’s up?
Cloie: [inaudible 01:01:25]
Jimmy G: We were nominated for Justin Bieber’s Purpose album.
DJ IZ: Congrats on that.
Jimmy G: I appreciate it. We produced No pressure featuring Big Shawn.
DJ IZ: Dope record, man.
Jimmy G: Thank you. And it was up for album of the year and best pop vocal.
DJ IZ: Wow.
Jimmy G: Yeah. And shouts out to the dopest writer in the game.
DJ Mecca: The best.
DJ IZ: Who?
Jimmy G: Our big brother, Poo Bear.
DJ IZ: Poo Bear, man, we love you, dude. He’s been in the game for such a long time and I’m happy to see him winning and I think too just…just for the morale in our community as producers, I mean, it’s always a great thing to encourage folks because we all have the same grind, the same struggle. Broke, broke, broke, broke. And so when you see cats finally come into their position and their slot and to be able to do it over and over and over again is what separates the greats from the cats that just are kind of good. So shout out to…and shout out to you guys. I mean, we want to make sure we definitely, man, honor you guys and just show the gratitude and respect for that achievement because the Grammy’s is a very elite class that we all strive to be, right. We never think it’s going to happen. I mean, it’s like a dream that just…hey, no. That ain’t real. No…pinch me if this is real. And just to see you guys there, man. To see your road and the path that you guys have taken is amazing.
Cloie: So we have a question. This is [inaudible 01:02:56] from DC wants to know, “As far as the production work, who does what?” Between the two of you.
DJ Mecca: It’s a little bit of both but if I was to say…majority of the time, it would be just like Izzy and Bobby. I’m more of the programing drums kind of guy and then he’s more of the melodies, chords, just the feeling. I like to say I make them move and he makes them feel.
DJ IZ: You guys complement each other. That’s dope. So from Nigel, from Burbank, he says, “If you two could collaborate with any artist in 2017, who would it be for each of you?”
Cloie: That’s a big question, Nigel.
Jimmy G: Yeah. I’d have to say Drake.
DJ IZ: Drake? Okay.
Jimmy G: Yeah. Guy’s winning and he’s one of those people…I feel like his music is so consistent. You could throw it on any time and it’s always a good vibe so…
DJ IZ: Here’s what I also love about Drake. Quincy said, “A hit song is a song you can play with one finger on the piano.” And if you listen to Drake’s melodies, as simple as they are they’re extremely catchy and you can do this with one finger on his melodies.
DJ Mecca: That’s crazy.
DJ IZ: Yeah, that’s what Quincy said, man. A hit is a song you can play the melody from one finger on the piano.
Cloie: If Quincy said it, I will always believe it.
DJ IZ: You could play…and you know what it is. You know what I’m saying?
Cloie: That’s true. That’s true.
DJ IZ: So next question. Chris from…
Cloie: Louisiana, from Shreveport.
DJ IZ: Shreveport, Louisiana.
DJ Mecca: Hey, [inaudible 01:04:53] city. Yeah, shout out to Louisiana. My family [inaudible 01:04:38] city.
Cloie: [inaudible 01:04:41]
DJ IZ: So here’s his question. Have you ever messed up with someone known in the industry?
DJ Mecca: Oh, man.
DJ IZ: Did you recover and if so, how? So I’m assuming messed up as in maybe…
Cloie: I don’t know but Chris, it sounds like you’ve got a story.
DJ IZ: Yeah, yeah. Go ahead, man.
DJ Mecca: Messed…the biggest thing is leaking songs. Oh, my gosh. And there is one hiccup that we had that we were really scared about of leaking a song and it didn’t get leaked and, man, it was such a sigh of relief because that’s the worse. If you leak the song, it spreads like wildfire and that artist would just not want to work with you anymore because what you create to them is something that they want to save for the fans.
DJ IZ: And we call that vigilante mode and for some of our viewers who may not know what the word leaking is, it’s pretty much when you take a record that you’ve done for an artist and you put it out prior to its release data and you just go on a vigilante mode and be like, “I feel like my song is the dopest song on the album and this should be the single.” And you let it go and that…I’ve seen those situations happen and we’ve actually been in those situations where it didn’t even come from our end. It came from an ANR end or something. Yeah, yeah. So it gets a little tricky but it’s definitely…
Cloie: How do you recover that? How do you recover?
DJ Mecca: You just let them know it wasn’t you.
DJ IZ: And you let them know that somebody had my computer and my emails. It was in my…so…
DJ Mecca: Yeah.
DJ IZ: Because it’s one of those things where you almost…you never recover from the artist because you figure you’re working with the artist. That is the most intimate, vulnerable environment you’re in with this artist so it’s like breaking the ultimate code. The ultimate rule is…that artist can never look at you again and be like, “Okay, I’m comfortable with my records living in his computer.”
DJ Mecca: Right, right.
DJ IZ: It would be like…then it comes down to…there’s only one studio drive and all the music goes to that drive and even though you produced it, you can’t have it. That’s what it leads to. so it’s really hard to recover from that kind of scenario in those settings.
