Josh Hussaney part 2/2
When his brother returned from Ibiza saying he’d heard Marco Carola playing Josh’s track in Amnesia, it seemed too good to be true.
That is, until they YouTubed it, and came across something neither of them were expecting
In this interview Josh tells us a bit about what happened next and his career. (Read part 1)
So you’ve talked us through 3 mega stories from your 9 releases so far. What in your mind is the next step?
Obviously in the long run I want to be able to only do music, so I’ve got more time to concentrate on music in the mean time and get more stuff out. I think ideally I could do with getting my name out there that much that a manager or an agent spots it and then starts piggy backing me onto bigger artists, and then that’ll hopefully be a catalyst.
I like that you’ve not just sacked off your job in the mean time. How on earth do you fit in time to do music around a full time job?
I work 10-6 Monday to Friday and I’ve got a partner as well, so obviously, I do find it hard to fit the music in. What I tend to do is rather than partying a lot, I’ll restrict myself to 2 nights house or techno nights out a month partying and then that’s it.
Then what I’ll do is of an evening, I’ll try and make sure that I spend a few hours – even if I don’t come up with anything, I’m learning all the time.
Sometimes I’ll just work on a bass-line for 3 hours and mess with different settings and get different sounds out of it, but I won’t even save it. I’ll just do it to learn, it’s just practice.
Making the time you’ve got count basically, and not stressing about furthering tracks every time you sit down in front of your DAW.
You’re learning all the time. I’ve got a couple of projects that I’ve nearly finished now, but they’ve been there for like over a month.
I could’ve finished them weeks ago but sometimes I like to leave things and come back to them with a fresh head and test out different sounds in the place of sounds I’d put in.
I love trying different techniques I’ve learnt in that time.
Let’s talk tech. What does you studio look like?
When I first contacted Paul I didn’t know much to be honest, so I said ‘What’s the best thing for me to do?’ – he said ‘Get some form of mac, and you can go from there.’ So I bought a Macbook Pro – on finance because I couldn’t afford one! – and then went into Soundbase Megastore on Oldham Street and got some Sennheiser HD25s (the ones everyone’s got!) – started on them.
That following Christmas my Mum and Dad bought me a pair of KRKs, and an audio interface. I went and bought a TB-3, I’ve got a cheap Oxygen Midi Keyboard – only about £80, and just hooked my Mac up also to a flat-screen TV – it’s not brilliant but it does the job.
Do you have anything in terms of softsynths and VSTs that you use?
I kept sending Paul tracks whilst on the course, he was amazed at what I was able to do without his advice.
It’s always important to remember you don’t need loads of kit.
I came to the MMS Sessions with Artifact – he used basically nothing – just Ableton – that was amazing and quite inspiring. He’s smashing it.
Along with Logic Pro X, I use Rob Papen’s Sub Boom Bass. I love it, I love it. It’s brilliant. It’s probably the one I use the most.
I use Native Instruments Massive, and Trash by Isotope – it adds a horrible sound to everything but it’s nice if you’re messing about making a bit of techno.
I’ve not released any proper techno tracks but I love messing about on it.
There’s also one called Sausage Fattener if you’ve heard of that. It’s really simple, it’s just got a colour, and a fattener, they’re the 2 controls on it. It does what it says on the tin. I also use the fabfilters – all of them. That’s it really!
What would your advice be for other producers out there, who maybe haven’t released yet?
Basically, just do as much as you can, whilst keeping it at a good quality. Don’t start lacking on quality.
Always seek advice, get a second opinion on it. So, before I finish the mastering stages of a track (obviously I don’t master it myself but before I pull it over for mastering) I’ll get 3 or 4 different people to listen to it – other producers and DJs on different sets of monitors and ask them to give me an honest appraisal of it.
I’ll take what they think into consideration and try different sounds, see what other people think- if it doesn’t sound right just take it back out.
A lot of promotion – Soundcloud, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat – everything.
Another good way is partying – if you want to DJ at a night, start partying there – you’ll end up at an afterparty there and can speak to the promoters. Meet people. Talk to people.
To give you an example, I played for Mute recently – best night I’ve ever played – it was the biggest crowd I’d ever had and the best a set has ever gone for me – everything was just perfect from start to finish.
I’ve always known the Mute lads through partying but I’d purposely never asked them to play, I stood my ground and waited for them to come to me.
Do you normally ask to play people’s gigs, if you meet promoters?
I don’t think I’ve ever asked to play at someone’s night – I’ve always waited for them to ask me.
The way I’ve done it is by making sure I’m releasing tunes and promoting myself. If you’ve got tunes out and they’re to a good quality then it looks professional. If you’re on a label and you’ve got artwork and so on – people see you as a proper artist and so eventually, even if it’s only small nights, they’ll approach you.
It seems from your social media output that rather than fall into the temptation of releasing mix after, you focus your time on music production. Why is this?
Not everyone has time to listen to a 60 minute mix. Most people can listen to a 3 or a 5 minute tune.
With production there are producers out there that can’t even DJ but they’re getting gigs, purely because it goes hand in hand nowadays. Obviously, it never used to be like that, but it is now. If you can focus on the production the DJ gigs will come.
I’m really excited for you Josh, I feel it’s gonna blow up for you – it is already!
It’s all gone perfect – I can’t say there’s been any downs, it’s all been ups. I think it was May 2014 Burnin’ was released, and since then it’s just got better and better. It just keeps coming. As long as I keep bringing tracks out, something will come of it.
That seems to be the theme running through this interview for certain!
Fancy studying the course Josh did? Take a look at our music production courses, which will take you from beginner to pro, and is scheduled to be flexible, so that it can be taken alongside full-time work commitments.
You can check out our other range of other courses here.
Check out Part One
