What does it mean to have integrity in the entertainment industry? What are the skills needed to succeed? How does one take risks in this industry?
These are just some of the topics Grammy and Latin Grammy winning producer and engineer Gael Hedding will be touching upon during a masterclass presented by Furtados School of Music titled ‘Success in entertainment: The unwritten protocol’, on October 3.
Speaking over a video call, Hedding, who is presently director of Berklee Abu Dhabi, says: “I touch upon these subjects through stories that I experienced personally: anecdotes relating to my experience working with artistes such as Britney Spears, Janet Jackson, and Justin Timberlake. That happened for me early on and I was in the deep end of the pool. I have had the opportunity now, over almost a decade, to reflect on them and sort of condense them into a one-hour talk. So, that it gives people an insight on what it means to actually be in the industry.”
While now, musicians can sing and mix their songs at home thanks to access to technology and software, Hedding has a few do’s and don’ts for people to keep in mind.
He says, “We are in the age of information. But the question is, how do you access it in the most organised and reliable way? Of course, you can buy a laptop, get the software and go on YouTube and learn a lot of that stuff. But how do you make sure that you have true knowledge of how the industry functions? How do you create and build the right relationships? I think that is where institutions come into play. It offers that opportunity to access information in a much more condensed way as well as the opportunity to network.
“For the don’ts, the main one is don’t take the time, effort and energy that should be put in for success, for granted. You have to be passionate, and your passion needs to be in the right place like the everyday parts: the sitting down and forcing yourself to write a song and trying to find out how to cue the snare drum with the kick. If your mind is on the red carpet rather than on the rhyme, it is in the wrong place.”
On whether he thinks there is any particular trend in music right now, Hedding says, “The years of trends and formulas in music are long gone. I think the trend is that people are finding their community and their niche and they are consuming content within that. To an artiste, I would say go and find your niche rather than finding the trend like ‘Oh, everybody is doing reggaeton fusion’, which we could say was a trend until not long ago. An example of finding your audience would be music for video games. A lot of people wouldn't imagine that there is a huge community of people consuming, listening, composing, being part of ecosystems all around just music for video games.”
The free masterclass will be held from 6 pm to 7 pm on the Furtados School of Music Facebook page.
Berklee Abu Dhabi will launch several online courses on October 4 such as digital music production, songwriting essentials and a masterclass in film scoring.