It is a blessing when remarkable people that we admire make time to speak with us. Those shared interviews are reflections of us both, that’s why it’s imperative that what we ask them matters.
As longtime fans of Red Alert Studios’ award-winning producer/recording artist Sam Rhansum, we spoke with him about his TOP 5 favorite producers. He responded with incredible detail and insight about their influence on his career. Our discussion didn’t stop there.
With this series we wanted to applaud Rhansum for his incredible accomplishments in the music, movie, and television industries, so during our conversation we asked him THIS GOOD QUESTION: What are your TOP 5 favorite placements?
His first answer was, “MTV’s The Real World/Road Rules.
This was my first placement, and it was one of my artist joints called ‘There Goes the Neighborhood’.
It meant the world to me!
It was validation to me. I’d been performing it around Nashville in our shows, and the crowd loved it. But getting on a national show, MTV’s biggest show at the time, was life altering.
The night it aired I had a show with my boy Latino Saint, and I felt on top of the world. People had no idea I walked to that damn concert venue.
I was living in a storage room with just a futon and my studio. Music was all I had and cared about. And when that royalty check, and one for EA Games NFL STREET for the same song, came in I finally got an apartment.” |THIS.
[By M.J. Walker]
“My five favorite placements for my music is a hard one too. Each time I get some kind of a placement deal I’m honored that someone saw that what I create was worthy of repeating, and that they wanted it to be part of what they are creating as well.
The licensing game is one where you have to leave a little bit of your ego behind with an understanding of what the whole industry is. It’s not always about the music you make, or you, or your quality. All of those are important, but the one thing you gotta learn is it’s about where its being put.
Does it fit the scene, or the show, or the game, or the ad? All of that matters, and my career has had way more almosts than successes.
Deals have been made and/or lost in a matter of minutes, and for minor things. If you are quick, versatile and have a good work ethic you just keep stringing along the successes to build that resume. I also had/have agents on my side that believe in my abilities and continued growing diversity. They know what I can do, and often challenge what they think I might be able to do. I’d shout them out in a heartbeat, but I always respect that they do what they do behind the scenes and only make connections when they approve.
They know who they are and that I appreciate them like mad.” – Sam Rhansum
