Today we’d like to introduce you to Ethan Newsom.
Hi Ethan, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I was born here in Dallas and grew up in Rowlett. I started doing music when I was 5 years old, picking up the piano. My mother got me into summer piano class. The class was short and very small, only one other student was with me, but I do remember enjoying it a lot and being able to pick it up fairly quickly. Every day after the class ended, I’d go home and practice on the old upright piano we had in my old childhood home that my mother, unfortunately, gave away not too long afterward. After the class ended, I kept at it but I don’t think I really took it too seriously.
At age 10 I became very interested in the guitar and my parents bought a cheap First Act that came with a tiny, crappy sounding amp. I played that thing to death almost every day, teaching myself how to play from the book that came with it and attempting to learn some of my favorite songs at the time on it. That same year at Dorsey Elementary, I performed in the talent show. Now that I look back on it, it probably wasn’t a very good performance, but I was 10 and had literally been playing for only 6 months. I do remember being proud of myself for conquering my shyness and my fear of doing things in front people.
Middle school is when I started to get more serious about my music. I tried out for the Sellars middle school band (but eventually moved to Schrade Middle School) to be a trumpet player and it turned out I was a natural at it. Turned out to be quite fun, but very hard to learn but I was up to the challenge. It was then I met the man who would go on to teach me almost everything I know about music, Roger Gilliam. He was my private trumpet instructor and everything he taught me I used to this very day for everything I do as a musician and some of it for just everyday life.
All through middle school I kept up with the trumpet, practiced playing the piano and the guitar, eventually selling off the old First Act and getting a Sunburst Stratocaster and a slightly better Ibanez guitar amp. It was also around that time I discovered alternative rock and pop-punk music, getting into bands like All Time Low, Green Day, and Switchfoot. Bands that still influence my sound to this day. I also began to try my hand at singing. As a kid, I was always too afraid to sing whether it was in front of people or in general because I didn’t know if I was any good or not. But I loved the driving and energetic vocals on those songs and I wanted to be able to do that with my voice. It was difficult. I had zero range and no sense of vocal control and I had a naturally high voice that people made fun of me for.
As time went on, I began to pick up other instruments like the bass guitar, acoustic guitar, the mandolin, and even trying my hand at drums. Eventually, I got to high school and I became a member of the Rowlett High School Mighty Eagle Band under the direction of Phil Alvarado, another influential person on my music, auditioning and earning my place as first chair trumpet player in the 2nd tier band my freshman year as well as landing me a spot on the starting line in the Marching Band. I continued to improve myself as a musician, my mentor Mr. Gilliam still teaching me. He even got me into the Mesquite Symphony Orchestra which he was the director of. Just imagine a dorky-looking 14-year-old playing with seasoned adults that were decades older than me.
As high school went on, I began to get a lot more serious as a musician and began to pick up songwriting. I wrote a few songs that weren’t any good, only one of which I still remember. I even started to record my own music. Though I didn’t know what I was doing and my crappy HP computer couldn’t handle audio production, so nothing sounded any good.
I was in the top band, I had won a few awards, the marching band was killing it at competitions and we had been to state twice. I was still in the Mesquite Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Mr. Gilliam and still learning a lot from him.
I graduated in 2013 and eventually went on to attend Richland College. Unfortunately, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. I was just going to college because that’s what you’re supposed to do, right? I knew I wanted to do music and I wanted to record my music, but I didn’t know how to go about it and I didn’t have the knowledge or the resources to do it.
Even more unfortunate, midway through my first semester of college, my mentor Roger Gilliam died. I had a piano exam that day and I did not perform that well on it as a result. I later flunked out of college, quit the Mesquite Symphony Orchestra, and was left completely lost.
My family then moved down to Kingwood, Texas in 2014 where I lived with them for about a year and a half still trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. I knew for a fact that I wanted to learn how to properly record and produce music. However, the only places I could think of that offered that kind of education was the Art Institute and Full Sail University and was definitely out of my budget.
Then one day, my dad told me he had found a college for me. Cedar Valley College in Lancaster, Texas. Back home in the Dallas area. It had a recording degree program. And I was very interested.
So, we drove up here and went out to the college during the summer to look at it. It was a small campus basically out in the middle of nowhere. It was quiet, calm, it was perfect. Unfortunately, the studio was all locked up so I couldn’t see it.
