#44: Why You Should Start a Radio Show or Podcast | Heartbeat Hero

HeartBeatHero is a dutch synthwave artist that was raised in the United States. He also plays tracks, and trivia, and interviews other synthwave artists on his monthly synthwave podcast HeartBeatHero Radio.

To follow Heartbeat Hero, click here: https://linktr.ee/heartbeathero

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Transcript

Marc Matthews: 0:21

You're listening to the inside the mix podcast with your host, Mark Matthews. Hello, and welcome to the inside the mix podcast. I'm Mark Matthews, your host, musician producer, and mix and mastering engineer you've come to the right place. If you want to know more about your favorite symp music, artists, music engineering, and production songwriting, and the music industry. I've been writing, producing, mixing, and mastering music for over 50 years. And I wanna share what I've learned with you. Hey folks, and welcome back to the inside the mix podcast. In this episode, I'm very excited, uh, to welcome our guest today, Daniel Barton, AKA heartbeat hero. Uh, so heartbeat hero is a Dutch synth wave artist that was raised in the United States, uh, plays, tracks, trivia, and interviews over synth wave artists, other synth wave artists, rather on the monthly synth wave podcast, heartbeat hero radio, which we're gonna dig into later. Um, he's gonna share with us his sort of musical back. heartbeat hero radio, and that podcast and show and some production stories behind, uh, a selection of, of, uh, heartbeat, hero music. So heartbeat hero. Thank you for joining me today. And how are you,

Heartbeat Hero: 1:26

mark? Thank you for having me on your show. I am very well and it's bloody hot over here. It's really hot in the bloodies like what you say there,

Marc Matthews: 1:35

right? Yeah, it is. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's good, man. Yeah, it is so, so hot. So at the time of this being recorded, so what is it? The 14th of August? We are in the middle of a, of a heat over here. And I think you are you're in the same. So it's, it was 35 degrees in the UK, um, yesterday and the day before. And it is, we are not made for this weather. I dunno about you. I know you, you are. It's the same. It's

Heartbeat Hero: 1:58

the same. It's the same. Over here. It was 34, uh, degrees upstairs last night when I did the show and, uh, it was really hot. And luckily, uh, during the night it started to cool down. I saw the temperature, uh, going down one degree and just that one degree, uh, lowering of temperature was heavenly it's

Marc Matthews: 2:15

it's, it's amazing. Isn't it? It's so crazy that having this conversation, um, and this, this probably shows my ignorance with regards to the weather and degrees in Fahrenheit. Just that fluctuation of a few degree and it, it renders you unable to do anything. It's ridiculous. I just sat there, just sweating. I was working on some music a couple days ago and all I was moving was my hand in the mouse and there was just beads of sweats. Just stripping down me. I'm sure the audience are loving this idea of that, but I, I just hopping the

Heartbeat Hero: 2:42

shower, put some cold water on me and then run back upstairs and just, just sit there wet and, and I mean, the water really cools

Marc Matthews: 2:49

you down. Yeah. Yeah. That's not a bad shout. Um, I'll just come back in. Just just, yeah, just cuz the shower, uh, for the studio where I do the podcast is literally just over there. So I could just like nip out. Perfect. You

Heartbeat Hero: 3:01

say, I need to take a bathroom break and then you can come back all wet. Yeah. Yeah. win a slightly wrong. Yeah.

Marc Matthews: 3:09

yeah. Yeah. But that's a yeah, yeah, yeah. A picture that one audience pick, picture that one for you. I'm sure you've seen my face, you know, the scene from uh, uh, ACE. Ventura. Yeah, yeah. Yep. in the shower. Yeah. You know what? I've got a list of, uh, cuz I've been moving into like doing these, um, these beam stuff. I know you saw one with the ACE Ventura one and that is on my list. That shower scene, I'm thinking, how can I associate that with music? Um, I'm fairly certain, there's a way you could do it. And uh, there we go. That is the exact one. So we will uh, we'll do that. So yeah. Big, thank you for joining me on this today. Um, I know we've been talking for a while and I, I, I was on the radio show last October as well, which was great. And we're gonna dig into the radio show. So the audience, the audience listening, if they haven't heard it, you can, you can talk a bit about that, but. What I'd like to cover first is just a bit of your background, really? So, um, so you, as an individual, as an artist, as a musician, where did it all begin? How, I mean, what inspired you to, to, to be a musician? Where did it all start?

Heartbeat Hero: 4:07

What inspired me to be? So I was already a musically inclined singing at a young age, singing at school. Uh, I was in the choir at school. Uh, I went to church, uh, when I lived in the states. So we sang every Sunday and Tuesday night and don't go to church anymore, but , there, there weren't good feelings associated with that. So always, uh, into the music, but really actually in 1994, I met a friend of mine and he had an amigo 500 and he showed me how to create electronic music on that. They were like just chip tunes, really basic stuff, but that opened a whole new world for me. And from there it just kept on evolving. So for many years I've been now busy and, uh, let's say, let's see, in 2010, I started posting the SoundCloud. So that's when I really. Started pushing the music out.

Marc Matthews: 4:53

So it was 2010 cause I, I was on your Spotify. And I saw on there that I, I think the first release on Spotify was 2018,

Heartbeat Hero: 5:00

if I'm correct. So yeah, in 2017, I got added to a, one of my tracks when I first started creating synth wave, got added to a top 10, uh, list. And that's when I, when, when I was getting traction through the synth wave community and that's when it started growing.

Marc Matthews: 5:17

Oh, I see. So you've been doing it for quite a while then, but it's 2010, I mean 12, 12 years. Yeah. 12 years in the game. Fair play. So you mentioned now about the amiga sound station. So that's how you sort of got into the, the electronic side of things. So with regards to actual existing music, was there a, an artist album or song that really sort of like inspired you?

Heartbeat Hero: 5:36

Well, I wanted to be the prodigy. The prodigy was, was it for me at that time, I was, uh, watching their, their, their music videos on MTV. What happened to the music?. and, uh, we, I, we, I had a house party with a friend when it was my birthday. We were playing prodigy the whole night with all the lights and smoke and just, uh, going insane and moving, like, like everything's a slow motion because you had the, the, the flashing lights. Uh, yeah. That's where it all started.

Marc Matthews: 6:06

Amazing. Have you ever seen them life?

Heartbeat Hero: 6:09

Uh, no. I, I, I wish I, I, I would've been able to see them live. Um, but I never

Marc Matthews: 6:15

have no. Yeah. I was lucky enough to see them at download. Wow. 2009 or 2008. Oh, mate. How, how

Heartbeat Hero: 6:21

far

Marc Matthews: 6:22

were you? How close were you? Uh, I, one of those I St I stood at the back mate. I, I too old to go near the front. Now. I, I stand at the sides or at the back. So

Heartbeat Hero: 6:31

how long was it to go? When was the

Marc Matthews: 6:33

date? It was E it was either 2008 or 2009. Okay.

Heartbeat Hero: 6:39

Yeah. Yeah. That's yeah. You were you weren't that young yet? Yeah. No.

Marc Matthews: 6:44

How was that in between? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was, those are my glorious days of, uh, of download festival. I went for like a string of string of years in a row. And then that was it then. But yeah, I'm at gigs. I stand at the side and watch with, and like watch what they're doing. I, yeah, at the front mate, I'll be there for a bit. Then I went, I went to

Heartbeat Hero: 7:02

Ramstein this, uh, in July I think. And, uh, we were like in the middle and it was my first, I, I never go to these big concert things, but my friend convinced me and it's great music. So we, we sat in the middle and then I went to pee halfway through, cuz I just was waiting so long and I just really couldn't hold it anymore. And once I went out of PE, I did not wanna go back. So I also stood on the sidelines. Just I'll just watch it from here. I couldn't see anything any from, from the middle either

Marc Matthews: 7:30

Ramat. I bet that was a good go what's the live show like the pyrotechnics and everything that goes with it. The pyro

Heartbeat Hero: 7:34

is amazing. Amazing. You can feel the heat even from back.

