SPEAKER_01 1:45

Welcome to the Hilltop Glove Podcast. On today's episode, we have the pleasure of talking with Nigel Malone, also known as NXL. He is a multi-talented artist, producer, and audio engineer, as well as the founder of Colorful Noise, a music production company that was established in 2020. Nigel's musical journey began during his high school years at Mallard Creek, where he performed at well-known venues like The Fillmore and AMCS Bodega. To further expand his knowledge in music, Nigel attended SAE, a professional audio engineering school in Atlanta, where he had the opportunity to work with musical professionals like Mike Willmat, Ed Critt, and Schoolboy Q. Now back in Charlotte, Nigel is currently hosting an introduction to audio engineering mastering class for middle schoolers at Wilson STEM Academy. With his expertise in music production and audio engineering, Nigel is definitely making a mark in the growing music scene of the Queen City. Thank you for joining us today. How are you doing, brother man? We appreciate you being here. I'm good. Appreciate that intro, man. Yes, sir, man. You are stopped you. Yeah, I stopped you.

SPEAKER_07 2:57

Let's make people, you know, sound. You don't make the words. But you put in the words.

SPEAKER_05 3:01

That's always what you're a producer. Cyberstar somebody that's like part of the professional.

SPEAKER_01 3:06

So yeah, if you have any like missing children out there, any credit card scams, gonna find it. So make sure arrest warrants will find it. And then I'm gonna be asking you very uncomfortable questions. Okay, yeah. That's what we do.

SPEAKER_06 3:23

Put them in the hot seat.

SPEAKER_01 3:24

You don't find them. We always like to bother folks, especially when you come and want to make sure you're feeling at home. We are very laid back, as you can tell. And it's nice having them. My group we got the group today. And we are here at Asylum Digital Studios today here in Charlotte, North Carolina. Shout out to us, please shout out, man. Always great hosting. They are so gracious to us with what they allow us to do here and the time that we have to work here in the studio, especially at this particular time on uh usually a morning, for someone to come and allow us to do this. And we appreciate your time and you being here with us. For our audience that doesn't know, and this is why I was telling folks before we start, it's nice to talk to one of us, somebody that is in the industry of what we do and has the same or similar backgrounds or experiences, and is trying to go in a similar path because it gives us a chance to bounce ideas off each other and see what doesn't work, what's working for us, have a very honest conversation about it. But they need to know who you are. For sure. So if you can just tell them a little about what influenced you growing up, your background, where you're from, how do you end up in Charlotte, and what kind of music did you listen to as a child?

SPEAKER_03 4:25

Okay, sure. I'm born and raised in Charlotte. I've been here my life. 2012, I moved to Atlanta, went to audio engineering school out there, and I lived out there for about eight years, where I mastered my craft and I moved back here in 2019. But growing up, you know, I listened to what anyone I would think in North Carolina black growing up as a young man, 3-6 mafia, you know, Lil Wayne. True. Oh, Boosie. When I was in middle school, Boosie was really big. You know what I'm saying? But uh Pharrell, Kanye, those are, you know, uh big influences as well.

SPEAKER_01 5:01

Yeah. Remember that switchover in music between 2010, 2013? If you go back even further, 20, 2005 to 2008, there's that yeah, everything switched.

SPEAKER_03 5:11

It did. And you know, that 2012, 2013, that was like the death of CDs. Yeah. So that was like a big reason for the switch. And I remember Kanye dropped Yeezus, and he the cover was just the CD, because he said that's the it's like a casket for CDs, like it's the death of CD. But uh after that, a lot of the sound changed because I think of how we consume music. And produce it, like it's yeah, man.

SPEAKER_05 5:38

It's everything's grassroots now.

SPEAKER_01 5:40

Yeah. The way that you're able to experiment with sound, all that stuff changed. The instruments we're using, non-instruments that we were using changed, audio plugins, controllers, MIDI stuff, like all that stuff.

SPEAKER_05 5:53

Well, you had to be a super nerd to do that in the early arts when we were playing around, but now it's like, oh well, you auto-tune the news. Like that shit off.

SPEAKER_01 6:03

All that stuff changed. And so, like, just saying that, because that's a that was a quick timeline of moving forward. You that music from 3-6, Boo, C and M, probably even like P Pablo and stuff like that, influencing us as we were growing up. As a child, I'm talking about before you were 16.

SPEAKER_02 6:22

Were you was that the type of music you were listening to?

SPEAKER_03 6:25

Yeah, I say this. I have a lot of different influences. Okay. I got a big family. And I'm born and raised in Charlotte, but a majority of my family is from Hickory, North Carolina. Okay. And Hickory is a little bit more country, you know. And my family is from the projects out there. So the first album I ever bought, I was in the projects in Hickory. I was probably like six years old, and somebody was selling bootlegs, and I bought most known unknowns, 361. All right. That was your first one? That was my that was the first album I bought yourself out of my pocket. Yeah. But the first album that I asked for somebody to buy for me was Stankonia. What? Yeah. Was really young too. I just turned 30, so I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 7:09

How are you asking somebody for Stankonia? You had a good ear. I mean, we were listening to Ray J. Don't start on that story again, but yeah, that's not that's a different class. Yeah. Different class.

SPEAKER_03 7:21

The only reason I remember why that that that was the first album I bought, because if you ever bought an album, the CD, it was a naked girl. I know.