So, in 2015, I moved to Garland, Texas to live with my grandparents and attend that school. I met some really cool people that I am still friends with to this day in the Audio Engineering classes, including my record professor, Steve Browne. The guy taught me almost everything I know. about recording and production. The studios there were legit. I got to learn on analog equipment, use some pretty awesome gear, and gain a true understanding on how everything worked. Easily the best years of my life were spent at that school.
I even began to evolve as a musician, so much to the point that I started writing my first album there at school.
In 2016 I released my first ever single commercially. A tracked called “Constellations” under the artist name “NewsomMusic” and the independent label “Newsom Music Studio.” Recorded in a bedroom 100% by me. Every single instrument is being played by me, every single harmony and vocal track sung by me. And I mixed it all on a 2011 MacBook Pro.
It sold a few copies and has gained a few thousand streams. Nothing really spectacular, but it still stands as one of my proudest accomplishments.
I released a few covers here and there over the next couple of years under the same name and label, but they didn’t sell all that well.
I eventually graduated in 2018 and continued to use my skills for both working on my music and applying it to other environments. I worked as an intern at Audio Dallas Recording Studio in Garland for a short time and also worked as the sound engineer at Kawai Piano Gallery of Dallas.
In 2019, I moved to Plano, built my new recording studio in my apartment, and in early 2020, I turned my focus to recording my first album as well as rebranding myself. I dropped the “NewsomMusic” artist name in favor of my real one and started a new record label called “Renegade Planet Records” which now has two other artists underneath is beside myself. A girl in Canada by the name of Sarah Hebert and Vanessa Barnett who just recently released her first single which I recorded and produced. Both of them are brilliant musicians and songwriters. I’d also like to find other dedicated solo artists or even bands to work with. I want to succeed as an artist myself, but I also want to give back and help other musicians.
Right now, in 2021 I am almost done with my debut album and I’ve written most of my 2nd album and have a 3rd and 4th one planned as well as several other projects to fill the gaps in between. I am very excited about releasing the album it has been an incredible journey that has made me a better artist, better musician, better songwriter, and better producer. I’m really looking forward to what comes next afterward and hope people follow me on my quest.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
There have been struggles. Like I mentioned before my mentor died. For a long time, I wasn’t comfortable with the sound of my voice and it took me a really long time to really sit down and say “You know what? My voice ain’t bad. It’s actually pretty great! I sound like me and there’s nothing wrong with that.” Also learning not to compare myself to others. I shouldn’t try to be the best in the world just to say that I am, I should be the best for me. I’m not trying to be better than anyone. Don’t compare yourself to others today, compare yourself to who you were yesterday.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
My music is very much influenced by early 2000s pop-punk. But I also adore the 80s and what rock music sounded like in that era. The big drums, the grinding guitars, the super deep synth tones. Love it all. But I also love classical music and film scores, the swelling of strings. So, my sound has become an amalgamation of everything I’ve heard and love. To achieve that sound, I’ve really studied the recording and production techniques from each of those genres, learning how the engineer made it sound that way and figuring out how to make it sound exactly the way I want it to. It’s been quite a learning experience this past year alone.
I love the imperfect analog sound of the 80s so much I bought an analog tape machine for the studio and plan on using it for mixdowns not only on this album but for the rest of the albums to come.
Back in college, I was known as a track whore. I’d had the most tracks out of anyone on my projects, utilizing the full potential of stereo mixing and really going above and beyond to make things sound exactly the way I wanted them to. I also take the time to understand the how and why of the process and not doing something because some other engineer does it. Why am I EQing this track? Does it need to be? Does this track need that much compression? Does this track need multiple mono reverbs to give it more of a spacious sound or will one stereo reverb do?
Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
Be humble. Be teachable. You do not know everything and there is always something to learn. Don’t be afraid of failure. And don’t quit after one setback. Even if you might fail, you have to try every time. And in your failures, you learn. Maybe you didn’t make the sound you wanted, but you do know how to make the sound you didn’t want. Gear does not make the engineer or musician. If you can’t cut a good sounding record on a $1000 worth of equipment or make a killer riff on a middle-range or lower-end guitar, more expensive gear isn’t going to save you.
Contact Info:
- Email: newsommusicstudio@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ethannewsommusic/
- Youtube: youtube.com/newsommusic
- Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/ethan-newsom/1561700808
- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6w5bYIh7lnRT0MsN9BUtqU?si=F84c6BcpRKS74gXSzo1hAw
Image Credits
Heather Newsom