Marc Matthews: 7:40

Yeah. Yeah, I've done that many times. I've been to loads of gigs where I'm at, I say at the front, I'm sort of like in the middle as you were. And then I go to the toilet and I look down and I'm like, no, I don't really wanna go back down, man. I'm just gonna stay at the back and then wait for my mates to come out.

Heartbeat Hero: 7:53

We, we, we, we went to the middle first and then I, I laid down and fell asleep actually for like an hour , but then people were like packing. So I had to stand up. Otherwise they would stand on me probably

Marc Matthews: 8:06

there's the fell fell well, fell asleep before Ramstein came on. I suppose you were there. Yeah, because

Heartbeat Hero: 8:10

we were there at three o'clock in the afternoon and they started at eight 30. So did they not have a

Marc Matthews: 8:14

support act? I'm assuming they didn't, if you

Heartbeat Hero: 8:16

were asleep. Yes. It was two female women playing, playing wonderfully beautiful piano music, but I mean, that's just not cutting it before Ramstein. Uh they were playing the covers of the tracks of Ramstein, but it was so soft and, and yeah, it wasn't. Was it

Marc Matthews: 8:34

my, uh, yeah. Yeah, no, that's amazing. It's uh, the pro and Liam Haller as well as a producer, um, is fantastic. I used, I haven't done it for ages, but I know, uh, he used his, used his Ableton or he did use Ableton. I like to go in and see how they like construct the, how he puts it all together. There's one song in particular. I can't remember what it is now. It might be smack my picture. Where did you find that? Did you see it on YouTube or what? Yeah, it was on YouTube. I'll send you a link to it actually. Oh, definitely. It's really, really good. How he took the sample. I think it smacked my bitch up. Um, and uh, he took the sample on how they put it all together. It's it's incredible. I might have seen that one actually. Yeah, it's so good about it. I'll make a note now. So I send it to,

Heartbeat Hero: 9:11

yeah, he's he is amazing. And, uh, but also the energy that, that the other guys just dancing wise, cuz they had the, like the running man they were doing back in the day. And I always tried to do that as well. We had these white suits that we made for the, for the birthday party I had back then. It

Marc Matthews: 9:25

was. Great stuff. It's amazing. So that's great to hear that the pro were an influence, um, fantastic live act and fantastic producers as well. So if we move on now to like heartbeat hero, I mean,

Heartbeat Hero: 9:37

I mean, I, I can't just talk to talk. I mean, I got, I got the stuff, man, on

Marc Matthews: 9:41

CD. There you go. BDS. Yeah. Out of the land. I think that was my favorite one. I'm sure. Fatter the land is a prodigy album. Have you got that one? Uh,

Heartbeat Hero: 9:50

no, I don't have it. It's but the that's the one with, uh, smack my bitch up, I think. But this, this is the one that really started out. This was such a different sound and, and kind of the drum and bass sound that, that was really popular at the time. Uh, yeah, just every track on this is amazing.

Marc Matthews: 10:05

I've just realized there as well. If you got audio technical headphones. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Are they the, uh, uh, Mt.

Heartbeat Hero: 10:11

Brown? He, he does the, like the, the tech stuff. He does all the, the phones and stuff. Uh, or I, I think that's his, his channel's name MB HD. HD MB, something like that. And, uh, he said that these were the best headphones to, uh, and really, really neutral. They didn't didn't have too much base or too much high end. It was just like really

Marc Matthews: 10:31

neutral. Yeah. The great man, exact same ones I'm wearing here. So, uh, yeah, we go great minds. Think alike. I like that. now it's all your technical headphones there. Definitely. Yeah, man. So yeah, going back to, um, the, the creation and sort of the startup heartbeat hero. My first one is the name, where did the name come from? Um,

Heartbeat Hero: 10:49

so I had a few different names I used to have Gober cuz I also did a comic strip and I kind of com combined those. And then, uh, so Guber was my first, uh, artist name. Then I went to alien seven just cuz it sounded more futuristic and stuff, but then I found out someone else had alien seven, but written out in full worth. So I, I thought up a new one and I was thinking, um, Well, heartbeat sounded really cool cuz you had the beat and the heart, the heart, the love for the music and uh, I'm really into the Avengers and all kinds of superheroes. So hero added slapping hero to the back end of that just was perfect and it was free. The domain name was free. Uh, a lot of the social media things were free for that, which is very important when you pick a name.

Marc Matthews: 11:32

Yeah, definitely. And it, it it's quite nice. It, it nicely transitions into the radio, the, the radio show name as well, which we'll come on through in a minute. So with regards to your music then, so you mentioned, you know, 2010 that you sort of put, put out the music on SoundCloud. Did you have an initial goal for the music or is it just like, um, you're gonna create music and see what happened? So a

Heartbeat Hero: 11:50

friend of mine, so I, so I had the one, my best friend. He, he introduced me to the MIGA and another friend of mine, he, he had a little bit more money, so he was able to buy synthesizers and, uh, and, and mixers and stuff like that. And, uh, I was really intrigued by that. I was, I, I was thinking like, how amazing would it be. that, uh, when I'm retired,, I'm, I'm, I'm gonna be able to afford those synthesizer just, and just make this music in my free time. And then, uh, hopefully one day perform on, on like a, in a small venue. And that was like my dream. Um, but, uh, I was noticing, uh, when I was doing the comic strip that the music I was putting out on SoundCloud was getting more traction than the, uh, comic strips I was putting online. And the comic strips was really stressing me out. Cause I had, I was putting out one once a week and the music just kind of flowed out automatically. And, uh, at one point after five years of doing the comics and also a web comic show where I interviewed other comic artists that was called the web comic show, uh, I just kind of burned out from doing that. And, uh, just said, I'm stopping with that. And just focusing on the music and. That's where I put all my focus on. So the

Marc Matthews: 13:06

comic there, what, what made you, I, when you say comic show, are you, are you actually, are you in a, um, what's the word? Um, cartoonist, could you do the animations? Are you creating

Heartbeat Hero: 13:15

animation so animation? It was a comic. So it was just like a static, uh, like a three panel comic. Um, I did, I, I have done some animations as well, uh, but that takes up way, way too much time. And to promote the comic, I started the web comic show, just like

Marc Matthews: 13:33

Harvey hear radio. It makes sense. It makes sense. It's uh, it's one of the strategies to supply kind of like, um, inside the mix was born. Really? Exactly. Cuz I like music promote music, so yeah, it makes total sense. And I like that

Heartbeat Hero: 13:44

you picked, you picked what you, what you're interested in. I, I I'll, we maybe can go into that more, but if, if you wanna start a podcast, make sure you, you do it. What you're interested in. uh, if you don't have the love and the passion for it, it's gonna, it's not gonna be able to continue on a long term

Marc Matthews: 13:58

basis, uh, a hundred percent mate, a hundred percent, cuz there are gonna be times, um, where you, um, your enthusiasm fluctuates and if, if you're not interested in it and you're in one of those troughs where you kind of, you haven't got that motivation it's it's yeah. You're setting yourself up to fail really. Um, and this kind of segues nicely into the next part, which is, uh, tell our audience about heartbeat hero radio. So just give a description of it and then we'll dig into how it all, how it all runs and whatnot. Yeah.

Heartbeat Hero: 14:26

So heartbeat hero radio is a, a podcast, but also a live streaming show on Twitch, twitch.tv/heartbeat hero. And it's most it's once a month because my schedule, um, well, I, I wanted to schedule where I had at least three, uh, three weekends with my family that I, that I wasn't doing only, uh, this podcast and losing, uh, being in touch with my family and having the freedom. planning the podcast also, uh, on dates that are available for me. And, uh, let's see, uh, I kind of lost track of thought there so, uh, but it, uh, I started three years ago. Um, it was just at that moment, uh, an audio podcast. Uh, I was just planning on putting it on SoundCloud, actually, uh, me being 10 years on SoundCloud and finally achieving a certain threshold. They, um, they invited me, uh, what was that? I can't remember what it was exactly, but although that's something else, that's a repost. I'll talk more about that later where you can actually publish tracks. Um, uh, so at one point, uh, my SoundCloud was filled up. You have like a maximum amount of, of minutes. You could put your music on. And once I re reached that amount, I had to pay money to put my music on SoundCloud, but upgrading meant I could put a full podcast onto SoundCloud and that gave me the opportu. To create the podcast as well. So it was kind of like slowly building up my music and then finally being able to, uh, yeah, kind of putting down the money so I could continue my hobby and it gave me a new opportunity to create the show. So I started out just having the audio show, uh, streaming it through Twitch, um, getting so people could like, uh, so I could get some feedback, just the Twitch. Chat's really nice. So we can get feedback on the music, what people like, what people don't like. Um, and, uh, that was three years ago and it's been growing ever since. And, uh, I love doing it. That's is that a short answer?

