Music Production isn’t an easy task, but junior Matthew Menendez makes it seem easy. He’s been making music for 4 years. Here’s his story:

How long have you been producing music?

I’ve been making music for 4 years

Would you consider yourself “popular” amongst your peers?

I wouldn’t consider myself as popular. I’m not like someone people are always talking about, though I have done the fall play for the school and so I’m not like “not known”. In terms of an artist I haven’t really released anything commercial and I don’t plan on doing so for a while. I want to keep all these projects I make for resumes and so for a perfect future I can study music engineering in college.

Favorite Sample-Sharing Services?

I don’t have any sample sharing services I subscribe too but anytime I browse my YouTube shorts I always come across something like drum jams that I like, so I save them and I’ll cut them or slice them up into new grooves. Most of the time I don’t use samples as I record most instruments myself.

Favorite Song You’ve Made

the most favorite “song” of mine is this rap beat I made. It’s special to me in both ways as it’s probably the best sounding beat sonically I’ve made but it was a beat I made in 15/8 which is no where near the normal 4/4 time signature found in most popular conventional western music. it has a groove to it that doesn’t really feel weird even though it’s in a very odd time signature. It would be hard to put in exact finger on my favorite but that one project is definitely one that stands out to me.

Favorite Piece of Music Gear

Probably one of my guitars, I have 3 strats, or fenders, one of them is a maple made in mexico, a normal squire and a modified weird – Ibanez neck with a strat body. Probably that, or my 2 basses, one being an Ibanez and the other being a precision bass.

Favorite Musicians:

Some of my favorite artists are Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine and Nine Inch Nails. They have lots of inspiration for my music.

What’s your general process when you sit down to make a song?

I don’t really make song-songs alot, I recently made some of the transition music for the play but when I sit down I normally just think of an idea, write it out, record it and continue building out from there.