Mike Maven

 

 

Tell us about yourself & how you got into music?

My name is Mike Maven and my journey into music started in my youth when my parents forced me to take formal piano lessons. Growing up I listened to a lot of 90’s hip hop and became passionate about the music and the culture. I started rhyming and writing songs over other artist instrumentals using my piano training as platform to better understand how music was constructed and the different sounds and melodies that were present and sometimes hidden to the untrained ear. As my rhyming and songwriting progressed, I notice a major shortage of industry quality production and beats in the small city I lived in. Other producers instrumentals no longer captured the sound and direction of the music I wanted to create. I took advantage of this opportunity and began creating my own beats and cultivating a unique sound inspired by the music I had grown to love. It turned out to be a natural fit and here I am years later, blessed to be producing for some of the biggest artist in music today.

 

 Who influenced you the most in your career musically?

I was heavily influenced by producers like Timbaland, Mannie Fresh, Jerry Wonda, and Drumma Boy. To me they were  the epitome of how a producer could develop a distinct sound that was undeniably and exclusively theirs. Observing their work motivated me to be creative and find my own style of producing using the same creative energy they put into their music. Growing up in the south, artist like Lil Wayne and Juvenile also played a huge factor in my overall appreciation for hip hop, and I am blessed to have been able to work with artist like them throughout my career.

How did you start using FL Studio & what does it mean to your productions?

I actually started producing at the tail end of the era where to some, you had to have a MPC, keyboard, and Protools to be considered a “real producer” so I bought just that, but how was I supposed to travel around with a ton of gear to every studio…yeah that got old fast. I started researching a more mobile production setup and stumbled upon FL studio and it’s been history every since! I’ve never been able to get Ideas from my head into a DAW as fast as I do with FL Studio. It became the core of my production! The piano roll is hands down the best on the market and for some magical reason the drums hit hard!!! FL Studio is definitely one of the best DAW’s out today.

Tell us about your production environment & toys?

My personal studio consists of a few elements to help with my productions. My ASUS ROG gaming PC, FL studio of course, accompanied by a gang of virtual instruments, my Apollo, Focal Monitors, Avalon 747 for vocals, and a bunch of sound modules and rack gear I’ve collected over the years. All in all I like my studio environment to feel comfortable like my own personal spaceship, full of lights and toy’s to put me in my zone while I create in FL Studio!

Do you have any links you would like to share?

instagram.com/mikemaven/

twitter.com/mike_maven

facebook.com/MikeMavenMusic/

Mike