Marc Matthews: 16:27

no, that's brilliant. No, no, that's great. So for the audience, it is, uh, so it's a live live event, isn't it? Um, and you can, you can join in the chat. Um, and what's really great about it is you're, you're, you're sort of not static sat. There are you I've, I've seen you live when you're doing it and you're moving about, you're getting involved with the music and stuff, and it's quite a visual experience as well as an audio experience, which is great. And you also have interview you, so you have, um, Individuals come onto the show, cuz I've been on there. Uh, I've been privileged to be on there on a Halloween show and there was a, a quiz which was good fun. So you, you kind of mix it up with a different content as well. So with regard to that, um, mix it up with content. Do you think that's what keeps it fresh and interesting rather than just doing just music all the time?

Heartbeat Hero: 17:08

Yes, definitely. And what I was, I was noticing from the first times I was doing, I was getting burnt out after two hours of just playing music. So what I do now, I've this, like, this is the format. The first, uh, 30 minutes is me interacting with the chat, uh, dancing to the music and like picking some of the best tracks and putting it up front in the show. Then I have like a little break for myself. I do a half hour of a pre-recorded show just to give myself enough time to go downstairs, have a drink, walk around. Otherwise I'm sitting for three and a half hours in a chair and that kills my back. And after that I do like a half hour interview. And, uh, what I learned from the we comic show was that the interviews of two hours long, they were, they were, they were boring me. It was just too long. of this, the same thing. And I really needed that. Ask a few questions and then, um, and then, and then go to music that really helped me in, um, because I'm, I'm an introvert. So it talk, it takes a lot of energy out of me to be social. So that's why the, the, the show was perfect. So, and after the, uh, interview, we go straight to the trivia, which is about an hour and we change it up a bit. Cuz we have eighties, nineties, zeros, and tens questions. We also have a pub quiz question. We I'm I'm, I'm constantly changing it up, making it better. And then I do, uh, another hour of music. Uh, and then we all chat backstage. So people that are in the chat can actually come and join in if they're not afraid to, because a lot of people are introverts and don't want, want to interact with other human beings.

Marc Matthews: 18:40

yeah. Yeah. It takes a lot out of you, doesn't it? Um, I mean, I've, I've come to realize that and uh, it was a. Few months ago, I saw a dive in, I thought, you know what, I'm just gonna have to embrace it now and just put my face out there and, and then see what happens now. I do like Instagram lives and stuff. And, uh, are you

Heartbeat Hero: 18:56

introverted as well or, uh, you kinda in

Marc Matthews: 18:59

between? I, I think I'm kind of in between, you know, um, I'm in a group,

Heartbeat Hero: 19:03

what, in a group, are you like the main person that's telling the group everything to do? Or are you like more laid back? And

Marc Matthews: 19:09

I dunno, I'm probably minder at the top there. So maybe I'm less introverts. Yeah, probably, uh, I know. I mean, I've been in banded playing live and, and standing at the front with the guitar and having people. Yeah. Maybe that's played up. Yeah. Probably the opposite

Heartbeat Hero: 19:26

way. I see you. Do you do kind of relate to the introverts where's that coming from? Cause I can't see it. See it in your face.

Marc Matthews: 19:32

Yeah. I, I don't know. I think there's always, maybe it's a case of like, it's one of those ones where you put yourself out there. Um, as a way of, I don't know, maybe it's as long as

Heartbeat Hero: 19:43

you're in, as long as you're in control, I think then you, yeah.

Marc Matthews: 19:46

Yeah. I think that's probably probably what it is. I think there is an element of that, and I think that comes out in for this, this, this kind of relates quite well to this. So, um, Google, this is slight tangent, but they have, for whatever reason suspended my account on, on Friday. And I don't know why. Um, so this is my business account cuz they didn't meet their guidelines. Um, and I emailed, um, appealing it, but it's out of my control and I find that extremely frustrating that there is nothing that I can do about that. So when these things happen, um, if that is linked to being an introvert, then I would say yes. Um, certainly, um, when something is out of my control or I dunno a piece of software doesn't work or something along those lines. Um, something outta my control. I find that extremely frustrating. And I wanna find a way to fix it rather than just sit there.

Heartbeat Hero: 20:31

So you are like, like, uh, when you're in a group, you are kind of the head guy, but, uh, is that only with people that you know really well or can that also be, yeah,

Marc Matthews: 20:40

that, that took a lot of work. So with, with regards to that, um, it's only now I think if it, if you would've spoken to me sort of like 10, 15 years ago, if I was in a group of people, I probably wouldn't have said a great deal. I would've let somebody else. And also, you know, in those situations where you, you, you go somewhere new or you meet a new group of people, or I DT know a new job or something, and it gets to that lunchtime or dinner time, and that people are sat at tables and then you don't know anyone and it's that, okay. I need to like, join a group here, or I'm gonna be sat on my own probably 10, 15 years ago. I would've probably. Probably just sat on my own, but now I think I've, it is taken a lot out of me to do it, but I'm more inclined to go over and say, Hey, do you mind if I take a seat with you guys? Or where are you going for lunch? And it took a lot of work to get to that stage. So, um, and I think with the public speaking as well, I'm a trained teacher. Um, so I'm used to talking in front of people, but that took a lot out me. I remember in my teens, I'd be petrified of standing in front of someone and talking. Absolutely. So what, what

Heartbeat Hero: 21:39

kind of, what kind of, uh, curriculum do you.

Marc Matthews: 21:42

Uh, music. Oh, cool. I did. I did. I don't anymore. Uh, I got out of the teaching games. It was, um, it's, uh, it's great. It's very rewarding, but it's a lot of hard work. Very, very, I, I

Heartbeat Hero: 21:51

watched one of your, uh, in Instagram things and I think, I think it was you saying that sometimes you'll like, it's like talking into a screen, like, like a bunch of blank faces.

Marc Matthews: 22:02

it is exactly that like, cuz when I do the Instagram lives, I'm just talking, it's like I'm talking at myself. Um, but a lot of the times it's like that when you're teaching, they just kind of look at you like that. Cuz they probably had another four hours worth of someone just talk, oh my God. Talking at them, you know? Um, but it's an interesting topic, isn't it? Um, um, being extrovert an introvert. Cause I think depending on the situation, I probably fluctuate in between the two, depending on where I'm at. I think with the podcast, the music and social media. That's your passion man. Yeah. Yeah. It gives me and I'm cuz you're passionate about it and I'm more inclined to just want to, um, to do it. Whereas if it's something I'm a bit unsure of or my, my knowledge is a bit sketchy. I'll probably take a backseat. um, what do you, what about yourself in social situations? If you're in a group of people, do you find yourself the instigator or so

Heartbeat Hero: 22:47

I'm not good in a, in a if, if there are a lot of alpha male figures, that's not gonna work for me cuz I generally don't gel well with them. Um, but uh, I can connect with people really quickly because I've moved so much. So I've, I'm, I'm really good at adapting to new

Marc Matthews: 23:03

situations. Yes. I think that's a fantastic, uh, point, um, because it probably much like that. So you, you mentioned there about moving. I was pretty much static in my hometown to about my mid twenties and I moved to different cities and got to meet different people and only having done that now or more inclined to actually reach out and start talking to people that I don't know. Um, so that, that definitely does help. Um, what about with regard to like slight tangent now we'll come back to the radio show in a minute with regard to like the online Sy wave community. Um, do you find that helps as well? Cuz people are extremely helpful, supportive and talkative. And I, I talk to a new person almost every other day, um, about that's exactly what I

Heartbeat Hero: 23:43

wanted to add. People are really, um, appreciative and kind, and not, not everybody in the scene, but generally speaking, most people are really kind and we're all out to do the same thing. It's create more awareness for our music. And it's just one, uh, one big goal for us, us all.

