Sound Advice: Daily Bread

Join Daily Bread on Sound Advice, the weekly interview series covering artists’ journeys and their creative process. In this episode, we discuss the Atlanta producer’s latest album ‘Vanishing Point,’ his crate-digging roots in the Atlanta hip-hop scene, and how he’s used SoundCloud to elevate his career.

Welcome to Sound Advice, the series spotlighting artists’ creative process and their SoundCloud journey. We’ll get the inside knowledge straight from the source on how musicians, producers and creatives are leaning into everything SoundCloud offers to elevate their sound, get heard and catapult their careers. Sound Advice is now available in audio format on the SoundCloud Stories profile.

On this week’s Sound Advice, we called up Atlanta-based artist Rhett Whatley, otherwise known as Daily Bread. As a producer and songwriter, his Daily Bread project has taken him from days spent crate-digging in Marietta, Georgia, to tour buses, headline festival slots and sharing stages with artists like Pretty Lights, GRiZ, and Big Boi from Outkast

Originally inspired by RJD2 and DJ Shadow, Daily Bread started off with dusty, sample-based beats made on an MPC2000. Along the way, he switched to a DAW and started fusing in handcrafted elements like EDM bass textures and effects, funk guitar, and soulful grooves. As heard on projects like 2025’s ‘Across The Burning Sky,’ his popular mixtape series and more, he flips Southern trap sounds with his own distinctive style. You can listen to Daily Bread’s exclusive commentary about some of his key tracks, on this episode of Voice Notes.

We talked to Rhett about where he’s at these days, from his latest album, September 2026’s ‘Vanishing Point,’ to how live shows, traveling and fan feedback influence his music. We dive into  the evolution of his sound and the influence of Atlanta, as well as how SoundCloud has helped him share music and connect with collaborators over the years. Plus, he also gives advice to fellow artists on how consistency, confidence and connecting with your local scene is essential to growing your career. 

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO EPISODE OF SOUND ADVICE FEATURING DAILY BREAD

LISTEN TO ‘VANISHING POINT’ BY DAILY BREAD ON SOUNDCLOUD

Things We Talked About In This Episode of Sound Advice

Behind Daily Bread’s Crate-Digging, MPC-Playing Hip-Hop Roots

  • We begin the conversation with a simple question: Why the name Daily Bread? To answer that, Rhett takes us back to his roots as a crate-digging, hip-hop-loving kid from Georgia, and how the physical, methodical effort of seeking out the best, obscure records for sampling, playing and inspiring his own material created a positive energy in his life. As he calls it, his moniker is a “really a big metaphor for the music and the pursuit.”
  • As he reflects, Daily Bread got into the practice of crate-digging through an awareness of how special a role it played in the lives of artists he admired. Here, he talks about his love for DJ Shadow — whose ‘Endtroducing….’ album is a vital work of 2000s hip-hop and evolving sample culture — as well as hip-hop acts like RJD2, 9th Wonder and DJ Premier, among others.
  • Going deeper, Daily Bread paints a picture of his teenage years in Georgia, his college experience and how he started sharing his music online through a series of DIY videos uploaded to the internet by his friend group. It all clicked into place in Daily Bread’s mind when he got his hands on an MPC2000 — the Akai-branded production tool and sampler that’s an iconic instrument in the history of hip-hop — sharing how he gradually transferred the skills he learned on it to his computer-based production work and moving over to DAWs. 
  • “Over time, things have gotten more intentful and confident,” Daily Bread says. “The arrangements are bigger rather than two-bar loops on the MPC…. Now, my intention is to develop these little hints at the bottom of the crates into other full ideas that are expansive.”

Daily Bread’s Latest Album ‘Vanishing Point’ and His Collaborative Style

  • In September 2026, Daily Bread dropped his latest full-length project, ‘Vanishing Point.’ The title is inspired by “where parallel lines meet on the horizon,” he says. “It’s something you're always moving towards, but you never actually arrive at.” Here, he talks about why he finds that relatable to his life as a studio and touring artist, and how it allows him to find beauty and inspiration in the everyday.
  • ‘Vanishing Point’ is his most emotionally expansive record to date, pulling from different moods and tempos. That broadness of ideas comes in part from his evolving style of collaboration. On the record, he works with acts like Atlanta rapper Jonah Cruzz, for example. Here, he talks about the creative process of their album track, “Working The Plan,” and how they tapped into their shared Southern roots for inspiration. 
  • Throughout the album creation process, Daily Bread incorporated SoundCloud. The platform has long been a home for his music, and he pays homage to this on his album track “Til The Sun Burns Out.” Here, he talks about how the track was originally uploaded in demo form to SoundCloud in 2016, how he came back to the track for ‘Vanishing Point,’ and how the experience of listening to the demo and final versions allowed him to appreciate his creative and technical evolution as a producer over the last decade.

