Live-electronic artist Since JulEYE takes us behind the scenes in the creation of his latest track “My Soul,” in an article designed to both celebrate and delve into the intricacies of its production. This deep dive into the making of “My Soul” not only highlights the artistic process but also serves as a captivating promotional piece for its release. Through an introspective look at the song’s evolution, from a bass line conceived in a moment of inspiration to the final mix and master, the article offers readers a front-row seat to the creativity and collaboration behind this engaging track.
Since JulEYE, known offstage as Lev Averbakh, has steadily risen within Denver’s vibrant music scene, bringing his distinct blend of bouncy hip-hop beats and electrifying live performances to audiences far and wide. His ability to seamlessly shift between genres has not only earned him a place in notable music festivals but has also allowed him to share stages with an impressive roster of artists.
Through detailed production insights and a celebration of collaborative creativity, this article serves not only as an introduction to “My Soul” but also as an invitation to explore the depth and breadth of Since JulEYE’s musical landscape.
“My Soul” is a song that I’ve had in the vault for a good bit of time so it’s gone through several different versions and additions even if I may have thought it was done, though with all things considered it’s not a terribly complex song.
It all started with a bass line I wrote a long time ago and always used to play while jamming or practicing. One day I decided to record it but shortly after the song started coming together I decided to simplify it a bit. Next, I built the drums like I usually do. I like to start with layering a few drum loops and cutting out the things that clash just to get the vibe going quickly, then I move on. During the production process, I periodically visit the drums, changing sounds and patterns. Ultimately getting the drums sounding just right is something I do towards the end, if not last.
Next, came the kinda “tropical” melody that rides through pretty much the whole song. That was a sample I have been waiting to use, that I ended up pitching down and chopping up to get the desired effect. At this point, the lyrics for the hook just kind of came to me. I’m not a singer or songwriter, so this was completely new to me, but I decided to run with it. I recorded myself and my former collaborator, Todd Stoops, and processed the vocals. They didn’t sound too good but they were fine as a placeholder.
I then layered some sub bass over my bass line to give it some umph. I have a sub that’s programmed in operator, which is a stock Ableton plug in, that I like to use for most of my chiller songs. After that Todd played some midi piano and I went through the midi and fine tuned it before converting it to audio and added some minor FX. We also used stock Ableton instruments, grand piano and E-piano for the keys. Any additional synth/keys work came from my Arturia MatrixBrute synth. It’s one of only two hardware synths I own and you can hear at least a little something from it on pretty much all my songs.
After that, I decided that some guitar would sound cool on it so I chopped up some guitar samples. I ended up re-playing the chops on my guitar to add some more tone and texture. At this point I thought it would be really cool to have some full on shredding guitar on it so I hit up my good friend, Marvel Years. I asked him to play over the whole thing even though the idea was always to introduce the guitar later in the song because this way there’s just much more to work with. What he sent back ended up getting chopped and rearranged pretty heavily. At this point I wanted to have a playable version of the song so I mixed and mastered it. I was still pretty new at mastering at that time but I had a pretty good grasp on how to make a song like this sound decent. It came way more naturally to me than mastering songs that are more bassy and electronic.
After playing it out a few times and listening to it in the studio a bunch I decided that it would be cool to get a rap verse on it. I immediately thought of C1 of Foodchain. He’s also a good friend I’d been wanting to work with and I thought his style was perfect for this one. After I got the verse from C1, the song was finally ready to be finished. I went back and cleaned up the drums, used Ahee’s vocal racks to clean up the vocals, which had already been re-recorded since the original, then tweaked the mix and master.
Now it was pretty much done but I did feel like it needed some more dynamics in the beginning. I looked up some movie quotes with “My Soul” in them for a spoken word effect. I found a decent one but I ended up changing it up a good bit and re-recording it myself. I also added some more subtle sample chops in the beginning and it was finally done. I had already done the album art at this point so it was ready to submit. Ended up making a couple subtle changes and submitting it during a layover at Vancouver Airport on my way to Thailand.
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