Today we’d like to introduce you to Adrian Serna.
Hi Adrian, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I first started making music when I was in 8th grade, I was 13 at the time and I was slowly falling in love with hip-hop and music in general but before 8th grade, I wasn’t really much of a musical person I was in my school’s band for a year but other than that I pretty much just played video games and focused on doing YouTube on the side. I would make short films with my friends after school and do some freelance graphic design work for Esports teams but all of that quickly changed as I started getting more into pop culture and upcoming artists at the time such as Lil uzi vert, xxxtentacion, and playboi carti but the main artist at the time that really inspired me was none other than one of Dallas, TX biggest artists Post Malone When I found out Post Malone was just a regular guy from grapevine who decided to pursue his dreams it really inspired me to go out and chase my dreams I thought if somebody that was just like me could make it then what’s stopping me from trying? I was so fascinated at the energy their music brought to the world and I wanted to recreate that feeling for others so one day after school I downloaded FL studio 12 on my computer and just dove into the whole world of music production, Hundreds of YouTube tutorials later I was finally good enough at using Fl studio comfortably so I decided that it was time to start taking things to the next level I built a tiny home studio in an empty part of my living room and put up room dividers to give it more of a “professional” vibe I invested whatever money I had at the time on a pair of studio monitors and a cheap audio Technica mic.
Around this time, I had just become a freshman in high school so I was still going around meeting new people and making new friends, luckily, I found somebody in my class who also shared the same vision as me. We quickly became best friends and spent every day after school making beats, listening to music, and experimenting with sounds we’ve never heard of before. One day we had finally finished making our first song and I remember how excited and anxious I was to release it and show it to others I didn’t know if they were going to love it or hate it all I knew is that I was so proud of myself for actually creating my song all from scratch just like my idols.
A few days later we hit over 1000 plays on Soundcloud and everybody who listened to the song enjoyed it I knew that after this I just wanted to spend every day of my life making music and so I did. I opened up my “recording studio” a month later charging only $10 dollars a song and slowly over time I would see more and more artists hitting me up on Instagram asking to come through and record music. My home/studio was located in Irving so I quickly became known by all of the up-and-coming artists from Irving after a few months my name and brand became known to even more than just the artists I recorded I knew that if I kept going one day, I can truly live the life I dreamed of.
Fast forward to the present day I’m now 18 years old and currently own a recording studio in farmer’s branch that goes by the name of sixmill records. I’ve recorded a majority of all the artists in the area and have honed my skills to provide top industry-level quality on all of the records I work on. I currently attend Mediatech Institute in Dallas, TX where I am working on obtaining a recording arts degree to further solidify my skill. I have reached a level I never thought was possible for me to reach and every day I’m continuing to grow more and more into the musician I aspire to be.
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?
As much as I want to say that this road has been nothing but fun and games, unfortunately, the harsh reality is that this path I’ve taken in life has been the toughest I’ve ever had to endure. I’ve had to sacrifice most if not all of my teenage life to focus on my dream instead of living the sweet carefree high school teenage life. I’ve had to battle severe depression, anxiety, and drug abuse but from day one I knew that chasing this dream wouldn’t be easy so the moment I decided that this is what I wanted to be in life I dedicated my entire heart and soul to chasing this dream no matter how tough things were going to get.
One of the major downsides of being in this industry is the drug culture and how being surrounded by drugs every day, unfortunately, can influence somebody into doing the wrong choices, and for a few moments of my life when things have gotten tough, I’ve fallen victim to the temptation of drugs. Thankfully I’ve had people in my life who have saved me from when I was at my lowest and taught me to redirect that negative energy back into something positive which is my music in order to create good from the bad.
To this day I still deal with the occasional anxiety and depression but I’ve grown stronger than ever to the point where I know how to deal with it in a positive way that won’t hurt me and keeps it at a minimum. Even after all of my struggles I still wouldn’t want to choose any other career nor would I wish I never had to go through them because as we all know pressure creates diamonds and I am grateful for every experience in my life good and bad as it has helped me become a stronger more happy human being.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
My artist/creative name is SixMill and I specialize in music. I’m known for producing beats, engineering songs, and recording artists. I’m most proud of the skill I’ve obtained over the years and all the experience I currently have I’m only 18 years old and I always shock everybody when they find out my age it’s not common nor easy for somebody as young as me to be this ahead in the music industry it’s not every day that you walk into a fully built recording studio with top-of-the-line gear and a kid is the owner. What truly sets me apart is my vision, passion, and obsession with all things audio and music production. One of the perks of being so young in the industry is that I know what’s popular and what sounds good I have the vision to not only make a great song but the ability to turn it into something incredible and unique and my client’s respect and trust me for that. there have been many times I’ve been recording an artist and they compliment me for nailing the sound they were looking for perfectly.
What do you think about happiness?
What makes me happy is art and all forms of art such as music, film, video games, and paintings/drawings. I love getting inspired by others and creating something brand new out of it. the thrill and excitement of creating art make me ecstatic because you never know the end result of what you’re going to make.
Pricing:
- I charge $40 per hour to book at my recording studio
- I charge $50 per beat for a basic license non-exclusive license
- I charge $250 for an exclusive license
- I charge $300 for a custom exclusive beat
- I charge $40 per song to mix and master
Contact Info:
- Email: sixmillmgmt@gmail.com
- Website: https://sixmill.beatstars.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/prodbysixmill/?hl=en
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/sixmillrecords
