Calling all girls!
Edit: Veela is now on our Power Users page. Click here to read more.
Q: How did you start using FL Studio and what were your first impressions?
I first stumbled upon the demo of FL by accident, with no intention for music production whatsoever. I started playing around with the loops and patches already supplied in the program and made little songs. It was fun because I could analyze the demo track "Eternity" (Toby Emerson, Solid Inc) and figure out what Toby had done.
I loved the flow of the program. After taking the time to learn from the tutorials online and by trial and error, I was able to gain a good foundation for the next 7 months to come. I feel like I have a good general understanding of the program and am still learning and getting better all the time. I also am in love with all of the FL plugins. I'm constantly raving about them to my producer friends and they all envy me for the Soundgoodizer. Genius. The Fruity Compressor and the Fruity Dist are fabulous aswell.
Being a vocalist, I can really appreciate the one touch recording that FL provides. The audio setting are so easy to manipulate, making it easier to control the buffer when things start cracking up. And even though I'm using a VERY powerful condenser microphone, the sound translation still comes through smooth enough through FL that I can tack on as many effects as I want and not sound tinny. My deepest production secret? The Slicex. This is almost literally how I make all of my hooks. My music is quite pop and so the hooks are crucial to a catchy tune.. I just stick in one of my lead vox and then slice it up to my heart's content. If this was the only feature I liked about FL, I'd still buy it. Just for this.
Q: Tell us about yourself and your production/working environment?
I'm 17 and living in the wonderful Victoria, BC in Canada. I began using FL 7 months ago. I also started DJing a while back and am still working on honing that skill. I'm primarily a producer and am self taught with the exception of priceless mentoring from the likes of Toby Emerson, Christoph Maitland and Vespers.
New musicians are constantly taling about "needing connections" and being sad they don't have them. If you're not born into connections, make them! I can't tell you how many amazing things have happened for me in my musical career from the decision I made to make a tiny email 6 months ago.
I'm a singer and I produce electropop and breaks. I love breaks more than electropop, because it poses more of a challenge for me. I'm also providing vocals for my mentors aswell as producer Myagi and others. My main love about this whole project is that I'm able to feature talent that may otherwise not get the spotlight. I've had the privilege of working with and featuring the incredible rapping skills of Context (Daniel Laughy), a local guy who is going to do amazing things with his soul and rhythm. I held a rap contest last month and the winner, 16 year old uNeek (Naz Khedri) is going to be featured in the alternate version of my track "Circa 1620" with his silky tone and sexy rhymes at the end of the month.
I work from my bedroom. People enter it and go "What?" It's basically my two Mackie MR5s with my laptop, my AKAI MPK61, my Sennheiser HD280 headphones and my baby, my Neumann mic. Very minimal, though you don't need much when you've got the best production platform around.
Q: Do you have any music you can share with us?
My EP, Prelude, is in the works, though I can reveal one of the songs to be pitched to radio in Canada this summer. It's called "Circa 1620" and it's a song telling the story of the motions of broken love. This is the one uNeek will be featured on at the end of the month. Listen here:
Veela - Circa 1620 [VINTAGE VEELA] by veelabeats
My EP sampler is also on my soundcloud page, and another track (though older), Exposure 3.2, is being streamed on my myspace. Check back on my myspace for snippets of tracks I'm working on as I generally post little tastes of songs for a couple of days.
Q: Do you have any links or other info you would like to share?
www.myspace.com/veelabeats - I post my latest song snippets first, you can also find my EP sampler and leave a nice comment! :D
www.veelablog.com - My personal blog. I'm constantly posting self-help advice, music advice, answering questions, funny things that happen in my life, offensive jokes, wtf pictures and the odd video.
www.twitter.com/veelamusic - Want to hear the uncensored Veela? Follow me, srsly..
www.souncloud.com/veelabeats - My music is posted here. This is also a good place to contact me is you'd like to try a collaboration out!
www.facebook.com/#!/pages/VEELA/154553844073 - This ugly web address is for my facebook fanpage, where all the action REALLY happens. If you want to get the most information in one shot, this is where to get it. It's in your best interest for your wellbeing to become a fan. You'll laugh alot. There's been talk of loin cloths..
www.reverbnation.com/veelabeats - This lovely site is like a better myspace with no creeps. I don't update it as much, but it still looks really cool and I put "press clippings" there. Become a fan.
Number one thing to remember: Ask me questions, or leave me comments. I don't care what it's about, I just love doing question answering videos and blog posts. Also, if you have a talent that you'd like to pitch to me for a collaboration, don't hesitate to contact me! I don't just feature rappers, I feature other vocalists, producers and musicians of all types and experience. If you're just getting a handle on things, have a burning desire to succeed, are funny and are ready to put the work in, I'll be your best friend.
You can get updates about when I'm putting my snippets up aswell as when I post new youtube videos, where my live shows are and satirical humor if you sign up for my mailing list. Just give me a shout at veelamusic [ A T ] live [ D O T ] ca if you'd like to participate!
All my love and admiration for creating this amazing production program! I would be nowhere without it today!
xo.V
Thanks so much for your time Veela, we appreceate it and wish you the very best with your musical career.
Shout out to the girls!
If you are a FL Studio & or Deckadance using producer/artist/DJ (or know one) contact us at press@image-line.com and let us know what you are doing we'd love to hear.
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