brody’s first major placement came from a sample he didn’t even like. His friend Will sent him a starter, brody flipped it, and UV added drums and sent it to Roddy Ricch in a pack. That became “No Rest” on Feed Tha Streets III.
The Maryland producer has been making music for almost ten years. He started making beats between classes at the University of Maryland, finished a computer science degree as a backup plan, and then moved to Los Angeles to go all in on music.
Most of his work since then has come from the people around him. He has seven tracks on coye‘s WHATEVER HELPS YOU SLEEP AT NIGHT and eight across Yung Pinch‘s last two projects, two artists he now calls close friends. On WAVS, he has 15 packs and 155 samples, a mix of distorted, synth-heavy melodics and drum kits. His “sample this” reels have been taking off on Instagram too, some of them already with over 200k views.
We talked to brody about “No Rest”, working on full projects with his friends, his sound, his drums, what those reels taught him, and what’s next.
MANIA!; NOVA; DREAMLAND; // Sample packs by brody
Q: For people discovering you for the first time, who’s brody? You’re from the DMV, based in LA now. How long have you been making music, what pulled you into production in the first place, and what took you “out west”?
brody: For those who don’t already know me, I’m a music producer from Maryland, currently based in Los Angeles. I’ve been making music for almost 10 years now, but I started taking it more seriously about 7-8 years ago.
I first started making music as a hobby my freshman year of college at University of Maryland, College Park. My roommate at the time (shoutout RMS) had been rapping and making beats for a long time in Ableton, and he was one of the first people I’d seen making beats who wasn’t already a famous producer or celebrity. I started messing around with it for fun and quickly fell in love with it. I’d make beats in between classes or just any moment I found some free time. However, I wasn’t actively pursuing a music career at the start. It was just for fun.
The summer before my junior year, I realized how passionate I was about it. By then I’d switched to FL Studio, and I decided to start taking it more seriously. I spent that whole summer making beats and studying YouTube tutorials. I saw people selling beats and building brands around being a producer, so that’s when I made an Instagram and started posting. By the end of that summer I was pretty set on trying to make music a career possibility, but I still wanted to get my degree as a backup plan.
I was in a pretty rigorous computer science program, so I was always struggling to balance finishing my degree and building my brand as a music producer. Once I graduated, I decided to take some time off to go 100% into music. I always knew LA was the place to be for music, so moving there was always in the back of my mind. Taking a few trips out here is what really pushed me to make it happen.
Q: “No Rest” on Roddy Ricch’s Feed Tha Streets III was your first major placement. Can you take us back to that one? How did the idea come together, how did it reach Roddy, and what did that record change for you?
brody: My friend Will had sent me a starter, which I flipped into the sample for “No Rest”. He sent the sample to UV, who did the drums, and UV sent it in a pack for Roddy. I didn’t even really like the sample at the time and wasn’t sending it out much, so for that to be the one that landed was pretty crazy.
That song definitely opened a ton of doors for me. It’s hard to get your foot in the door in this industry, so having a major placement like that really helped me network and build new connections. It also just gave me the confidence that it’s possible to land records with big artists.
Co-produced by brody
Q: You don’t really do one-off placements that much. You had seven tracks on coye’s Whatever Helps You Sleep At Night, and eight across Yung Pinch’s last two projects. What’s it like working on a full project with an artist instead of just sending beats out? How do those relationships usually start?
brody: I think it’s pretty obvious that most producers want to land huge placements and work with the biggest artists in the world. But I really believe it’s equally important to be building with people around you and people you believe in. That’s definitely the case for artists like Yung Pinch and coye.
Funny enough, I met Pinch through a Twitch live stream. I had always been a fan of his music even before I started producing, so when I saw him doing a music stream, I joined and started sending beats. We’ve been working ever since. I met coye after I moved out to LA. I had been working with Dro Kenji, and coye was always at the sessions either engineering or just hanging out. I already knew his music too, so eventually I started sending him beats to record on as well. Over time we just became good friends, and he’s probably one of my closest collaborators now.