SPEAKER_05 7:31

And there were three, there were like three different versions, too. Look at it. What's wrong with y'all make? It's an older album. That's how they know it's a big thing. Friend of mine by Derek's mom. Oh, that's a good story. Yeah. Yeah, she was script.

SPEAKER_03 7:47

And someone was Adrian's, so the CD, but the naked girl was made out of fire. So as a kid, I didn't know what I was looking at. Me neither. But I remember my mom's the guy she was dating at the time, he bought it and he looked at it. He was like, oh snap. He was like, put this in the they put it in the way on the top.

SPEAKER_05 8:09

Artistic. But there is some you can see some things from behind that are it put it on another level of artistic. Oh, it did have a level artistic, right? Oh, yeah, it definitely was. I mean, it was a legit artist, did it? Matter of fact, I think that thing is like in my bedroom hanging on the wall for real. The CD or the No C D was all scratched up, and I was like, I can't throw this out. It's like too much of a icon from my high school life.

SPEAKER_03 8:34

It is. But I played sports my whole life too. Football, basketball. And when I would go to any lacrosse? Just asking. Nah, nah. When I would go to football practice, sometimes it'll take an hour to get to practice. And my mom, she'll be listening to Erica Badu, Lauren Hill. But I think my mom helped hone my audio engineering ear. She would listen to the same song on repeat for an hour. And as a kid, you know.

SPEAKER_07 9:04

Yeah. It trains you.

SPEAKER_03 9:10

So one time she played, I might be listening to the lyrics. Another time I'm listening to the beat, or I'm listening to the snare. And it kind of honed my ear to tracking it out in your layers.

SPEAKER_07 9:22

Oh wow. That's so cool.

SPEAKER_03 9:25

Yeah, yeah. I like how you say that.

SPEAKER_07 9:27

So do you have any siblings or anything?

unknown 9:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 9:29

I got an older brother. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 9:31

A lot of cousins, a lot of uncles. Big family. Really big. And like you said, from the country, we know how that is. Like the generation before you, they probably had how many brothers and sisters in that? Yeah, my mom got 12 brothers and sisters. That's what I was. Yeah, yeah. You're on par with us. That's what we're looking at. 10. 10? Yeah. Oh, yeah, it's a lot of them. So, like you said, being 30. No, I know what you mean. You're the youngest, right? Yeah. Yep. You're the last of the 10 right there. Yeah, that's crazy. Yeah. No, I understand. And so you that's interesting because I know we were just talking about like bridging gaps and et cetera. You had to pull back, you had that far back generation, but then you were left off as one of the pioneers for the new generation. You couldn't just stay back there with old school. You had to come forward. So, what was that journey like of you coming forward in sense of culture and et cetera, before you even got to what you wanted to do in music? Just like how you like, okay, I'm gonna make this music. I'm not gonna be in a funk band, I'm gonna be um doing no jazz. I'm actually gonna be doing hip hop, and this is the way I want to do it.

SPEAKER_03 10:31

Man, what actually got me into hip hop in third grade, it was a short stint where I lived in Atlanta. For my third and fourth grade, I lived in Atlanta and I went to Redan Elementary School. And Redan is like, this is like the blackest school on earth. You know what I'm saying? My teacher got a grill, like she got a grill, like she got a grill. She got a grill. Miss Hall. Her name, Miss Hall. She shout her out, Miss Hall.

SPEAKER_01 10:57

Shout out, Miss Hall.

SPEAKER_03 10:58

Everybody black, every single kid in there. You know, it's kind of in the hood, but I remember my teacher would have us do Freestyle Fridays where she got a grill, so obviously.

SPEAKER_02 11:10

All right, kids, you can be right.

SPEAKER_03 11:11

I mean, freestyles, so I would like rap battle the other kids in class, and just seeing the response they would have from my words, yeah. It kind of was like, I was like, oh, snap, I could do this, you know what I'm saying? So it got me more into writing and studying hip hop and and what do you mean by studying?

SPEAKER_01 11:30

Because always people talk about being like a student of any type of like art form or even sport or an industry. In your mind, what was studying?

SPEAKER_03 11:40

Yeah. Well, coming up, I didn't look at it as studying because it was I enjoyed it, it was just fun. But uh, I mean, just listening to music all day. You know what I'm saying? When I was younger, that's when like Limewire and Bear Share first came out. So I'm downloading every Lil Wayne freestyle Statue of Limitations.

SPEAKER_05 12:00

Right, right, right. Man, piracy is the best thing that ever happened to music. Wasn't it really?

SPEAKER_04 12:04

I think it was like for generations, it was like all of a sudden you just you could read, oh, Chicago sound kind of cool. Let me listen to everything they ever did.

SPEAKER_01 12:13

They never would even have that audience before. Right. Yep. Now that's true. I agree. That's true. So go ahead. You was out here pirating.

SPEAKER_03 12:20

Yeah, I'll pirating every Lil Wayne record ever, and just listening to music, man. You know, I know y'all remember Embry Players. You got 56 songs you could put on there.

SPEAKER_02 12:31

Hey, Mike is feeling good. Right, right.

SPEAKER_03 12:34

So, yeah, but now I look at it as studying, but back then I was just listening to music.

SPEAKER_01 12:38

Yeah, but you were actually putting in hours to become a master. You just didn't realize. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 12:42

Well, and you critique things once you get to a certain level. You're like, why did they put the snares there? That just don't sound right.

SPEAKER_07 12:48

What did you learn at the school? Tell them about the school compared to what you already are knew.

