Tag Archives: Interview

Kristian Dupont (Minimum Noise) – Interview (Part 1)

Posted on by

As you probably recall, last week I reviewed (and was very impressed) by a startup named Minimum Noise. I was lucky enough to interview co-founder Kristian Dupont, and I am extremely grateful for his insight and advice. I have split the interview in two parts, the first is found below and it deals with the company, whereas the second one is the “Music & You” section that you are probably familiar with already if you are a MusicKO regular. It is found here.

Enjoy!

Kristian Dupont

Mr. Kristian Dupont

Full Name: Kristian Dupont

Age: 31

Startup: Minimum Noise

Position: Co-founder

PART I

THE STARTUP

Tell us a little about your startup. How was it conceived? What are its most distinctive features in your opinion?

Sammy (my co-founder) and I have worked with tv-production and video games for many years. We love all things media. Having seen the crowdsourcing model work well for design sites, we wanted to apply this to media production in general. Minimum Noise does this for music. The concept is simple: if you need music production, you post a “project” on Minimum Noise. This project describes your requirements and how much you want to pay. Musicians can then upload mp3’s with sketches of how they would make it. You pick a winner, pay the musician and get the audio material. Continue reading →

Marco (Filtersage) – Interview (Part 2)

Posted on by

This is Part 2 of the interview with Marco from Filtersage. If you haven’t already done so, read Part 1 here.

PART II

MUSIC & YOU

When did you become interested in music? What was the first album or single you ever purchased?

I became more interested in music when I discovered stuff that was more intense than what was in the charts. I think that the first experience in that sense was listening to Joy Division’s ‘Unknown Pleasures’. Continue reading →

Marco (Filtersage) – Interview (Part 1)

Posted on by

I have the pleasure to share with you the insight of Marco from Filtersage, the startup I reviewed recently. As you probably remember, Filtersage is a system that lets you explore the connections between movies and music releases from all through history.

This is part 1 of the interview, about the startup itself.

And click here for Part 2 (“Music & You”).

PART I

THE STARTUP

Tell us a little about your startup. How was it conceived? What are its most distinctive features in your opinion?

The basic idea comes from a very simple observation. When we listen to a new album or watch a movie, we usually connect it to something that we have listened to or watched before. A new album reminds us of an old favorite because of the tune or the sound; or we connect a dvd to something we watched last year because of the story, a particular scene or even the atmosphere. This is what Filtersage is about: connecting new stuff to something we have loved in the past. And it is also about exploring the connections that other users are making, so it’s possible to discover more stuff that might interest us. Filtersage is about memory and knowledge, and this is why we think that the connections you can find here are very strong and highly interesting: because these connections are memory based and knowledge based. We like to say that this happens because there is no is algorithm working, Filtersage is totally ‘human based’. Continue reading →

Nadav Poraz (WhoSampled) – Interview (Part 2)

Posted on by

This is the second part of the interview with Nadav Poraz from WhoSampled.com. If you haven’t done so already, check out Part 1 here.

PART II

MUSIC & YOU

When did you become interested in music? What was the first album or single you ever purchased?

I’ve been a music fan since about the age of 8. I guess the first band I really got into was The Police – I bought all their back-catalogue when I was 10! My taste in music has changed quite dramatically since then though. Continue reading →

Rex Benson – Interview (Part 3)

Posted on by

This is the third and final part of the interview with Rex Benson from Rex Benson Music Group. It deals with songwriting. Remember to read Part 1 (about his company) and Part 2 (entitled “Music & You”).

PART III

SONGWRITING

What goes into writing a song which is set to become a standard? Is that something natural, something you have to chase actively, or a little of both?

To me, Songwriting is a lot like Real Estate…The overall potential value of a song is determined by How great the Idea/title/concept is…In Real Estate they say ‘Location, Location, Location’…In other words you don’t build a dreamhouse in an undesirable setting…Same with a song…Start with a great setting and then you have at least a CHANCE to write a strong and memorable piece…

As to becoming a standard…that depends on so many factors including the audience’s response to the song…whether Radio plays it…the impact of the artist or artists who record it…Many other factors too… Continue reading →

Rex Benson – Interview (Part 2)

Posted on by

This is Part 2 of the interview with Rex Benson of Rex Benson Music Group. Part 1 (about his company) was published yesterday. And Part 3 (about songwriting) can be read here.

PART II

MUSIC & YOU

When did you become interested in music? What was the first album or single you ever purchased?

Grew up in a household where my mom played Big Band Music constantly…Later listened to late 50’s and early 60’s music that my older brother had, but I was still quite young…became more keenly aware when the Beach Boys hit and then when the Beatles arrived, I was mesmerized although I still didn’t really understand how all those sounds were made…I knew there were guitars and drums etc. but had no prior musical training and wasn’t sure what I was hearing…just knew I liked it…

Then at age 16 I heard a new group playing at church…they were comprised of former rock musicians and I was able to sit and watch them play over and over…got further interested and started to understand the process, picked up a guitar and learned to play on their songs and Beatles songs… they were called LOVE SONG…and then I started to write songs… Continue reading →

Rex Benson – Interview (Part 1)

Posted on by

Today I have been lucky enough to interview Mr. Rex Benson from Rex Benson Music Group. Rex kindly answered the questions I sent him about music and songwriting, as well as letting us all know more about his company. He also provided his priceless advice on how to start making inroads into the industry at the end of the interview.

This is Part 1 of the interview (“Corporate Information”).

Part 2 is entitled “Music & You”.

Part 3 is named “Songwriting”.

Enjoy! Continue reading →