After a Decade on SoundCloud, Daily Bread Shares Tips for Artist Growth

  • Since his earliest days of producing beats, crate-digging and collaborating, Daily Bread made a promise to himself: to never delete a track from his SoundCloud. That early promise “changed everything for me,” he says. “It removed all these barriers. You could upload ideas and get feedback through really valuable people and creators that had a similar knowledge and interest in the scene.” 
  • Here, he talks more about how SoundCloud has introduced him to friends and collaborators along the way, and how his album track “A Long Time” was the natural next step to take with Late Night Radio, an artist he met on SoundCloud many years before. 
  • “We all met on SoundCloud first, became friends and then started a lot of creative pursuits together,” Daily Bread says. “We still run around together and a couple of them even moved to Atlanta. We owe a lot to those early days and getting connected [on SoundCloud].” 
  • One feature of SoundCloud that Daily Bread has tapped into over the years is track comments. Fan feedback has allowed him to see his work from fresh angles, explore deeper connections with his audience, and allow him to develop a keen understanding of the difference between constructive criticism and online hating. 
  • “I look at them because I like to look for patterns,” he explains. “I don’t take everything to heart. If someone has an opinion and it’s presented in a respectful way, and I know it’s coming from the heart, then I want to hear it. I’m all ears. I look at the way I release music as a collaboration, really, between myself and my fanbase.”

How Daily Bread Evolved Between Albums, as Live Performer and Collaborator 

  • It’s been three years since Daily Bread last released an album. On 2023’s ‘Invisible Cinema,’ he balanced funky grooves and rap leads with more mellow, introspective samples and beats patterns. Reflecting on that time, Daily Bread talks about the effect that the pandemic had on his sense of self as an artist and the direction of his music, and how the experience of touring that album allowed him to elevate his live show through staging and collaboration. 
  • Throughout his career, he’s remained steadfast, cultivating a core fanbase that’s grown with each subsequent release and tour. Here, he looks back on his early days of sharing his music in the Atlanta scene and producing beats for vocalists, before branching out into being a solo artist. 
  • “I’m really proud of and appreciate that slow-and-steady growth rather than [a career path] that spikes real high real fast,” he explains. “Because I feel like I’ve been able to turn around and analyze what works, what doesn’t, and incubate that relationship between myself and the fans that are showing up. That was something between ‘Invisible Cinema’ and ‘Vanishing Point’ that we were able to accomplish in a healthy way.” 
  • Looking back on a decade of hard work and steady growth, what advice does he have for other independent artists who are choosing to go down a similar path? For Daily Bread, having patience and consistency are important factors, but the most important is to build real world relationships with like-minded artists and fans. 
  • By sharing your music in person — whether that’s in a small local club or bar, in production sessions or more — you cultivate a community that will go on your journey with you, and give you vital things like feedback in healthy ways. The scene in Atlanta did that for Daily Bread, and he wishes that for others around the world, too.
  • Looking to the rest of the 2026, Daily Bread is working on his live show around the release of ‘Vanishing Point.’ “It’s an extension of what we did at Red Rocks,” he says, speaking about his much-lauded performance at the famed outdoor Denver arena in 2025. 
  • Here, he talks in more detail about what the current iteration of the live show looks, sounds and feels like to the audience, and what new, custom elements he’s folding into the show to update it for 2026. He also talks about some other artists’ live performances, and how they’ve inspired his process. You can find out more about Daily Bread’s live tour dates here. 

Links and Extras

Follow Daily Bread’s journey on SoundCloud.
Press play on Daily Bread’s September 2026 album, ‘Vanishing Point.’
Follow Jonah Cruzz, who features on Daily Bread’s track “Working The Plan.”
Hit play on Daily Bread’s collaboration with Late Night Radio, called “A Long Time.”
Explore some of Daily Bread’s wide-ranging influences, including  RJD2, Outkast, DJ Shadow and DJ Premier, to name a few. 
Listen to the Hip-Hop Essentials playlist on SoundCloud.
Never miss an episode and follow the official Sound Advice playlist on SoundCloud.

Getting The Most Out of SoundCloud

Learn more about using DMs to connect with fellow artists and potential collaborators.
Learn more about how to make a custom playlist on SoundCloud.
Learn more about unlimited uploads, available with an Artist Pro subscription.
Learn more unlocking access to unlimited distribution, available with Artist Pro.
Learn more about getting heard with SoundCloud’s updated algorithm, available to Artist and Artist Pro subscribers.

To discover additional features a SoundCloud Artist or Artist Pro subscription offers, visit here. To catch up on past installments of Sound Advice and make sure you don’t miss out on future episodes, visit here.

CREDITS Host: Vivian Host, Executive Producer: Mike Spinella, Producer: KC Orcutt, Audio Engineer: David “DibS” Shackney, Coordinator: Trevor McGee, Editorial Associate: Lauren Martin