s
u
c c
e
S
omeone asked me what
my dream was. I told
them I wanted to
scratch my own name
on a record. I wanted to
create something that
was mine. The guy that ended up
funding my label gave me a job at
an arcade fixing pinball machines
until I got it off the ground.
s
s
I used to watch live shows and I
saw this equipment and how it was
being used with music. I told
myself right then that I needed to
get into music. It had nothing to do
make money with it. Eventually, it
got popular and the rest is history.
“There was a
convergence of
tech and music. I
don’t’ see my
career as a shift.”
Some of these kids today that start
these companies have a very
deranged idea of what funding is.
Funding has become the goal. A VC
or an angel investor injects $4 to 5
million into your company and then
you throw a launch party worth a
couple hundred thousand dollars. I
see it all the time. It doesn’t mean
this company won’t be successful,
but it’s a red flag.
My company, True Human Interface,
was born in 2010 out of an idea I had
while watching my friend mix audio
for a commercial. I remember his
client had asked to get more reverb in
the voice. I was watching my friend
enhance this reverb and since it was
completely virtual, I noticed the way
he was grabbing these knobs and
dropdown menus. It was awkward and
inefficient.
I think entrepreneurs should bootstrap
as long as they can because once you
take VC money, you’re operating on
someone else’s dime. If and when you
do get VC money, treat it like it’s your
own.
I went home and replicated the
reverb and improved the overall
process. Most of what I do is
hardware, but the software has to
bless it. It’s about creating stuff you
can feel. It’s about improving
sounds to improve music. It’s
tactility. The people who are using
this stuff don’t often think about it.
They just think about making the
music better. I help them make
music better by helping them do
their job better. There is so much
value in creating something that
captures the sound of live music.
“There was no
transition from
music to tech. I
was in tech before
I got into music.”
When I was 13 years old, I built a
3,500 watt amplifier. You could buy
kits back then and once I understood
the circuit, I tried to make it all bigger
– bigger resistors, bigger chokes,
bigger transformers and more tubes.
I got up to 3,500 watts.
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with making money. It was
interesting to me so I had to pursue
it.
I was a young scrap. I saved up
some money and started buying
equipment to record my own music.
I bought synthesizers and drum
machines and I started dabbling in
music. I couldn’t ever make an
entire song so I started mixing my
music together. I did what was
called ping-ponging or “bouncing”
tracks. I made mega mixes. That’s
how it all started. I’d go to live
shows and add my versions in with
the songs. I didn’t have a name yet
and I still didn’t understand how I’d
Summer Issue
- Sir Mix-A-Lot