SPEAKER_03 12:55

Well, being young and rapping, I just wanted to rap. You know, after I graduated high school. Yeah, I wasn't producing, I wasn't engineering or anything. I was just rapping. And I remember I only applied for one college. It was AT, and I did not get accepted. I had like a 0.8 or very low. And then I was like, man, forget college, man. I'm about to go chase my music dream. So a friend told me about SAE, but what I learned is how to record musicians and, you know, the basic technical skills of Pro Tools and a mixer board. You know, my school had 12 studios in it with SSL consoles, Eve consoles. So we just learned the basics of signal flow and how to record people. And tell them when you mean like musicians, what you're talking about. Explain that. Like recording musicians like recording vocals, recording instruments, choirs, you know, multi-mic setups. You just really learn how to be an engineer, how to be an audio engineer.

SPEAKER_05 13:54

You might put four mics on a drum kit.

SPEAKER_01 13:55

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. I just want people to understand because they don't want to just think you're just about putting somebody in a booth and or in a yeah, that's not what you were learning. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:03

For sure. And even audio engineering is not only recording. I learned live engineering as well. So I want to, you know, mic up a band live and make sure they sound good for the house. That's a different game. You gotta change on the fly.

SPEAKER_01 14:18

You don't want to be uh you don't want to be at colonial life. If somebody comes in for a concert, I've heard it, it was bad. Oh, yeah, yeah. And then someone came in to the board and they talked to the guy and the sound changed. So I realized that somebody wasn't doing their job well that night. Yeah. Shoot, Beyonce will call them out from the stage. No, seriously.

SPEAKER_02 14:35

No, because she hears it, she knows this is not good. Trouble up.

SPEAKER_01 14:43

But yeah, to understand that stuff on the fly, you were getting that that education.

SPEAKER_03 14:47

I gotta ask you this question. Was it expensive? It was $20,000 for a year program. So how many years? A year. Just one year.

SPEAKER_06 14:55

One year one year program.

SPEAKER_03 14:57

Yeah, yeah. Very fast, very condensed. And yeah, that's expensive to me. $20,000. I had to get a yeah, what'd you have to pay for it? A fruit loan, federal student aid. I'm still paying on that. For real?

SPEAKER_01 15:10

No, because this is what our podcast is about, right? I want the folks, especially millennials and younger folks, coming up to understand the realities of it. So there's like, oh, I just go to SAE and it gets popping. No, I want them to know like it costs money. You have to invest and be ready to pay on back end. Yeah. And with that being said, how are you like taking care of your like your everydays, like like living and paying for food and stuff?

SPEAKER_03 15:33

Well, my older brother, he went to Clark, Atlanta. So me and him were roommates in 2012, 2013. I had a we had an apartment downtown Atlanta, two-bedroom for like $1,100. You ain't shoot you not gonna shoot that. That's not happening again unless something happens with the dollar.

SPEAKER_01 15:51

Yeah, yeah, you're right. Get your airstream and just live.

SPEAKER_03 15:54

But so we split it and uh I worked at Sam Ash too. Sam Ash Music. Oh, that's that's a perfect type of job.

SPEAKER_07 16:00

Yeah, he stayed within.

unknown 16:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:02

So you got to learn and get on job training while you're getting paid.

SPEAKER_03 16:05

Yeah, and being in Atlanta, you meet a lot of people at the music store. Like a ton of artists.

SPEAKER_05 16:11

Oh, the thing a lot of people don't get is when you when you're paying for education, you also paying to meet the people.

SPEAKER_07 16:15

Networking, the connects. That's how you get a job.

SPEAKER_03 16:17

Yeah. I tell a story since you said elaborate. I tell a story. You all familiar with TM88? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:24

Okay, so oh yeah, like very much so.

SPEAKER_03 16:26

Okay, so I was at Sam Ash and I'm in pro audio, and a TM88 come in, and he comes in with this girl, and this girl, she got tattoos on her face, and it's them two. And I'm helping TM88, and I'm I sell him, you know, I asked him, what do you come in here for? He like, man, I'm looking to buy said like a focus right interface, real low-level thing. And I'm like, what? I'm like, you TM88, bro. You know, it's not what you hear. It's not what you need. He was like, What? What you mean? At the end of it, I ended up selling him like $3,000 worth of stuff, an Apollo, got him a whole studio set up, and he was like, dang, man, like this is the best purchase I ever bought. And I'm like, bro, you're a platinum Grammy producer. Like, what are you talking about? And he was like, Exo tour life. He was like, I made that on my beats pill. I'm like, okay, well, now you got some real equipment. But then he left, and the girl he was with stayed. And I'm like, okay. So I talked to the girl and um helping her out, and she there to buy a $4,000 mic, a U87. And, you know, I'm learning about her. I help her buy, she just started. She like, man, I'm just starting out. Like, I don't even know what to buy. I'm walking around the store helping her out. And then at the end of it, all I'm like, you buying this mic? You like, you must be somebody. Who are you? She like, no, I'm not nobody. Get her Instagram follower, Summer Walker. Oh, yeah. That's who she that's who she turned into. But back then, she was nobody. She had one video on her Instagram, and it was just her playing guitar, singing.

SPEAKER_01 17:57

She just needed a mic to catch her Michaels.

SPEAKER_03 18:00

Slam Ash. Good mic. Good mic. A good mic. Good for a good four-grand mic.

SPEAKER_01 18:04

Good mic.