While I’m always sending out for big opportunities, most of that is out of my control, so working with artists that I can consistently get songs with and build with is just as important in my eyes. It also lets me showcase more of my creativity because I have that direct relationship and we can work on building the songs together, as opposed to just sending beats I think Drake will like and hoping he uses one.
Of course, getting big songs will always be a great feeling, but winning and building with artists you have real friendships with will always be undefeated in my opinion.
brody produced seven tracks on coye’s WHATEVER HELPS YOU SLEEP AT NIGHT
brody produced four tracks on Yung Pinch’s DON’T FORGET THE GOOD TIMES
Q: We have to get into the sauce now. You’re a master when it comes to your distinct distorted and synth-driven sound, and that’s a big part of what makes your packs recognizable. What does your processing chain look like on a melodic idea, and are there any VSTs or effects that keep showing up in most of your work?
brody: I’d say the biggest things for my more aggressive samples are sound selection, distortion and effect plugins. A lot of my melodies aren’t that complex when you break them down, but with good sound selection and effects you can really transform simple ideas into crazy ones. Lately I’ve been using a lot of Analog Lab V, Luma, and Serum. I also use a lot of one-shots and some hardware synths.
VOID by brody, his newest pack
Q: Let’s also talk drums. You’ve put out a handful of drum kits alongside your melodic packs, which not every creator does. What are you going for when you build a kit, and is there a technique or VST you swear by that could instantly level up another producer’s drums?
brody: When I started making music I was mostly a drum guy. I always found more enjoyment in doing the drums over the melodies. As I got more into it, I started experimenting more with melodies since I knew it was such a big part of being successful in this industry. But I think I’ll always have the most fun and be the most creative on drums. I’ve always been inspired by hard-hitting, industrial-sounding drums, and I definitely take a lot of inspiration from early Kanye West and Travis Scott albums.
When I thought about finding my sound, I always assumed that meant melodies or samples. But over the years I started to realize that a lot of my sound was derived from out-of-the-box drum selections and interesting bounces. So naturally I just started exporting more of my drum loops and gathering/creating more in that lane. Like my melodic samples, a lot of my drum loops and sounds are run through distortion and whatever weird effect plugins I can find.
KANYE DRUMS; KANYE DRUMS VOL. 2; MEMPHIS DRUMS; // Drum kits by brody
Q: Your “sample this” reels have taken off significantly, a lot of producers seem to love your work judging by the high engagement. What made you start posting your ideas, and what have you learned from that whole process? Has your high engagement led to more sales and new potential placements? Do you have any advice for other producers that want to start posting more of their work and process online?
brody: I’m a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to aesthetics, and I like finding unique ways to showcase the same things that other people are doing. I started posting reels that were really unique to me a couple years ago, but none of them really took off. I kept seeing really simple screen recordings taking off for other creators, so I figured even though it’s not my typical style, I had nothing to lose. This method was clearly working for other producers and I believed my music was high quality, so why shouldn’t it work for me?
So I posted my first reel of just the basic FL Studio screen recording, and of course that’s the one that blew up. It’s close to 200k views now. It definitely led to more sales and helped me connect with some producers that I might’ve never met otherwise.
I think the biggest takeaway I got from that whole process was to not overthink it and to just be consistent. I was posting 1-3 trial reels a day and not thinking about the result. Also, if a reel pops off, keep posting it with slight visual changes because it will likely pop off again.
Q: What’s next for brody? What does the rest of this year look like, and where do you see yourself in three to five years? More artist work, more of your own releases, or building out the sample side?
brody: I’m very excited to finish the year out strong. I’ve got more drops coming in Q4 than at any other point this year, including possibly the biggest song of my career so far, which is exciting.
I’ve spent the whole year working really hard, so it’ll be nice to finally have people hear some of these records. I’m always working on new sample and drum packs, so those will keep dropping as well.
In three to five years I of course hope to keep getting bigger songs and building with artists and producers around me, but I could also see myself getting more involved on the business side of music. With my background in computer science, getting involved in building something for the music industry beyond just the music itself has always intrigued me.
More from the WAVS blog: Hugo on sound selection · Matt Miggz on drums · Yaseer on posting your work
sample brody’s catalog here.
