The acclaimed Australian DJ/producer offers insight on using SoundCloud to reward fans with exclusive giveaways, build community and grow your artist career.
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 Next Pro offers to elevate their sound, reach the right audience and catapult their careers. Sound Advice is now available in audio format on the SoundCloud Stories profile.
Chris Emerson – better known as What So Not – kicked off his DJ career at a heady time when the sounds of French electro, indie rock, blog house, mashups and global bass were all being meshed together in the underground parties of Sydney, Australia. That stylistic diversity has continued to inform his music, whether putting out EDM trap cuts with Skrillex and RL Grime, collaborating with ‘80s soft rock band Toto, or writing textured, emotional electronic pop with MNDR and Benson on his new ‘Motions’ EP.
At the same time, most What So Not fans know him for his high-octane DJ sets around the world from Ultra Music Festival and Coachella to his recent Dance Dance Revival tour all around Australia. We caught up with Chris in his parents’ house after some wild travels and found out more about his approach to songwriting and DJing, interacting with fans and how he’s used SoundCloud over the years to grow his profile and discover new music.
LISTEN TO THE AUDIO EPISODE OF SOUND ADVICE, FEATURING WHAT SO NOT
LISTEN TO THE 'MOTIONS' EP BY WHAT SO NOT
THINGS WE TALKED ABOUT IN THIS EPISODE OF SOUND ADVICE
- What So Not breaks down a week-in-the-life as a touring DJ, and how he prepares for different kinds of sets, from festival stages to unconventional venues to local bar gigs.
- Tips for connecting with audiences around the world and across different scenes, and the importance of having a historical and cultural understanding of who you are performing for and where. What So Not also explains having “set savers” readily available; the kind of tracks you can stand behind creatively and know audiences are likely to respond well to.
- Early inspirations that shaped his earliest influences in electronic music, as well as how he navigated fusing his inspirations with forging his own style and pushing through feedback from naysayers to push new sounds forward.
- The details of how SoundCloud has played a role throughout What So Not’s career, as well as the influence the platform had on his local music scene in Australia, especially when he was just starting out.
- Insight into using SoundCloud as a tool of music discovery to explore emerging or trending sounds and styles, and to upload music freely as a way to experiment creatively and build confidence in your sound.
- Thinking of SoundCloud as a place to host work-in-progress tracks, demos and rough ideas, and to leverage the platform’s tools to organize music, evaluate where a track needs to go production-wise, gather feedback, share stems and build community with like-minded producers doing the same thing.
- Insight into leveraging today’s technology to pair your music with visuals and taking a DIY approach to shaping your visual identity.
- The inspiration that shaped What So Not’s ‘Motions’ EP, as well as how he approached entering a flow state throughout the creative process.
- What So Not walks us through his favorite production tools and analog hardware, including the Korg MS-20, as well as details collaborating with MNDR, IMANU and Benson.
- Advice on following a feeling, as opposed to being constrained by a particular genre or style, and finding what works for you as an artist.
- What So Not details using SoundCloud as a place to reward his core fans with exclusives and giveaways.
- What fans can expect in the near future, including a drum ’n bass collab project that is currently in the works.
LINKS AND EXTRAS
Follow What So Not’s journey on SoundCloud.
Listen to tracks from What So Not’s latest EP, ‘Motions.’
Check out What So Not’s debut album, 2018’s ‘Not All the Beautiful Things.’
Explore some of the labels that doubled as early influences for What So Not, such as Mad Decent, Ed Banger Records and OWSLA.
Listen to the Buzzing: Electronic playlist on SoundCloud.
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 searching your own Likes on SoundCloud.
- Learn more about using private tracks on SoundCloud.
- Learn more about getting started with Insights on SoundCloud.
- Learn more about Advanced Insights, available to Artist Pro subscribers.
- Learn more about unlimited uploads, available with a Artist Pro subscription.
- Learn more unlocking access to unlimited distribution, available with Artist Pro.
To discover additional features a SoundCloud 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.
Credits: Host: Vivian Host, Executive Producer: Mike Spinella, Producer: KC Orcutt, Audio Engineer: David “DibS” Shackney, Coordinator: Trevor McGee
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