Thomas Nan on Developing the Skills to Take on the Industry [Exclusive Interview]

Thomas Nan on Developing the Skills to Take on the Industry

6/20/2019

How did you first get into EDM? What sort of musical background did you have before becoming a producer?
My father plays the guitar and the drums which I think influenced me in a positive way. Years ago, my dad and I spent a lot of time listening to The Beatles, U2, and The Cranberries. When I attended high school, a friend of mine started using Virtual DJ to make mashups (which we thought was called a remix) and then I started DJing myself. I quickly became a huge fan of EDM and I've never let go. When my DJ set broke, I started with producing on FL Studio 11 and switched to Logic Pro X two years ago.

In this post-Soundcloud era of discovery, how are you personally going about promoting your music and making sure it gets heard by the right people?

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A post shared by THOMAS NAN (@thomasnandj) on Jun 3, 2019 at 9:59am PDT

Your network is everything in this industry. If you want to get heard by the big guys, you have to socialize until you drop. I'm very lucky that I'm a student at the Herman Brood Academy because this is a breeding point of a lot of beginning DJs and producers from the Netherlands. Everybody knows someone that can get you an email address of a label or someone who can pass it on. These days it's really important to have a good social media profile as well. This is the place where you can let your whole fanbase know when you're releasing new music or doing a show. Social media is definitely a big part of spreading the word. Playlisting is obviously a must to gain some Spotify awareness. Being added to a playlist can make or break a track. Especially when you get added to a Spotify editorial list. And if you're lucky, your label will get you covered by getting it in the right playlists.

Tell us more about the making of your latest track, "Alone" with Fajro!
We played a chord progression using the Rhodes which immediately set the vibe for the track. The break was getting funky and chill but we wanted to give the drop a lot of energy to create a nice contrast. I honestly think this is one of the fastest tracks I've ever finished. Even though we didn't produce the track together face to face, the process still went really smooth. The one downside of not collaborating face to face is that there are some challenges when sending the project file or stems back and forth (missing plug-ins, samples, working in a different DAW). Splice is probably the best solution for this problem when you work in the same DAW.

What do you do outside of music?
As I've mentioned before I'm currently studying at the Herman Brood Academy in Utrecht, The Netherlands. I'm studying Dance Music Production which is all about, you might have guessed it: Dance Music. You learn a lot of the business side of the industry and you also get taught a lot of technical stuff such as mixing, mastering, equalizing, compression, music theory and so on. This gives me the opportunity to focus on my music career one-hundred percent. It's honestly been the best decision I've ever made. I've met so many great people within the industry and made a lot of new friends.

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A post shared by THOMAS NAN (@thomasnandj) on Oct 10, 2018 at 1:00am PDT

How do you like to unwind at the end of the day?
I recently got into photography and making videos. I really enjoy this and it's also really beneficial for your own content creation. I taught myself to create my own social media material so that I never have to depend on an external photographer or cinematographer.

Where do you hope to take your project into the future? What goals have you set for yourself?
I've got a lot of new music in the making and a new release which is coming out on the 19th of July on Panther's Groove. There's some really exciting projects coming up which I can't wait to announce!

Thanks so much to Thomas Nan for taking the time to answer our questions. Be sure to follow him using the links below!