SoundCloud is one of our favorite places to discover new music. There is a little bit of everything on there, but if you love electronic-based jams, you cannot beat the diversity of sounds on the site.
One of the coolest features on SoundCloud is the ability to follow artists and interact with them. With that idea in mind, we have decided to bring some of that interactivity here. Introducing SoundCloud Players, we will interview artists on SoundCloud that we dig and give you the opportunity to check out some of our favorite works by them. We hope you enjoy!
Our first feature act is Doc Illingsworth (Disclosure – I, Hubert Sawyers III, manage this act). He is a rapper / producer from Detroit, MI and is a member of the hip hop group, Detroit CYDI. He also released an instrumental collaborative project with a Swedish gentleman by the name of Erik L. You can check out the album called Northern Connection
Why do you use SoundCloud? What are some success stories that you have had using the site?
I use SoundCloud, because I like the way they’ve designed their player. It allows users to leave comments (timed ones at that) and it also embeds into many sites. Unlike the Bandcamp player, it can play right inside sites like Facebook without taking you to or opening another webpage. I don’t like getting taken away from something I’m reading simply because I wanted to play someone’s tune, and I assume others feel that way as well. As far as success stories, I like that listeners can leave comments and that I can comment back to them. It just makes it easier for establishing a line of communication. I think of being able to communicate with the listener / supporter as a sucesss.
The supporters are your backbone, so you want to make some level of yourself available to them. Bandcamp, for example, doesn’t have a comment feature, so for the purpose of sharing a tune, SoundCloud wins in that area.
Do you have any strategy with how you’re using SoundCloud?
The main strategy I have now is just the coupling of SoundCloud and Facebook. As I mentioned before, when you click a SC link in Facebook it opens right there. It doesn’t open another page, it doesn’t take you away from what you started. This makes it easier for someone to listen.
You click play, you hear music. Simple. I just want to make it easy for people to hear me.
Who are some of your favorite artists to check for on SoundCloud?
I like Cream of Beats, 14KT, DevonWho, L05, Mike Gao, people like that. I like stuff from guys that pay a lot of attention to detail in their production, probably because that is something I’ve been trying to learn.
If there was one feature that you would like added to SoundCloud what would it be?
As far as I know, they have features that I like. They have comprehensive stats. For example, they can break the origin of your hits down by regions of the world. The only problem is that it’s not free. I currently haven’t purchased the additional features, but I feel like I’ll be doing so soon. This is because I’m nosy and I want to know where you’re listening.
Who/what are your influences? What songs that you feature on SoundCloud are good examples of these influences?
I really like the old prog rock stuff from the 1970s. I like spacey sounding stuff. I dig artists like the guys in Klipmode because they make really out there stuff. They use crazy electronic sounds, crazy drum patterns. I really like those out-there kind of rhythms. It’s weird because a lot of my own production is very chill and sort of subdued. As of late, I’ve been doing a little series called “1BeatPerWeek” where I’ve been trying to do things I don’t normally do. I don’t know if I’ve been succeeding but it’s been pretty fun. I’ve gotten lots of plays and comments and I’ve been learning a bit of discipline from the practice of posting a beat per week. One example of me trying to get a little spacey is this beat called “Not Really Fried.” It’s the 6th ( of 8 ) beat from the 1BeatPerWeek series. Here’s another example of me trying to add more variance and more detail to my production. This beat is called “My Style”
Some of our favorite tracks by Doc Illingsworth: