Why Big Credits Won't Change Your Life
Travis discusses the myths that people believe about big credits and how you should actually think of them.
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Credits:
Guest: N/A
Host: Travis Ference
Editor: Travis Ference
Theme Music: inter.ference
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If I could get that one big credit, just one hit,
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that would change everything, right? Right.
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Welcome back, y'all. My name is Travis Farrantz, a Grammy nominated recording engineer mixer with
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nearly 20 years of experience. And today I want to talk about what I've
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learned from working on hits. More specifically, some of
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the myths that I used to believe about having big credits. For the context of
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this video, we should first define what is a hit. Younger
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me would define a hit as being directly related to commercial success.
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Did it go number one? Did it go platinum? Has your grandmother heard it on
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the radio? Etcetera? Now, older me would define it a bit differently, but we'll get
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to that later because the definition I just laid out is definitely the way
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99% of us are going to think about this. The first myth is how
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you get hits. A lot of people believe that once you work on one big
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record that you just work on more and more of them until you're amongst the
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ranks of the engineering greats. And although that is true to a
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certain extent, it's not having the big credit that's going to
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get you more big gigs. Because, for one, nobody can just make something
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a hit. Nobody knows whether an artist or a song is going to resonate with
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people. As much as labels and producers like to think they can make a hit,
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it's just not possible. You can only set yourself up for
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a chance of having a hit. And that is the secret to
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working on big records positioning. The only way to work with big artists or get
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big credits is to give yourself the opportunity to do so. When I started out
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in studios in 2006, the obvious choice was to get a gig at a major
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studio. Someplace you know is going to have big artists coming through
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it. And although my early days as a runner at Capital did not get me
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any big credits, they did get me the opportunity to land a gig
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engineering for a producer. I remember the day he asked me to work for him
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full time. He said something along the lines of, everything I do goes
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number one. And initially I thought, wow, this guy's super
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cocky. But I also thought, yeah, let's do this. So,
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obviously, everything we did did not go to the top of the
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charts, but most things we did at least hit the charts.
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And I ended up getting my first number one album at 25 with a mixed
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credit on the Hannah Montana movie soundtrack. Now, whether you think that's cool
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or not isn't the point. The point is that it was a big deal for
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me at the time. I was fully expecting to keep riding the hit train
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long after that. And although I worked on a lot of fairly big projects, I
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wouldn't see another chart topping album until four years later when I
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recorded a few vocal lines for yours truly from Ariana Grande. So
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I went from mixing to barely engineering. Definitely
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not the progression 25 year old me was expecting. So to return to this
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idea of positioning, the only reason I had any of these
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opportunities is because I navigated myself to working
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for or with people were working on projects for major labels,
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big artists, movie studios, et cetera. That Ariana Grande album was her
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breakthrough album. When we did those vocal fixes, nobody knew it would be a
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hit, but all the right pieces were there for the potential. And
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if you want to work on big records, that's the only thing you can do.
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The second myth is built around what having big credits says about you. You see
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it on Instagram profiles and websites, right? Platinum recording engineer or
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Grammy nominated, and you think, wow, they must be so busy. Or damn, they
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must be so good. It's nonsense. It's
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just marketing. I did it at the top of the video to get you to
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watch this far. And if you have watched this far, you should hit the subscribe
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button. And while you're down there mousing around, try the like button out as well.
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I can't. I can't. I can't do that. Seriously. Anyway, so
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people advertise big credits because it serves a dual
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purpose. For one, it is essentially marketing for new
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clients, but new clients that are primarily not what I'm gonna
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call music industry insiders. And I hate to divide
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the industry like that, but it's the truth. A decade ago, I could
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have said major label and independent artists, but these days there are so many
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indie artists who are killing it that I had to come up with something else
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to say. So that's what I chose. And by insider, I'm
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referring to people that are in the major music scenes and are familiar with
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a lot of the people in those communities. So if you're not an insider, say
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you're a rock band from Nebraska, you recorded your own album and you want to
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work with a really experienced rock mixer. Then you're going to go credit
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surfing and you're going to find people that worked on records that you love. Now,
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that doesn't mean that your record is going to sound like those records. So
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this idea that a credit is going to somehow define the result of what you're
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going to get is an absolute myth. What credits actually say about
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you is way more in line with what the industry insiders take away from big
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credits, which is that you can be trusted to work at a high level and
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deal with pressure, deadlines, etcetera. These people know that everybody plays
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a role in a project, so they aren't expecting your sound to be the sound
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of your credits. They instead expect you to work with the team
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to serve the music. Because big credits say way more about your integrity
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and your personality than they do about your skill. And that is why engineers and
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producers will and should advertise them onto our third
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myth, big credits change your life. Now,
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this is a tough one for me. As much as I want to say no,
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I want to say yes as well. Because if you are positioning yourself
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to have opportunities to work on big records, then I do think your career is
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going to have the potential for an amazing upward trajectory which would for
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sure change your life. But I still don't think that's going to be
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guaranteed. Which brings me to kind of the point of this video.
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Big credits don't get you big credits. People
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get you big credits. So if you're doing great work and building trust with
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great people who are all working towards the common goal of making an impact with
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music, then I think you'll find yourself having some big credits.
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And I air quotes that one because I think this is where we should redefine
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what a hit is. Like I mentioned earlier, older middle aged
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me has a different definition of hit. I wanted to get into recording and
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mixing because I wanted to make music that people would hear and react to
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the same way I did when I was a kid with a Walkman. And it
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is likely that a percentage of those songs will be commercially successful.
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But I guess that the bulk of them would not be billboard number ones or
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Grammy winners. So for me today, a hit is something that has
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an impact on people. It's a song that might exceed an artist's normal reach
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or step them up a level. Maybe it gets them a label deal or a
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huge sink. It could be a whole number of things, but the point is that
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it resonated with people. So if you can define what career
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changing big credits would be for you, and you're willing to work to
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position yourself for those opportunities and then be accountable and follow
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through when they arrive, then I think the myth of big credits changing your life
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will be true. So if you thought this twist on big credits was interesting and
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you want more recording studio career advice, then check out this video where I
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break down every mindset and idea that has helped me in my career so far.
