Exposed Vocals Interviews “ImaShiine”

Terry Landers, born in Detroit, Michigan, is also known as ImaShiine. Influenced by some of the most prominent musicians in the Hip-Hop/Rap Industry such as, Drumma Boy, Shawty Redd, Just Blaze and Young Jeezy, he is attempting to bring a new sound into the progressive genre. He was introduced to music production at the age of 13. Born with albinism which limited the amount of activities he could participate in, music production was an easy adjustment because it required countless hours of tinkering and learning new ways to create music compositions. He is an upcoming multi-genre music producer that started professionally in 2009. Since then he has released 3 instrumental mixtapes, and 3 Instrumental albums which are available on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, and Google Play. Aside from working on music every day, he founded ProSoundz.com in 2013 which is an online marketplace for music producers to purchase music software, drum kits, and sound libraries to give them the tools they need to make professionally sounding music. Along with connecting with producers like D rich, Swiff D, and Key Wane, he has been using Social Media to establish his name, and brand as one of the top online music producers, by providing artists and producers alike access to his services of beats, instrumentals, sound design, mixing and mastering, as well as the inspiration that anyone can do anything they set their mind to, and to always give it your best.

web link – http://ImaShiine.com

Exposed Vocals: So tell us your story. Where did you grow up? What made you decide to become a producer?

ImaShiine: I was born and raised in Detroit Michigan, on the Westside of the city, An being born with Albinism it was quite hard to get into certain activates like football, baseball and stuff, so
I got into music production when I was about 12 or 13 years old by my older brother, he used to rap and make beats in our basement growing up and he just asked me to start messing with the software Propellerhead reason 3 one day, and I liked how it was setup where you can manipulate sounds, and generally create music from a blank page, I thought it was dope.

Exposed Vocals: How did you come up with that name? What was your inspiration behind it?

ImaShiine: I honestly can’t remember when I started calling myself this, but it had to be around 2007 and 08 when I started high school because I used to make beats at home and sell them to my classmates that used to rap inside the school.

Exposed Vocals: What do you think about online music sharing? Do you ever give your music away for free? Why?

ImaShiine: Right now, I think sharing music online is a really, really, good thing, because you can get your one song in the ears of potentially millions of people just by hosting it on a site, or posting it on social media, I too have released various beat tapes or instrumental tapes for free, back in like 2012 I dropped my first mixtape on Datpiff titled “Who Got Bars?”, and in 2011 I signed up with this site called “SoundClick” it’s a place for musicians go to share and sell music, I used to give away free downloads of my beats on there.

Exposed Vocals: Since everyone was a start-up once, can you give any smaller artists or producers looking to get gigs and airplay some tips?

ImaShiine: sure, the only tips I think anyone need that can apply to life generally is, never give up, stay persistent, and always put forth your best efforts and if you can maintain those three tips and believe in them you’ll soon see how successful you really can be.

Exposed Vocals: Do you ever make mistakes during beat making? How do you handle that?

ImaShiine: Yeah, I think I speak for most producers when I say this, Every once in a while you’ll mess your beat up by mistakenly adding a sound or a midi note in the wrong place when your arranging your beat, and it will come out sounding so amazing that you’re glad you did it.

Exposed Vocals: Do you tour? Anything interesting happen on tour that you think our readers would enjoy hearing about?

ImaShiine: No, I haven’t been on a tour yet, but I see a lot of producer go on tour with the artist that they’re currently working with so anything is possible.

Exposed Vocals: Where do you usually gather beat making inspiration? What is your usual process?

ImaShiine: I usually get inspired to make a certain style or genre of beats by whatever I’m currently listening to or have heard the day of, and it usually starts off with me turning on my PC, opening up my music software Cubase, and Reason 8.1, and once I do that I search for sounds within my computer or grab them directly from my Korg Kronos keyboard, and play chords, and notes until I find a pattern I like or a style or direction I want to go in, and then I just go from there layering sounds, and eventually adding drums to it.

Exposed Vocals: Do you have a website? What online platforms do you use to share your music?

ImaShiine: Yes I do, my website is ImaShiine.com, and I use all the normal music sharing sites like Youtube, Soundcloud, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Google Play, and of course Soundclick where I started selling beats back in like 2011.

Exposed Vocals: What are some really embarrassing songs that we might find on your mp3 player?

ImaShiine: Embarrasing ? haha uhh… I do have theme songs from old shows like Pokemon on there, just because I think how they come up with that catchy music is pretty amazing and the beats are normally pretty good too.

Exposed Vocals: If you were given half a million dollars and a year off, what would you do? How would you spend it?

ImaShiine: That’s easy, firstly I would start my own record label, sign some artists and producers, and open up a few music studios around where I live and keep on that path of making music, and helping others try to make their dreams come true you know.

Exposed Vocals: Any planned studio upgrades? What are you working with now?

ImaShiine: As of right now, my gear is pretty simply I use an Akai Advance Keyboard, I Have a Korg Kronos 3 I believe, I have my PC of course with loads of custom sounds and plugins I created, I use Native instruments Maschine Mikro, and Kontakt 5 a lot, and that’s pretty much it.

Exposed Vocals: How do you find ways to promote your music? What works best for you?

ImaShiine: Well I promote my music on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube the most, but when I have something special releasing like an Album or something, or more commercial I send an email out to everyone that’s signed up on my website so that along with those other websites usually gets me a good response from the people that support me.

Exposed Vocals: If you could work with any artists or producers (Dead or Alive) who would it be with, and Why?

ImaShiine: I really hope one day soon I can do some songs with Drake, T.I. , Young Jeezy,or Drumma Boy, they are my inspiration for music when I’m trying to create a song or something I usually think like “what would so and so say about this”, or “I wonder what Drumma Boy would add to this beat”

Exposed Vocals: So, what’s next? Any new upcoming projects that you want to talk about?

ImaShiine: Uhh, I do plan on releasing another Free Instrumental Mixtape, and another Instrumental album which of course will be available on Apple Music, Spotify,and etc. I don’t have any release date details just yet, but when they come out you’ll get notified about them.

Exposed Vocals: If you weren’t making music, what would you be doing?

ImaShiine: Probably Graphic Design, im kinda good with that, I usually design my own websites, and banners and such so I think that probably would be that thing that sticks the most, that I’m the most comfortable doing. I also create software and sound design too, I started my company “ProSoundz” in 2013 and have been creating software for that as well.

Exposed Vocals: Do you remember buying your first album? Who was it? What was going through your head?

ImaShiine: My first album I bought was I think, Young Jeezy’s TM101, I really liked that album it inspired so much of my music. It’s the first time I ever heard some of my favorite producers “Drumma Boy”, and Shawty Redd beats, I thought those joints were ahead of their time, because nobody was making music like that.

Exposed Vocals: How do you juggle the rest of your responsibilities while trying to stay ahead in your music life?

ImaShiine: Just like with anything you have to prioritize the most important things, so it’s not necessarily easy but, it’s not hard to do if you know what you have to get done, and how to manage your time wisely.

Exposed Vocals: What should fans look forward to in 2016?

ImaShiine: Look forward to new music, beats, products, and releases, but with better quality.