Read the Neun Interview below and share it on social media.
Please tell our readers who you are and what you do?
Hey, I'm Conrad, and recently put the name Neun as my stage name. Neun is apart of the Korean language, although I am not Korean, I took classes for the language and had an inside joke with the word. Neun which has a variety of use but I use it to identify myself as ?? or I am. Im an American Filipino who grew up in Virginia and California surrounded by music all my life. I mainly focused on Guitar but as time progressed , I’ve been exposed to a variety of instruments and styles of music across the board. As a result, Neun has become my stage name for my DJ mixes. I’ve been apart of a small garage band Retrograde and competed in a local Battle of the Bands in 2016 and won 1st place to earn a studio recording of our original song. I’ve been exposed to the Jazz world and worked with many professional jazz musicians and have been performing for about 5 years with many instruments. Music has been my call to explore human emotion and release from reality. Although I have only touched the surface with mixing music, I am well versed with improvising and writing music when the inspiration comes. The guitar has always been my weapon of choice to produce and write. However 2018 is going to be a new road for me as an upcoming DJ project.
How would you describe your influences and how have they changed over the years?
For as long as I can remember, I have been exposed to rap, rock, and alternative rock. Growing up all I wanted to do was be a rockstar and perform in front of thousands of people. As time progressed, my roots in rock n roll and hip hop have always stuck with me. As I transitioned to high school, My world got surrounded by jazz and theory at the same time which heavily changed my influences and ways of playing. With my experiences with Jazz and improvisation, I expanded my musical thought to producing my own types of music. Artists such as Snarky Puppy, Greg Howe, Alex Hutchings, and Guthrie Govan have inspired me as a Guitarist to play and think like a guitar virtuoso with a jazz fusion mind. These influences have not changed since then. However walking into 2017 and 2018, I got exposed to EDM which got me off my feet. Music that makes people vibe and dance together made me want to get into that type of music. I then got into making my own small mixes influenced by Graves, RL Grime, Boombox Cartel and The Ha Brothers. I’ve been influenced by many artists and even young artists who got to play their own music at major festivals such as the Reno Jazz Festival, which helped me gain knowledge as a musician to expand further than just the genre. Although it’s fun to play heavy and exciting music, sometimes smooth and chill music makes the world balanced, in which my influences and experiences have taught me. As of now, my spectrum of music experiences have been brought across the board from classical music all the way to heavy metal, all of which I still enjoy to listen to on a daily basis.
What´s new right now?
I have plans to release my first mix onto soundcloud, which should go public around late January to February of 2018. I have had many small projects of which I have posted for awhile and took down, mainly to work on and produce a better track of what represents me better. Although the guitar work has been on a hiatus, I still have intentions to produce or cover songs in the near future. Mixing this year is my main focus and to keep diving deeper into different styles of music and instruments. Stay tuned, as for 2018 is gonna be a weird ride!
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Are you a superfan of anyone? How did you become a superfan? Do you remember how you become a fan and what turned you into super fan? Have you ever thought about why you´re such a fan?
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What was the biggest mistake you made when you started making music and what would be the number one tip you could give to a newcomer musician?
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How do you get gigs? Can you share any tips?
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Do you have good promotion tips for other musicians?
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Do you have insights on how to grow your audience on soundcloud that you want to share with our audience?
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What has been your biggest challenge right now? Have you been able to overcome that challenge? If so, how?
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How do you personally discover new music?
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Once you discovered new music, do you tell others about the new music/artist you discovered? If yes, how exactly?
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What is your number one tip to improve your music production or songwriting skills?
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What is your best tip for those who struggle with finishing their tracks?
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We meet again in one year. What has changed?
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http://www.soundcloud.com/conrad-celestino
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Enter your questions to the artist in the facebook comment section below.
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