Secrets of my success as a mix engineer – 8notes

Having worked with a few big names on the Nigerian music scene, rising Nigerian Mix Engineer, Ediongsenyene Umoren, professionally known as 8notes has paid his dues and is willing to take his career a notch higher if given the ample opportunity. In this interview, he delves into his craft among other things.

Tell us about yourself and explain why the name 8notes?
My name is Ediongsenyene Umoren, born to Nigerian parents in August 11th of 1995 in the south side of Nigeria, Calabar, Cross River State, but I’m from Akwa Ibom State. I was raised around music oriented parents, my Dad loved music & my Mom made music. She’d write songs for classical apostolic choirs so it was only natural that I would pick it up being their first son. About the name 8notes, it started off as an Instant Messenger username “Eddy8notes” for 2go in 2010, 8notes came off of that. So there’re eight notes in the major scale of every musical key, an octave. From and In-between these eight notes, all song melodies are derived. It was a really quick and random name I came up with only based on music theory ideas but over time it made more sense to me and I never stopped using the name, shout out to my secondary school friends though, they are the ones who took the “Eddy’ out of the name.

As a mix engineer, how will you describe your work process like?
My job description is basically solving problems within a produced and recorded project or session as we’d call it. You see when music is made, there are tweaks here and there that needs to be done before its fit to hit the market for public consumption. Look at music making as carpentry; see a song to be a table for instance. So say Songwriters and recording artists collect the timber (Instruments, Drum Samples, vocals etc), the producers cut, saw and nail the wood together (Beats and arrangements), now he has a table (A song) and that’s where I come in! as the mix engineer, I take the already assembled table, file the length of the legs to balance out evenly, sand the top of it to smoothen it and Mastering would be me priming & spraying it the desired color to make sure it’s ready to go into the market as an industry standard table, else it would be crude and rough if it came straight from the producer’s desk. So yeah, my work process just involves loads of listening and improving the song.

What was the first cheque you made as an engineer? How did you feel?
First cheque! Hmmm. I can’t even remember at this point because over the years it’s just been moving from doing free stuff, to people giving me little cash out of appreciation, to starting to charge really low fees to gradually increasing the fees the more I built momentum, skills and my portfolio. So I can’t really remember or say exactly what the break point was but trust me, getting paid what you ask for does feel great!

A lot of sound engineers have been clamouring for inclusion on split sheets, so they can earn royalties too. What’s your take on this?
I think that would be a great development still, having a share of the pie pieces. With the way everything is going these days with the technicalities and digitalization of the music business I think that would make mix engineering a much better career because I can tell you right now, Engineers don’t get paid enough for the work that they put in, I mean, looking at facts like: you can recycle a beat or lease it to more than one artist and still get paid as a producer, whereas you can’t lease mixes or use it more than once, every mix is different and unique to a song so a reoccurring payment of some sort for the effort, ideas and time engineers put in would be a huge step in the financial direction.

You have worked with artistes like Phyno, Reekado Banks, Teni, Kuami Eugene, Dremo etc. How did it feel like?
Amazing to say the least, you see working on mixes and productions are things I genuinely love doing, but it hits different when you do these passionate things with people who will actually put the work out to wider audiences than you’d normally get on your own or with smaller artists, but regardless who I work with, I still give my 100% to it and make sure it comes correct. ALWAYS

What would you say are the secret(s) of your success as an Engineer?
I’d say consistency, repetition, referencing, good communication skills, self/constant education. You see being an engineer or being involved in any form of creative activities, as the times change, so do the trends, the styles, in this case the sounds. Adaptation is key, just acknowledging that no one figures it all out keeps me on top of my grind to always get better and master ways to reach out, maintain and grow the client base that I’ve built over the years.

What’s your philosophy in Life?
A candle sharing its flame with another candle doesn’t mean it loses its light neither does it make it burn quicker or slower, it only makes the room brighter. Treat others exactly how’d like to be treated. Just be good and positive.

Talent or skills which do you prefer?
Honed skills have bigger chances at winning over unhoned talents. I prefer skill because you’ll always strive to improve, talent often thinks “I can always do it, so it’s fine” and that’s often times a fast-track to destruction.

How do you catch fun?
By Reading about and learning unconventional things, like finding out that Apple Watches don’t function efficiently over tattooed wrists. Lol! Quora and Reddit are fun places to look when I’m not working.

Speak to a Young Creative who is trying to discover his/her own path.
Jump off the porch! comfort is the enemy, if someone has done it before, you can too, if no one has, you can be the first. Try many things, you’ll discover what it is that you do with ease, enjoy the times doing it and are eager to know more about. 9 times outta 10, that’s your niche. It doesn’t quite look or feel good at first, it might not make sense either but if you persist and give yourself TIME, you’ll definitely get a good come-up.