“If you’re really looking to advance your career in the music industry and develop a fanbase, you have to write songs.”—James Ruehlmann
In this episode, I sat down with producer/teacher/guitarist James Ruehlmann. He produces under the name Mutrix, and originally got his start in the music as a touring guitarist for the band At The Throne of Judgement. In this episode, we chat about starting a music career from scratch, why sync licensing is one of the best (and easiest) ways to make money, and what he’s learned teaching producers at Icon Collective. This interview is filled with invaluable advice you won’t want to miss.
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This episode is brought to you by EDM Foundations.
EDM Foundations is my course for new producers, those who’ve been producing for under 12 months, or even those who’ve just started. You can learn more about it here.
The whole idea of the EDM Foundations course is that you learn the fundamentals of music production by actually doing and not just learning concepts. The course consists of 12+ hours worth of streamable video where I walk you through the creation of 3 songs, and give you advice for creating your own original.
We’ve had over 950 people sign up for the course, many of them have had great results. Hope to see you in there.
Links from the episode:
Connect with James Ruehlmann (Mutrix):
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube | Soundcloud
Show notes:
- How he got into music (6:05)
- Getting signed to a record deal at 19 (6:52)
- The brutal side of the music industry (7:39)
- Transitioning into music production (9:09)
- Going back to school (12:34)
- Launching Mutrix (14:58)
- Stepping away from touring (20:37)
- How he supports himself financially (23:15)
- Sync licensing (24:50)
- How to get into sync licensing (31:50)
- Teaching at Icon Collective (34:30)
- How he balances all of his projects (38:15)
- The importance of systems (41:45)
- Common beginner mistakes (42:55)
- The importance on songwriting in 2018 (50:55)
- Working with vocalists (54:30)
- What’s up next (56:30)
- Final pieces of advice (58:05)
Things mentioned:
- The Disaster Artist Trailer
- Best F(r)iends
- The Room
- Music Bed
- Marmoset Music
- Pond5
- Audio Jungle
- Jingle Punks
- Icon Collective
- Nik Cherwink
- Xxxtencion – Look At Me
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