SPEAKER_03 18:04

Slam Ash in Atlanta. You see stuff like that every day. That's just a great job for your career. How did you? I made $7 an hour though. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:15

But the experience is probably like the people, like any of those folks that you meet out there, did you end up doing any business with any of them? I ended up, yeah, a lot of people.

SPEAKER_03 18:23

A lot of people. That's what I was wondering. Yeah. A lot of people, even people that aren't big would come in and hear knowledge and be like, yo, man, you must know something to the studio.

SPEAKER_01 18:34

I got a lot of work that way. Good. So it pays for itself. It did pay for itself. What was the worst meal that you had to eat when you were grinding at the say?

SPEAKER_03 18:42

The worst meal.

SPEAKER_07 18:43

Y'all, this was not part of the question.

SPEAKER_06 18:45

This is on Instagram.

SPEAKER_03 18:49

I can tell you the meal I ate the most. What's that? A four for four.

SPEAKER_01 18:55

No, I know. Yeah, that's real. So you had Wendy's getting that four for four. What was your favorite part in your four for? How do you build your four for four?

SPEAKER_03 19:03

Man, you know, spicy nuggets. They don't even sell.

SPEAKER_01 19:07

They don't sell them when it was clutch. The best nuggets. They can't spicy nuggets. They only come out every once in a while. Really? Yeah, that made me angry. That's my favorite thing from Wendy's. Spicy nuggets. Had the spicy nuggets, the burger, the fries. You know what I'm saying? But did you get a did you get the frosting drink? Okay. Just a drink. All right. Okay. This is how CEOs are. Some people like, I'll just get the frosty. I'm going to drink some water while I get back to the crib. You gotta have something dippy fries in it. Yeah, it tastes good. But see, he was thinking, he was like, I'm gonna give me a drink. I don't need all that extra sugar. Yeah, you need all that extra sugar. Shoot, I don't blame you. But see, you had to do that. The reason why I'm asking this question, it sounds crazy, right? The reason why I'm asking the question is because what a lot of folks don't understand, especially people who are looking to come again. This is why I like talking to people who are in the business world. There are ways in which you have to sometimes pinch pennies until you get where you need to be at and realize the reason why I'm doing this is because I have a vision that is not temporary. It's it's for down the road, it's not short-sighted. And so if you have a way to budget yourself so you know, and I remember I heard Jeezy talking about this, and I thought it was funny. I was like, where are you buying? What subway are you going to? He was talking about the fact that he was trying to save up money so that he could invest it further in his career. And as he was doing certain work, some of the stuff which may not be legal, he was saying he made sure he kept himself at a $6 a day budget on meals. He would go to subway, get his sandwich, his chips, yep, chips to the drink, and he would eat that. And as he was walking back, eating that chips to the drink, he was thinking, yep, I'm saving money, I'm saving money so I can do this or do that. He said, Yeah, I may have wanted to eat something better than this or go to such and such. But he was like, you know what? For the time being, this is what I got to do until I get to where I'm at. And yeah, he gained some weight. Right, a little issue with sugar and stuff like that. But once he got where he was at, he was able to hire a personal trainer, drop them pounds, get in good shape, you know what I'm saying, and handle his business. But I tell people that because like where they're in, when they aren't yet hitting it, they're like, man, I want that fancy watch. I want that nice car, I want such and such, I want to do this. I don't want to work here, it's beneath me.

SPEAKER_02 21:01

And I'm like, how's it beneath me?

SPEAKER_01 21:03

You aren't even there yet. You should be trying to pay your dues.

SPEAKER_05 21:05

Do you know what part of that is? What's that? Is the goal is the fancy watch. Oh. And the goal is the expending the stuff so that you can have these things.

SPEAKER_07 21:14

So their intention error is wrong?

SPEAKER_05 21:15

Well, I who's to say whose intention is right. But if you're trying to get the items, what items wear out and they get tarnished and they break and they go bad and stuff. But if you ain't if if those are a side thing that just happens to pop up because you got so much damn money that you don't know what to do it, that's a different story.

SPEAKER_01 21:32

But like when you're not dealing with that and you're just a student and you're learning, you going through that year was like you going through your fire. Like they always talk about a hero's journey. Yeah. You have to burn. You have to do your phoenix. You got to burn to ash and then come back out on the other side. That was you burning to ash. Yeah. I burned for years.

SPEAKER_02 21:50

Let's get into that.

SPEAKER_01 21:51

Let's get into that. Because discipline. Yeah. So explain like that journey of you. It's like you're burning for years before you get to the point of working in the region that you wanted to work in, just so our audience could understand the reality.

SPEAKER_03 22:04

Well, after going through the program, I actually moved back to Charlotte after a year because I got an opportunity to work at Audio Box Studios. Right. And when I worked there, I was an intern for one day. And then after that day, they made me the head engineer the next day. What did you do that day, man? Well, this was a while ago. This was like 2014. So they just didn't have an engineer.

SPEAKER_02 22:27

Oh, okay. Let's say, did you put somebody out of a job? No.

SPEAKER_03 22:31

All right. Yeah, but I was working there for like six months, probably made the most money I ever made. But I looked at myself and I said, I'm not that good. Like, I'm fooling these people. So I was like, I know I'm making good money, but I gotta go back to Atlanta and really learn. Like the school, but doing, I'm not good is what the Migos doing or what you know. So I'm like, man, I'm gonna go back, go through this struggle, and just really learn. So I moved back to Atlanta, interned at a studio called Blue Room, where these are high-level artists, and that's why I'm yeah, I met Big Crit there. I met a lot of people there. And I just learned, man.

