Vidorra: How to Hold Onto Your Unique Sound
We get inside the mind of singer-songwriter, mixing engineer, and music producer Vidorra, who is the trifecta of musicality. Check out his stellar single"Here We Go Again" and "Upside Down" is streaming on all music platforms now! Give it a little listen and stay tuned for his upcoming album "Green For Go" coming early next year. Hear more about Vidorra's process, maintaining his integrity while making music, and everything he has learned in his 9 years of creating.
RIFFIDUM:
Could you tell us a bit about you and your music?
Vidorra:
Sure. My name's Vidorra and I love making music. I started learning instruments really young. I got into music really early learning jazz and classical music. Just before I became a teenager, I discovered dance music and a lot of hip-hop. I'd just been trying to learn more about music production and that's when I fell in love with it. I was thinking about doing it for years before I started and here I am making music, just figuring it out as I go and finding inspiration everywhere.
RIFFIDUM:
That's awesome. Do you do your own music production alongside singing as well?
Vidorra:
I've always produced everything myself, but occasionally, you meet new producers and you want to work with them. If I'm a vocalist, then I'll work with them as a producer, but 95% of the stuff I produce myself. The joy of it for me is taking an idea and seeing it from beginning to end, being able to think of every aspect of the process, whether it's the mixing, the vocal line, I'm already thinking of how I want to mix it as opposed to the song. It's a very dynamic process and that's the joy for me as opposed to focusing on writing first. I can come at it from all angles, which I enjoy.
"Wherever you feel comfortable entering, enter there, you don't have to see out a whole vision early"
RIFFIDUM:
That's so cool. This is probably a very unfair question, but do you have a preference?
Vidorra:
I think it changes. It's funny, the thing I struggled with most, and also my favorite thing is probably mixing, the idea of taking something, making it sound better, and not really knowing why it sounds better. It's like magic. I love recording and writing, but the one that makes me wonder and question life the most is definitely mixing. I always think of myself as a producer because I'm just thinking of sound and how we get there in different ways.
RIFFIDUM:
Do you have any advice for artists who are too afraid to take that first step in releasing their single or getting into the studio and putting something down?
Vidorra:
In terms of a suggestion to maybe inspire and give another perspective, for me, when I was really young, I remember not doing any production, never writing a song and I videotaped myself rapping the lyrics of another song on my brother's laptop (something where no one could hear me do it) then I was googling how to get a record deal. Just these random things, right? But subconsciously, from the ages of 13 - 18, I intended to sing, but no one was going to know that until I felt ready to do it. Then I just put that thought right in the back of my head and focused on production. I only started doing vocals when I felt I could make them sound awesome. I feel like wherever you feel comfortable entering, enter there, you don't have to see out a whole vision early. You can just see where you feel comfortable and maybe play around there, then gradually stretch it out a little bit. That's how I'm trying to do it.
"My experiences don't mean yours" Just because it doesn't happen that way for me doesn't mean it won't for you.
RIFFIDUM:
What tips would you give to artists releasing their first single? What was something that you considered when you released yours?
Vidorra:
When I first released any music, I was at school, so I had loads of peers who you see every day. Getting a few hundred plays on a song, I almost took it for granted. Instantly, I would think that meant that people were listening. Then I left school. Things changed, suddenly I realized, if I released a song, there were very few people who actually hear it. Now I have a few friends who I make music with occasionally, but they're friends before musician friends. I always say, "My experiences don't mean yours" Just because it doesn't happen that way for me doesn't mean it won't for you. At the same time, whenever I release something now, if I'm going to release it with no plan, I don't expect anything. I expect zero plays. If I get anything, it's like great. If you are releasing music and you intend to take it somewhere, to make the next release different, just acknowledge that you have to try and do something, that might be trying to find a team to work with for marketing. It's easy to forget how much goes into getting people to hear stuff and enjoy it.
"Things aren't that ridiculous once you do them"
RIFFIDUM:
If you could go back to Vidorra at the start of his musical journey, what advice would you give him?
Vidorra:
I read through some notes that I saw on my laptop, sometimes iCloud throws up old notes and it's interesting to see how I used to think. The one thing I would say is “push the birds out earlier" (It is always hard) because I've been making music for probably eight, maybe nine years, and progressively, in different ways, I pushed the birds out more in my own respect. If I had just said, you know what, no one has to hear it, but I'm just going to do what I really want to do 100%, if I started doing that fully eight years ago, I can't imagine on a personal level or artistically what I'd be doing now. So that's the biggest thing I would say, just try and push it out further. Things aren't that ridiculous once you do them
"Someone may have a strong opinion, but if that can change, it's not really a fact then, is it?"
RIFFIDUM:
Have you ever experienced, overthinking the work or the music? and how have you dealt with it in your own way?
Vidorra:
There are sometimes specific examples where there's someone who's like a mentor, say you're working with them or just taking advice from them, you might overthink and try to adapt to their perspective to make them like something but then imagine if you tried really hard for months to do that, overthinking, changing the smallest things because they didn't like it, it makes you realize, trying to think like someone else, it's not real. Sometimes you do things because you think they're effective, then when you realize they're not effective, it's up to you to not do those things. Some people say it's ridiculous to do the same thing again and again, some people say you have to do the same thing again and again. There are so many opinions and at some point, you've got to say, let's just take the jump and just stop valuing things that can change. Someone may have a strong opinion, but if that can change, it's not really a fact then, is it? If you're playing into that, it's a waste of energy.
RIFFIDUM:
That is so deep - I was just taking it all in, switching gears - Who is a must-have on your playlist right now?
Vidorra:
I'd say one person that I always think is so interesting to listen to is Skrillex. I take a lot of inspiration from him because I'm pretty sure he thinks of different aspects because he does a lot of different things. When I listen to his stuff, it's so immersive, I feel like every aspect has been addressed. He's not written it, then taken it to a producer or he's not produced it then sent it to someone else to mix and let them do it. It's an inclusive idea. His music stays with me for years, I'll come back to songs from years ago and they just sound new still to my ears, so I love that.
RIFFIDUM:
Skrillex is awesome! I think that's a good choice.
"Just for a year, if everyone just purely listened to how it made them feel. I wonder how that would affect the industry then."
Vidorra:
How about you, quickly?
RIFFIDUM:
There are a few. Beyonce's new album, always Bob Marley and Frank Sinatra! If you could change something about the music industry, what would it be? You've been creating music, as you said, for eight or nine years, so what would that be for you?
Vidorra:
I don't know if this counts as the industry, but I think it's a fair answer. I would love to see how people listen to music and choose music if it wasn't anything to do with “who” was releasing the song or there was no recognition of the person or there was no acknowledgment of the social implications of it. Just for a year, if everyone just purely listened to how it made them feel. I wonder how that would affect the industry then.
Instead of it being like X, Y, Z artists had zero streams and X, Y, Z artists had- millions of streams, therefore these artists had played these festivals and everyone goes to see these artists. I don't know. I think that would be an interesting shift. If that counts as an answer.
"If I feel like doing it instead of spending ages pondering, just do it, half the time, it's not very high stakes even if you think it is."
RIFFIDUM:
Totally counts, they should test that! What has been a "Maverick Moment" for you so far?
Vidorra:
Maverick Moment. I remember being an 18-year-old, googling online "why to release lots of music?" trying to find some kind of validation either from someone who's older, whether they're in the industry or not, but now I feel like I'm stepping into a place where, even if that validation could exist and help give ideas, I almost don't want it. I just want to be able to discover something new for myself in a really natural way. If I naturally want to do something artistically, just try and do it and see what happens as opposed to trying to see how it fits into a structure already. Whether that's process-wise or lyrics-wise or release-wise. It could be how I do the rollout or if I show my face or not. If I feel like doing it instead of spending ages pondering, just do it, half the time, it's not very high stakes even if you think it is. I think that's quite maverick-y.
RIFFIDUM:
That is, Maverick-y!
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