Today we’d like to introduce you to Music Producer The ATG.

It’s an honor to speak with you today. Why don’t you give us some details about you and your story. How did you get to where you are today?

To begin my story off, I was born in Dearborn, Michigan and I have lived in Michigan ever since. As a child, I often had my head up in the clouds, dreaming of fantastical worlds. So, naturally film spoke to me with its ability to transport viewers to different realities. I didn’t become a hip hop aficionado until I stumbled across “Lose Yourself” by Eminem. I was awe struck by the ruggedness and honesty of the record. At the time, the radio was dominated by bright synth laden pop anthems, which were too saccharine for me. So, “Lose Yourself” was a breath of fresh air for me musically and it began to lay the foundation for my love of the genre of Hip Hop as a whole. Now that being said, I was still more interested in becoming a director than becoming a record producer. However, I was intimidated by film since it involves a lot of resources and more importantly people. When I learned about how Kanye sampled songs to make new records out of them, I suddenly felt that making music was easily achievable. After learning how to make instrumentals utilizing samples, I yearned to create original compositions. Using the help of the internet, I was able to teach myself the basics of music theory. With this newfound knowledge of music theory, I decided to try to blend my favorite genres of music: hip hop, film score, and classical music.

I’m sure your success has not come easily. What challenges have you had to overcome along the way?

Whatever success I’ve had was definitely a challenge to obtain due to various challenges in life. One such challenge was doubt, whether external or internal. I think it is safe to say that most people know that the music industry is a risky venture. It is certainly one thing to overcome others doubting the possibility of exploring a career in music, it’s a whole other ballgame with self-doubt. Since I was not sold on jumping in the music game cold turkey, I decided that I wanted a safety net. So, I wanted to have a pathway to either graduate school or medical school. I actually recently graduated summa cum laude and obtained my bachelor’s in biological sciences. Now, it probably goes without saying doing well academically takes a significant amount of time and effort. At the same time, I was still working on honing my craft and trying to find some way of breaking into the music industry. So, it was a tricky balance to juggle music and school at the same time and excel at both. I’ve had to make many sacrifices in my personal life in order to be able to achieve this. After all, time is but a finite resource. Like any artist, one challenge is getting people to listen to your music. So, I of course posted online to platforms like SoundCloud and social media. At the end of the day, I still persevered by believing in my ability and potential.

Let’s talk about the work you do. What do you specialize in and why should someone work with you over the competition?

There are two production styles that are particularly trademark of me, and I have always envisioned these styles in my head before even starting my music production journey. One of these styles is really a fusion between hip hop, film score, and classical music. I draw upon film score and classical music to essentially compose and correspondingly draw from the entire orchestral instrument gamut. So you could really say that I’m a composer who incorporates hip hop rhythms and percussive elements to an orchestral composition. Since I’m not sampling, I can really ensure that the orchestral elements and the hip hop elements don’t fight each other and instead exist in unity with one another. I should also take note that I do take some cues from entirely synthetic film scores such as the one from Blade Runner. With this fusion, I usually aim to create a dramatic experience for the listener as transportative as film. Quite simply, my goal is to often create a truly hard hitting song of epic proportion that has roots in hip hop.

What’s your best piece of advice for readers who desire to find success in their life?

If I was to offer one piece of advice for readers it would be to first recognize your own weaknesses and strengths and then find trustworthy people who are good at what you aren’t good at.

Speaking of success, what does the word mean to you?

To me success is quite simply the actualization of one’s goals. More importantly, success involves feeling content with one’s achievements. Of course these goals and achievements are all dependent on the individual but that’s my basic understanding of the word success.

What’s next for you?

Aside from continually refining my craft, there’s actually a lot of things cooking up on my end. In fact, these upcoming few months are going to be rather hectic. For instance, I have signed on to work on developing songs for a few motion picture soundtracks. In addition, I’m working with some established artists to create some tracks together. I’m also working on brainstorming some concepts for my own album(s), which I plan to release sometime in the near future. Last but not least, I am also working on developing myself as a future recording artist.

Finally, how can people connect with you if they want to learn more.

If people want to connect with me, I would suggest following my Instagram @theoneatg, checking in on my Facebook page The ATG, and following my artist page on Spotify and other such platforms.