Marc Matthews: 24:01

Yeah. Yeah. And the, and the, the heartbeat here, a radio show. So certainly helps you with regards to your. So you mentioned off air that you've, you've almost hit 500,000 streams on SoundCloud. Yes.

Heartbeat Hero: 24:11

I'm 18,000 off. Um, should be hitting that number in November. And it's like a really big deal. I mean, half a million. It's a great number.

Marc Matthews: 24:19

I, I, in three years, that is, that is

Heartbeat Hero: 24:22

good going no, but it's not three years. I've been posting since 2010 and I had zero, zero views and I was like ecstatic over the wall. Happy if I got a hundred views on one track and it took me forever to get over that. And once I got over a thousand, I was really happy. And now it's half a million, I mean, in between it didn't even matter

Marc Matthews: 24:45

anymore. Yeah. Yeah. Do you, when you release on SoundCloud now, do you have like an average, do you have an expected number of streams that you would hit with a release? Well, I definitely have

Heartbeat Hero: 24:55

disappointments yeah.

Marc Matthews: 24:58

Yeah.

Heartbeat Hero: 24:59

I have that as well. So let's, let's just have, I'm gonna have a quick look, uh, an expected if it hits a, if it hits 1,050 likes, then I put it on, on Spotify. So then I know it's just a good track. And, uh, so my late this track is doing actually really well. It's has 97 or 79 likes and 1000 over 1000, uh, views. And it's 15 days ago. So that, that one is doing really well. But I also have tracks like, uh, let's see one, the breakfast club, it only got 264. But, but back in the day, I would've been really happy with

Marc Matthews: 25:35

that. Yeah. I like that work. Play that you put it on SoundCloud first, like an acid test before you put it onto Spotify. Yeah. Hmm. But I never considered doing that. I think that's a good way to do it. I do put like demos and like, uh, rough masters on there and get, and share it with people to, to get feedback. But I never actually considered sticking out SoundCloud first. Do you think though, with the go, I dunno how the SoundCloud algorithm works. Do you think that if you, is there potential that you could have a really good song, but because SoundCloud's algorithms not picked it up, do you think you could there's potential, you could miss out on putting out on another

Heartbeat Hero: 26:08

platform? Yeah. Sometimes. Well, that's, that's where you bring out an album on band camp and hope that people will pick up that one track that they'd, haven't heard on SoundCloud, cuz it wasn't in the right algorithm or you put it on. I mean you gotta put it everywhere. You gotta put it on Instagram TikTok. You gotta put it every. eventually if you believe in it.

Marc Matthews: 26:25

Yeah. Yeah. I totally agree. And it's a, it's a, um, it's a time consum consuming process, but it's interesting. You mentioned there about, uh, putting, put it on a SoundCloud first, um, and content cuz you, you put out a fair amount of content on, on social media. So it's quite a mixed variety as well. Um, and I dunno if you've experienced this, uh, but this is one of my bug bears with, with, uh, with social medias is bit. So you put something, I put something out on YouTube, for example, and I might get a few hundred views, but I put something out. Um, I put a, a post out yesterday and it's just like a music meme and it got about 800 views within the first hour. Um, which is the frustrating part of it. Well, that's all

Heartbeat Hero: 27:04

about the algorithm there, there,

Marc Matthews: 27:05

uh, it is. Yeah. Do you find that happens a lot with your content? Is there particular content that you put out that is more engaging than others than

Heartbeat Hero: 27:13

other? Yeah, if it's a stupid Instagram video where I'm just dumb, it'll do better than all other stuff I put out. That's just a fact. Yeah. But it's helping. I mean, it's bringing in new viewers, it's, it's bringing new people in that were normally never, uh,

Marc Matthews: 27:27

consider your content. Yeah. And that is something that I've embraced these past couple weeks. And I thought, cuz I've had a few, I've listened to podcasts and I've spoken to other other engineers and you look at what other people are doing. And I don't wanna mirror what everyone else is doing, but I'm thinking, you know what? They're putting out this content that is, I dunno, nine, 10 seconds. And it is pretty, pretty stupid stuff that they're doing, but they're getting this crazy engagement. I'm thinking, well, I'm just gonna have to jump on this bandwagon and see if it works.

Heartbeat Hero: 27:51

I mean, we're all human and we just wanna see human things from each other. Cuz if it's, we're only hearing the music, that's not, for me, it's not fun. And you just wanna see the human side of somebody. Sometimes it doesn't work for everybody cuz some people just wanna stay in the darkness. Don't show their face. I mean that that's like a whole different niche, uh, thing you can do. But I choose just to be out there and, and use my personality to try to get people. Yeah.

Marc Matthews: 28:40

Do you think it's incredibly hard then? Like if you, if you are, I dunno about you, but if you're scrolling through social media, I try not to do it too much cuz it's I find it's a time suck. Um, but if you see a video, I think it's, it takes quite a lot for music video. If it's just a video with music, for me to stop and listen to it, unless I know the individual and I know the artist and I'm connected to them. Well, there, there,

Heartbeat Hero: 29:01

there's your first thing you want to connect to them. So you make a dumb few dumb videos connect, then you're connected. and then you hook'em in with a, with a

Marc Matthews: 29:08

track. Yeah, yeah. You for the audience I'm, I'm throwing out my fishing rod there and you reel them in sort of the, but it's tough, isn't it? It's I had this conversation with, uh, someone the other day about how, um, just putting your face out there and just getting over it and. Which is the

Heartbeat Hero: 29:21

weeks it's, it's only tough if, if, if, if it depends on what you want from it, I mean, if you're having a good time doing it, then it's not tough because you're just having a good time. You don't have any expectations. You don't wanna make a million dollars. You're not, uh, I think a lot of people want to be dependent on generating income from music so that they don't don't have to work anymore. And that's, that's kind of the fr that's the frustrating part. Just the perspective on what, why you're doing it.

Marc Matthews: 29:45

Yeah. I, I, I definitely agree with that. I definitely. So what I I'm aware of time. Cause we haven't even got onto the music side of things yet. And we're half an hour in told you this would happen.

Heartbeat Hero: 29:55

Um, I have all day . I don't know

Marc Matthews: 29:58

if you have all day though. I, I do, but what's the temperature like where you are at the moment. I'm sweating

Heartbeat Hero: 30:03

my balls off there. Yeah. But I'm pretty good. I'm pretty good. Yeah. Wanna take a

Marc Matthews: 30:06

break? We can take a break if you want. Nah, no. We'll press on unless it gets too much. Just let me know. And we we'll we'll have a, we'll have a quick break. I'm great. I'm having

Heartbeat Hero: 30:13

a good time. I got my root here, so I'm good. I'm gonna I'll spritz myself another time. Here we go.

Marc Matthews: 30:21

I did have one of those in here, but I, I got rid of it. It was on my, my pop plant that was in the corner. Otherwise

Heartbeat Hero: 30:27

we'll jump like Jim care in the shower and cool.

Marc Matthews: 30:31

ah, I love the Jim Kerry references, man. ACE Ventura. What a film I have I

Heartbeat Hero: 30:35

have on my show. I say, uh, I now I'm forgetting it. Of course. Uh, Alrighty. Alrighty. Then let's get the show on the road. That is from Jim Carey. The, the all

Marc Matthews: 30:43

righty then. Yeah. Out of the two, which one's your favorite when nature cool. Are the first one? Uh, the first one. Yeah. Yeah. I totally agree with you that, uh, when nature cool is, is alright, but the first one for me is, uh, is stellar. Yeah, absolutely.

Heartbeat Hero: 30:58

It was just so new for the time. And that second one, I think the storyline just wasn't as good on the second one. Yeah.

