After two and a half months, I’m back with an exclusive interview with my great friend and music producer Victor Lance. It was early 2019 as I began colaborating with him, we both worked together for great sounds. As a result, I got thousands of streams and the numbers are growing each day.
In this post, I’ll ask him about his personal life as well as music production, and will ask for some tricks for upcoming music producers. Let’s go!
Get to know Victor Lance
Can you introduce yourself in a few sentences?
“My name is Victor Onah. I’m from Nigeria, from the Igbo tribe and 21 years old. I am a secondary school graduate and working towards getting a college degree. Currently I’m a music producer, singer, mixing and mastering engineer. I am an online freelancer, I also own a studio where I produce music for local singers.”
How did you decide to get involved with music?
“Firstly, while in secondary school, I used to be just a singer and lyricist, I never really thought I was going to produce music. My main interest was following the charts, studying how they wrote and sang their music then trying to do the same. Then I would compose songs based of the melody of other songs, I changed the lyrics but the melody remained the same, like a kind of remix and told my friends that everything was originally mine.
Secondly, I always thought anyone had to go to the university and study music production before they can become one.
As fate may have it, I met a guy then who showed me some music he had done himself and said it was possible to produce music with just a computer software(Fl studio) and that it was pretty easy and with my knowledge of the piano I would do really well. He thought me the basics, I had to learn the rest from watching tutorials on YouTube and from 10000 hours of practice.”
Except music, what are the things you enjoy doing? Do you have any hobies?
“I would say I’m just like every other person out there. I like to read good books, write when I get an inspiration, I like to cook and eat, I like to watch movies when I can, I like to go out sometimes and have fun and I really enjoy having fascinating and interesting conversations.”
Back to music, do you have any favorite singers or bands?
“Gee, I have lots of favorite singers and bands. Like the Chainsmokers, Calvin Harris, Moneybagg yo, Lil baby, Fela kuti, Michael Jackson, The Beatles etc..”
“STARTED WHEN I was 16”
At what age did you start producing music?
“I started learning to produce music when I was 16 years old, then I was only producing what I called skeleton beats. The beats didn’t have depth and it was most of the time a copy of some beat I found in fl studio. I would copy the melody and play around with it until it sounded like something else, but they usually didn’t sound good enough to me. After one year through constant practice I was able to come up with original melody and by the time I was 18 I was able to produce music that was professional.
Also, the thing about producing music is that it will never really sound professional enough until you learn how to mix and master your beats. You might not be an expert but you need to at least know enough to make your beats sound good when played on various playback devices or sound systems. Learning to mix and master took me an extra 6-8 months.”
what genres you feel the most comfortable whilst producing?
“During my early stages as a music producer still trying to master the craft, it was hip hop music (trap music to be precise). This was mainly because I so much loved hip hop music and I will say it’s pretty easy to produce when you have listened to lots and lots of them. But as I progressed, became more invested and learnt how to produce other genres, I discovered I also liked to produce EDM and Pop music because most records in those genres were upbeat and I love upbeat songs.”
“It’s natural for me. When I decide to write lyrics”
You also write lyrics, what is your inspiration?
“Like I said earlier, I was a singer and lyricist before I was a music producer. I would say it’s natural for me. When I decide to write music it comes to me spontaneously without me having to think too much about it.
Moreover, my mood also determines the kind of music I am going to write. If am feeling sad then the theme of my music will be sad and vice versa. I do not have a particular process that I will say I always use to inspire myself and with no intention of sounding conceited I will like to say that I have the talent for it that I can muse from anything or situation when writing my music.”
“working together with you has turned me on to really beautiful works”
Since we began producing together, what do you think about my musical taste?
“You know, for me it’s a blessing that I got to know you and that we have worked together on several projects. Prior to us working together, there were some forms of music and singers who had a great discography, but I hardly knew them or their music, but working together with you has turned me on to them and their really beautiful works. Some artists like Billie Eilish and more recently Jovani.
I think your taste in music is awesome. I think you are not interested in the typical style of music that seem to be dominating the charts but those ones that sounds atypical, unique, minimal, outlandish, poised and with suave transitions.
What is the song you like the most that we produced together?
“This is a very difficult question to answer, in all honesty, because all the songs we have worked on together have all been intriguing. Your taste in music is so great, which has inspired me to produce songs that I find myself playing over and over again several weeks after producing them. If I was made to choose, not saying we didn’t put extra effort in the subsequent once we did but I will say it’s the first one we did because of the extra extra effort we put in to make sure it was perfect.”
My plans for the future is to keep getting better”
Do you have any plans for the future? Will you release a single or an album anytime soon?
“My plans for the future is to keep getting better, making sure I’m updated on the latest techniques and tools and making sure I keep reinventing my sound by learning new things every day. I think that’s something a lot of producers really overlook. They feel contented with the techniques they have learnt that may be working for them currently and stop checking to see what’s the new way to modernize their sound in a constantly intermittent industry. Don’t get me wrong, I do not think it’s bad to be contented, but I think for a producer who tends to dominate the game for a longtime he has to keep learning new things to avoid sounding boring and outdated.
Furthermore, I believe I have put out enough music for now and that I will focus mainly on learning new techniques, producing for other artists and promoting the ones I have released. Two years from now, I’ll have learnt some new things, my fans will have enjoyed the ones I have already released and will be filled with anticipation for new ones which will be an upgrade.”
A few words for the music producers as we wrap up
Let’s wrap up here. Any final words you’d like to say?
“Well, I think I have said all I have to say, I’m not really the type that likes to say too much.
Before my final full stop, I will also like to say this to upcoming music producers who hope to one day become a professional. With each new day, new inventions invest a part of the face of the world like a net, it’s easy now to overlook the basic necessities and jump into the final stages. Their are now several apps on mobile phones which with a few clicks you can make a beat and due to that a lot of upcoming producers nowadays no longer take the pain to learn music theory and other basics but use this apps to make preset based beats. If you intend to last long and on the long run make a name for yourself in this industry, then that’s not the way to go. Take time and pain to learn the basics, it might seem too hard and bewildering, but trust me if you keep at it day and night, practicing for 10000 hours you will definitely get it and it will be of much help to you in the future.
Finally, if you’re interested in checking out my sounds, you can listen to a bunch of them on my SoundCloud and if you have a project you will want me to handle for you contact me on Fiverr
Thank you.”
Notes
A few notes about the names he mentioned. Billie Eilish is a famous young american singer. Jovani is a 1983 born lithuanian DJ. His real name is Jonas Nainys. The song which he told he liked the most amongst my songs is All over again, which you also can listen above.
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