SPEAKER_01 23:09

But were you being paid as an intern? There we go. That's that five.

SPEAKER_03 23:13

Was the rent higher at that time? Was the rent higher? Nah, it was actually lower because I was living by myself, but I was paying a thousand a month. Ooh, all but all on you. All on me. Not 1,100 split. Not 1,100 split. And I was working at Sam Ash again.

SPEAKER_01 23:28

They had a job waiting for you when you came back. Yeah, yeah. Working and upselling and working.

SPEAKER_03 23:32

Yeah, it was just, but it was broke though, bro. Struggling, bro. And eventually I lost my apartment, sleeping on a friend couch. You know what I'm saying? How'd you lose an apartment? It was broke. Couldn't pay the rent, but you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_02 23:44

I don't even know.

SPEAKER_07 23:45

Because if he's interning, you gotta think about how many hours he was really putting into the at the job compared to interning.

SPEAKER_01 23:51

But how long did it take you to to the point where, like, all right, you done lost an apartment? Was it like a three-month period, a six-month period?

SPEAKER_03 23:57

Nah, it was at I did the whole year, but after the year, I couldn't re-sign my lease or nothing like that. And being an audio engineer or any type of entrepreneur, this is something they don't tell people, but you gotta have your business aligned. You gotta show you either been in business for two years or you gotta show how is your income coming in. That's what I was wondering. So when you go to an apartment, if I'm like see, this is why I asked. Sometimes you might want to keep a W-2 job just to get an apartment. Yeah. And you know, I worked at Sandmash, but I would do little gigs here and there, like Atlanta, big uh film industry. So I would work some craft services for films and stuff like that. And when I go to an apartment, I might show them like, oh, I made $1,500 last week, but they like, you gonna make that next week? You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_01 24:43

You contract it.

SPEAKER_03 24:44

We need three times the amount of pay for the yeah, we can't use that. So, you know, and that's what I'm learning. I'm not only learning the engineer side or the music side, I'm learning how do I be a man in this world, you know what I'm saying? But uh, but yeah, man, so I went through that for about eight years. And I'm turning, like I said, in Atlanta, I'm a great engineer. Like I'm a master engineer, yeah, but it's thousands and thousands of master engineers in Atlanta. So they're disposable. So when you're interning, sometimes you're working for free, then they move you up to $10 an hour, and they move you up to $20. It's a slow process because you're disposable. You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_05 25:26

So God, that's so weird to think about, though, because that's a highly technically proficient thing that you can't just step in and do.

SPEAKER_03 25:34

Right. Yeah. I think what it is, what Atlanta is it is a high technical thing.

SPEAKER_05 25:41

But that's where everybody goes if you want to do it. It's like being in Nashville for country music. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:47

You know what I'm saying? It's not something that's not teachable.

SPEAKER_05 25:50

Right.

SPEAKER_03 25:51

You get to a high level, there's things that you can't teach somebody ear.

SPEAKER_05 25:56

Right.

SPEAKER_03 25:57

You can't teach somebody how to hear, but you can teach somebody how to press the record button. Sure. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. And they do that. The thing that happens in Atlanta, because it's such a big industry, you got a lot of people who are not serious at being an engineer. So they put engineers through a vetting process. Oh, and the vetting process is the internship. Gotcha. So we gotta see one, not if you can record, because we can you can teach anybody to record, but we gotta see you willing to get through broke for six months, and keep coming back today. Do we gotta ask you to come up here, or are you just gonna come? Are you gonna be proactive and go do a run and ask people if they want chips, or are you just gonna sit on your phone in the front? You know what I'm saying? So that's interesting. It's a character assessment. But in Charlotte, probably like six great engineers. Okay, you just said that. Six yeah, like you probably know them all.

SPEAKER_02 26:53

And you know them, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 26:54

And so, you know, I moved back here and I could be more even more successful because you know, it's a more need of it out here.

SPEAKER_01 27:03

You didn't have that problem that some people have of being the big fish in a little pond. It's not a problem when it comes to what you're because I mean that other place that was like an ocean of sharks.

SPEAKER_03 27:11

Right, right, right.

SPEAKER_01 27:11

But why not come back and not be in shark professor water, right?

SPEAKER_03 27:15

A big reason why I came back because being in Atlanta for eight years, you know, I'm working with a lot of artists, and I'm like, man, these artists are talented. Yeah. But North Carolina, South Carolina, we got just as much talent. Thank you. Thank you. But I don't have an economy. No. We don't have record labels, we don't have, we got great engineers, but not a ton of them, not a ton of producers, not a ton of videographers, not a ton of nothing for this industry. So I said, man, I want to go back to Charlotte. And people like me who love music, love art, I want them to have a career too. I don't want them to have to be like, man, I gotta go to Atlanta. I mean, right. It hurts you to hear that, don't it?

SPEAKER_05 27:53

But everything in the world getting decentralized now, so that makes sense. You you just setting up for that path that the whole world's already on.

SPEAKER_03 28:01

Right, right. And Charlotte's Carolina's period. Charlotte, particularly, though, is about to be sponsored.

SPEAKER_07 28:07

Right. So when you came back here, how did you get into teaching the kids?

