Welcome to Sound Advice, a weekly interview 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 the many facets of Next Pro to reach their audience and grow their career.
Switching up your approach to writing and releasing music can be an incredibly insightful and liberating creative exercise, especially when you’ve been honing your craft for quite some time. For New Jersey-based singer-songwriter Skrizzly Adams, embracing a “no rules” mentality helped him get closer to the essence of who he is as an artist and see what can happen when you trust your gut. After releasing his ‘Three Year Stint’ album this past fall, Skrizzly continued building his prolific catalog by dropping ‘Lake House Town,’ a 14-track mixtape that encouraged him to abandon his perfectionist tendencies in music and instead embrace his artistry in what he refers to as its “purest form.”
‘Lake House Town’ reflects Skrizzly’s life in the span of a year and some change. To document his day-to-day mind-state authentically, the alt-country musician turned to the mixtape format — an approach more common in hip-hop than country – which gave him more creative freedom and the ability to experiment with a stripped-down writing process. Using SoundCloud analytics to help decide which singles to promote for the project, Skrizzly balances his marketing savvy with his authentic commitment to bring fans along for every phase and chapter of his journey as an independent musician. Ahead of embarking on tour, with shows slated across North America and Canada, we caught up with the reigning DIY champ to learn more about how his new mixtape came together, what it taught him about himself and his creative process and how SoundCloud helped shape his promotional strategy.
When we last checked in with you, we talked about how dropping a mixtape isn’t something you often see from Americana or rock/country artists. What encouraged you to approach ‘Lake House Town’ this way?
The whole idea of dropping a mixtape was definitely inspired by hip-hop culture. For me it was a way of writing, producing and releasing a full-length project that followed a different set of rules. Every song was written and produced solely by me and the general cost of making the project was significantly less than making an album. Artistically, making the mixtape was essentially me creating a window into my artistry in its purest form.
Noting that you are the sole writer and producer of the entire project, did the mixtape format offer creative freedom in different ways than an album or EP might?
The process of creating ‘Lake House Town’ was extremely liberating in the sense that there was only one requirement to each song: that I liked it. I spent significantly less time questioning the writing and producing of each record and solely relied on my gut instincts. I think I learned a lot about trusting my writing process for future mixtapes.
While prepping ‘Lake House Town’ for its official release, how did SoundCloud fit into your promotional strategy?
mixtSoundCloud played a large role in the release of the project. I released almost every single song early on SoundCloud. The second half of the album was released months in advance. I used analytics from SoundCloud to help pick singles.apes
Do you have any advice or gems you can share for artists looking to self-produce their music for the first time or expand their production skills in general?
The most valuable lesson learned from making ‘Lake House Town’ was the two classic sayings: “Keep it simple” and “Less is more.”
Knowing you are hitting the road this spring, what are you most excited about with this next batch of live shows?
I’m very excited to test out these new songs on the road and see which of them resonate the most with the audience. I’m bringing out my guitar player, Nick, with me who will help bring new life and energy to these songs.
Learn more about Skrizzly Adams’ SoundCloud journey in the in-depth conversation below, originally published on October 20, 2023 as an installment of Sound Advice. To discover additional features a SoundCloud Next Pro subscription offers, click here.
In our first installment, Skrizzly Adams makes catchy alt-country heaters reminiscent of Bruce Springsteen or Zach Bryan but his artist career owes more to hip-hop’s hustle mentality. The New Jersey-based singer, songwriter and guitarist keeps his online fans engaged with a steady stream of music, while also offering private concerts on Zoom, playing house party shows and selling merch from shot glasses to beef jerky. We caught up with the DIY king, who just released his ‘Three Year Stint’ album, to talk about his relentless release schedule and taking advantage of SoundCloud features like unlimited uploads and private links to connect with fans.
The way you approach releasing music feels really hip-hop, from the mixtapes to last-minute drops and all your side hustles. Can you talk a bit about some of the release decisions you’ve made and why?
With every release, you’re asking yourself, “This is the right commercial way to do it, but is it the right artistic choice?” Less than two weeks ago, we put out my third album, Three Year Stint, and we dropped 10 singles off a 14-track album. That’s definitely very heavy – a lot of rappers release that way – but we wanted every single chance to see what the metrics are.
