Brazilian producer and DJ, Cour T., has gained popularity in the house music scene due to his excellent sound design and immense creative ability. He has caught the attention of industry heavyweights such as Claptone, Chris Lake, Dennis Cruz, and Jamie Jones, and impressed them with his unique sound that blends funky and percussive rhythms with psychedelic synths and powerful bass lines.
Photo Credit: Court T. – Official
Cour T. has recently released ‘2D5,’ the second single of his upcoming debut album ‘Brain Deals’, which is set to be released this fall via Dirtybird Records. The five-minute house track maintains the tribal percussion and rhythmic vocal chops from his previous release ‘TRiiiBAILE.’ The track is filled with wonky synth melodies and bouncy basslines, keeping listeners captivated with its hypnotic tones and patterns.
As an artist under the A&R direction of Claude VonStroke, Cour T.’s forthcoming debut album ‘Brain Deals’ showcases his development and serves as an auditory canvas for him to showcase the depths of his creative mind.
To mark the release, Cour T. shared five tips from the studio to help boost your creativity.
1. Learn and understand how your speakers work
Having a studio that is 100% fully treated and professional is a distant reality for most music producers. So, here is a tip for anyone who has a home studio and does not have an exact reference at all times: Learn how your mixes sound in other sound systems. Test your tracks in other places, such as in the car, on JBL speakers, or on your headphones. Understand how it will sound; which EQ points are dissonant for example. There will come a time when your ears are so used to it that you can “predict” what possible errors are being made and thus compensate when mixing a track.
2. Relax and don’t be afraid to dare
When your music production becomes professional and you wish to make a career out of it for the rest of your life; there will be moments when you may get stuck. That could be due to all the worries that come from having a professional career plus your day-to-day activities. Creative stalling is common and it comes and goes. That doesn’t mean that you’re horrible at it or that you have forgotten how to sequence the drums LOL. Your mind is probably tired and it needs a break. When that happens, go watch or listen to different things. Try to relax or you may even look for a weird hobby like collecting miniatures.
The other part of this tip is to DARE. Do not be afraid to use different samples and manipulate everything. Use different audio effects like a few octaves down and create a bass line. Make percussion with chopped vocals. Arrange a track backwards perhaps. Boldness keeps us creative and innovative. I came up with many interesting synths by simply manipulating samples instead of looking for presets in a complex and boring VST audio plug-in. And most importantly of all, HAVE FUN! Don’t take it as a burden or as an obligation. It’s work and it should be taken seriously, but making it fun above all.
3. Have a routine and write down your tasks
When my career as a music producer started shifting to a deeper and more serious level, what helped me the most to stay mentally healthy and creatively active was having a routine and writing down all my tasks. Planning your day, your week, and your month is vital. Write your notes and to-do list on a big whiteboard that is visible at all times. Doing that will free your mind from thinking all the time and it will make room for your own creativity to thrive. If you need to make changes, or corrections to a certain track but you can’t do that at the moment; make a note of what you need to work on and later go back to it. It will save you time and get you straight to the point eventually.
Also, include in your daily routine the habit of producing. Even if you are just playing around, don’t leave it for later. It will make your mind expand, unconsciously by creating that habit. You will be training your brain and when that great idea comes to you, you will be ready and more assertive with it.
4. Less is more + swing
This is going to sound cliché, but it’s the blunt truth! Something simple when done well works better than something extremely complex and bold badly done. Keep in mind to ask yourself “What is essential to make the booty shake?”
My last track ‘2D5’ for example does not reach 25 channels (I still think it’s a lot, but I like details). Its ”bass-line” is composed by only 1 Hi-Tone 808 with frequency changes plus a groove pool swing, making it sound more complex than it really is. That is something I use in many of my tracks. I make something extremely simple by applying a DAW swing to counterbalance it.
5. Go against the grain
Have you ever heard the quote “Here’s to the crazy ones”? Do different things. Do not get carried away by market trends or the hype of something that is trending. Do what works for you. Big names in the music scene today also came from a starting point. But why nowadays are they still at the top? That’s because of their uniqueness. They have created their own “trends” and they didn’t follow the hype. So, do you for you. Something that helped me creatively when I started producing, was the fact that I did not follow musical theory in the first place. I was more concerned first with actually producing, not with reproducing something that already existed. Make sure to study that as it is necessary for your artistic evolution!
Make a comparison with visual art, for example. If you study how Van Gogh made the Starry Night and the techniques that he applied, you may get something close to it, but you will never be Van Gogh. You will be only creating a reproduction of it. So, worry first about creating your signature sound, your own techniques, and your own ways to only later apply the “rules” of it.
Cour T.’s ‘2D5’ is now available via Dirtybird Records. Stream and buy here.
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