By now if you are still pitching demos and beats to labels you should be receiving quite a few out of office emails because this is when everything comes to a halt. That A&R you connected with in September is now with her family, that engineer who has quite a few credits all of sudden isn’t answering his phone, and even the interns are probably on flights back home as I write this. It happens every year and the first time I saw this first hand back in 2015 here in New York City I was so confused. I didn’t know the actual industry took a break between Thanksgiving and New Years. What some may have seen as a loss and just went back home I saw as an opportunity to do more.
The first thing I noticed right off the back was how easy it was to get room booked at a studio in the city and I’m talking about the premier studios. Engine Room, Penthouse, Quad, Premier (open at that time) and Studio91 all had open calendars. At that time I went everywhere with my Macbook and hard drive. If you needed beats, I was there. If you needed an engineer, I was there. If you just needed someone to hang out with, I was there. Some of the most fun I ever I had as an intern at Terminus Studios (now Penthouse) was back in the dead of winter of 2015. I was wrapping up a session with an artist comping vocals for a demo he was getting ready to pitch to his manager. While I was editing the vocals I kept noticing people were walking in and out of the hallway. Of course the first thing I was thought was “why the hell are there so many people here and where are they coming from?” Terminus along with Premier and Quad aren’t accessible to the public. Meaning you have to first clear the desk security and then you need a security card for the elevator to access the floor for that particular studio. So how was it that I, who was on a floor that initially had me, an employee and the artist were seeing so many people. Of course I got up to see what was going on and I looked out of the A room and noticed that the door to the staircase was open. “That’s odd”, I thought as I began making my way to the door to shut it and then saw two more gentlemen walk in. Before I said anything one of them said, “Yo you engineer?” I nodded and was then told that if I was down I could meet them in one of the rooms at Quad and all I had to do was walk downstairs and go straight into the room. At that moment I’m thinking there’s no way I’m going to get past the office manager for the studio as she was known to be nice yet stern with unwanted guests. With my belongings locked up in the office I made my way to the staircase and to my surprised all of the doors to the studios were open! All the people I were seeing were employees and interns just like me looking to get as much work down before January. I entered into Quad and was greeted with daps and questions about what it was that I did. Apparently, this is the norm. The best way to describe it would be a lock in only for engineers and interns who have access. That night I spent about 12 hours bouncing between rooms, playing beats, engineering sessions, and building my network. Some of the most fun I had while most people probably were sleep. Can’t blame them. The next day we were hit with 18 inches of snow.
This is just one example of one of the many things you can do during this downtime. For once the DM’s will slow down as well as the text messages and meetings. You can take this time to work on your own personal projects, learn how to produce a new genre, or even start that business you’ve been talking about. If you haven’t planned your 2021, which I’m assuming you probably have already, this is when you can do it. If you have already, you can rework your plans if need be. Take advantage as it will be another 365 days before you’ll be here again.
Don’t just sit up to eat turkey and get drunk. Plan. Your 2021 self will thank you for it.
