AlbySound

Interviews
Jer@SBS
June 12, 2025
0
12 minutes read

Interview With AlbySound

SBS: Welcome to our pages! Whether you’ve been here with us in some way before, or you’re brand-new to the site, it’s probably best to get an introduction from you so that we get everyone on the same page to start. Tell us a little bit about the history of your music, and what’s happening with it lately!?!

AlbySound: I am AlbySound, a rap artist from Rodeo,CA, whose palette of inspiration pans from classic Hip-Hop to current, with a hint of R&B and Afrobeats.

SBS: Let’s talk about the before and after of where you’re currently at. What’s something about the music that you’re making now that you don’t think you could have done five years ago, and what’s something you think you’ll be able to do with your music five years from now that you can’t do today? How have you grown as an artist/band, and what steps do you take to continue your artistic evolution?

AlbySound: Some of my most close friends are top tier lyricists, so I was inspired to be better with the pen. I know some top tier hook writers that should get recognition, so being cool with them made me focus on improving my hook making ability. 2019 was all set up for what I’m dropping this year and beyond. I’ve done some shows, got a successful music video and now I have a team with me.

SBS: If you were to assess the overall health of the independent music scene right now, what would you say? What are the positives and the negatives about the current state of independent music, and what do you feel like artists & bands can do to contribute to the community & help it grow beyond the music being made? If you’re not actively looking to listen to the music of other independent artists/bands, is it really all that fair to expect anyone would listen to yours? How do you help the scene around you grow?

AlbySound: I make music for myself, I don’t go there with the idea of expecting people to like it. I learned that from reading Rick Rubin’s book: The Creative Act. I have a friend that I grew up with that hosts open mics once a month, it really brings the community together; I got features for songs doing those.

SBS: What do you consider to be the biggest accomplishment or achievement you’ve had with your music to-date? How do you personally measure your own success – is that something that even can be measured? Is it awards, accolades, chart position…or is your definition of success based on something entirely different? Should success, however you define it, be something that artists are continually focused on – or is success something that naturally occurs in the course of doing what you love to do?

AlbySound: Success to me is knowing whatever I’m doing is working. I have a loyal fan from a song I dropped in 2019 I believe. The guy is still around engaging with posts and videos. I don’t care about all that other stuff, I just want this to be the thing that pays my bills and rent.

SBS: When you’re working on something brand-new, and something about it just doesn’t feel like it’s coming together the way that you think it should, how do you know when it’s time to give up on it, or how do you know that it’s time to dig in even harder and find a way to make it work? Are there distinct red flags you can hear when something’s not working? What are the signs you look for that tell you to stop forcing the material? What would actually encourage you to keep going with the process instead?

AlbySound: So what I do is once I finish recording the song, the song is done, I’m not redoing anything. The only time I rerecord is if the song isn’t completely done. That way I don’t force anything, and I work with people that coach me through lines anyways.

SBS: One of the points of general consensus in the art of making music, is that we all get our sound from somewhere…we hear what we like, then more often than not, we take tiny pieces of what we love to find our own voice & approach to go on and make music in our own way. Essentially, what I’m saying is that it’s absolutely natural to be inspired by other artists/bands, and almost every artist/band ends up having that inspiration show up in their own work in some way, shape, or form. What the real key is though, is retaining your own organic perspective – you still wanna be original too, right? So how do you go about doing that? Are there artists or bands that you know have been an influence on your style & sound? How were you able to incorporate that influence without becoming too noticeably derivative and still be yourself? Should we embrace and celebrate our influences more than we do? It’s almost like we try not to admit influences exist in the pursuit of being original, but it’s like, bruh…if it’s there, we can hear it. We all borrow something from those that came before us to some extent, don’t we?

AlbySound: I sound like me but I pull from, The Neptunes, crazy ass Kanye, Timbaland, Busta Rhymes, Jay-Z, LL Cool J and Big Sean. I damn near was raised on Do or Die and Twista but I don’t rap nowhere near fast as Twista lol. Adele is one of my favorite singers, as I always mention her.

