Braden Ross, a rising star at the intersection of emo and glitch-pop, on navigating viral success and DIY marketing techniques.
Welcome to Sound Advice, a weekly interview series spotlighting artists' creative process and their SoundCloud journey. We’ll get the inside knowledge straight from the source on how musicians, producers, and creatives are leaning into the many facets of Next Pro to reach their audience and grow their careers.
This week, we talk viral fame and SoundCloud community-building with Braden Ross, a Seattle-based glitch-pop artist whose heartfelt lyrics and fan interaction are quickly making him a scene fixture.
Pursuing a creative path in today’s digital landscape calls for both creating meaningful art and crafting promotional content to market it, a balancing act that Seattle-based musician Braden Ross explores intimately on “unalive,” the latest drop from his eight-track EP that arrives this December. Braden brings audiences directly into his songwriting process on social media, building on a foundation of influences that spans early 2000s emo/pop-punk, glitch, digicore and hyperpop, while shaping his sound in real time along with fans. We caught up with this glitch-pop troubadour to find out more about fine-tuning his approach, how he uses SoundCloud to maintain relationships, and why he isn’t rushing his creative process.
How did you first get started with using SoundCloud and releasing original music?
I always knew I wanted to make music. When I was 16, I got FL Studio for Christmas, which is still the main program I use to record and make music. I had no idea how to use it and I started learning how to play guitar around the same time. All throughout high school, I would mess around and make a lot of covers and post them on SoundCloud for nobody in particular. In March 2020, I posted my first original song on SoundCloud. I did an Instagram ad campaign for it, just to see what would happen and it started doing relatively well and I started getting a lot of SoundCloud DMs. It was cool to see something actually happening, as opposed to the last couple years of nobody really listening to my cover songs – which is valid [laughs]. That’s how I started and ever since then it’s snowballed.
You made a decision to focus full-time on your music career after graduating high school. Have you had any memorable interactions on SoundCloud that played a role in choosing to take things to the next level?
As soon as my first song came out, I started getting DMs on SoundCloud from people that were a lot bigger than me. The most notable person I’ve met through SoundCloud is Bootleg Boy. He curates and promotes music on his YouTube accounts, and he’ll repost on SoundCloud as well. He reached out after seeing my work and links I sent him via DM. He liked one of my songs enough to feature it on his page, and it got like 500,000 plays, which is crazy.
Using the Fans tool to find and reach out to your biggest fans
Your latest release “unalive” is receiving a lot of attention. What is the backstory behind the song?
I dropped a single in January and then took a break to step back and assess how I was handling being a musician in this digital age. I was using a lot of marketing tactics that didn’t feel very genuine. At that point, I was 60% making content and 40% making actual music, and that didn't feel very good to me. That pushed me into wanting to make something bigger and focus more on the art, rather than the promotion of the art. I started writing “unalive” in December of last year with all of that in mind. The whole project is about the desire to be an artist versus the desire to go viral. You want to make really good music… but if you work so hard on something and nobody hears it, it feels really bad. This project is about a shift in mindset.
I usually start [a song] by making an instrumental completely and then writing to it. If the production is already good, then sometimes I can cut corners lyrically. With “unalive,” I wrote the whole song on guitar and sat on it for a few months before I knew what I wanted to do with it. I started producing it bit by bit, and it was definitely a process, but I'm happy with how it turned out. It’s my fastest-growing song by far, so it feels good to be validated and have the hard work pay off.
How did the SoundCloud Pre-Save feature play into your promotional strategy for “unalive”?
I made a video of me in front of my computer singing “unalive” with my guitar because I was really excited. When I posted it, I didn't know when the song was coming out (and it wasn't even recorded yet). Then the video went crazy and got over 100,000 likes on TikTok. It was like, ‘Oh jeez, the song wasn’t even done yet and all of these people are going to forget about it when it’s finally released.’ So, I made a Pre-Save link to help solve that problem.
There’s almost no reason not to use the Pre-Save feature. Promotion is a very necessary evil. If you’re telling people you have new music coming out, they'll see the announcement, but who is going to remember to look it up again after that? You might as well give them as many opportunities as possible to do something about it.
Take advantage of our Feature.fm partnership to create pre-saves
How do you use SoundCloud when you’re in between promoting new releases?
Seeing people still engaging with me and liking my tracks while I’m between releases is very helpful for my brain. We’re all accustomed to instant gratification, which is a big struggle for me. HAVING THE CONSTANT ABILITY TO SEE WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING AND SEE HOW PEOPLE ARE ENGAGING WITH THE SONGS THAT U'VE ALREADY PUT OUT IS REALLY NICE; it’s never silent. I’ll reply to comments on my songs and will read DMs that I’ve received; it’s really nice to see people reaching out to show their support.
I’ve also gotten a few DMs asking about my production techniques or wanting to collaborate with me. I’ve sent private demos to artists and we'll have a lot of back and forth, which is a really good workflow.
As I continued to grow on every other platform, SoundCloud has been right there with it. SoundCloud feels so organic as opposed to some of the other platforms. It feels more tight-knit.
How to get the most out of the DM feature on SoundCloud
What is the most rewarding part of being a part of the SoundCloud community?
A lot of people in the community that I'm in are also artists that I really like. To have people making music that I can look at and be impressed by, and to be able to be recognized as part of that, is really cool. The best part is getting to see everything coming out of the community in real-time – I don't have to go searching for their music or find out about it after the fact. WITH SOUNDCLOUD, THE EASE OF USE IS JUST UNPARALLELED AND ITS ACCESSIBLE TO EVERYBODY. ANYBODY CAN GO ON AND START MAKING MUSIC AND POSTING IT. Everybody can comment, everyone can reach out to whoever they want to. This is how it all started for me.
Learn how to get started on SoundCloud
With the launch of First Fans and Fans, it’s easier than ever for Next Pro subscribers to grow their audience and connect with listeners. To learn more about these features and other benefits of Next Pro, click here.
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