SPEAKER_03 28:11

Yeah. Uh that took a while. First, when I came back, I had to rebuild my clientele. So, you know, I got I had all my gear and I would just pull up to people's houses and record them. And I still worked the job. Oh shit. So studio on the city. Wow, wow. Yeah, yeah. Whoa. That's cool. Yeah, yeah. Surprisingly, you know, a lot of stuff, even in the biggest studios, is just the computer and the interface. That's it. But uh, so I would pull up on people, did that for about a year till I rebuilt my clientele to the point where I'm like, okay, I don't have to work a job, I can pay myself fully. And then after working engineering out here for a while, I started to notice like, like I was saying earlier, it's only six of us, man. We need more great engineers if this is gonna be a thing. So I was like, man, I want to help kids young because the things that I learned at school, I ain't had to go to college to learn. I could have learned that in middle school. Yep. So I said, yeah, so I said, man, I'm gonna start a program and everything that I learn in school, I'm gonna just teach them. You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_07 29:15

Learn to teach me.

SPEAKER_02 29:16

I like you. I like you. That's dope.

SPEAKER_07 29:18

Because it's like knowledge is like just feed it to the people and see what they do with it.

SPEAKER_05 29:22

Don't lock it up behind a paywall. You can eat up and consume this stuff. Because when I heard us like audio mastering for middle school kids, I was like, do they even appreciate audio anymore? Because they're like just recording everything on their phone and they don't notice the stuff. But that's like that's how to do it, though. How to create appreciation. Listen to the space here, put the headphones on. Yeah, is the room volume? Yeah, so do they?

SPEAKER_03 29:46

Yeah. Well, when I did the program, you know, I had to go recruit some kids. Um, I'll rewind it a little bit. I did two programs for free just to get the gist of it, see how it works, see if I could even do it. And once I did it successfully and see that it, I charged for it when I did it. Okay. The first time was free, the second time I charged. And I noticed people who had the money to pay really didn't need it. They could have It was already on the path, but they didn't need it. They, if you can afford this, then why are you go to school or something? So I was like, man, I want to get this to people who need it. So I said, man, I'm gonna do this for you know, some underprivileged kids. So I had to go to Wilson STEM Academy, which is a school on Tuckasiji, and I actually go into the cafeteria. The principal gave me a air horn. Oh, air horn. Yeah, and I'm like, hey, everybody, this is who I am, this is what I do. And you know, what I told them, a ton of kids, oh, I want to. Because the program I did for them, what I did, I held it at Harvey B. Gamp Museum.

SPEAKER_00 30:50

That's what I thought was really dope.

SPEAKER_03 30:51

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:52

Yeah, that's crazy.

SPEAKER_03 30:53

I held it at the museum. How did you get that? Well, the museum reached out to me because they seen my program and some other stuff I was doing, and they opened up a new portion of the museum. It's called the Moda, the Mecca of Digital Arts.

SPEAKER_07 31:07

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 31:08

And they oh they put 20 MacBook computers. Shoot.

SPEAKER_01 31:14

Got different money up here, y'all. They do have different money up here.

SPEAKER_03 31:18

When they was putting it together, they were communicating with me. So they was asking me if we did a program, what you would they need. I'm like, put FL on every computer, logic, all that. Everything. Yeah, and then we ended up, yeah, we did the program, and I brought the kids to the museum. So they a lot of kids were receptive. Uh-huh. Since it was at Harvey B Gantt, needed transportation. So some kids couldn't come.

SPEAKER_06 31:41

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 31:42

But some kids were more into it than others. Like I had a student named Jada, and she was dope, man. She some kids had no experience, but Jada would go home and make beats. You know what I'm saying? So yeah, some kids were into it. Surprisingly, more women or little ladies. I think it's because guys are in middle school, they more football, basketball, they like, yeah. Or they want to be the rapper. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:07

You don't want to be the behind the scene.

SPEAKER_03 32:09

Yeah, they more like, I don't want to make beats. I want to rap and play basketball. Yeah. But uh but majority of the graduates, because I did a six-week program, girls.

SPEAKER_07 32:19

Really? Oh, it's good to know the numbers. Well, that's kind of what the boys and girls club, the girls like behind the screen.

SPEAKER_05 32:25

It's good for the future of the industry too. Yeah, it's rebalancing back out because it was very male skewed, right? So this is just going back to a more puts in a harmony.

SPEAKER_07 32:33

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 32:34

Harmony.

SPEAKER_07 32:34

So, how like how is the program growing since you first started?

SPEAKER_03 32:39

It's growing. Um, I'm gonna do another program this March at Harvey Begant. And I want to do some for adults too, because when I did it, bunch of adults was like, I want to learn this stuff.

SPEAKER_07 32:49

They always do that. You charge them. Well, don't they always do that?

SPEAKER_03 32:51

You charge them for kids.

SPEAKER_02 32:52

What's the kids doing?

SPEAKER_03 32:53

I want to do it with the kids doing adults. I want to really stretch it out. I want to do it in colleges. I want to do it like that. Yeah, you know, because like I said, like you're looking for it to be a curriculum. And if North Carolina is gonna grow, I want to have create a pipeline. So we got all these studios. This is my first time here, but syllabl. You got safe and sound, you got audio box. This, if I got a bunch of engine, young engines, I could give them a direct pipeline to the studios because this is I have a relationship with all them. Oh, I see what you're saying. They know that if you send them somebody, they are it's worth it. Yeah, they good because the more engineers we got, the better the product of music that will be out here, the bigger the artist can get, the bigger everything grows, you know.

