Last month you released your EP ‘A Deeper Wave’. How have you been feeling since its release?
Steph: “I definitely had a summer release in mind for this EP from the beginning, but I began producing the tracks in February, when it was pretty frigid and summer felt distant. After releasing the EP, it has been rewarding to have listeners tell me that the tracks capture the feeling of summer, because when I was working on it I was relying heavily on summer memories and my imagination. This release was my first time getting tracks onto editorial playlists on Pandora and other platforms, so that’s been gratifying too.”
There’s a notable theme of the ocean on ‘A Deeper Wave’. What inspired this?
Steph: “The overall style of this EP and the track titles were all inspired by the ocean or the beach, which has been a recurring theme in my music over the past couple of years. While I didn’t grow up near the coast, I have loved the beach from a young age, and I found myself captivated by the beauty and the power of the ocean before I would’ve been able to really articulate that. I think the fact that I wasn’t near the ocean that often allowed it to hold an even greater significance for me.”
“The title “A Deeper Wave” is actually part of a lyric from one of my favorite songs by Sting, “Love is the Seventh Wave.” That individual phrase and image stuck in my mind, inadvertently inspiring this whole EP.”
What was it that first got you interested in instrumental music?
Steph: “I’ve been an instrumentalist since I was eight and first started taking piano lessons. I began learning guitar and ukulele soon after, and added flute and piccolo, bass, and drums throughout high school and college. I’m always eager (maybe too eager) to learn more instruments and incorporate them into my projects too. I’ve played some melodica and harmonica lately, and I’ll probably start learning another instrument soon…”
“So, my passion for instrumental music definitely started with my love of instruments. The instruments I play always inform my composition and production process, even if I don’t use them in the final mix. I didn’t record many live instrumentals for this EP, so it differs from most of my other projects in that respect. I knew I wanted this EP to be more distinctly electronic, so I focused more on the synths and sound design as I developed the tracks.”
If you had to describe your music’s sound in three words, how would you describe it?
Steph: “I’d describe my music as encompassing texture, synthesis, and exploration. My main musical focus is on film scoring, and I like to experiment with combining orchestral instrumentation with synths, guitars, and live or sequenced drums. At the same time, the EPs I’ve released so far have ranged from ambient to synthwave!”
“Across all of the different music I produce, I like to experiment with combining different instrumentations and arrangements to create a unique combination of sonic textures. I also fell in love with analog synthesis a few years ago, so I tend to incorporate synths in my projects.”
When you first started releasing music, what was it like navigating the music industry?
Steph: “I started independently releasing my own music in early 2023, shortly after I started my master’s degree at Berklee. I think the prospect of beginning to release music can be especially daunting when you’re early in your career, because there can be a nagging fear that you’ll be unhappy with your work in the future when you have more experience. I decided that I wanted to release projects that felt really good to me at the time and reflected the hard work I had put in to develop my skills. I know I’ll most likely look back at some of my early projects and wish to change certain things, and that’s already happened honestly! But I think that it should be acceptable and embraced that we continue to grow as artists throughout our careers, and our approaches to different parts of the creative process will naturally evolve over time.”
“Navigating the music industry seems to be different for each individual, but for me Berklee provided me with a lot of wonderful resources to begin my career. I’ve also connected with a lot of organizations that support women in music production, which has been a huge source of support and inspiration. I took production workshops with the organization Femme House when I first started to learn production, which gave me the skills (and the audacity) to apply to Berklee in the first place. I was also fortunate to win a remix contest hosted by Change The Beat earlier this year, which will be my first release on an indie label. Right now I’m really grateful to be in the She Is The Music mentorship program, focusing on film scoring and production with my mentor Kristen Personius. Because the music industry can feel especially intimidating when you’re just starting out, connecting with people who have gone through the same process and want to support you is incredibly valuable.”
What is your favourite aspect of the producing process?
Steph: “The most rewarding part of production for me is the feeling of translating a piece of music from my mind into a finished arrangement and mix. I started composing when I was about 16, after I saw the 1968 movie Bullitt for the first time. Bullitt has an amazing, innovative score by Lalo Schifrin, which remains my favorite film score to this day! I have loved composing since then, but it always felt like something was missing from my process because I didn’t have a way of realizing my projects in a finished audio format.”
“I began to learn about music production the summer after I finished college, and it felt like I had finally found the crucial piece of my creative process that I didn’t know was missing. Composing and producing are very closely intertwined for me now. The satisfaction of fully producing something that sounds how I wanted it to sound is still new enough that it feels really gratifying every time. I also love the intricacies and technical aspects of mix engineering a lot more than I thought I would, so finishing a big mix session and having it sound great on my car stereo is one of my favorite feelings too!”
How does ‘A Deeper Wave’ differ from your previous projects?
Steph: “A lot of my releases and projects so far have been pretty unique from each other honestly! I think “A Deeper Wave” allowed me to expand on that variety even more while working in some of the genres that I love most as a listener.”
“The main difference for me as I was producing these tracks involved approaching my workflow in a different way, since I was producing almost completely in the box. I actually think the only live instrument I recorded for this project was the flute solo in “A Sea of Stagnant Waves.” This EP was fun to create because it gave me experience working within some self-imposed limitations, but also experimenting to see what types of musical ideas can emerge from those constraints.”
You can listen to A Deeper Wave here: