Podcast 218: Chris "Mayday" Rucks

Given that the name of his book is "Don't Make Beats Like Me", you know I'd want to talk with Chris "Mayday" Rucks. Chris has taken his experiences doing music production, production education and music licensing and created a book that is a compendium of advice for budding producers. Rather than focus on "Get Logic and Go Nuts", this book talks about the real hard stuff: networking, self-reflection and honesty about your own blind spots. These are the real trouble spots for most musicians, and Chris is particularly focused on people wanting to move up from beat making and music writing, and wanting to get into full-scale production. His view of the process is unique, because he had been working with a company (Dynamic Producer) that would focus on making people better producers. This put him in the position to interact with hundreds of starters - and some of the stars. From that, he was able to deduce 24 'rules' that really make sense regardless of the style of your music or area of expertise. I had a great - and honest - talk with Chris, and came away inspired to pay more attention to those parts of my life that are getting in the way of music production. I'll bet that you'll get that same. Enjoy!