SPEAKER_01 33:42

So and it gives people a chance to get in the studio too, because people don't realize anything. That's a lot of time. And you don't want to have a burnt-out engineer. So if you can have enough engineers in there to actually take care of the artist load, then you can get good product out. This is something interesting that I heard two weeks ago. And you tell me what you think about this. There was a clip of an uh female rapper talking about the fact that rap finally just started to decline, had a 40% decline. And one of the things this MC brought up is the fact that you have a lot of underwhelming production and bad music that has flooded the market because of the ability just to get stuff out. And what that does is people don't realize is those things count against the numbers. And it's not that rap per se is just bad or whatnot. It's just that now, instead of like back in the day, you'd have 150 artists out here running on the charts, etc., you'll have 300, 450,000 artists on the charts releasing stuff. Some of it's not good. It may be trash, they may have made it poorly, they may not have to be able to do that. So they're assuming the same amount of cruise, but it's broken.

SPEAKER_05 34:52

And then if you've got reggae and tone or something blowing up at the same time, now people's preferences are shifting. But really, what are they?

SPEAKER_01 35:00

Yeah, that's my thing. And then is it in this is what caught my eye when she said it. I was just caught my mind's eye. I said, production ability is down. Like the people who are there that can actually make sure you sound good, meaning, well, I can release a bad pop song, but it can be well produced, and it will get on the board. That's that is what carried the 90s.

SPEAKER_05 35:20

Like that was it.

SPEAKER_07 35:21

That could be his leading factor, right? Yeah, that could be your leading pitch to get to get sponsors and stuff like that. Sure. Yeah, that is a good idea.

SPEAKER_01 35:31

Because you're hiring, you're bringing up scaling and bringing up the quality of what is coming out. So people are gonna be more apt to actually engage and bring it in and actually use that product because I'm like, yo, it's a way better product. I don't care if I it just sounds good. The way the drums hitting feel good. Or the way the person's voice sounds just feels good. I know I listen to bad pop songs and they just were well produced. I was like, oh wow, they did a good job of like for instance, I'm gonna tell you like the Barbie movie. Just listening to something, that's a horrible song, but gosh damn that they produced the heck out of this track. Right, right. And I'm like, I'm just listening to some artists like, hey, bro, what are you listening to right now?

SPEAKER_02 36:03

I'm like, it makes me feel good because it sounds good.

SPEAKER_01 36:05

I've listened to some tracks, the track could have had all good intents and purposes, right? Just been proper and on point. But the sound quality, the way that was mixed, the engineering behind it was trash. And it sounds bad in my headphones, and it sounds bad in the car, and it sounds bad on the stuff. So I'm just like, I'm not listening to that song. Right, right. Um, do you ever run into an issue where you hear stuff and you can tell that the the level of work and artistry that went to the engineering was just poor done?

SPEAKER_03 36:32

I I look at engineering like an art. So, you know, I look at the intent behind people's decisions with engineering. Yeah. So if something sounds distorted and muddy, if they intended to do it, it sounds good. Such as like XXX Tentacion song, you know, it's very distorted. His first hit, I forget what it's called, but they intended to do that. Or Travis Scott, like oh, obviously. Yeah, he intends to do that.

SPEAKER_00 36:57

Soundscapes are great, right?

SPEAKER_03 36:59

Yeah, sounds good. But there are some times where I might hear a mix and I'm like, you know, can't enjoy it. The same way any other person, you might work at Starbucks and be like, bro, I'm around coffee all day. I don't want to drink coffee. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, or so it's similar to that. Or somebody who shoots videos, might watch a movie and be like, bro, that transition was crazy. Yeah, I can't enjoy the movie no more.

SPEAKER_05 37:22

Yeah, way too much grain in here. Your eye is so cranked up, way too high. What's going on?

SPEAKER_02 37:26

You're right, you're right, you're right.

SPEAKER_01 37:27

That's why that's why I'm asking the question, because just for the people who listen to this, I want them to understand that there is an artistry that goes into it. It's not just about making a product, it's about making a good piece of art. Um, speaking of good pieces of art, and I know just to wrap up to make sure we hit everything, man.

SPEAKER_02 37:44

It's colorful noise that we're talking about.

SPEAKER_01 37:46

Can you explain that to our audience and then tell us what you're working on and make sure that they know where they we can find you at?

SPEAKER_03 37:51

For sure. Colorful Noise is my company, it's the name of my company, music production company. And uh, you can follow that page at colorful.noise. And um, yeah, we do offer mixing and mastering production. I do photography, but I'm I don't consider myself photography. I want to show y'all something. Go ahead. Show us something. He came with ready.

SPEAKER_05 38:12

Oh, yeah. This is sick right here.

SPEAKER_03 38:17

This is beat up. It's beat up because it's been in my book bag, but it's all film photography. And I really just documented my journey since I've been back here in 2020.

SPEAKER_07 38:26

Oh my goodness, you know, this is your mama. You show the kids this, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 38:31

Yeah, but this is you know, all the art, North Carolina, South Carolina artists I work with. We in the studio.

SPEAKER_07 38:37

See, this is good because this is like content, but this is like physical content. Most kids are digital.

SPEAKER_05 38:42

You saw the QR codes though. So on some of these, like some of these pages.

SPEAKER_07 38:46

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 38:52

So you can hit that QR code and listen to the tracks.

SPEAKER_07 38:55

Oh, cool.

SPEAKER_03 38:56

So you can know what was the vibe that we were making in the picture.