Marc Matthews: 31:04

Yeah. And I always remember the first one for the scene, um, where he goes to visit his friend, new England clam C was the, was the password. And he goes into where, like, it's a, uh, it's a cannibal corpse concert and he's there and they're playing. I dunno if you remember that bit. He's the first one. Yeah, that's in the first one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's that cannibal Corps are playing on stage. Um, once again, I will send you the link to this and we, so who is, I

Heartbeat Hero: 31:25

don't know who cannibal

Marc Matthews: 31:26

Corps is. Oh, my bad, my bad. Um, they're basically, they are a, a death metal band. Um oh.

Heartbeat Hero: 31:32

And, but they weren't playing death metal during that during yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. They were, yeah. It was like really relaxing music when he was there. Right.

Marc Matthews: 31:40

When he, oh, no, I need to send you this link. You'll see what I mean. I'll send it to you. But my last question, before we move on to your music side of things is heartbeat here, a radio. So you mentioned earlier that, uh, it helps with regard to the promotion of your music. um, can you tell us a bit more about that? Um, and the impact it's had on your music itself and the, and the releases that you've pass out?

Heartbeat Hero: 32:01

Well, the, when, when, when I started at SoundCloud to get people, to listen to your track, 100 times, the thing you gotta do is find people that have the same amount of followers. You have the same type of music. You have music that you enjoy.. So those three things are really key and then ask them after if you've listened to their music and commented on their music with positive feedback, ask 'em, if they'll listen to your track, because if you listen to their music, you give them negative feedback. I can a hundred percent tell you they're gonna have negative feedback for you as well. And that's the way I, I kind of started building it up and now, uh, because of this show, it works for me. So I play other people's music. I contact them, um, behind the scenes on Instagram or Twitter. And tell them that I've played their track because a lot of times I've asked them if I could play their track and then, um, they just forget about it. And then I ask them if they would, uh, please listen to the show and then they listen to the show, they really enjoy it. And then they promote the show by reposting. It that's that, and that just is accelerating the growth of it. Plus the fact Ari was on SoundCloud for 10 years. So I'm pretty much in that algorithm. So every time I release a show, it gets put into the uploads. That's a three day, uh, algorithm where they really promote your show. And if it gets in there, then the, the number always, uh, goes up above 800, I think

Marc Matthews: 33:25

for me. Oh, wow. Yeah. How long SoundCloud, this is putting you on the spot. I don't know if you know, but how long has it been a platform? How long has it existed? Were you there during, I think 2005,

Heartbeat Hero: 33:34

2003 something, but I never used it back. It was too complicated. I'm like, oh, you got comment on the specific spot and what, and I have to log it. And I'm like, I don't want

Marc Matthews: 33:43

that. yeah. Yeah. I I'm like that. Anything that, as soon as I, there are too many sort of like brick walls in place, I'm like, nah, this needs to be until you

Heartbeat Hero: 33:52

start seeing the, the, what can work for you. And then, then it will, it starts out and I, and you had to pay for it for it to, to be like a podcast. So that, that kept me off the podcast part as

Marc Matthews: 34:01

well. Would you say then that SoundCloud is your most successful platform? Def yeah, definitely. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Cause on the old Spotify, which were coming to music in a minute, I can see it. It's sort of, you got the thousands of, of, of listens on various songs, but yeah, SoundCloud. And do you find with interaction with other people on sale cloud? Do you get a lot of that as well? I mean, it's quite, I, I mean, to be honest, I don't spend a great deal of time on there. Um, other than listening to other, when people send me links, et cetera, and listen to. um, do you find much, do you get much interaction with other people I'm assuming you do?

Heartbeat Hero: 34:30

Well only, actually only, uh, people that I ask, ask to promote and I'm, I am following some people that repost a lot of synth wave and, uh, they seem to keep on coming back to my channel and reposting my stuff. So in that sense, they are. Uh, but putting a comment down, it's like pretty much of a time commitment. People are pretty committed if they want to. Uh, if they comment on your tracks,

Marc Matthews: 34:50

let's take a quick break from this episode so that I could tell you about free resource that I made for you. It's a PDF checklist that describes what you need to do to properly prepare a mix for mastering. So you've done the hard work and you love your mix yet. Suitably preparing a mix for mastering is often overlooked by musicians resulting in delayed sessions, excessive, back and forth conversation and frustration on both parts. I want to help fix that. So if you want this free resource, just go to www dot synth music, mastering.com. As this checklist will help and guide you to make the mastering processes smooth, transparent, and exciting as possible. So again, the URL is www dot synth music, mastering.com for this free preparing a mix for mastering checklist. Let's get back to the episode. So before we move on to music, though, my final question then is you mentioned about if you're gonna really, if you're gonna start a radio show podcast, uh, you mentioned about being, um, interested and passionate about what it is you are talking about. What other recommendations would you have for someone who's who's gonna start out in this, in this game about, I, I made a whole list. ah, here we

Heartbeat Hero: 35:55

go. Love this. Here we go. So finding the time, um, make sure you have somewhat of a consistent schedule, even if it's only once a year, uh, people love what they can trust and they will become loyal if you do it that way. Uh, we talked about this already. Enjoy the process. Uh, if you don't have, have any fun, it turns into a job and you just gotta make sure you're enjoying what you're playing on the podcast, who you're interviewing and, uh, just figure out what works for you. Uh, if you're finding the, uh, interviews boring, like I, I did just shorten them up and find people you're interested in that really helps, uh, push through the technical difficulties cuz uh, the first show will always have errors. And make sure you don't put yourself down for making errors. Cuz everybody makes mistakes. I make mistakes. Uh, each show will have problems. You just gotta push yourself and get better each time. And I mean, everybody gets better. That's, that's what I'm really seeing on all the podcasts. Um, I play people's tracks, uh, but they're not promoting me sometimes. I feel like I'm playing all these people tracks and they're not promoting me back. I mean, that's okay. Uh, the, the question is, did you like the track and did, or did you play it because of the promotion? Because, uh, if you, if you didn't just don't play that track anymore or give them the benefit of a doubt that they're having a rough time in life and just don't have the time to repost it. Uh, also if nobody's submitting tracks, you can get on the Facebook group of the synt wave Facebook group and, and just ask people to do post, uh, and post, uh, ask people to submit for your show and make sure you put it on all your social medias. Uh, if your show is not growing. Then you are forgetting to market it. Uh, if you're not posting it on all social media platforms, no one will know about it. And then as the final one is, uh, I don't wanna market my show. some people just don't want to do that. Uh, the reality is if you don't market it, then nobody will know about it. Uh, and if you don't care about how many people listen to it, then just embrace that and do whatever you like. You got total freedom. I mean, that, that's also very amazing.

Marc Matthews: 37:53

Yeah. Fantastic. I like all those points. I think the marketing one's key there. Like if it's the whole, like, if the tree falls in the woods, is anyone gonna hear it? You know, like if, um, if you don't market it, how, how is anyone gonna know that you exist? What is your, what is your market? I know you mentioned there about being on various different platforms. Is there one sort of I'm I'm assuming you mean social media? Is there one platform in particular that you find most effective to reaching an, a.

Heartbeat Hero: 38:16

So I have a whole thing about marketing your music. ah, here we

Marc Matthews: 38:19

go. This is brilliant rock on.

Heartbeat Hero: 38:21

All right. So social media is the key. All the social media, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn discord, SoundCloud. Mixcloud no rocks should be interned in promoting your music for free. So, and also start a podcast like this one. Uh, just talk about what you love. Share the music with everyone, you know, friends, family, people, uh, who follow you, ask them to listen to your music and ignore the people that do not like your work. Only be interested in people that like your work have no expectations of anyone you will not know who will like your work. If you feel, uh, one of your tracks is getting some traction focus, all your effort in promoting that one. If you're on SoundCloud, ask other artists, we talked about this already, uh, similar to you, if they would like to listen to your track. And the same goes for Twitter and Instagram, uh, post listen to their music, comment on it, make sure you like it, and don't tell 'em you hate it or give them negative feedback. Uh, also make a cool video, use a bit of money to do ads. This will get some people who have never heard your word before to do it. Uh, don't expect instant results, cuz these are tiny seeds that you're planning. Uh, and you might not be planning them in the right season. Learn what is the right season through trial and error. Now go back to the people that you like your work and ignore the people who not stop trying to get approval from people who you look up to embrace your friends, whoever they are. And the most more important tip is be kind, cuz you never know what somebody's going through. Yeah.

