Exposed Vocals Interviews NineLives
I’m Nathan Aka NineLives and I’m an aspiring music producer from Essex. I love all music, as long as the sound waves tickle my ears in the right way then i’m down, but i enjoy producing grime/rap/trap/hip-hop music. I’m currently making instrumentals and writing lyrics for a few up coming projects i have in mind.
Since a young age I’ve been interested in music. My Dad would play jazz music on hot summers days, i grew up with a dance teacher for a mum and me and my friends would make up raps in the school playground, so i listened to a lot of music. I’ve been influenced by a lot of great artist. People like Wiley, Skepta, Jme, Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Stooki Sound and Chase and Status. The list could go on forever.
In 2015 I started Studying music production at Point Blank Music school in London. This experience has helped me grow as an artist/producer and if i’m honest, if i hadn’t have studied there then i don’t think i would be confident enough to try and make producing and making music my professional career.
Exposed Vocals: How did you hear about Exposed Vocals? What made you decide to sign up?
NineLives: Well i was just searching the internet for promotional tools and new ways to grow my fan base and i came across the website. I had a read of what you guys had to offer and it really appealed to me. It’s hard for unsigned artist to get good exposure without having tons of people who follow your music and you guys seemed to have an artist best interests at heart, so i decided i’d sign up and see where it went from there !
Exposed Vocals: So tell us your story. Where did you grow up? What made you decide to become an artist?
NineLives: I grew up in Essex, in a little town called Rayleigh, about 10 minutes drive from Southend-on-Sea. Growing up i always had a passion for music, my Dad was, and still is, a lover of jazz and soul music and my Mum is a dance teacher, so I have always been surrounded by music and show business.
I remember from a young age, me and my friends would make up raps in the school playground and perform them at the school talent show. When i was 16, i remember recording my first song. My mates and I would connect a really poor sounding mic up to my dodgy computer, drag an instrumental into adobe audition and just rap our hearts out !
Back then we didn’t really understand how the songs we loved to listened to sounded so good and ours sounded so, well, rubbish !
It wasn’t until I started college that I realised there was so much more to music than just recording vocals in and exporting it. From then I experimented with Garageband, moved onto Logic and honed my skills in from there.
When i turned 23, I started attending Point Blank music school in London and throughout my time I learned new techniques and strategies to get my music sounding crisp and professional. To be honest, if I hadn’t taken this course, I don’t think I would be taking my music as seriously as I do now.
Exposed Vocals: How did you come up with that name? What was your inspiration behind it?
NineLives: Well, choosing a name is always difficult. Most of the names i thought up had already been taken, so I kept changing my name. But when I came up with this name, I thought to myself ‘I need something that sounds good, that means i’m a big cat in the music game and something that conveys the message that I will always have a chance to succeed’. This brought me to the name ‘NineLives’.
Plus I used to have a cat that would always get itself into trouble and would never die (sounds harsh i know!). So yeah, that was my inspiration. My crazy cat !
Exposed Vocals: What do you think about online music sharing? Do you ever give your music away for free? Why?
NineLives: Hmm, I suppose there are good points and bad points to it really. For a well established artist I can see how it can be annoying that people are illegally downloading your music and you don’t get to see a penny from it, but on the other hand it can be a great way to grow your fan base. I mean everyone is always trying to get the cheapest deal on anything wether its food from a supermarket, buying a house or purchasing music and whats cheaper than free music? Nothing because its free!.
I have and will continue to release free music to grow my fan base and to kind of say thanks for the support I get, but obviously I want to earn some money for what I love doing ! I think it becomes a major problem when people download your music and then try and pass it off as their own, which hasn’t yet happened to me and hopefully never will !
Exposed Vocals: Since everyone was a start-up once, can you give any smaller or local bands or artists looking to get gigs and airplay some tips?
NineLives: My advice would be to stick at it and try and take every opportunity that comes your way. Now days radios and promoters what artist that have a big fan base and can draw in a crowd, so by doing small gigs and anything you can get your hands on, you’ll be able to expand your fan base, which will make u more noticeable to the big cats in radio and to the promoters who are trying to fill up venues. If you love music enough, work hard at it and take what you can it will eventually pay off !
Exposed Vocals: Do you ever make mistakes during performances? How do you handle that?
NineLives: Well, I haven’t performed in ages as the producing and writing side takes up a lot of time, plus I still have a full time job outside of music to bring in some extra cash. But i’ve made many mistakes in the past when dj-ing at parties and rapping at shows. I think the best way to handle it is to just carry on. Most people don’t even notice that you’ve made a mistake and you’re only human at the end of the day!
Exposed Vocals: Do you tour? Anything interesting happen on tour that you think our readers would enjoy hearing about?
NineLives: Unfortunately I don’t tour at the moment. But I am hoping to in the future once I have grown my fan base enough and I have enough material to put out there. It’s definitely something i want to do though.
Exposed Vocals: Where do you usually gather songwriting inspiration? What is your usual songwriting process?