Cloie: Good grief.
DJ IZ: Let’s see. We had another one here.
Cloie: And I feel that’s why we have NDAs. Well, you all have them too but just signing NDAs because you can’t talk about it or post about what you shoot until they are ready to…
DJ Mecca: Oh, right, right.
Cloie: And then there have been plenty people…I’ve actually been on set with folks who don’t adhere to that. Especially with commercials and stuff and…thank you so much for [inaudible 01:07:19] today. Yeah, people don’t play with that sort of stuff. And nor should they.
DJ IZ: So here’s the next question, guys. What do you consider your first foot in the door to getting your instrumentals to the right people?
DJ Mecca: I think…what do you think, Jim?
Jimmy G: I mean, nowadays, it’s to get…I mean, there’s so many platforms like the sound clouds and the internet and the social medias. I feel like maybe building your buzz and your music to be heard and getting people familiar with it is probably one of the best ways to go about it.
DJ IZ: Okay.
DJ Mecca: And having a complete song helps too. And the artist may not even take the full song but they can take a melody or something from it. So I mean, beats…don’t get me wrong, are awesome but when you can, at least, add a hook so they have a concept and something to go off of, it goes a long way.
DJ IZ: Yeah. Yeah, composition. I think too. It’s in this day and age, you want to make it close to sounding finished too. Flawless.
DJ Mecca: Sonics.
DJ IZ: The sonics. Because, in this day and age, artists like to hear a song that gets them right away and all they do is hear themselves singing it and that comes with your presentation being polished and refined.
DJ Mecca: Yes.
DJ IZ: And sometimes…have you ever been in a situation where your demo singer sounded too good and the artist is like, “This should just be their record.” Because the vocal’s done too good. It’s like it intimidates some folks. So I’ve seen those scenarios happen too.
Cloie: So Ryan from Portland wants to know how did you come up with the sound for Lupe Fiasco’s I don’t want to care right now?
DJ Mecca: Wow.
DJ IZ: That’s the true Audibles fan right there.
DJ Mecca: That’s awesome. That’s really awesome. We actually…me and Jimmy were talking about this and this is a true story. After we got done making that beat, we went and picked up some of our friends from their apartment and we drove around and listened to that beat 20 times. Literally, we were so excited. Actually, the original hook was a Spanish vibe. It’s not even the EDM vibe and we came back and Poo Bear was like…no. Lupe recorded or he…we sent it to Lupe and he loved it and he was like, “Can we make it more EDM in the hook?” So he can really perform it at his tour.
DJ IZ: That’s dope.
Jimmy G: It’s actually a funny thing. We sat in the studio with Lupe and he told us the album was getting sent to mastering and then I think it was the next day he hit Poo and he’s like, “I need one more record that’s up-tempo for the album.” And sure enough, he recorder it and about a month later, we got the call…and actually, when we went to his show, for his whole tour, he performed that record twice. He would close the show out with it so…
DJ IZ: Wow.
Jimmy G: That was an awesome experience.
DJ IZ: That’s dope, man. Ammar from LA South says, “Out of all the artists you’ve worked with, who’s your favorite and why?”
Jimmy G: I mean, I’d have to say Justin.
DJ IZ: Justin.
Jimmy G: I mean, not only is he an awesome person but his talent and…I mean, his statute of an artist…I mean, it’s some life changing music and moments for us.
DJ IZ: Yeah.
Cloie: Why, yeah.
DJ IZ: That’s dope. Let’s see…
Cloie: We’ve got Diego from Prairie, Grand Prairie, Texas says, “I want to start making music at home and get started and see what I can really accomplish. What software and tools would be good to get started?”
DJ Mecca: Ableton.
DJ IZ: Ableton.
DJ Mecca: I’m sorry. FL has served its purpose in our career and we’re very grateful for FL. Very grateful but Ableton is just so user friendly.
Jimmy G: Also, Piano Lessons.
DJ IZ: Piano Lessons. Wow. That’s a good one right there.
DJ Mecca: Very good one.
Cloie: [inaudible 01:11:32] that’s what they say. [inaudible 01:11:34] where do you start? Ballet. It’s the same sort of thing.
DJ IZ: Also, what software production plugins would you die without?
DJ Mecca: UADs.
DJ IZ: Absolutely. Absolutely. UADs.
DJ Mecca: UADs. The CLA stuff. Chris [inaudible 01:11:57] Man. There’s so many. The Mani distortion. I mean, there’s so many. Fat filter, EQs, the whole fat filter complete bundle is out of here. Amazing. It just doesn’t make any sense. There’s so many good plugins out there but yeah. Those are the ones that are just off the top of the head.
Cloie: And Mimi from Boston wants to know what’s it like working with Chris Brown.
DJ Mecca: Fun.
DJ IZ: Talk about it. You say…you saw his smile, right? Fun.
DJ Mecca: Chris is fun, man. He’s so fun.
Jimmy G: His energy just…dancing around the room.
