Sounds And Q & A With Music Producer PilotKid

Hey Pilot it’s nice to sit down with the one and only and chop it up how are you doing man?

A. Hey! Thanks for the opportunity. I’m doing great, just moved to LA about a month ago, so just adjusting to the lifestyle and all that, everything is going super smoothly. Crazy times but just taking it one day at a time.

Q. So tell us a little about yourself for those who don’t know.

A. I’m a producer/artist from California, specifically the Central Valley.  For those who don’t know, music is my life. I was in my school bands from 6th grade all the way up until High School, was in various different jazz bands, and was pretty much a band geek. I graduated high school with honors, was awarded a music scholarship that is only given to one senior every year, and recently finished college debt free due to a full ride scholarship granted to me through my time in jazz bands.

Q. When did you produce your first beat?

A. I used to mess around in Garageband with the Apple loops, just putting random premade drum loops and melodies together with my friends just to make dumb songs like my freshman year of highschool. I first produced my first beat in high school using LMMS lmao. It was the only thing that I knew was free at the time, and I didn’t have my own computer so I had to use my family’s computer. I had to try and hide the software because my parent’s used to think everything was a virus, and they eventually deleted it a month later with my only project at the time.

One day, I saw the video of J. Cole making Power Trip on his tour bus and thought to myself “If he made a hit with this stuff, so can I!”, so I literally went to the comments and got everything that was mentioned in the video: a Macbook, Akai MPK49, and Logic Pro X, When I graduated high school in 2015, I got my first laptop, a Macbook with Logic on it, the midi controller, and started making beats.

The first beat I ever made was an attempt at a recreation of Treehome95 by Tyler, The Creator.

Q. I like your versatility with producing an array of various sounds from Kaytranada , Brockhampton , Frank Ocean and many others. How would you describe your sound?

A. It’s tough to describe my sound, because i’m inspired by so many different artists. If I had to attach a slogan to my sound, my message with music is that I always wanted people to feel some type of “high” listening to my music, like that feeling when you get lost in the sounds and chords. Condensed into a single all-encompassing term, I would definitely describe my sound as psychedelic. The overarching musical themes related between each vibe, from Frank Ocean to Tame Impala to Kanye West, is all psychedelic.

Q. Do you have a producer or artist who inspires you to produce music the way you do?

A. To be honest, I could go on for DAYS about all my inspirations lol. I’m a fanatic of music first and foremost, that’s what sparked my interest in producing, so I really just love all music (except country and EDM).

My biggest inspirations have to be Kanye West and Kevin Parker of Tame Impala, I feel like I studied their music the most over the years; the way i feel when i listen to their music is really how i want my listeners to feel, i always wanted to translate those feelings of awe and wonder into my sound. Tyler, Kid Cudi, and Mac Miller were always my first inspirations in highschool, and have been over the years,so I feel like my initial inspirations when producing stemmed from that.

My first interactions with music was west coast rap like Dr. Dre and Tupac, stuff that was played in my youth. In middle school I was really into alternative 90s rock and grunge, Metallica was my favorite band (still is) and got me into playing guitar. I really used to be into Deadmau5 and Daft Punk too. I take inspiration from the jazz music I studied in high school, prog rock bands like The Mars Volta, and above all, love nothing more than an amazing chord progression.

My taste is kinda all over the place.

Q. How long does it usually take you to produce a beat and how often do you produce beats?

A. It depends. Lately I’ve been getting faster, but I’d say anywhere from 3-4 hours? Sometimes a day? I just recently finished a beat that took me a week to come up with just because i wanted to attack it the right way, I tend to sit with ideas, never trying to force myself to finish ideas. I’ll go through 5 concepts in a day sometimes before i make something I stick with. The mix is usually what would eat up the most time, but since i’ve been becoming more satisfied with my mixes i’d say about 3 hours from start to finish, sometimes more and sometimes less. The stuff that takes less time is usually the best, if it takes me too long to finish a beat I just move on from it because it’s usually an indicator that it wasn’t very good to begin with.

I produce everyday, usually in four hour increments. I’ll do a morning session and an evening session. I’m kinda addicted to seeing myself get better, so I don’t really take too much time off, but it’s something i’m working on haha.

Q. Who would be your top 5 producers or music artists in the game ?

A. Man this is hard, keep in mind these lists are in no order and i’m definitely leaving a ton off the list but

Producers:

1. Dj Dahi

2. Clams Casino

3. Wondagurl

4. Boi-1da

5. JPEGMAFIA

Artists:

1. Kanye West

2. Tame Impala

3. Travis Scott

4. Kendrick Lamar

5. Tyler, The Creator

6. Childish Gambino (i just couldn’t leave him off, he’s too damn talented)

Q. What is one of your biggest hurdles when you are producing music?

A. For me it is probably melodies, and trying to move into different keys. Other than that, I can’t think of too much else. For me, music should be fun and enjoyable to make, so by always trying to keep it that way I never really come with any hurdles. Maybe overthinking too much or being too perfectionist, but i’m learning to deal with that as well.

Q. Do you like to collaborate with other producers?

A. I just recently started to actually, I never used to collaborate, for whatever reason. But now if I have a melody that I don’t initially know what to do with, I’ll toss the alley-oop to another one of my producer friends so they can interpret it on their own with fresh ears. Sometimes a collab happens, sometimes nothing does, but that’s typically how i approach collaborations these days.

Q. What music artist or music producer you would like to work with?

A. Definitely Kanye. And Kevin Parker. Both dream collaborations. I love Don Toliver as well and would love to work with him, I think we could make some bangers. Kenny Beats seems like a cool dude to be in a session with and seems like someone I could learn a lot from, I already do from his twitch streams. Oh and definitely Travis Scott.

Q. Do you also teach people who want to get into music production?

A. Not necessarily, I do answer questions that producers come up to me with though for anything they might ask me. There’s a TON of information out there on youtube and reddit so I probably wouldn’t have any input that isn’t already out there already,

Q. And last but not least where can the viewers find you and your music?

A. Best way to find me on social media is on Instagram @gspdmusic , and my youtube channel is “pilotkid”, Youtube is where i focus most of my music drops.

Thanks Pilot for taking the time to sit with us and choppin it up with us at Diabolical Rabbit. We wish you much continued success and look forward to seeing more from you in the near future.