NineLives: Inspiration can come from anywhere! Sometimes I may have a stressful day at work and I would write a really grimey, dirty instrumental and other times I may be chilled and I would write a floaty, more relaxed song. Music is all about emotion and making it relatable to the listener, so I would say that emotions are my biggest influence at the moment .
Exposed Vocals: Do you have a band website? What online platforms do you use to share your music?
NineLives: At the moment I don’t have my own website but this is something that I will be working on this year. I’m currently sharing my music through Soundcloud, but I will be signing myself up to other platforms to get more exposure.
If you follow me on Soundcloud here –NineLives – you will be able to find links to my Facebook page and my Twitter account where I will update my followers on new tracks I release and new platforms that my music is on. If you are reading this and you are interested don’t hesitate to drop by and say hello !
Exposed Vocals: What are some really embarrassing songs that we might find on your mp3 player?
NineLives: To be honest, I don’t have many embarrassing songs on my mp3 player, but if i had to choose a few, I would probably say Shaggy-‘It wasn’t me’, Baha Men- ‘Who let the dogs out’ and Justin Bieber-‘ Sorry’, although that last one is banger in my opinion !
Exposed Vocals: If you were given half a million dollars and a year off, what would you do? How would you spend it?
NineLives: Great question! I would probably by some stuff to build up my studio at home. New plugins for Logic and maybe a few synths. I would most definitely go on holiday to get away from this horrible British weather and anything thats left I would try and save for anything i want in the future.
As for the year off, I think I would have a proper lazy month just doing whatever I wanted and then I’d spend the rest of it growing my fan base and making more music because thats what i love doing.
Exposed Vocals: Any planned studio upgrades? What are you working with now?
NineLives: I’m trying to save up for a few synths and drum machines. I desperately need to get my studio sound proofed and finished off, but at the moment I working with Logic, a standard midi keyboard and some KRK Rokit RP5 G3’S which, at the moment, are good enough for me!
Exposed Vocals: How do you find ways to promote your music? What works best for you?
NineLives: I find that your mates can be a big help with promotion. They share your music for free, they know people that you may not, and if they are good mates, will want to see you succeed so i tend to get my mates to share my stuff.
Soundcloud is great for groups, you can join an group and submit a track for free and people from all over the world stumble across it, so I definitely recommend doing that!
But, doing live shows and collaborating with other artist is always a great way to promote yourself and draw in more fans and attention to your music.
Exposed Vocals: If you could perform anywhere and with any artists (Dead or Alive) where and who would it be with? Why?
NineLives: Now this is hard one. I’d love to perform across the pond in America, but I have always enjoyed watching Wileys Eskimo dance gigs on Youtube. They’re small, but the vibe is exactly what i’m looking for !
If i could perform with anyone dead or alive, I would probably have to say JME and Skepta ! I love Skeptas flow and lyrics and JME is just a multi-talented badman when it comes to music and performing, plus their shows are always out of hand !
Exposed Vocals: So, what’s next? Any new upcoming projects that you want to talk about?
NineLives: I plan to release and E.P. before the summer, which will feature some instrumentals I have made and tracks with local artists. I mentioned before that I plan to make a website for my music and I will hopefully be dj-ing again in a local bar in my hometown, but If you follow me on Soundcloud, Twitter and Facebook I will update you on new things that are happening and projects that I am working on !
Exposed Vocals: If you weren’t making music, what would you be doing?
NineLives: Well, at the moment I am a teachers assistant and this is my full time job, so probably that, but i really cannot think of anything better than a job in the music industry.
Exposed Vocals: Do you remember buying your first album? Who was it? What was going through your head?
NineLives: Yeah, I remember it like it was yesterday. When I was 11, I fell in love with rap and hip-hop. My Mum hated me listening to anything with any swear words in and she would never let me spend my pocket money on this type of music. My Dad, however, thought that music was an expressive art form ( which it is!) and believed that swear words and references to drugs and women were part of the culture of rap. I remember going into Southend with him and listening to music in a record shop. I found Snoop Doggs album ‘Rhythm and Gangster’, listened to it and asked him to buy it for me, expecting him to say ‘ sorry son but, your mum wouldn’t like me buying this for you’. Instead he took it straight to the counter and paid for it!
As you can imagine, my mum wasn’t to happy about it !
Exposed Vocals: How do you juggle the rest of your responsibilities while trying to stay ahead in your music life?
NineLives: I normally just get all the boring stuff out the way before I work on my music. I go to work and do my job to the best of my abilities, i come home, tidy up the house and have some dinner and then i spend 2- 3 hours making beats, writing raps and mixing old stuff that needs a bit of tweaking. I’m lucky to have the job that I have. I finish around half 3 most days which gives me loads of time to get stuff done when I get home. Some nights I might not even work on music and I’ll go to a mates and chill out. Its all about balance between the boring stuff and the stuff you love to do. Get the balance right and you can’t really go wrong !
Exposed Vocals: What should fans look forward to in 2016?
NineLives: Well other than new music from me, there are loads of talented locals artist around my area and around others, so I’d say look out for them! But in my case you can expect more music and more performing. Be sure to follow me on all the platforms below for updates on my projects and anything else thats happening around me !