Sound Advice: TOKiMONSTA

Join TOKiMONSTA on Sound Advice, the weekly interview series covering artists’ journeys and their creative process — from producing albums to collaborating with vocalists and staying independent.

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Welcome to Sound Advice, the 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 everything SoundCloud offers to elevate their sound, get heard and catapult their careers. Sound Advice is now available in audio format on the SoundCloud Stories profile. 

On this episode of Sound Advice, we catch up with TOKiMONSTA, a prolific artist who’s become an essential name in the beat-making sphere over the last 15 years. Born and raised in California, TOKiMONSTA came of age in the Los Angeles beat scene that birthed artists like Flying Lotus and Daedelus. TOKi now has seven albums under her belt that span electronic music, hip-hop, R&B, soul and experimental, plus big remixes and collaborations with artists like Anderson .Paak, EarthGang, The Drums and Ryuji Sakamoto, to name a few.

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TOKiMONSTA is a study in resilience. Despite being diagnosed with a rare brain disease in 2015, the recent loss of a dear friend and releasing her last album, ‘Oasis Nocturno,’ exactly when the Covid-19 lockdown hit, she continues to create, making art as a form of therapy and growth. Flash forward to today, and TOKiMONSTA has released her seventh album, ‘Eternal Reverie,’ and recently celebrated the ten-year anniversary of her record label, Young Art, where she showcases her keen A&R superpowers, while also nurturing the careers of artists like Rochelle Jordan and Cakes Da Killa. 

We called up TOKiMONSTA at home in LA and had a thoughtful conversation about returning to her musical roots on her latest record, while balancing technology and authenticity. She also shares insights on the music business hustle and spinning SoundCloud successes into something bigger, and offers some savvy tips for emerging artists who are navigating their careers. It was a pleasure to catch up with this producer who never stops pushing things forward.

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LISTEN TO THE AUDIO EPISODE OF SOUND ADVICE FEATURING TOKiMONSTA

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LISTEN TO 'ETERNAL REVERIE' BYTOKiMONSTA HERE

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THINGS WE TALKED ABOUT IT THIS EPISODE OF SOUND ADVICE

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Coming of Age During the Los Angeles Beat Scene and TOKiMONSTA’s Beginnings on SoundCloud 

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• We begin the conversation by reflecting on the release of ‘Oasis Nocturno’ — TOKiMONSTA’s sixth album, which dropped in the spring of 2020 — and the five years since. After the release of ‘Oasis Nocturno’ at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, which hindered her ability to tour and promote the album, TOKiMONSTA took this period as an opportunity to elevate her craft and reflect on her creative goals for the next chapter of her career as an artist.
• The result of this five year period is her new album, ‘Eternal Reverie,’ which is released on her label, Young Art Records. TOKiMONSTA sees ‘Eternal Reverie’ as reconnecting with her younger self; an expression of playful curiosity and joy in her music-making. The lessons learned in this time were invaluable, from getting back to her hip-hop roots through record sampling to working through burnout caused by a non-stop schedule.
• Continuing on this theme, TOKiMONSTA weaves a thread between her early days in the Los Angeles beat scene — where she attended and performed at the Low End Theory parties, with scene figureheads like Brainfeeder boss Flying Lotus, Daedalus and Nosaj Thing, among others — and her early days on SoundCloud.
• In this fertile period of making, sharing and performing experimental hip-hop music, TOKiMONSTA tapped into SoundCloud’s community-building ethos; forming friendships and collaborations, and discovering like-minded talent from outside LA, like Kaytranada. From remixing artists to building beats around acapellas and interacting with peers and fans on SoundCloud, TOKiMONSTA found community and confidence during this formative period of her career.

