20-year-old DJ and Producer Ninajirachi has been churning out belters since she was underage, so it’s safe to say she’s developed a knack for it.
Recently taken under the wing of music industry powerhouse Nina Las Vegas, Ninajirachi has gone from playing with GarageBand on her mum’s Mac at the age of eight to pumping out tunes at this year’s FOMO Festival.
On episode 22 of our PEDESTRIAN.TV X Platypus Shoes poddy Sneak Up, host Jack Colquhoun shot the shit with the Sydney-native about her love for Pokemon (so much so that one particular creature inspired half of her stage name), her dream collaborations (@ Charli XCX), and, perhaps most importantly, Ninajirachi created a basic checklist for making an 11/10 track.
Aspiring producers, pay attention.
While Ninajirachi goes into slightly more depth about her overall process, you can read a simplified version here:
- Think of a project by the song’s timeline and instrumental arrangement of the track
- Listen to the song repeatedly
- Identify the good bits and see if they can be longer
- Identify the boring bits
- Think of the track as a grid and find the primo balance
https://www.instagram.com/p/B0qDnt6FkTD/
Releasing her latest EP, Lapland, back in Feb to critical acclaim, Ninajirachi encourages anyone who feels intimidated by the production process to just have a play around.
“If it’s any consolation, I don’t know what I’m doing when I go in to make a song. I mean, I know how to use the software, but very rarely…I’ve actually gone in going, ‘I’m going to make a song that sounds like this.’”
“Often it’s just literally playing – it’s like playing with a toy – and eventually you just stumble upon something that’s cool and exciting. And then you just build up a bunch of ideas and stitch them together.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/Btm_AoJAeML/
So, if you’re keen on playing at FOMO rather than simply attending FOMO with the rest of the unwashed masses, I suggest you give the ep a listen.
After that, feel free to mosey on over to Spotify or wherever you stream your podcasts and give the rest of Sneak Up a listen.
