Noiselab and STINT’s Elearning Collaboration: Exclusive Interview

If you haven’t heard the expertly crafted, and moving lyrics of ‘Weight in Gold’ by Gallant and produced by STINT, check out the video below. It is a powerful, epic track that has mass appeal but can also be respected for its well crafted production. Many of the track’s elements mimic live music, and create a suspension of belief; this causes listeners to forget that they are listening to a digital creation as they are swept up in the emotion of the lyrics and instrumentals.

STINT produced and co-wrote many of tracks from Gallant’s debut album Ology- the album was nominated for Best Urban Contemporary Album at the 2017 Grammy Awards. STINT has also co-written and/or produced music for artists such as Zara Larson, Banks, Santigold, Sabrina Claudio, AlunaGeorge, Portugal The Man, NAO, Carly Rae Jepsen, and Train.

After being approached Noiselab, an e-learning platform for digital music producers, to break down his critically acclaimed song ‘Weight in Gold’ off of Oology. Noiselab’s In The Studio with STINT is the first in a new series of producer courses that the site offers. The course is laid out chapter by chapter, giving you every stroke of genius to create a track that sounds like live music.

STINT himself said, “This course is the first of it’s kind that I’ve done in my career. It’s incredibly comprehensive and will probably tell you everything you’ve ever wanted to know about ‘Weight In Gold’ and my production techniques. There are some useful tips in there that will hopefully help out Ableton users, but also some discussion about songwriting that can apply to any and all musicians.”

Noiselab was kicked off in March 2017 by Patrick Felder and Rob Dey. These two musicians and businessmen, founded several online education platforms that you might have heard of: DJ Courses Online, Coder Manual, and Upskill Courses.

Since the site has been live, 5,000 students have registered, and began using the library of courses to improve their skill.

For under twenty dollars a month students have unlimited access to all of the content the elearning platform provides. The lessons are self-paced, and all the instructors are Ableton Certified (for those of us who are not so program-savy, Abelton is a digital music production program that is pushing for future rich with music technology and teaching), or professional music producers with serious industry credentials.

The entire In The Studio With STINT course will be available on Noiselab for free. Interested students can enroll for free here.

In between studio sessions, STINT was able to answer some questions from FWI. Here’s our exclusive look.

Honestly the best advice I can give is to keep doing it and keep learning. Usually my best ideas will come form techniques or skills that I’ve recently learned. I think when something musical genuinely interests and excites you, you’re at your most creative.

They reached out to me about doing a course for a producer series they were starting. Sometimes all you have to do is ask.

No I don’t think organic sounds will immediately make something more relatable. I like and relate to a lot of different types of music, some of which is 100% digital (or in-organic haha). I think within the context of Gallant’s project, it was something that he hadn’t done a lot with at that point so it was more exciting to both of us at the time.

That’s a good question. I can genuinely say I just made that beat for fun and a personal challenge with no thought towards what it could be used for. I have toyed with the idea of releasing original music under the name Stint before, though nothings come out yet…. I suppose the song would’ve gone towards that if nothing else…

You had been part of an electronic duo, Data Romance. What made you want to get more behind the scenes with music?

It’s kinda funny cause I realized the other day that I’ve subsequently worked with less and less people as my career in music has progressed. I started out in a high school band with 5 people, then another with 4, then Data Romance was a duo, and finally it’s just me. What drew me towards producing wasn’t so much that I was behind the scenes, but more that I got to do my favourite part about making music, which is simply making music. I was never a big fan of touring or press or all the other stuff involved with being an artist. This way I just get to be creative the whole time and that’s how I realized I wanted to spend my life.

I’m thinking about it…