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How to Produce and Pitch Beats for Vocalists, and Prepare for a Successful Collaboration

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• Over her career, TOKiMONSTA has worked with vocalists such as Anderson. Paak and Channel Tres, and has developed a skillset for producing beats for rappers and singers. Here, TOKiMONSTA gives thorough advice to fellow producers who are keen to explore working with vocalists. At its core, she says, the art of collaboration is down to being prepared, open-minded and focused on the comfort and talents of your collaborator. She gives tips on how to structure beats to suit different vocal styles, how to edit tracks to create room for vocals and how to tap into an instinctive, generous studio workflow. 
• Not all link-ups happen in person, though, so TOKiMONSTA details how to craft beats and organize them in SoundCloud in order to pitch out to vocalists for potential collaboration. While it may not happen “in the room,” TOKiMONSTA sees this as a critical part of being a producer today. Be confident, she says: pitch widely and enthusiastically, because you never know who might respond to your music.

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How To Maintain Originality While Embracing New Production Techniques 

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• Over the last 15 years, TOKiMONSTA has released seven solo albums: from her 2010 debut, ‘Midnight Menu’ all the way through to 2025’s ‘Eternal Reverie,’ she’s kept evolving. The conversation moves onto the subjects of creating album concepts, packaging them for fanbases and her technical and creative evolution as a producer. For TOKiMONSTA, her albums have grown from collections of songs defined by periods of time, towards more concept-driven albums that highlight new technologies and attitudes to music-making. 
• What does it mean to make “popular music”? How can an artist develop their skillset to make better production choices? What does it mean to sound “overproduced” and how can you address that in your workflow and techniques? How can an artist balance adopting new technologies while maintaining the raw energy that makes their music their own? Having reflected on the five years between ‘Oasis Nocturno’ and ‘Eternal Reverie,’ TOKiMONSTA dives into all of these topics and comes out the other side with sage advice — don’t forget who you are as a music lover, and maintain a child-like sense of wonder in your art.

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How to Produce Successful Tracks and Make Smart Career Moves, and The Story of Young Art Records 

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• TOKiMONSTA has lived through rapid changes in the music industry. From popular genres coming and going, different ways of earning a living as a touring performer, running a record label and releasing music across formats, she’s learned a lot about what it means to thrive as an independent artist. Here, she gives advice on how to focus on making original music that speaks to you, make smart career choices while staying independent, building a team slowly and when needed, and how to hustle for connections. Then, she gets into the story of her work with rapper, musician and long-time collaborator, Anderson .Paak.
• Early in her career, TOKiMONSTA founded Young Art Records, a label focused on underground sounds that blend experimental hip-hop and club music. In the last 11 years, she’s released music by artists such as Rochelle Jordan and Cakes Da Killa, alongside her own music. Here, TOKiMONSTA reflects on what it takes to maintain a record label’s roster, reputation and quality of output, and the rewards of discovering and nurturing underground music talent.

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Links and Extras

Follow TOKiMONSTA’s journey on SoundCloud.

Check out Young Art Records, TOKiMONSTA’s long-time label.

Listen to TOKiMONSTA’s latest track, “Reverie,” from her 2025 album ‘Eternal Reverie.’

Press play on TOKiMONSTA’s 2020 album, ‘Oasis Nocturno.’

Follow her collaborators Channel Tres, Anderson. Paak and EarthGang, to name a few.

Check out Rochelle Jordan, who released her 2021 ‘Play With The Changes’ on Young Art Records.

Explore some of TOKiMONSTA’s wide-ranging influences, including Flying Lotus, Björk, Brainfeeder and Missy Elliott, to name a few. 

Listen to the Buzzing Electronic playlist on SoundCloud.

Never miss an episode and follow the official Sound Advice playlist on SoundCloud.

Getting The Most Out of SoundCloud

• Learn more about using DMs to connect with fellow artists and potential collaborators.
• Learn more about how to make a custom playlist on SoundCloud.
• Learn more about unlimited uploads, available with an Artist Pro subscription.
• Learn more unlocking access to unlimited distribution, available with Artist Pro.
• Learn more about getting heard with SoundCloud’s updated algorithm, available to Artist and Artist Pro subscribers.

To discover additional features a SoundCloud Artist or Artist Pro subscription offers, visit here. To catch up on past installments of Sound Advice and make sure you don’t miss out on future episodes, visit here.

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_{CREDITS Host: Vivian Host, Executive Producer: Mike Spinella, Producer: KC Orcutt, Audio Engineer: David “DibS” Shackney, Coordinator: Trevor McGee, Editorial Associate: Lauren Martin}

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