MTF Splice Trackathon™
Music Tech Fest Stockholm featured the Splice Trackathon™ - a 24 hour challenge to create a new song using a Splice.com sample pack curated by our Woman in the Lead of music production, UK producer Femme. The producers responded to Femme’s challenge to create a “sad banger”.
In addition, Splice ran an online competition in parallel, and all of the best tracks from both the live event and the online challenge are selected to be part of an EP that will be released through our partners at Amuse.io on all major streaming platforms with all proceeds going to support Musicians Without Borders - a charity selected by the 24-hour Trackathon winner Ruben Svensson.
Featured in this podcast are the voices of Femme, Garrett Frierson of Splice.com, Ruben Svensson and Conner Edmunds - as well as the music of Femme, Callen, 24-hour Trackathon winner The Rube Thing with vocalist Nina Butler, Roland Greco and Splice online MTF Producer’s Challenge winner One Wolf At Bay.
The MTF Trackathon™ charity EP will be released later this month.
AI Transcription
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
music, people, splice, track, producers, tech fest, charities, hear, song, hackathon, musicians, competition, ruben, collaboration, banger, edm, samples, challenge, event, sad
SPEAKERS
Garrett Frierson, Andrew Dubber, Ruben Svensson, Callen, Femme
Andrew Dubber
Hi, I’m Dubber. I’m the director of Music Tech Fest and we have a musical treat for you. This week, I’m going to focus on something special we did at MTF Stockholm, and with a couple of our partners. It’s called the MTF Trackathon. And as you can probably tell from the name of Trackathon is kind of like a hackathon. But for music producers, same basic concept, here are some tools and materials, here’s 24 hours. Here’s a challenge. Let’s see what you can make the best tracks we put together and release online as an EP via amuse.io. So it all goes out to the big streaming platforms to raise money for a good cause. With the overall winner of the track athon, picking the charity. We also ran an online competition in parallel with our partners splice.com. So people who weren’t able to take part in stock on could still jump on board, which really opened the field right out. And as you’ll hear, the calibre of tunes submitted was just phenomenal. It was the third time we’d run the trackathon at Music Tech Fest. And this time around, the challenge was set by UK producer Laura Bettinson, aka Femme, who worked with the producers did a little coaching and help along the way kept everyone on track and worked with our panel of industry expert judges to select the winners both at the live event and for the online competition from Music Tech fest.com. This is the MTF Splice Trackathon.
Femme
Hi my name is Femme or “Fem” as everybody pronounces it. My name is Laura, real name is Laura. I’m a producer and a DJ and a singer from London, UK.
Garrett Frierson
My name is Garrett Frierson. I am the artist marketing manager at splice.com and I am in charge of our remix contest and producer challenges here.
Ruben Svensson
My name is Ruben Svensson, I’m a Swedish producer, mix engineer, songwriter, guitar player, and I write songs and build robots as well. I’m an engineer.
Femme
The Trackathon - the Trackathon was a 24 hour competition for producers to say make a track out of a set of samples that I have curated. It was the first time as myself that I’ve actually used splice the platform, I’d heard about it, and I’d seen its adverts all over Facebook, but I’d never actually dived in to investigate what it was all about. And I was very, very impressed to say to be able to look in there and find the kind of the absolute vast catalogue they have of sounds, and really good sounds that was really pleasing to hear that they weren’t just, you know, terrible kind of imitations of, you know, real instruments or anything like that. They’re really, really interesting, some really unique samples in there. So Garrett, tell me a little bit about splice.
Garrett Frierson
splice is a website that is dedicated to helping musicians achieve their dreams by giving them the tools they need to make music to learn about music, and to give them opportunities to put their talents to use and to connect with other musicians.
Femme
So I put together a sample pack of sounds that I thought were interesting that I thought might give people a starting point. And the idea was that the producers would make a track within 24 hours and then deliver that into a competition. And then we decided what the best tracks were to be released on EP.
Ruben Svensson
So I studied kth as a engineering, taking a master’s in mechatronics. So I really want to like get a chance to combine technology and music. And that’s actually why I applied, I was approved for the track athon. So producing a song which is something that I really like to do as well. So I felt it might be a great chance to still like meet a lot of makers and people while doing something that I’m maybe I’m a bit more confident in right now.
Femme
And it was crazy. It was great. It was a great competition. And the people there just really threw themselves into it. They were very, very open to it and just they had a little bit of cross collaboration as well between. There was as well as the track is on there was a hackathon running at the same time and it was nice to see some cross collaboration there and there was some singers and other instrumentalists that say collaborated together and that was nice. It was good. It was And just, you know, people on their laptops with their headphones kind of isolated for 24 hours, there was, you know, some nice collaboration, which was good.