Marc Matthews: 39:51

Fantastic stuff. What I really like there is what you said there about planting seeds, right? So you're planting seeds and I have, I use this analogy all the time and those seeds are gonna grow as time progresses. But what I hadn't considered is the season, um, which I really liked where you said there, so you can plant a seed, but it is at the correct season. Um, which I think is fantastic. Have you got an example? Lets put you on the spot here an example.

Heartbeat Hero: 40:13

No, no that of course, of course. I've I've been strategizing about this for years. so December never, anything in December, everybody's on holiday, everybody's buying their Christmas presents. Don't do December and actually don't do June or July cuz everybody's on vacation. August is also pretty dangerous. So start in September, April's a great month. Everybody's working, uh, getting into the normal grooves to have a lot of time to listen. You, you can just see on my sound cloud charts, December's down, uh, January, February starts going up. Uh, April's like a perfect point. And then it goes down again for the vacation period and then starts up back up. You'll also see this in series, uh, that are on, on TV. They only do series, uh, around September, October, November. And then they, they, they stop the season and it starts back up again around February, uh, March, April. So it it's like a global, uh, season that you can, uh, promote your stuff. The only, the only thing is if you're really small, you can use the seasons to your advantage cuz big people post at the right time of season. But if you're small, you might get that little bit of traction when the big people aren't promoting their stuff.

Marc Matthews: 41:22

Mm yeah. So you sort of making, while they're away from the scene, you're sort of making,

Heartbeat Hero: 41:27

it depends on how big you are and, and what

Marc Matthews: 41:29

market you're in. Yeah, no, I really like that. Um, and those peaks and trough that you mentioned there with regards to the seasons and I notice it myself, cuz I do, I do sort of mix and, and mastering for people. And I know that summer months are quite quiet. And leading up to the summer, I was very busy and it's sort of, it's tailed off a bit and fingers crossed. It picks up a bit after, after the summer. Um, but no I've noticed that myself and another thing I wanna dig into from what you've said there is about advertising. Um, now advertising is a tricky way cuz I, I, I do a bit of advertis admittedly at the moment. The only advertising I do is, um, uh, is retargeting on Facebook using the Facebook pixel. So it's very low, low, low cost. Um, but what I suppose it's quite a difficult question to answer, but what, what target, what advertising strategies have you used that have been

Heartbeat Hero: 42:18

successful? So I I'm not advertising anymore because it takes a lot of time to, um, do the advertising cuz you, uh, actually need to, uh, market, uh, attract to, to, to different. Um, let's say you have different markets and you have to try out. You should. The best way to advertise is, is advertise to each market differently. so, um, I, I don't know a good example because I, I haven't been busy with advertising. Uh, but I have tried it. I just put it on like, uh, Facebook and then I, I paid like, I don't know, 20 years or something. And then just try to get people to my band camp just to get more people in. Um, but I'm not really big into putting a lot of money in cuz I don't have a lot of money to put in, but I, I know it does work, um, where I would probably put my money in now is, uh, YouTube shorts. I would probably advertise on that because that's, uh, really growing and they're putting. The, the algorithm is giving a lot of people. A lot of chances in that spectrum.

Marc Matthews: 43:22

Yeah. I would agree with that. And I've, I've benefited from the YouTube algorithm with shorts. It's very hit or miss. Um, sometimes I'll get like two or three views and then a load of dislikes. I see. I get a lot of dislikes actually on YouTube. Um, nobody get that on another platform. Just ignore em. Yeah. Oh yeah. Focus on likes. Oh, a hundred percent. Somebody just commented on one of them the other day with what? Not even with the, no, a question mark at the end and I was gonna correct the grammar, but I thought, no, I'll just leave it. So I just responded with where , don't give'em a time of day, man. I know, I know. I, I rose to it a bit. They it's they're they're just hooking you in, man. I know. I know. But going back to what you said about shores, um, I've, I've experienced, um, success with that. Like, like I mentioned earlier, it's currently the best

Heartbeat Hero: 44:03

way to market your, your music.

Marc Matthews: 44:05

Yeah. Yeah. Like I, the post I put out yesterday, 800 views. I put one out the day before and it got 1200 views. Um, and it's. 10 seconds. And it was the eighth Ventura one, you know, um, the one about the plane, you know it, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. 1200 views. And, um, I remember putting out a music video, uh, earlier in the year and I don't think that video's got that many views. So, um, shorts for the audience listening. Definitely investigate. I know time is, is, uh, precious commodity, but if you've got a bit time, I definitely have a look into shorts cuz it's um, and I've seen people cause I put a link in there to the podcast and then people jumping over to and listening to the podcast. So no, all really, really, really good stuff. Um, what I wanna dig into a bit more now is the, the actual music. So the music that you release, um, so you've recently released an album called warped metal, um, be being a metalhead myself. I was immediately drawn to this. Do you have it yet?

Heartbeat Hero: 44:59

I'll I'll hook

Marc Matthews: 45:00

you up with a link if you don't have it. Oh, if you could I've I've listened to it, but yeah, that'd be ACE. Thank you very much. So, can you tell our audience a bit about the, the album itself and what to expect from warped metal?

Heartbeat Hero: 45:11

Okay. So let me just pull it up real quick. cause it was a bit of a spur of the moment, like I was, I released, uh, so if I go back a little bit, I've released five or six albums, I think cent wave albums. And I used to just do one a year. So the first one I released was, um, I think 10 tracks and then the second one was 22 and I'm like, this is way too much. So I split up the next year with a, a lighter side synth wave and a darker synth wave. And I did that the year after that as well, but it felt like the dark synth wasn't getting enough tracks on band camp and on and on, on, uh, Spotify. So I kind of held off on releasing any dark tracks. And then I met this guy, uh, mark, uh, delight, who has a Twitch podcast, who I interviewed yesterday and, uh, He was like, uh, yeah, you sent me three songs, but they're not on band camp. So I'm like, okay, well I could put those three on band camp and have some remixes that I can put on. And this track didn't do too well, but it is dark since, so all those tracks and some, some collaborations I got were put in there. So they all, there are also a lot of tracks that are, uh, on other albums, but they didn't get at the time of day because they were like too far into the other albums. Um, a lot of collaborations. Um, we are Magonia I think, you know, are pretty big Sy wave band. I did reading

Marc Matthews: 46:32

for that. Yeah. Interview interview them on episode four, the podcast. Oh,

Heartbeat Hero: 46:35

wow. They're French. They, they speak, do they speak pretty good English or

Marc Matthews: 46:38

yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, Frank and Louie, um, they, they root really good English. Um, that music is, is so good. So heavy. Yes. Um, and it appeals to my metal side. I love it. Yes.

Heartbeat Hero: 46:50

Yeah. So, uh, people might also wonder why I have a metal side because I'd also do pretty light. Synth wave and dreamy and maybe even romantic. Um, but, uh, my best friend is, is a metalhead. So he's always introducing me to new stuff. And that's why I'm he, he, he makes me listen to metal and I make him listen to synth wave, and then we just kind of riff off of that. Yeah, exactly. Um, so we are Magonia Huber. I don't know if you ever heard of him. He's also French. Uh, also a really cool, uh, artist. I did a remix for him and, um, I have 1, 2, 3 tracks with embers, Larry. He was on the show yesterday as well. Uh, Larry Miller is a very talented artist. Um, also vocalist and we created some, uh, music which are more rock oriented, synth wave tracks, and it's kind of a combination between muse and the Pesh mode.

Marc Matthews: 47:46

Oh, wow.