Cloie: Sure. Sure. Which probably ties in…so we had another question. Charlie from Houston wants to know how well do you get to know the artists that you work with. And you touched on this too. It’s just a very vulnerable thing anyway. So I imagine very well.
DJ Mecca: Yeah, pretty well. it just all depends on their personality and how well they vibe. Some artists that we’ve worked with, they would come in the studio and they would cut and they would leave and some artists would sit there and just vibe for hours and talk. So it just all depends on their personality and the day. They may be having a bad day but they know that they have to get this accomplished so…it just all depends on them.
DJ IZ: Dope, man.
Cloie: Awesome.
DJ IZ: Yeah. I mean, that’s the thing too. It’s good to see folks engaged and ask those questions because they really want to know, man. They want to know to the tee like, “Hey, man. Your swing shift, man.” You’re like, “That’s where it’s at.” They just want the information there so I thank you guys for answering the questions, man, and really diving in with our viewers. Is there…also too I want to know too what you guys got coming up. Is there anything we can be looking for? I know Common Kings just came out on iTunes. Make sure you get that because they’re fresh.
DJ Mecca: Boston Paradise.
DJ IZ: Boston Paradise. So anything else? Artists? You guys work with new artists?
Jimmy G: Well, as far as our new artists, we’re heavily working with…there’s a couple of people. Shout out to Jay R. Castro. He had two smash singles last year. Shout out to Sasha Sirota, upcoming alternative artist. Plays instruments like Prince.
DJ IZ: Wow.
Jimmy G: Shout out to Interstate Fatz. F-A-T-Z with…he’s an incredible rapper and also Jazz Laser. He’s another incredible rapper, a songwriter, can do different genres too.
DJ IZ: So but right now, currently, you can grab and download the Common Kings.
DJ Mecca: Lost in paradise, EP.
DJ IZ: I suggest you go get it. I suggest you go get it. Especially if you’re creative. Go get it and get your ear familiar with just the sonics.
Cloie: #theaudibles.
DJ IZ: #theaudibles. By the way, let’s let our viewers know where they can also follow you guys because I want to make sure they’re able to keep up on your day to day and track your day to day so they can just be in the life of what you guys do and see what it takes, see where you’re grinding, see what you’ve got coming out so if can let them know where they can catch you guys.
DJ Mecca: Yes, sir.
Jimmy G: @jimmyg123321.
DJ IZ: Yeah, wow. Okay. Okay.
DJ Mecca: And @theaudibles is both of us. I currently don’t have my own personal just because it’s so much work just trying to…
DJ IZ: I know.
DJ Mecca: Handle [inaudible 01:15:23] with all of the formats and…
Cloie: Yep.
DJ IZ: So definitely follow @theaudibles on your Instagram. Is it the same for Facebook?
DJ Mecca: Yes, sir.
DJ IZ: Okay. On that note, Cloie, let’s let folks know where they can catch us at and track our day to day movement.
Cloie: And then take a photo.
DJ IZ: And then take a photo but before we do that, I want to make sure that we shout out our wonderful Connected team who makes this possible every Monday to do this and bring this to you guys. Shout out to Roland for allowing us to be in their house.
Cloie: Yes.
DJ Mecca: Thank you Roland.
DJ IZ: Shout out to Mark, Igor, Chris, everyone who made this possible for us. We look forward to carrying this on. We look forward to having you guys on again.
Cloie: Please, come back.
DJ IZ: Because you guys are the brothers. You guys are Connected faithfuls, man, and it’s been a pleasure. Again, congratulations to you guys. Your Grammy [inaudible 01:16:06] and just that whole experience, man, and…
DJ Mecca: Thanks, bro.
DJ IZ: I love. I mean, you guys are sound.
DJ Mecca: Thank you. Thank you.
Jimmy G: Thank you guys for having us. Shout out to Roland. That’s Connected.
DJ Mecca: Hey, can I get a DJ [inaudible 01:16:17] Man.
DJ IZ: Let’s talk about it. Let’s talk about it.
DJ Mecca: Seriously.
DJ IZ: So Cloie, I’m going to let you take over.
Cloie: I’m going to take over. I’m your boss.
DJ IZ: Let them know where they can track us down, honey.
Cloie: Yes. Okay, so you can connect with Connected. You’re going to get over to social media. We are everywhere @IZConnected. If you want to email us and we want to hear your stuff, we want to see your samples, your demos, all of it. Hit us at [email protected] and to sign up for all of our goodies, you want to make sure you go to rrfedu.com/connected and then there’s another slash if you can see that. And then of course, our Facebook messenger app and you do not want to miss this. It’s rrfedu.com and then it’s…yeah. We’ve got what else? Applying for jobs. Go to our latest. You’ve got…for our resources, that’s our Connected Vault at rrfedu.com/connected/vault and then of course, our newsletter where today we will be featuring Angel Ayala and all the good stuff there but make sure you check out that weekly report which will be coming out later today.
We are Connected and we’ve had a fantastic time just hanging out with you guys but before we wrap up, I’m going to throw it back to IZ. IZ, take it away.
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