Andrew Dubber
Ruben, you worked with New York based vocalist, Nina Butler, your track cold that we just heard a little of how did that collaboration come about?
Ruben Svensson
Yeah, actually, she was like, we were having a meeting, a briefing for the trackathon. And she just came up and said, like, Hi, I haven’t really found a group downstairs. But I like to sing I like to write. So hit me up. And at the time, I was like, Yeah, I really just want to get into the project. So I didn’t pay too much attention. But then there was a jam room. So we played some music together. And she was really great singer. So then I reconsidered and asked her if she wanted to collaborate. And she wanted to, and we did, and it turned out grades. So I’m really thankful for that.
Garrett Frierson
So the challenge was for producers to take a sample pack that had been curated by fam from the splice sound sample library, she went into the splice sound sample library and curated a number of her favourite sounds that she liked from there. And we took that curated sample pack and gave it to producers.
Femme
And in most of the music that I make, most of the music that moves me pop music that moves me anyway, is an element that I call them sad bangers
Garrett Frierson
sad banger,
Femme
they have like a melancholic thread through there. But at the same time they make you want to kind of dance on, you know that you’re on the dance floor, basically, like crying your heart out. And I really was interested to see whether the producers could capture a feeling out of you know, just a set of, in some ways, quite sterile samples, you know, just to be given a set of samples. And so you just use one of these manipulate it however you want, but you’ve got to make something that moves me. And that was really my idea behind it. And especially because the competition was held in Stockholm. Stockholm has a really rich history of sad bangers and melancholic pop music. And so I thought that it might appeal to kind of their culture and their musical history. So I was intrigued to see what kind of music that may
Andrew Dubber
Yeah, Robin’s dancing on my own is definitely something that springs to mind
Femme
very much dancing on my own. And also Robin is like the queen of the sad banger. Call your girlfriend, that’s another massive sad banger that you say you’re dancing your heart out. But you know, you’re heartbreaking at the same time. Yeah, she’s very, very good at those.
Garrett Frierson
You know, I was really surprised at the the range of what people came up with, without instructions. It’s really always amazing to hear how people interpret the instructions of a contest and kind of understands words differently. So there’s a lot of amazing music that came out of it that I did not expect.
Ruben Svensson
Yeah, so it’s like the timespan was, of course, a limiting factor as well as the like, there wasn’t any real restriction on using the samples given but I challenged myself to use as much as possible, which I did. And that can like I feel constraints, create or necessitate creativity. So a lot of the stuff like it just happened, because I couldn’t really stay long on decisions. I just had to make them and keep moving. And I guess that kind of created. Like you had to go on gut feeling. And that translates into good music. Maybe I’m not sure. But it was, it was a good challenge, I guess. A bit stressful at the end, but it worked out.
Andrew Dubber
Garrett, how did splice get involved with MTF? labs.com? And how did that play out?
Garrett Frierson
So the Music Tech Fest came through one of my colleagues, she brought this opportunity to us and we figured out there was an opportunity for us to connect with the tech fest and figure out a kind of unique way that we could get involved and open it up for not just the people who are going to be at the physical event, but also give producers around the world a chance to participate and connect with the festival.
Femme
Interestingly, the music that was made on the 24 hour trackathon was way less commercial. In some ways we didn’t have we had maybe one or two more kind of commercial EDM tracks, maybe even won the war like oh, okay, but you know, that’s something that I would imagine would have cropped up more, but it didn’t like the genres. It was some completely genre songs that were made on the 24 hour track, but there was some really wild, quite progressive places that people took those samples and took their tracks, which was really refreshing. And when it came to the 20 amps with the online competition, there was a lot more The genres I was expecting to hear, I guess, in some ways, like the trap, kind of electronic trap stuff and the SoundCloud kind of rap and the EDM kind of stuff that was a little bit more expensive. So in some ways, even though there was such a huge amount of tracks, the the ones that were a little bit more different, really stood out. So, yeah, it was, yeah, a lot more tracks made. But equally, you know what you like when you hear it, don’t hear me say it, we both listen to it, when you kind of immediately I find it, we’ll find it too difficult to kind of make it like, get it down to about 20 tracks that I really enjoyed, and then just kind of keep going through them. But it was it was still it was great to hear why it was made. And some people took them. Yeah, some very, say some people just used all the samples. And some people probably didn’t even use one but said they’d use the high house. It’s cool, just to see how people are working in different ways they work with one set of sounds.
Garrett Frierson
Yeah, we run a lot of competitions on splice, we’re usually putting up between one and three new competitions a week. So this one was a little unique because it was one of our first ones that was more kind of event focused, as opposed to being focused on a single artist, or anything like that. So it was great connecting with them and working with her to you know create the the sample pack that people could use to create their music with and working with you in the tech fest to kind of give it a different feeling and a different edge than a lot of our contests had because it was something new and it was a way for people to to learn about what you were doing as well as share their talents with you.