Heartbeat Hero: 47:47

That sounds great. Yeah. So the ER stuff is really cool. I also have remix out, which I did. Uh, it's more dance synth wave. All, but also with the metal side is called folding space around me by a title cannon. He created the track with embers, and then I did a remix on that and it's like really hard hitting, uh, it's a second, second, uh, song on the track. You should definitely check that out. I, I put out a video on YouTube, uh, which is exploding at the moment. Um, it, it started out like with 2000 fus, that's like more views than I've ever had on any track. Uh, it has, it does have the combination with transformers. So it's a really popular IP that I used, uh, to make that popular, but just the track and the video fit so perfectly. Uh, I also call collaborated with Ross AK sequenza, he's an Irishman from Spain. Uh, we do more on the electronic side. I feel that RO Ross has more of a grip of making a track. That's more danceable. And I also do, uh, enjoy doing remixes for people that hardly have any followers hoping to get them more exposure. Um, I also feel that there's less pressure. If, if I create a, um, a remix for someone that's really big. Then I feel more pressure than somebody that that's really small, which I can help out more. Um, so, uh, and I created a remix for you, man. That's that was also a great opportunity, a wonderful voice. And I love the baseline that you put in that, in that track. And, uh, I, I was expecting more from that track actually. I mean, I was, I love that track. Yeah. I

Marc Matthews: 49:15

look at my, my stats and it's its it gets regular listens. Um, and I, I love it. It's a great song. It's a great song. Somebody dunno if I ever sent you the link, but somebody created a music video for it. Did I ever send that to you?

Heartbeat Hero: 49:27

Uh, please do again. I can't. I think I can. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. That I, that was Moreo Gaia. He, he does a lot of videos for me and it was, uh, the, the video clip was from one of the greatest love stories of all time. The notebook.

Marc Matthews: 49:41

Yep. Yep. Yep. That's it? Yeah, that was it. No, I, once again, I think it is, um, it's, it's a very underplayed song. Um, Which is

Heartbeat Hero: 49:50

a shade and J and just, and just one, one more thing on working together with people. I also have, uh, uh, my best friend and kids are also featured in my music, uh, the track aliens in the matrix, which is a really dark, uh, track, which is also a more metal as well available on band camp. Uh, my best friend does the intro voice. My daughter did the voice over of Newt and my son screamed as the high pitch scream that you can hear in it. So, uh, and, and, and, uh, lately my wife helped me, uh, name my latest track. Never stopped loving. So, uh, that's really cool.

Marc Matthews: 50:20

Yeah. That's a great family effort on that one. Yeah, yeah,

Heartbeat Hero: 50:23

yeah. I'm trying to get everybody involved.

Marc Matthews: 50:25

Yeah, that's amazing. So wared metal, a lot of remixes. I'm gonna come onto the remix side of things in a minute. Um, but what a quick question for. He's obviously, uh, there is, it's a darker, it's a heavier sound. When I listen to the first track sort of like God's of fire immediately, I was thinking like symphonic metal, um, sort of Springs to mind

Heartbeat Hero: 50:44

that was, uh, inspired by, uh, the going to, uh, Ramstein. Yeah. Yeah. I, that

Marc Matthews: 50:49

was made a few nights after that. I think I remember a post or something along those lines where you said that you were writing or was a comment in, um, the Sy way family greet, where you were inspired to write off the back of that. And I can certainly hear it, um, with regards to your production of synth wave and then doing cuz there are metal guitars, you got heavily distorted guitars and you got those drum. Did you, were there any challenges you encountered? Is it something that's quite new to you or is it something that you've been working on for a while with regards to like the metal

Heartbeat Hero: 51:16

production? Well, I finally invested in a great plugin called uh, can you remember what, uh, shredded, I think shred not familiar. Shredded. And they have, I think the Jupiter, uh, is, is the one, the one plug cause they have different guitars. Um, they have the Stratos, they have the I'm looking at legacy, whatever, what they got, all let see what they got here. Um, details this, this really boring radio. Now , you're looking for stuff, but it's really important because this, I mean, it, it, it, it felt, it feels real. I mean, to an extent, I mean, it's, it's pretty, uh, tight, but, um, I can't find it it's, but it's, it's one of the, uh, shred edge, um, plugins. So they have like a through contact. You can, you can use, you can load it up. And then, um, I use that for. and literally the rest of the stuff that I used for that track I already had. So, oh, amazing.

Marc Matthews: 52:17

Did, did you sort of like adapted quite well? What about the mixing process? Cuz it's did you find it was quite, quite easy to do or was it quite challenging? Cause it's different Sonic escapee in a way. Yeah,

Heartbeat Hero: 52:28

that that's one problem I have I'm I do. I just restart every time I don't use like a fixed template and that, that sometimes can, like, you can have different Sonic sounds coming from each different track and uh, they're not like all on the same level and, uh, it would be better to have everything on the same level, but I'm, I'm okay with that. I'm not nitpicky on things have to be perfect. Yeah.

Marc Matthews: 52:53

Yeah. And I think it's creators if we were, um, to that point, you cuz you're quite prolific with your output of releasing music. I think it would. Yeah.

Heartbeat Hero: 53:01

They told me to slow down, uh, in a few forms. really

Marc Matthews: 53:06

no.

Heartbeat Hero: 53:09

Yeah. And I did, I literally did. Cuz I've had a lot of stuff I haven't posted

Marc Matthews: 53:12

yet. really, I'm jealous.

Heartbeat Hero: 53:15

I'm like going okay. It's summer. I'll I'll

Marc Matthews: 53:16

I'll slow down. yeah, I think I was trying to, to Zach zag vortex. Um, so his interview comes out on Tuesday, but he was saying that he's got, um, releases every month now leading up and I think his next February, he said, and he's got it all in the bag already to go it's it's the episode is like a BA class in marketing. Cause the guy is he's bossing it on pan band camp. He's absolute. Yeah. Absolute wizard on band camp.

Heartbeat Hero: 53:40

I have, I have about 250 tracks on SoundCloud, so I'm banging out. Yeah.

Marc Matthews: 53:46

I didn't really shut that many. That's amazing.

Heartbeat Hero: 53:49

There's some, you can hear the difference between the older tracks and the new ones.

Marc Matthews: 53:52

Yeah. Yeah. I'm gonna go, I'm gonna dive in and have a listen and um, it'd be interesting to hear. So what I wanna do is just before we, we, cuz I'm aware of time again, wrap things up. I just wanna touch on the remix side of things. So you mentioned now about the, we are Magone remix that you did and you've done a remix for myself. You work with sequenza as well. Sequenza has done a remix for me, which was amazing, like the Atal disco remix. Um, how do you find that? Do, do you approach them? Did they approach you? Uh, sequenza

Heartbeat Hero: 54:17

like was helping me out. He was like, yeah, I'll make a remix for you. Help me out so much with the web comic show, I'll make a remix for you. And that's how that went, went down and then it, it, it worked out and it was a good result. So we, we continue making music the same goes with embers. Uh, I think I heard his, one of his tracks on SoundCloud. Just, I just gave him a message. Like, I really like a track. I really love to do remix. Is it possible that you send me the stems? Um, some, sometimes people don't respond. Um, did I actually, I had a whole point about, uh, re royalty splits that was about the royalty splits. Do we still have time for that remix remixes and royalty splits?

Marc Matthews: 54:53

That was gonna be my next question was the royalty split side.

Heartbeat Hero: 54:55

Okay. So we'll get to that. Uh, so, uh, just yeah, just hitting people up and, uh, yeah, again, I, I do enjoy more hitting people up that have like a really low. um, count, cuz I don't feel any pressure and creatively that helps me. What way more?

Marc Matthews: 55:11

What is the biggest challenge? Uh, with remixing?

Heartbeat Hero: 55:14

Uh, if, I mean the biggest challenge is if the remix doesn't work, I just don't respond. It's kind of, I don't know doesn't feel right. But I also, I some sometimes not responding people. I find personally, if someone doesn't respond, I'd rather have that than they give me the bad news so I can like always have hope. Well, maybe they just don't have the time anymore.

Marc Matthews: 55:37

yeah. Like no news is good news in a way.

Heartbeat Hero: 55:39

Yeah. I kind of feel that that that's the, the best way to, uh, communicate that or not communicate

Marc Matthews: 55:47

that yeah. Or, or, or lack of yeah. A royalty splits then. So you mentioned, I know you mentioned this off air, you wanted to have a quick chat about royalty splits. Um, what is your process with regards to this then? How, how do you work? The royalty splits on AMO?

