Benjamin Phillippe Zulauf
Benjamin shares his insights into the various faces and skills it takes to be financially successful as a music producer in modern times, how he would encourage newer producers to question their motives when starting out and also how some of the major industry players are taking advantage of musicians and artists.
The Geneva born multinational (Swiss, British and Australian) has been crafting and exploring electronic music made with machines since the late 90s. Working with a second hand MC-303 and a used Juno 106 synthesiser he worked on beats and pads that were heavily influenced by the classic old sounds emanating from Detroit, Chicago and New York as well as London and Berlin.
Over the years his work has been steadily championed by many from the House and Techno scene, together with his imprint Hummingbird which has slowly been putting out his own music since 2010. This is evident in the regular support from the likes of Laurent Garnier, DJ Rolando, Vince Watson, Danny Tenaglia, Roy Davis Jr., DJ Sprinkles, DJ Bone, Ian Pooley, Fred P, nd_Baumecker, DVS1 & more.
How do you feel about music producers having to DJ in order to bring in an income?
For the majority of us producing underground music we are going to have a secondary income source in order to help pay the bills so having that option to get paid to DJ is certainly a very positive thing.
What would you need to be fully dedicated to music production? Do you think it’s still possible to make a living strictly from production?
I just need a decent computer, DAW, analog equipment and some inspiration to get creating. You could make a living strictly from production and build a career out of it, but I think in electronic music this is becoming rarer. When you look at big name artists you see that they are DJ’ing, running labels, running a management team and are doing their own events, you need to earn where you can.
At Outboard, our aim is to establish a new way of remunerating music producers , fairly and transparently. Why did you choose to come on board?
For those very reasons, I mean it’s not too much if an artist asks to be paid fairly for their creative work? I think we’ve been unfairly undercut by third parties and platforms who look only to profit off and exploit our music. It’s becoming all about quantity over quality and we risk an over production of sloppy and lazy music that devalues authentic effort and makes the good stuff much harder to reach the right people.
Most of us have held a real world job at one point or another, so could you imagine getting your pay slip at the end of the month and your employer taking a 50% cut for simply working there? Or if you were paid a $0.00095 an hour standard rate as a salary…That just sounds insane and implausible…and yet look at where we are today, can we even call this an industry anymore?
Gate keeping is one of the main obstacles for up and coming artists. Promoters book the same DJ’s over and over, and labels are more receptive to established names, making it hard for lesser known artists to get a chance to shine. How long did it take you to breakthrough and what strategies would you recommend for up and coming producers?
You have to remember that the music scene is an industry, a real business for those involved and comes with costs that need to be converted to profit. People invest their own money into these so I don’t hold that as a negative point, it is just reality. Promoters need to fill floors, cover the risk they take to put on an event so booking safer or bigger names is normal to me and also remember that there is still no guarantee that they make money back. If you feel you want to get a chance, how about getting involved with a promoter and being part of the setup, earn your way in and be proactive.
It is no different for labels, they need to sell records. It really costs to put a release out be it physical or digital. They are competing against sheer volume these days all vying for your attention on platforms and social media. There is the risk for labels so sure many may go with trusted names or big ones as a safer bet and again there is nothing wrong with that. It is hard to get noticed or responses from bigger labels but it is a business of who you know or maybe a right moment right time thing but you can always start your own label if you want to experience how it all works.
I don’t really know how to measure if I’ve ‘broken through’ as that is all open to interpretation, but I have achieved some success since I started back in 1997 that I would happily acknowledge as personal milestones, getting recognition from others in the music scene is one of them.
For up and coming producers looking to try and ‘get a chance to shine’ I would first ask the question of ‘why do you want to do this?’, if your answer leans more towards the superficial or for acclaim then you will most likely only be disappointed. Otherwise enjoy the process and the journey, don’t get lazy, challenge yourself, upgrade your gear and learn how to properly use it, and if you feel you suck, well,l you probably do but that’s ok, this is how you get better, we all started the same way.
Do you have a ritual when composing music and how do you stay inspired after all these years?
I don’t really have rituals but I do have my own templates set up in my DAW for the different music genres I make. All ready with selected synths, plug-ins, MAX for Live, VSTs etc, midi with drum patterns that cuts down my start time.
I recommend instruments and plug-ins that come with random button options, the happy accidents are the best. Take breaks too when you are heavily locked in, sometimes coming back to a groove you can see where you went wrong and got lost in the noise.
I get inspiration from other creators in the music scene as well as from other forms such as design, film, literature and art. Guys like Georgios Papamanoglou, Dean Dixon, Andres Bucci and BLAC Koncept have helped define my own sound from their influences in music, then obviously names like UR, Blake Baxter, Paranoid London, Delroy Edwards, John Heckle, Vince Watson, Ron Morelli, Tony Price, Kyle Hall, Gerd, Mark Forshaw, Levon Vincent, K-Hand, Ian Pooley, L.A. Williams, Omar S, Barker, DJ Bone…I have an extensive list of creators who I deep dive into and dig out all that I can about them.