Callen
My name is Connor. But my artist name is Callen so All right - Call me Callen. I am a music producer that does pop and EDM out in Nashville, Tennessee. Songs command you had a feel right. So when you say sad banger, I would hear a song. And if it’s sad, I’m gonna feel that sadness, but I’m gonna be like, like, happy, sad, you know what I’m saying? I don’t know what the word to describe that is. It’s like, when you hear a sad song and you’re moved by it, you know what I mean? It’s like, it gives you kind of a release because you’re like, relating or something. The song is kind of about it’s kind of about being ready to move on to, to better things, but not denying other people that chance. And for me the song I wrote the song when I was kind of having an aha moment in my life. As cheesy as it sounds, I was kind of having a realisation that I love music is meant for other people, not not not for you to just bury your feelings and thoughts inside. And just for me, it’d be like, I just stay inside all day and just write and produce by myself and then see my friends, but secretly just want to go back home and do it. So for for me, it was kind of a realisation of like the aha moment at least, was just kind of a realisation that music is supposed to be for people. So not not for yourself, you’re supposed to give to other people. It’s supposed to be a release for everyone. And so I started with I started writing with that mentality. And then the song silver and gold came out and I was just going through a breakup at the certain point and found someone I really loved. And the song just kind of came together and I had had other people help me with the song too. So it was kind of my like, first, first, like, song I felt proud of, you know what I mean? So, I’m super excited about it. And I really am really stoked that you guys like it.
Andrew Dubber
So how did you get involved in the Splice Trackathon
Callen
no man, I was just like, I, when I started, I was very young when I started using Ableton and I had used splice once before, because I was trying to get into collaboration with people because I felt like that would be a cool way to get better production. I had some buddies in LA that are releasing sample packs on splice, and I was like, Oh, I should try this. And I, I’ve done about five of them now. And the one was just kind of, yeah, just kind of clicked. I think the community events are really cool. I’ve, I’ve been trying to do as many as possible.
Andrew Dubber
So your songs gonna be on the trackathon charity EP, then what’s next?
Callen
Um, I get famous. You guys make me famous, right? Yeah, no.
Ruben Svensson
well, so I did a lot of research. Found some some smaller like Swedish Sweden based charities, I decided pretty early that I wanted to do something with the like, in regards to music somehow, because that’s where it all came from. And we have a pretty good system in Sweden to get young people like, they could have the opportunity to play instruments at a pretty early age at affordable like it’s funded by the government. So and I guess that’s kind of where, where it started for me, somehow, not maybe directly, but I know a lot of other people. So I wanted to get the chance to, to other children that maybe doesn’t have the opportunity to do to different circumstances in the country or whatever. So I found this, musicians without borders, and I heard like, from from Doctors Without Borders, and there’s an organisation in Sweden called Clowns Without Borders as well like, just to give this the magical music to people who, who maybe have it harder to, to receive it directly. And I felt that will probably create a lot of interesting sounds in the future, and also bring a lot of happiness to to people that maybe have had a really hard a lot of time. I
Femme
think that’s fantastic. I think that’s really fantastic. I think at a time where it’s easy for music to be kind of in some ways marginalised, and especially in the kind of political climate in the UK. But you know, right now we’re closing our borders, or trying to, I think it’s really important charities like that, who are so reaching out and trying to make cross cultural connections between different territories, and help support and cultivate a rich musical scene in whatever country that is, I think it’s super important. Likewise, in the UK, I love to support youth music charities, you know, charities that are putting money behind views, and giving them access to equipment. Because it’s kind of ironic, in some ways that musics become easier and easier and easier to make can say, with a laptop and a set of headphones, and set speakers, you can kind of produce tracks that are ready to put up on Spotify in a matter of hours. But, you know, there’s still a lot of people out there who don’t have access to that equipment don’t have the funding to be able to set themselves up with that kind of equipment. And so I think charities that are helping people support people’s creativity in that way are super important, because we need a more diverse and gender balanced industry. You know, we really do supporting diversity across the global music industry. I think it’s really important. So I’m very pleased that that’s the charity that was chose.
Andrew Dubber
So how international was the overall online MTF track upon them?
Garrett Frierson
Um, you know, it’s hard to say specifically, but we do know that there was, you know, participants from all over the United States, Canada and Europe. And then I think there was at least a few, we definitely had some entries from Latin America as well. And a couple from Asia.
Andrew Dubber
Were there any major surprises in there?