SBS: Has there ever been a time where you wrote something inside one of your songs…maybe it’s a lyrical line, or maybe it’s a riff of some kind…something that you did, where you surprised yourself? I like to think we all have a moment or two where we can stand back and be amazed by something we created, and appreciate the fact that maybe, just maybe, we exceeded our own expectations of what we thought we could accomplish – you know what I mean? Get as specific as you can so the fans out there know what they should be paying attention to when they hear it – what’s your favorite thing that you’ve written on the inside of one of your songs, and why does this particular piece resonate so much to you?

AlbySound: One of my friends have a line called Crakked Egg, he designs the pieces himself. The reason I mention this is on one of my fav songs I made, I mentioned a line. The song is called “How That Sound Revamp.” The line “A bird’s nest with no eggs in it, cause all my issues had hatch with it, had a crack with it, with no patch to it.” My line means I used to be shy but I’m out of my shell.

SBS: I’ve been having a lot of great debates lately about whether or not everybody that’s making music has the right to be heard…and you’d probably be surprised by how different people seem to feel about this issue. I know where I stand on it, and I think you can all probably get an idea of what my position would be from this free interview we’re doing here & the way we run things at sleepingbagstudios…but regardless, I’m putting this question out there to you, because I’m interested in YOUR perspective. Just because you’ve made a song, does that mean people should listen? If your answer is yes, do your best to explain why you feel that way & why we should make a sincere effort to listen to the music of others. If your answer is no, explain why you feel that way, but also explain why people should still be listening to your music if that’s the case – what would make your music the exception, and not follow the rule? Is there any value to an idea that’s not finished, or a song in its demo stages, or maybe something that’s not recorded in a top-shelf studio or with good equipment – somebody still took the time to make that song to the best of their ability with the means they had to create it – should that be listened to, or not?

AlbySound: No one is entitled to fans but if it’s dope I suggest people should listen.

SBS: There are ups and downs in the dynamics of almost every album we listen to, with very few exceptions. Even those exceptions, probably still come down to more of a personal preference about what we enjoy about music and how we personally hear it, rather than anything being completely and totally “perfect” – you know what I mean? Does an album actually need to have some kind of up/down dynamics in terms of what’s appealing to the masses in order for the best of the best songs in a lineup to be fully appreciated? Wouldn’t every artist & band avoid the ‘down’ side (less accessible/less popular for example) if they could? Does the ‘down’ side represent something else perhaps, like the story of an album or journey of an artist? Is the ‘up’ side of a record as potent or noticeable if it doesn’t have a ‘down’ side to go with it? Would a completely balanced album somehow be boring if it didn’t have the ups/downs that most have? Do we HAVE to like every single song on a record for it to be considered complete? Are the dynamics of an album something anyone can really steer in the direction they want to, or are all artists & bands simply going with the strongest material they have created at the time?

AlbySound: Good question, the average listener got conditioned to only like singles. The perfect album just has to do with song order. Some say put your singles first on the album, I say no. I say map it out the way you want. If you want it cinematic, then recognize when the album does climax.

SBS: I wanna send out a shout-out to YOU from me personally – I appreciate everyone that has taken the time to talk tunes with me throughout the years, and I appreciate the time YOU have taken with this interview too. Because this one’s a little different in the sense that it’s been sent out to multiple people and is a little more generic in that regard, I have no doubt whatsoever that we probably didn’t get to talk to you about something you wanted to talk about – so let’s fix that! This final space is what we call the SBS Open Floor – a spot where you can say anything else you want to say to the people out there. It can be anything at all…your main websites…something else you want them to know about you and/or your music…your favorite bands in the scene right now…the secret 11 herbs and spices to the Colonel’s secret recipe – you get the idea, and it’s probably best you choose something that suits you rather than take any of my suggestions, but feel free to take the SBS Open Floor for a ride. Whatever it is you want the people to know, now is the prime time for you to tell’em! Thanks again for everything – keep in touch!

AlbySound: Check out Eizlo, Undawolf, Aleena Joy, GrandNationxl, MacArthur Maze, Matty Boy. Follow me on IG @albysoundoff. I have crazy amounts of music dropping before years end. Oh yeah and shout out to my mom to starting my rollout.