John de Wit born April 1st in Delft, the Netherlands, better known as White Mash.Musician/Producer John de Wit has been a all round musician, composer, arranger, audio engineer for over many years, working in all areas of music.He started his music career at a small recording studio in Delft working with Peter Tetteroo (Tee Set) as his mentor.John was active as recording engineer/ producer and collaborator for local bands in all styles of music.After many years as a gigging musician and recording engineer John stopped in 2001 the music business after Mr. Tetterroo died.On August 10th 2012 John had a terrible car accident wich almost took him his live.He needed 2 years to recuperate and in that time he started to pick up his skills and started writing music again.In the last years there have been many developments in technology and software, but with the experience it didn’t took long for John to catch up and mastered the skills of todays music production.John’s work ranges in style from Electro, Rock, Blues and Metal through to Classical, Trance and World music.You can hear examples of John’s work by visiting his soundcloud page https://soundcloud.com/whitemash. Collaboration on music production projects with other singers and songwriters is what he likes to do after finishing his new album.
Exposed Vocals: How did you hear about Exposed Vocals? What made you decide to sign up?
White Mash: I received a message on Twitter. So I cecked out the website and I liked it. The site looked cool so I gave it a go.
Exposed Vocals: So tell us your story. Where did you grow up? What made you decide to become an artist?
White Mash: I was born and raised in Delft, Holland. I grew up with my 2 brothers listening to most of my parents music like Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and AC/DC.
My parents always encouraged us to sing and play instruments. I had a bass-playing-dad. He played in a band and had lots of friends who were musicians to.
One of his friends my he grew up with from childhood was mr. Tetterroo. He was leadsinger of a populair rock band from the 60’s, the TeeSet. Mr. Tetteroo had a recording studio and I remeber always beeing amazed seeing all the knobs on the mixers and the flashing vu meters.
Always curious how things worked and very motivated to find things out. I spended many hours in the studio. Luckely for me Mr. Tetteroo always took his time to explain me how everything worked, and made me listen to music diffrently. My musical life changed so drasticcaly with mr. Tetterroo as mentor that I could think in layers and techniques. Gradually I got involved in projects and recording sessions, spending the most of my time in the studio.
Exposed Vocals: How did you come up with that name? What was your inspiration behind it?
White Mash: I bought a computer somwhere in 1992. It was an Atari ST 512 with Pro24 (Cubase). Started a midi setup with a keyboard, sequencer and a sampler. The computer led me to experiment with sounds and samples so thats how I started to mash-up old recordings mixing with samples and diffrent styles. Gaining more knowledge about mixing and producing, I started to participate in remix competitions and needed a stage name.
Mash-up seemed very obvious to use and added my last name (wit means white)
Exposed Vocals: What do you think about online music sharing? Do you ever give your music away for free? Why?
White Mash: Social media and other online services are a great way for artists to be heard. Giving away my music for free is just another way to promote your music. I get feedback and nice comments from followers. They always appreciate the free download.
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?
White Mash: Just be sure your track(s) sound right. Less is better! Make a 2nd (shorter) mix and remove or dimm all unnecessery elements and fx and keep your eq. subtle. I always check if my sound and eq are suitable for a radio or small speakers. Check your mix on a bathroom speaker or a mobile phone if it sounds right before sending it out.
Exposed Vocals: Do you ever make mistakes during performances? How do you handle that?
White Mash: Everybody makes mistakes! It always can happen. So many things that can go wrong during a show so always keep in mind that mistakes will happen.
Fortunatly most people won’t even notice if you play a wrong note or sing the wrong link.. If somebody notice, they won’t even mind If you keep playing. It’s a common thing during live shows and everybody knows that.
People will only notice if you panic. Just continue playing.
If something goes wrong during the performance and you need to stop for any reason, just keep smiling and take avantage of the situation. Tell them about your new album, gigs or whatever to keep everybody entertaint.
Exposed Vocals: Do you tour? Anything interesting happen on tour that you think our readers would enjoy hearing about?
White Mash: My kids and work are taking a lot of my time at the moment. I will be working on new projects this year and will keep uploading demo tracks on soundcloud. Maybe some local gigs and jam sessions but there is nothing planned yet.
Exposed Vocals: Where do you usually gather songwriting inspiration? What is your usual songwriting process?
White Mash: I have a little sweet pug. Enjoy taking her for a walk every day. It cleares my mind and makes it easier for me to focus. Anything that evokes an emotion I try to write down, make foto or draw an image of my thoughts. I want to feel, hear, see and taste that emotion. Basicly I start with any instrument that equals or evokes that emotion for me.
Exposed Vocals: Do you have a band website? What online platforms do you use to share your music?
White Mash: I don’t have much material to show for at the moment. Started a year ago after 15 years and have been learning and catching up since. However it’s not recomended to share your unfinished tracks I have been posting and updating my projects on soundcloud and youtube. I get great feedback from other musicians and made a lot of friends and followers. The tracks I share are projects I used as learning material. Basicly they are finished but still need some attention and studio mastering.
I also have a Twitter and Facbook page were I keep my friends and followers informed about my projects.
Exposed Vocals: What are some really embarrassing songs that we might find on your mp3 player?
White Mash: Think I got The ABC rap from Elmo from Sesamestreet I used to play for my kids. I played it so many times I started to like it.
Exposed Vocals: If you were given half a million dollars and a year off, what would you do? How would you spend it?
White Mash: Taking care of my friends and family.
Exposed Vocals: Any planned studio upgrades? What are you working with now?
White Mash: I wish I could had more equipment. Money is short i’m afraid. I started from scratch. Having 3 kids who are young musicians too is my first priority. I have to invest in them first.
For the moment I use a PC with cubase 8.0 ; Novation Impulse 25 controller keyboard 0; Casio CDP-130 digital piano ; Yamaha DJX-IIB (oldy but the CD-style controller I can “scratch” midi patterns with) ; an old acoustic guitar and I use a AKAI RPM3 studio monitor set and a Behringer MX 2004A to work with.
Exposed Vocals: How do you find ways to promote your music? What works best for you?
White Mash: Soundcloud and Facebook is what I use most until now. On soundcloud a made friends with other musicians and started to do collaborations with them. Last week I got help from Jamie Slate Music. He is helping me with a Twitter account I recently started. I think Twitter is a very good platform for this but I still need to find out how it all works.
Exposed Vocals: If you could perform anywhere and with any artists (Dead or Alive) where and who would it be with? Why?
White Mash: I’m a big fan of Infected Mushroom
Exposed Vocals: So, what’s next? Any new upcoming projects that you want to talk about?
White Mash: Yes. Quite a lot i’m afraid. I have some other (art) projects going and tracks I need to finish first. I hope to release my first album ‘Swamp Files’ this year.
Exposed Vocals: If you weren’t making music, what would you be doing?
: Drawing and tattooing are just some of my other hobby’s. Wish I could do both at the same time.
Exposed Vocals: Do you remember buying your first album? Who was it? What was going through your head?
White Mash: It was a record from ‘the Shadows’. I still rember the sound from the Fender and Burns guitars.
Exposed Vocals: How do you juggle the rest of your responsibilities while trying to stay ahead in your music life?
White Mash: I’m a single dad and I have 3 kids wich I take care for alone. It’s hard to find quality time for myself to write music. Don’t have a partner and I don’t like TV. When my kids are go to bed I start up my PC and work a few hours every day.
Exposed Vocals: What should fans look forward to in 2016?
White Mash: My new album ‘Swamp Files’