Femme
Well, the winning track for me was a real surprise. I mean, I would have been in the online competition. I was just like, listen to it. I was like, I mean, that’s releasable right now. It was really, really yet impressive. I remember hearing it and I saw out it’s just yeah, it was a really stood out for me it’s like a very taste it was really tasteful electronic music, but with a vocal so there was a human connection there. And it was it kind of reminded me of caribous can’t do without you or something like that, you know, something is like cool, but I could see would have mainstream kind of crossover appeal. And that was very pleasing to that track that really stood out for me.
Garrett Frierson
Were there were a few tunes that really just I’m always really impressed when an artist can get the atmosphere to fit the the atmosphere and the melody to kind of fit their lyric really well where the music is telling the same story as the words and I remember specifically a few tracks that really did that for me.
Andrew Dubber
Ruben, you were the overall winner of the 24 hour track on MTF labs.com itself, was that a surprise?
Ruben Svensson
Well, I was kind of confident like it was a great challenge, but then ended up like being sunny better than anything I have done before, I guess and I get a lot of good feedback from from the other participants. So I was pretty confident I wasn’t sure I was gonna win. But I kind of like I wasn’t surprised, I guess.
Femme
I really like to be initially like that the way when it goes into that break. And it was really unexpected. And I remember Ruben making his as he was making his track. And he was really like struggling with where it was going and not sure. And then when I heard the finished thing was like wow, okay, this is where you went and that vocal over the top. And they really managed to kind of write a song, which is great, because it’s quite, I mean, fairly straightforward. Now with a platform like splice to be able to throw a track together quite quickly using samples. If you’re, if you’re not trying to craft a song out of it, you can make a decent sounding track very quickly. But they met on the count, they’ve never worked with each other before. And they wrote that really complete sounding song in very little time. And that really, I thought they really kind of nailed for the brief as well. And it was just it was really pleasing to see that collaboration. And that really struck a chord for me. So I was like, okay, you haven’t you say you haven’t just looked on your own and kind of stayed in your own world. You really put yourself out there and found somebody to collaborate with and you really made something and that is that’s hard to achieve in professional sessions day in day out when you don’t know people that you’re working with, you know, so to be in a camp situation. They’ve probably never ever worked like that before. I was I was very impressed with what they’ve managed to make
Garrett Frierson
a well there is a lot on the pipeline for 2019 Some big announcements that I can’t talk about that will definitely make it out there your way and stay on the, you know the pipe for those but things I can talk about, at least in the contest space, we’re launching our first, wholly original music Talent Search next week, it’s going to be called next up. It’s launching January 7, it is partnered with a ditto the online PR agency and social media service, as well as proximity, the music label and music curation service, which is one of the largest online entities for electronic music in the world. So we are starting a challenge search competition with both of them to find basically the next undiscovered electronic music powerhouse. There, we know that there’s a lot of really talented producers, in their bedrooms, in their parents basements, on their college dorm rooms, you know, at home and between their shifts at working at whatever their jobs are. And there’s a lot of people out there pursuing their passion, who really talented who just haven’t found their first crack in the door that they can push on to really find their way into the music industry, despite their talent. So this year, with things like next up and other initiatives we’re pushing, we’re really trying to help those artists find their way into the industry and to get a foothold so that we can be a part not just of the right now we are really integrated in a lot of musicians creation process of creating the music. So we’re doing a lot of work there to make that better, and to help streamline that. But on the other side, we’re working to now become a part of the the career side of musicians where we want to create resources that will help people further their careers, that will show them the ways that they can really make a life for themselves and music in the 21st century. So there’s a lot of initiatives that we’re working on, that are going to be doing that for both musicians and sound designers and opening up the platform to making it really equitable and a place that people can feel confident not just making their music, but then finding the right ways to get their music out there.
Andrew Dubber
Okay, so Final Thoughts fam, this was your first Music Tech Fest, what did you make of it all.
Femme
Um, I think it’s just a great event. Like it was the first event of its kind I’ve ever been to, I’ve never been to a hackathon to say, I have an interest in music and music tech. But I’ve never been to like an organised kind of event conference like that. So it was, it was wild, just to see the ideas that people were coming up with. And what was so exciting, it was just that it’s youth LED, you know, so many people were, you know, their students or they’re just starting out their careers and the ideas that they were coming up with, especially in the hackathon were just like mind bending, and really eye opening. And I was really excited about that. So I left quite inspired by the whole thing by the knees quite attracted on on the hackathon. Just see that, you know, these, the young people were given a space to kind of really explore these massive ideas and given as much force as they could muster to to help trying to realise them in in 24 hours. That was crazy to me. And it was really exciting. So definitely if there’s anybody out there has an interest in music and tech and and how you can kind of change your world. I would definitely recommend getting involved with it. Yeah, it was very cool.
