I had the wonderful opportunity to be the first interviewee of Holy Lamb Media & Entertainment. Here’s a look at how our interview went.
(You’ll have to scroll all the way down to the bottom, but you can view the original article here: holylambmediaentertainment.com)
Coach Antonio:
Thanks for taking to the time to sit down and answer some questions DAH Trump but before we get into those questions. Please take a moment and introduce yourself and your production company to blog audience.
DAH Trump:
No problem and thank you for interviewing me. I go by, DAH Trump. “DAH” represents the initials of my real name, and “Trump” has no direct meaning. It’s just a word I thought I made up when I was little. (My producer name has no affiliation with Donald Trump.) Creating music is one of my greatest passions and just to throw it out there, I love Jesus and wouldn’t have made it where I am without Him. I’m more known for the YouTube channel I host that currently has over 2,700 subscribers & 112,000 video views. I’ve produced for artists like Drama B (signed to a major record label), Conner, The Philosofist and many more. My production company is dahtrump.com, and it is where I showcase and sell my beats.
Coach Antonio:
1. What drew you to music production and audio engineering was it the love of rap music or did you grow up amongst musicians?
DAH Trump:
It was both the love of music and growing up amongst musicians but mostly the love of music. Growing up among a family of musicians, learning an instrument was almost “required” so, I learned to play the piano around the age of 8. However, I didn’t like playing songs others already made so I made my own tunes. When I was 15, a friend introduced me to a program called Garageband and after making my first beat on it, I was instantly hooked.
Coach Antonio:
2. Can you give some business advice for those who are looking to start up a production company. (online sales)?
DAH Trump:
Sure. My business advice for those looking to start up a production company is first, make sure you can afford & finance it. (Your production company should be an asset.) Also learn to promote, network, negotiate, copyright, keep professional and the list can go on forever. If your production company becomes successful, you wouldn’t have to worry too much about financing because, people buying your beats would finance it for you. I have a whole blog on some aspects of selling beats here: dahtrump.com/blog
Coach Antonio:
3. When I was looking through your site, I was very impressed by your layout and design/graphics. Please share your experience of setting up your site. Did you approach outside help for your design, DIY your site?
DAH Trump:
Thank you and how I set up my site wasn’t easy at first and was a long process of figuring things out but to be brief, I brought a domain name at name.com because I found them cheaper than godaddy.com. Next, I paid for a VIP SoundClick & searched for good layout makers until I found these guys called, a3layouts. My site’s design/graphics is really just one of their great looking templates & I hope to get a custom design from them soon but, if you’re on a budget & need good quality layouts, go to a3layouts.com. I highly recommend them.
Coach Antonio:
4. How has the social media and internet in general affected your business?
DAH Trump:
Social media and the internet affected my business positively. After raising my youtube channel to a reasonable amount of subscribers and views, getting the word around about my beats became easier, artists I wanted to work with took me more seriously, I got more traffic, responses, experiences to help me improve & so on.
Coach Antonio:
5. There’s much talk among producers about www.SoundClick.com and the usefulness of the company’s services. Can you let the readers know why you host your domain through the SoundClick?
DAH Trump:
I host my domain through SoundClick because growing up in music production, one of my major influences was Johnny Juliano and he used SoundClick so I thought that SoundClick for me would be a good start. I also hosted it through SoundClick because it looked more customizable, allows you to check your stats, blast emails to your mailing list and so on. So far, I like it and have no serious problems with it.
Coach Antonio:
5. I know you use isellbetternow for instant sales of your instrumentals can you share your experience with the company with the readers?
DAH Trump:
isellbetternow is great. All transactions with customers are safe, secure & up to par. They’re also very innovative and apart from the couple times they don’t answer your messages, they have great customer support and is very open to comments. They easily integrate with a3layouts and I highly recommend them.
Coach Antonio:
6. How do you approach networking with other music professionals and artists?
DAH Trump:
Networking with music professionals and artists is always good. In my opinion, networking as a producer should be one of your top priorities so, network as much as you can. It can get you far places.
Coach Antonio:
7. Can you please share some of your most memorable business opportunities/deals?
DAH Trump:
I have two memorable business opportunities / deals:
When I first started posting my content on the internet, I was contacted by someone who “owned a record label.” He said he liked my beats and wanted me to be an in-house producer and produce beats for a talented female artist. The owner of this record label lead me on for almost a year talking about how I’m going to get signed to his label, and produce for his artists only for me to find out in the end it was all a joke. Even though it wasn’t the best experience, it was definitely memorable.
My second most memorable business opportunity / deals was working with Drama B. He was one of my favorite artists at the time and I really wanted to do a track with him, but I was either ignored, he wasn’t feeling my tracks or he kept my tracks and didn’t use it. After being persistent, he contacted me one day saying that he liked this track on my SoundClick page called, “Sadness & Sorrow” and asked me if he could use it. I sent him the track, and after a week or two he sent back a finished version with him rapping on it saying that it’s going on his mixtape, Year 2. You already know I was excited.
Later on, he asked music producers to make a cypher beat for a cypher he said he was going to host. I made a beat for his cypher & he said he liked it so much, he might use it himself. (He never did.)After that, I got a shout out from Drama B on Twitter which instantly led me to being contacted by a rapper named, Sik Kid, who asked me to make a beat for his cypher as well.
I made him a beat for his cypher but, he didn’t like it so, I sent the track to Drama B and told him I’m going to release this new beat I made soon, and I asked him if he’s interested in using it. Drama B told me not to release the beat yet, recorded on it, sent me the track the next day and said it was going on his mixtape, Year 2. When the mixtape, Year 2, dropped, the beat that got rejected by Sik Kid turned out to be the intro to Drama B’s mixtape. (One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.)
I produced the beats for two songs on Drama B’s mixtape: “Intro Flow” & “Distant Memory.” I also got a shout out on his credits. In terms of stats, the mixtape got pretty high ranks on HotNewHipHop.com shortly after it’s release and currently has over 2,700 downloads. That’s also his last mixtape before he got signed to a major record label. Honestly, It almost felt like a dream but that moment was definitely rewarding & memorable for me.
Coach Antonio:
8. Do you have any projects that you’re working on now as far as business ventures?
DAH Trump:
Yes, currently, I’m taking a risk & joining a music production crew for the first time. So far, it’s working.
Coach Antonio:
9. What is the vision you have for your production company, where do you want to be in five years?
DAH Trump:
Currently, I’m in college so I haven’t had much time to invest in my company but in the next 5 years, I would hope to have already graduated from college and I would also hope I’m making better, innovative beats, have superb mixing & mastering skills, create my own dream genre, offer more beneficial services, work with great artists and so on. I still have this feeling that I haven’t reached my mark & hopefully by then, I will.
Coach Antonio:
10. Last I want to thank you again for being so generous with your time. As we are wrapping this up are there any music projects that you have that you would like the audience to know about?
Yes, and no problem, thank you for interviewing me. As for music projects, I’m working on releasing a new beat tape, drum kit, free promotional YouTube channel for artists who use my beats and mixing & mastering services. I’m also collaborating with a couple talented producers & artists and I’m hoping to release our tracks to the public very soon. At the moment, I’m on a quest to become a multi-genre music producer and create my own dream genre in the process but again, thanks for the interview.
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Keep it 100.