No.1 How would you describe this week in a sentence?
Busy, fulfilling, and full of new opportunities, if that makes sense.
Would you like to elaborate?
Yes. My life is really busy and I'm always on the go, and especially social media is such a 24-hour thing, always going on. But it connects you with a lot of different people from a lot of different areas, both when it comes to different industries, but also geographically. So I get to connect with a lot of people. It's very fulfilling because I constantly get to hear people's new stories. And I always find new opportunities, either if it's something for LAAMP that we can do, or for our artists to promote them. It’s always a grind, but it feels very fulfilling.
No.2 An artwork that's inspired you this week? It can be anything.
This past weekend, I went to Formula One in Vegas. One of the drivers recently lost his pet, which kind of became famous on social media, and someone had made [him] an artwork, a portrait of his dog that passed away, all made by little legos. When you zoomed in, it was him as a driver, a race cord, and all these things that were important to him in life. But when you zoomed out, all you saw was a portrait of a dog. I thought that was fascinating, both because I had no idea how they did that and it was truly so, so well put together. But it was also a reminder that sometimes when we see things up close, you see one little thing, and if you zoom out, you see something different. It's a bigger picture. So that was very inspiring.
No.3 A memorable moment from this week.
I feel very fortunate because I feel like I have several memorable moments every week, but I think that the fact that I was able to take my dad, that was a gift to take him to Las Vegas and see Formula One for the first time, it has been a lifelong dream for him, and he's never been. So [to] be able to be in that position to make that dream come true for him was really memorable, both for me and for him.
That's beautiful. How was Formula One, if I may ask?
It was great! I've been one time before, but I was viewing it from a different place this time. We got a lot closer to the racetrack, and the whole ambience and the people, and it's just so electric.
I used to be a professional downhill skier, so I love adrenaline. So seeing the drivers zooming by it's very thrilling and very exciting. I love it, but I also love cars, so if you're into that, then you [would] love it, because they're zooming by and there's a lot going on. And all of a sudden someone is crashing. I think it's so cool, especially in Vegas, because they drive in the streets, so they're in between all the buildings and it's not a racetrack. That's probably my favorite part about it.
Wow, thank you. That's amazing!
No.4 This is a two part question. Feel free to answer either or both - a motto you swear by and / or any advice you received and would like to share.
A motto I swear by is that hard work always pays off. If you continue to work hard, you might not see the results right now; What you think is going to happen right now might not happen right now. But if you continue to work hard, all the seeds you’re planting are going to start, as long as you continue to water and work hard, they're going to blossom at one point. That's one thing I always remind myself; hard work always pays off in the long run, so just keep going.
And then advice… An advice I've heard is [in] two parts if that's okay. One thing is to not really care too much about what other people think, as long as you know that you're a good person. No one knows you as much as you do yourself and no one is living your life, and [the] majority of the people that you meet in life, that you run into, you're never going to see them again anyways. So be careful who you take advice from. Never take criticism from someone you wouldn't take advice from. I think that's really important because, why are you listening to all these people's opinions if you wouldn't necessarily take their advice? That's something to keep in mind.
And also, as we go through life, if you're having a personal conversation with your friend, [and] just in general, if you don't have anything nice to say, you can keep it to yourself.
Very inspiring and very true. Good reminders!
No.5 What would you like to share about any of your current or upcoming projects?
We have a lot of big mentors coming in at LAAMP this year. We also have more collaborations coming up with both Fender and Roland, which is really exciting because obviously they're so big when it comes to producing musical equipment. I think that's what I'm most excited about, being able to collaborate with brands like Fender, Roland, Output, [where] we are moving the needle; Being able to collaborate with different organizations to spread the word, not only about LAAMP, but about other companies in the music industry, and being able to focus on how music is so uniting. That's something that I'm really excited about. And just being able to get that message across through our content, through viewing students, but also [through] big mentors that we have coming in.
Where do you find inspiration for your campaigns?
I find a lot of the inspiration in the students because I get to be around them. I'm in the office every day at LAAMP, so I get to be around so many different personalities every single day, and they all have their own artistic project, or when it comes to producers, they have their different style. Seeing that, and seeing how they dress, and hearing a lot of the time when they tell you the story behind the song, you learn so much about them. It's a very creative and inspirational environment to be in. Sometimes maybe something a student says or wears, or a story they tell sparks an idea of content, ideas of what we can do, especially to highlight the students. That's something that's been really important to me since I started at LAAMP, to be able to showcase our students as much as possible to help push them in the direction that they want to go in.
How do you choose what artists to work with, or what would be a quality in a future collaborator that you would look for?
At LAAMP, I try to highlight everybody. A lot of the time the producers, especially the ones that are just producers, can be a little bit more quiet, more used to being hidden behind the computer. So finding a way for them to get out of their shell and be able to highlight them more because it's so important to get your name out there to get opportunities. I see it as important to highlight everybody, to make sure that everyone gets the opportunities that they deserve. I also try to communicate directly with the students. To see some students be like, ‘Oh, I have an idea about this. Is this something that we can do together?’ Always finding ways to collaborate and pulling out the best in each individual, because again, they’re all so different.
If you're able to pull out the best in everyone, that way you'll come up with a great content idea, no matter who they are as people. That's what I focus on in order to make sure that I highlight everybody at LAAMP. And when it comes to mentors that we have that come in, we always try to find people who have an inspiring story that can inspire the students. The grind of becoming an artist today is really tough, and such a few people actually make it, so having people that can come in and inspire them to keep going, I think that those success stories, to just ignite them again to be like, ‘okay, I'm just going to keep going’ , that's what we're looking for as we keep moving forward.
That's amazing! And then the last question, what advice would you give to anyone for making new connections in the digital age?
Even though we're in such a digital age, I would say to not neglect the people that you run into in real life. A lot of the time you'll run into people here and there, and sometimes we can be consumed, on our phone, and we might miss an opportunity for someone who was walking by.
Or let's say some of the students have a job at a coffee shop, you never know who comes in as a customer anywhere. You never know who anyone is. So always try to push yourself to be a little extra outgoing and extroverted, because you'll connect with people here and there. And then when you do connect with them, whether it's on LinkedIn or Instagram or email or text or whatever, always try to remember if you spoke with them in person, something about your conversation, so it personalizes it, because that way it's easier for people to remember you..
I think that's one thing that's important in the digital age, to find a way to set yourself apart from everyone else when you network.
This is the first interview on this magazine [where] this is our first time talking to one another. And the connection was a personal connection through Drea that I previously interviewed [Andrea Turk, Interview no. 10], but we have never met before. So I'm glad that this is a way to expand the states that this magazine gets to cover. It's digital but personal, because without the personal connection, we wouldn't have had this conversation.
Exactly. And I think that's the beauty of social media, too. I think a lot of people these days meet online at first, and then it grows into being an in-person connection and vice versa. So I think that that's the beauty, because you can meet people from across the world, and then at one point, if you happen to be in the same place, then you already have some sort of a relationship with someone that you probably would have never met if it wasn't for the digital aspects. I think that [the] beauty is using both.
Well said. Thank you!
Snapshots by Rachel Bard
Keep up with Andrea’s upcoming projects -
@amgy
Los Angeles Academy for Artists and Music Production https://www.laampmusic.com/