SPEAKER_07 38:59

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_05 39:00

So then you time people back in from a physical medium, and then that also sends them to the website. Because this is stuff I do with my clients. This is so cool. For books with QR codes to go to the website, so you got on. Yeah, he does this for a living. This is the one. To be honest, but yeah, this is a good one. I'm very impressed, it's a great book. Dog on it, man.

SPEAKER_07 39:22

And it's something you can keep, and it's like, you know, you put yourself into Coffee Table Reader.

SPEAKER_03 39:28

We get these. Sell them at archive cl.

SPEAKER_01 39:32

That's what I want you to get. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 39:33

But I sell them too. You can get them off my website, colorfulnoise.net.

SPEAKER_07 39:38

This is so cool that everybody we like, we're interviewing is like all connected.

SPEAKER_05 39:41

This is so cool. I mean, this is so much going on out here in the creative space right now.

SPEAKER_07 39:45

Like, we have to come up with that.

SPEAKER_05 39:46

And everybody got little pieces of the puzzle. As soon as we start sharing them, all of a sudden stuff starts happening.

SPEAKER_07 39:52

Well, anyway, we can help you out, let us know. That's what I was about to ask you, like going forward. Um, like, what can we help you with, or what do you want with?

SPEAKER_03 40:00

Well, I'll let y'all know what I got coming up soon. Please do. I'm working on a documentary. I'm gonna have a screening for it. Arch, you know, y'all invited. I'll send y'all the details. Please do. And really, you know, I would just ask y'all to come to that. What's what's your documentary about? The documentary is similar to my book. Oh, so like working with artists and a majority of the artists I work with, I asked them all the same question. And the question is does the Carolinas have a sound? Oh so you know, you think of Atlanta, yeah, you think of New York, you think of LA? They have sounds, they all have sounds. Yeah, does Carolina have a sound? And I asked everybody that I work with Gene, Luke, Ruben, Vincent, Mavi, all these people in this documentary you'll get to see, you know. I don't want to give too much away. Right, right, right. So each of these would they have different covers? Nah, those are just the two covers that come with it. Oh you can either get that cover or that cover. I wish I would have brought some more, man. I'm tripping.

SPEAKER_07 41:00

But where can everybody like find you and stay connected?

SPEAKER_03 41:02

You can follow me on Instagram, NXGXL, colorful.

SPEAKER_01 41:07

Tell them why why your name's spelled like that. Because I was following him earlier about it.

SPEAKER_03 41:10

My name Nigel, yeah, and I could use it on social media, so I just for the I and the E. See, because I thought it was some cool nigga shit.

SPEAKER_01 41:19

Part of my language where he was trying to like have the young folks, you know, use uh a zero instead of an O or something like that. Yeah, yeah. But it's just they can have his name. There's somebody's name already.

SPEAKER_03 41:31

I actually found the guy and I DM'd him like, hey bro, let me get the Nigel name, bro. What do you say? You gotta drop a random guy in London. He's like, no, bro. He got like a hundred followers. He like, no, you can't have my money.

SPEAKER_02 41:43

Of course he was in London. Man, forget you. Did you offer him money? Good man.

SPEAKER_05 41:49

Yeah, if I get it, I don't understand. You know, if you want to be camping on them URLs and stuff, they buy wait wait for somebody to offer you 500.

SPEAKER_07 41:56

How do how would the kids, if they wanted to join your program, how would they doing that?

SPEAKER_03 42:00

If you go to my website, you can subscribe to my email list. And as soon as the program opens up, I'm gonna be sending out emails.

SPEAKER_07 42:07

Wait, say the website again?

SPEAKER_03 42:09

Colorfulnoise.net.

SPEAKER_07 42:11

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 42:11

And then is that also how they would get in contact for you to book you for services outside? I see you have a services tab.

SPEAKER_03 42:18

Still got to work on the services on my website. If somebody wants to book a session or produce, I'll say shoot me an email at colorfulnoise LLC at Gmail or DM. Anyway to contact me, you can contact me. Gotcha.

SPEAKER_07 42:33

Sounds good. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 42:36

You got the hoodie up here popping off, looking good. Nice little hoodie, man. Appreciate it. Man, I'm telling you, man, you're very um, I say, interesting gentleman, but also very impressive. Just what you're able to do, how you did it. I like that, I like what that you understood that your journey from Atlanta back to here is almost like a surjourning, surjourning path to get from there to bring back the manna. Yeah. And you didn't leave. Right, right. And not come back. That makes us sad. Because lots of people do that. So brain drain. Man, thank you, brother. I appreciate you, man. This is an excellent interview. As always, with the Hill Talk Club Podcast, I want to tell everybody that we love, we appreciate you listening to our podcast. Please share. Go and see the artists' information, the stuff that they put out, their websites, for the products that they have, services, etc. Make sure that we are promoting and supporting our own and whatever we do, because it's gonna make sure that moving forward, that these folks can exist and continue to exist in the realms that they're in. Other than that, it's DJ and what?

SPEAKER_07 43:34

Tamaya.

SPEAKER_01 43:35

Mike. And in the background.

unknown 43:36

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 43:37

There we go. See, that's some darn Russell Simmons shit right there. He be doing. He only can see who he is, man. But that's skipping the bad. There's a brother right there. He can see him this time. But it's excellent from the Hilltop Globe podcast. Tell somebody next to you that you love them, that you appreciate them. Spread that love and positivity. Other than that, till next time, peace.