EP Evaluation

1. What is your EP called? -  My Ep is called 'Beginning' as it is my first one. 

2.  What styles of music are on the EP? - There are 3 tracks that I have recorded to use for my ep. Their genres being rap, hip hop and house. 

3. What genre would you categorise the EP as?  It can be more than one - The genre I would categorise my EP as would be Indie Fusion as there are a mash of different genres which are independent to myself.

4. In terms of the style/artistic content - are you happy with the EP? Tell me about the strengths and weaknesses of your music - I am really pleased with the styles I have gone with in my music. They are all very different and have fusion within them. For example, my house track has blues influences mixed with chill house and a deep house drop. My hip hop track is very different as you can feel the hip hop beat however it is without a drum beat and is just a piano and bass. However, I would like to have another version which features a drum section in order to keep the rap/ hip hop idea present. The artistic content in my acoustic and hip hop track could have been more - however, I didn't have the time or resources to get a lot of different instruments together to make my tracks more musical. 

5. Musically - How well does your EP fit into the genre you work in? Compare your work to your favourite artists…

My house track goes to show all of my pre dominant influences being house, bass, blues and general ambience. I love ambience in tracks, whether that be a distant guitar or wind etc. I love Young the Giant  - Islands as it goes from one extreme to another and the build up is slow and melodical. Overall, I think my EPs genres shows exactly what I am about as an artist and shows my diversity a lot. 

6. In terms of technical standard (recording/mix downs) - are you happy with the EP? Tell me about the strengths and weaknesses of your music. - The recording could have been better as my mic technique is not at a very high standard. However, the mix downs compliment this to an extent. I wish i had recorded a lot more instruments and got a lot more done in my tracks as they still not entirely finished however I do intent to fix them up. My house track is the one I am most proud of - as all it needs is a good master. 

7. Technically - How well does your EP fit into the genre? Compare your work to your favourite artists..

Technically my EP is mixed to a decent standard and replicates the mixes of other genres. For example, my acoustic track is guitar based and the main guitar is in the frontline of the mix and the riffs are panned far left or right - however they are not turned down to compliment the main guitar - they are just as loud - which, in my opinion is the main mix idea for acoustic tracks as it meant to highlight the acoustic features. 

8. Did you collaborate with other musicians/artists on your EP? No I didnt, although I was planning to have a few rappers feature on a few tracks. 

9. Who did you work with in the studio? What roles did they fill? How did this help you complete your EP? I had a pianist feature on one of my tracks as I can't play the piano well enough to improvise - on that day I also had an engineer who helped me record vocals. I also had an engineer help me record guitar which helped me save time and get a lot more out of my recording session as I just had to focus on playing guitar and didn't have to run into the main room to press record etc. 

10. What was the most important piece of equipment you used when making your EP? How did you use it? Why was this the most important? The most important piece of equipment I used when making my ep was logic. Although it is not your generic piece of equipment which is physical - it is the main tool I used to make my music. It is way more important than any other thing I have used as it determined the value and quality of my music as a whole. I used it to record my recordings and to mix them with the others. I used it make a full track (Smoky Blues). 

11. Give me an example of a studio session that went really well. What was good about the session? Why?

The best example I can give is when I had keiran and lamar help me in the studio. It felt like I could have recorded the whole track in that hour as I had a pianist and engineer to help me record. We worked well together and efficiently got a lot of good vocal and piano takes. 

12. What is your favourite track on your EP? Why is it your favourite? 

My favourite track on my ep is Smoky Blues as it is the most up tempo. It also the only fully finished track.  I like it a lot because I spent a lot of time making sure that I got down every single idea I had and it showed that my house influences had had a good effect on me as I believe I just contributed to house. I loved my own ideas - however I do think I could spend another few months adding more melodies and bass' on it. 

13. What are you going to do with your completed EP? Send to labels? Post online for free? What are your plans for the future? 

With my EP - I want to use the best tracks to showcase myself as an artist and producer so i can entice people into my own label. Therefore, one will be able to find it online however I dont plan on selling it but I may consider it at a later date.

14. What is the most important thing you have learnt when creating your EP? 

The most important thing I have learnt is to get an engineer in with you when you want to record otherwise you will waste a lot of time and not get many decent takes. you will also have to spend even more time afterwards going through all of them. 

15. What was your most recent music purchase?

Kaasi - heartbeats

16. How much money do you spend on music every month?

 Practically nothing

17. How much money do you spend going to gigs/clubs?

 Nothing

18. How do you plan to make a career in the music industry? What are your future plans?

I plan to start my own label and make other people successful.