Heartbeat Hero: 55:59

Um, so for me it it's, it's 50, 50 it's if, if you add like. One note to attract for me, it's 50 50, cuz that new track is, is something I would never have been, have been, been able to create. So for me it's 50 50, but not everybody's that way. I have people that will not allow me to create a remix. Uh, I have people that say they want a hundred percent ownership of that remix. Uh, then I people that agree with the 50% and then with you, I've, I've split it three ways. Um, and then I have people that don't even want anything cuz it's just too much of a hassle cuz they have to gimme their personal information and they just don't want to touch that part of the thing. Um, but the split only became available for me for the last few year. For years, once you hit like I think a hundred thousand, uh, views on SoundCloud, then you get an invite to be part of that process. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know if it's still that way, but uh, at that time, um, and it's just, uh, uploading the image. You upload the wave file. Um, you have a lot of different, uh, things you, you know, sh Shaza where you press a button and that's with the SoundCloud repost. They have that in there. Um, I believe it's also shows up on TikTok and also, or not on TikTok, but on Instagram. So if you search for a music element, then you can add that to your TikTok post, uh, sorry. Uh, Instagram, ah, man, so many things. And, um, yeah, so I mean, there, I, I do get, if, if people don't let me make their music and I also get, if people want a hundred percent of their work, I mean, if they're really big, they can probably do that because I would just be glad enough to have that exposure. Yeah. So I, yeah, that, that's, that's pretty much. What, what the different things are that I encountered. You

Marc Matthews: 57:51

mentioned there about SoundCloud. Do you, SoundCloud is like you, you are aggregated then do you upload to SoundCloud and then SoundCloud distributes to the various music platforms? Do they offer that as a service? I think they, uh,

Heartbeat Hero: 58:01

yes they do, but it, it is a different, the repost is a different service. It's not, it, it can be, uh, connected to your SoundCloud, but, uh, uh, that's an

Marc Matthews: 58:12

option. Yeah. I mean, remixes is something I'd like to get more. It it's a time commitment as well. It's one of those ones where I feel like I was doing someone did service. If I said I could do it. And then I, I was lacking the time. How, on average with the remix, how long would you say it takes for you to, to complete a remix do or, yeah, answer that one first. How long would it take for you to complete a remix? Uh, uh, one long night, one long that's fair play, fair play. And my next question was gonna. Have you ever started a remix got so far through and thought, you know what, this isn't working. Um, how do you approach that situation with the, um, it just happens is that yeah. Do do you message them and just say, you know what, I've given it a go. No, because

Heartbeat Hero: 58:53

I have, and this is like, um, I, I have done two years over a remix. I remixed it three times and the third one was perfect. I just kept coming, coming back to me. It kept pulling me back and eventually I hit it. So, so saying to someone it's just not working. I mean, if they message me, how is it going? I will say, well, it just didn't work. I mean, if, if they like really want the feedback, then I'll give it to them, but I'm not gonna do it out of that day. Yeah. I don't know. It doesn't feel totally correct, but it's the way I would prefer to be. That's how I, I like, I would, I try to communicate with people the way I like to be communicated. Yeah, I think

Marc Matthews: 59:31

it's a good life lesson. Really? Isn't it it's like treat others how you like to be treated. And I think communication comes into that as well. And it goes back to what you said earlier about posting comments and stuff. Like if you're positive, that will be then reciprocated. If you're negative then. Yeah. Bad news travels, unfortunately further than, than goodness. exactly in a, in a world that we live in. Unfortunately. Um, so what I'd like to do now is I know there's probably a lot more that we could continue chatting chat about. So we'll probably it be good to get you on again next year. um, what does the future hold for you? Uh, as an artist and the radio show? What have we got coming up? So

Heartbeat Hero: 1:00:05

for the radio show, let's just pull up the guest list. Uh, I know you're in it. let's see. Uh, I actually have to look for it now. Um, let me go to my Google blocks and then say guest on the show. Oh, there we go. All right. And future guests. So, um, in September, um, I'm hoping to have somebody on, but I don't, haven't asked them if they've confirmed yet. So I cannot talk about that. Then we have a Halloween show in October. Um, and then November, I have you planned in now. I don't know the dates, so it's, it's always the question. If the person that I, I want to invite is able to come, so that could change last minute. And then December, we always do Christmas show with the retro crew. So that's, uh, since street, Jefferson rift, hot heels and the Joe ozone. So it, it, yeah, it's gonna keep continuing, I want to do a ladies' night in January where I only have females on the show and, uh, yeah. Um, a mass I'm trying to get a massive Berlin on, on the show. Uh, they couldn't make it in August, so hopefully next year have a lot, a lot of people plan for next year. And what about. Uh, music, I create at least three tracks a week. Um, but there's also a lot of crap in there. So once something sounds good, I put it on SoundCloud. You just feel you, after that this many years, you just feel if it's gonna hit or not. And, uh, put it on SoundCloud, if it does more than 50 likes and I'll put it on, uh, on Sam,

Marc Matthews: 1:01:41

Spotify. I like that idea. I might start trialling that myself. Um, I could give that a go. Um, and then try it on that. I think I, somebody said that to me, it is a conversation I had on a podcast probably last year where they said they go for that work for very much similar as yours whereby they, they, they write loads and loads of songs and they sort of like, it's a way of filtering out the crap and then put it on like SoundCloud. And then if it does well, post it onto the platforms and maybe I'm,

Heartbeat Hero: 1:02:06

I, I know that Damocles, he, he, um, has like a committee, a music committee. He sends his music to these specific people and they determine if it's gonna be put on album or not. So love

Marc Matthews: 1:02:15

that idea. A music committee. No, it's good. I, I, I send my tunes out to people for feedback. Um, but I like that. I love the idea of

Heartbeat Hero: 1:02:22

committee. Yeah. Well, the dangerous parts is if you keep on sending your music to people that, uh, that you know, is that there, uh, there's too much of an objectiveness playing into that. Cuz people on SoundCloud are a lot of times people that have never heard my music before.

Marc Matthews: 1:02:38

Yeah. I suppose you, yeah. You've got that almost like positive bias Haven. If you're sending it to people that, you know, cause as much as you wanna critique and they're still gonna be an element of, I know this person, I don't wanna be overly, not that you're gonna be harsh with. I mean, people ask

Heartbeat Hero: 1:02:53

people that I know, ask me what I think of their music and I can't be truly honest. Mm.

Marc Matthews: 1:02:58

Yeah. It's, it's a tricky one. Isn't it? Um, so where can our audience find you online? I know you mentioned all these social media platforms. I'm gonna put all these links in the show notes in the episode notes to this as well.

Heartbeat Hero: 1:03:09

So find, so the main thing I'm on is SoundCloud, uh, sound so soundcloud.com/heartbeat hero. That's also where the show is hosted, but the sh uh, the Harvey hero radio is hosted. You can find it on all podcast app applications. Uh, so Spotify, uh, iTunes pretty much everywhere. And, uh, what I do is I have the Twitch show on, so twitch.tv/heartbeat hero is where the show is live and it's, they they're changing, uh, per one, September, 2022, that it's only gonna be online for seven days. It used to be three weeks. So it'll only be online for seven days. I do download the show, uh, but the audio version goes to SoundCloud a bit later. I do a li bit editing on it because they're like, like yesterday, something went wrong with the show. So I have to edit that out. And, uh, um, I'm mostly on Instagram. So if you hit me up on Instagram, but I'm everywhere, but Instagram I'm there.

Marc Matthews: 1:04:03

The most fantastic stuff. I'll put those, uh, links in the show notes. So, um, Daniel har hero. Huge. Thank you for joining me today. Um, it's been really, really good chatting about the various different. Platforms marketing and podcasts as well. Like I said up, I've not had another podcaster radio host on the show before, so it's really, really cool to have you on. Um, so yeah, a huge thank you for joining me today and for not having the fan on as well. Cause I know it is bloody hot. It is bloody. Can't wait to turn it on to get in the show. Yeah, I'm sweating it. I'm jumping straight at shower after this. So, um, no, it's huge. Thanks. And I will speak to you soon. Thanks for having on mark. Cheers, bud. Thank you for listening to our show. If you like what you're hearing, make sure to rate our show on apple podcasts.