I’m about to drop a mixtape, which is not something Americana artists or rock or country artists really do. The right financial thing to do might be to release it as a bunch of singles but I want a flex kind of moment, where you’ll look back at Skrizzly Adams history and see the album and the mixtape were released only four or five months apart. At the same time, I have singles I really believe in so I want to give them an honest shot to be discovered; the truth is, whatever the x amount of songs are that aren’t singles, it’s going to take a while for people to discover them. So it’s a constant dance, for sure.
When are the mixtape and the fourth album dropping?
I’ve never said it yet so this is the first time! In February or March 2024, we’re dropping the mixtape, it’s called Lake House Town. There’s 17 songs on there and all of them are about my life in a 14-month span. Everything was pretty much improvised: I got the idea for the song, pressed record on the voice memo, and everything was done in 30 minutes. I’m the sole writer, sole producer; it’s just me in my purest form. And then album four is dropping in November; the title right now is I Guess We’ll Never Know What Happened. It’s the total opposite of the mixtape – we’re constantly revising the songs, like how can we make these the most potent, most effective songs possible. I’m working with a producer named Frank E who had a lot of big hits in the 2010s with Wiz Khalifa, Charlie Puth, G-Eazy on a bunch of stuff, and I’m really pumped about it
What are your favorite features on SoundCloud?
The most useful thing is that I can just drop a song whenever I want. I can literally create a “call to action” across all my social media – like, “Hey, guys, like, let’s get 10 more followers on SoundCloud right now and I’ll drop a new song.” And then when I meet the quota, bam! Fans get rewarded real quick. I love that flexibility.
How to get the most out of the DM feature on SoundCloud
How do you like to use SoundCloud’s private uploads?
I like to use private links to get feedback on music within my network. I also use the back-end of SoundCloud to keep all my music organized, from my demos to my future releases, until I decide where they’re going. I have a fan club on Patreon and I’ll send private SoundCloud links to them to give them early access – we sent them the private link to my whole mixtape and got some good feedback. Is that a reflection of the whole audience? I have no idea. But, it’s something.
Learn more about unlimited uploads on Next Pro
Are you distributing your music through Next Pro?
Yeah, right now I’m doing everything through Soundcloud’s Next Pro distribution. In May 2022, I committed to it so it’s been like 100 releases by now. My stuff has been streaming really well, so I don’t know if that’s a testament to SoundCloud or me, or both. Uploading the stuff for distribution is super easy. I’ve worked with a lot of distributors and it’s probably the easiest portal of the bunch.
Learn more about distributing with SoundCloud for Artists
It’s interesting how many versions you’ll put up of your songs. There will be an album version, a live version, an acoustic version. What’s that about?
Maybe I’m just neurotic? I’m very big on recording everything. I’ll record the whole show and I’ll be in the hotel, listening back and taking notes about which song was good. And then within 48 hours, like it’s all mixed and mastered. Sometimes there’s a demo of a song that feels really good, so I decide maybe it should be on the album as a bonus track.
Learn more about replacing a track’s audio file
The key to success is consistency, and the key to consistency is authenticity. So pretty much my barometer of everything is: am I excited about it? If I’m excited about a song and I’ve listened to it five times, my fans probably will too. SoundCloud is a great platform for a lot of stuff that isn’t perfectly mixed or mastered. Sometimes my stuff sounds rough, my voice is cracking, but there’s something about it I really like. In the grand scheme of things, these kinds of tracks don’t get millions of streams, but when you put it all together, it all adds value.
What’s your best advice for artists using SoundCloud?
Whatever it is, just drop it. If you have the song, just put it out. Don’t spend a million dollars on the artwork. Don’t go crazy with the mix and master, just get it out there – and don’t give a disclaimer like “This isn’t all the way there” either. So many people just like… micromanage their perfectionism and don’t release anything. Take advantage of that unlimited upload thing. Upload a bunch of stuff, share the link, and that’s pretty much it. If you build it, they will come.
Just make music and put it out – that is the magic of SoundCloud at the end of the day.
LISTEN TO SKRIZZLY ADAMS
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