Bradley Kohn: The PIVODIO Interview

Bradley Kohn is an award-winning Music Producer, Songwriter, Engineer and Multi-instrumentalist. We caught up with Bradley for a chat about his background and expert advice for aspiring musicians. Check out his full profile on his PIVIDIO page.

You’ve done just about everything that’s fun: you do music, you’re part of Elevation Barn, you’re in crypto, you’re doing extreme sports; how do you describe who you are when people ask “what do you do?”

[Chuckles] Often I just focus on one or two things; my agents say I’m a music producer and life coach. But I’ve been called a renaissance man or a jack-of-all-trades. I’m lucky enough, and I guess determined enough, to focus on things that allowed me to grow and to have impact on the world around me.

There seems to be a theme across all you do, which is the idea of living life to the fullest and to use all the powers one has in their body to achieve?

Yeah exactly that. I’d also use the term “human evolutionist,” helping people get more fulfillment out of life, less friction, less suffering. I guess based loosely on Buddhist principles of non-attachment and being present with what is, and I think it’s huge when you can live that way.

I think what you summed up is fair. I’ve always loved adventure and extreme sports, whether it’s motorcycles or martial arts or snowboarding.

We can’t focus on everything here, so let’s focus on the music part of your life. How does music help you hit that full potential? Does everyone have a musician inside of them? Is your goal to extract that out of people?

I think that most people respond to music, they hear it and there’s an instinctive response. For most people, there is some music that touches them and when it does, it does so in a way that very few other things can. It’s immediate, it’s beyond thought, it’s this instinctive reaction. Because of that, music can really touch people deeply and move people in a profound way.

There are some people that just have music in them, and there are other people that take a lot more discipline and practice and education to respond with something that other people may perceive as musical. Generally everyone can, but there are some people who just have it and can apply themselves to have that advantage.

With the advent of digital recording has meant that a lot more people have access to creative tools, which is a wonderful thing; but it also means probably less time invested in getting really good at your craft.

Less time invested because the platforms are so immediate, people don’t have to practice to get on stage and instead just put their music on Soundcloud?

Even more fundamentally than that, back in the day, if you wanted to get into a music studio you had to be able to play your stuff and deliver. Studios were expensive.

But as the tools developed, you can say “oh it doesn’t matter if the singer’s out of tune or if the drummer is out of time, we can fix it later.” There are still great musicians, don’t get me wrong, but I think the bar has changed.

I just hosted an event in London with top producers, and they said “talent is rare.” It’s hard to come by, and a lot of this noise gets promoted by record labels; but it’s just not that common.

That dovetails into exactly what PIVODIO does, helping artists trying to turn their passions into their professions. They might be talented, but it can be hard to make the money they need to turn what they do into their full-time jobs. What is it like out there these days? Is there too much noise and it’s harder to rise up and be noticed, or is there more opportunity in general?

There’s a lot of opportunity if you’re creative and hard working. You can create your audience and don’t need a gatekeeper to create that opportunity for you. But as long as I’ve been around, there’s always a need to connect with your audience.

I said this to a young artist the other day, there’s a few ways to do it: you can go on a TV show and get instantly connected; you can schmooze with some gatekeeper and hope they put you out there, or there’s the organic way – by hook or by crook – and you just kind of work until you get some traction.

Everyone in all areas of life is vying for people’s attention. So it’s wonderful when the music can speak for itself, but often it’s a combination of music that’s great and finding a way to connect with the audience.

The other thing is being ready for your moment. If you really work on your craft and you get good at what you do and you stick with it long enough, hopefully you’ll get that moment in the sun. And if you can deliver and knock it out of the park, that’s when you can really change the situation.

Yeah, it’s the idea that there’s no real overnight success. All those overnight successes you hear about, they’ve put in their 10,000 hours. So how about this scenario: for the aspiring artist in the middle of nowhere, no access to big cities, is it better to do live performances and get yourself out there, or is it better to really work on your craft and get better at it on your Macbook alone.

It kind of depends on what you’re trying to do, but I will say that as a musician, there’s nothing that trains you quite like playing live. You can play in your bedroom and nail the part, but when you go out live, there’s all these different energies you have to deal with. All your practice supports you but it goes out the window; it teaches you what really is required to deliver at that next level.

For me, a lot of magic in music is in the space between the musician and the live performance. So doing it live, and doing it live well, is still very inspiring.

So besides talent, what is that trait that’s going to push you to that professional level?

Being disciplined and putting in the time, and really working at it. My cousin is a really successful pop producer and writer, and they just treated it like a job. Everyday they’re in the studio, from 10 till 6, three hundred something days a year, and they try to write at least one song a day. And from those 300 or so songs they write each year, one or two will be hits. And that’s how you get twenty hits in your career.

Some people think the creative pursuit is something you can only do when the muse is in the room, but Desmond Child, who is a mentor of mine, says the same thing: “I’ve written thousands of songs and had two, three hundred hits; so I’m getting about one in ten.”

See these people work incredibly hard at what they do. And it applies to everyone. All the guys who are really good and have longevity in the industry, they put in the work.

What’s a piece of advice to someone who wants to be a professional musician, but doesn’t have enough time in the day because they have to work to pay rent and put food on the table?

Look up Arnold Schwarzenegger. He’s an extreme human, no excuses. He was training three times a day, learning a language, and had my property business. Admittedly the guy was an absolute machine, but if you want it bad enough, you’ve got to find a way to do it. That’s just how it is.

And also, hold yourself to the standard that you want to be at. A lot of the music we grew up on, Jimmy Hendrix, the Beatles, Led Zeppelin; they were writing those songs in their teens and twenties. So you just have to go for it from an early age and hold yourself to that high standard.

Let’s end with some rapid fire questions about your favorite songs. What song reminds you of your childhood?

I was big into Michael Jackson, so Billie Jean, Beat It. Those ones.

The song you associate with romance?

So many, but one song that comes to mind is Diana Krall’s “A Case of You” which is a Joni Mitchell song. It’s such a beautiful song and she does it so well. The line I love is “I could drink a case of you and still be on my feet.”

The song that connects you to a very important moment in your life?

This is a random one, but I was kind of discovered by Seymour Stein, who actually died this year, he was a legendary record executive. I remember I was driving to Warner Brothers in London and listening to this song by Ryan Adams called “Note to Self: Don’t Die.”

I just remember driving down, listening to this song, on my way to see the big guy.

What’s that one song you can listen to a hundred times in a row, and never get sick of it?

I like to work out to hard rock music and there’s a cover of Bob Dylan by Rage Against the Machine of “Maggie’s Farm.” Whenever that song comes on, I rarely skip it. It just gives me a pump, you know?

For more of Bradley Kohn, check out his Instagram (@creativeninja) and be sure to connect with him on PIVODIO for amazing music coaching and career advice.

About the Author:

Robert Woo has been in marketing for 15+ years, creating content for tech startups in various industries. He’s also written and performed comedy for decades, with stints at Nickelodeon, NBC, HBO, and more. While he is probably the least musically inclined of the PIVODIO team, he is excited to be part of this note-worthy (pun) company. He also takes a multivitamin every day.