Ok so a lot of people have been emailing me asking me how I came into the music business. So here's my story:

When I was younger, I started messing around with my moms old acoustic guitar. I was also given part of a drum set by my Godfather, Carl Rigoli, who is a jazz musician. I was not interested in playing drums, but my cousin Mathan was. So we started a band together. Both of us knew some guitar players as well. So I ended up getting a bass guitar since it was rare to find a bassist. At that time, I was listening to punk and ska music. So that is what we ended up playing.

I then got really into punk and hardcore music so I started a hardcore band, Upperhand, with Joe Brown (A Static Lullaby). We played a lot of shows and did an album released through a small Christian label called Death For Life Records.

When Upperhand broke up, I was listening to a lot of the pop stuff like Britney Spears and NSYNC. At that time, I was also in a pop/punk/rock band called Last Minute. With them, I got a lot of experience recording. Some in studios and some at the house of the guitarist (Chad Young). Chad picked up a lot of the tips from the engineers at the studios we recorded at. Then later on when I got more interested in recording, he taught me the basics of what I needed to know to get started. Last Minute ended up doing some touring and released everything independently, before breaking up.

I then decided to attend the Musicians Institute in the guitar program (G.I.T). I also took songwriting classes with the teacher Cat Cohen. It was there that I learned more about pop song structure and how to arrange songs. When my private guitar instructor (Pathik Desai) heard some of the songs I produced and co-wrote, he told me that I should definitely push that direction of my career. At the time, I was also feeling a little awkward there at the Musicians Institute in the guitar program. Everyone was walking around with guitar t-shirts and obsessed with the guitar. However, my favorite class was songwriting. I loved the guitar but I loved the writing and producing side of it even more.

After finishing with M.I, I knew that I could not possibly go back to working a day job and then do music on the side. So I began to advertise my services as a songwriter/producer/engineer on Craiglist. I started off by charging $100/song. That was for all the music, recording, mixing, and mastering. Songs then took me about 40 hours of work per song, I didn't 100% know what I was doing but I was teaching myself as I went. Then I eventually raised my rates, as I got better, to $200/song... then $300/song... and so on. It was a blessing that I was living in a house with 3, sometimes 4, other people so rent was only around $350-$450 per month. At that time, I was living off top ramen, I couldn't afford to hang out with my friends when they went out, and I was driving 45 minutes to Redlands to clean my mothers house for an extra $50. It's definitely a humbling experience being a grown man cleaning your mother's toilets. However, I am blessed for the situation because it allowed me to learn so much about writing and producing. I got to focus much more time on music than if I would've gotten a job. If I had a job I would've been able to eat what I wanted, hang with my friends, and wouldn't have had to clean my mom's house. However, it was much more beneficial for me not to get a job and struggle doing music full time.

Then a few years ago, I became part of Trilogy Productions with Andrew Lane and Eddie Galan. I got to learn a whole lot from them about the business and music production. I also began to meet a lot of awesome artists and songwriters. It was with them that I got my first major credit for the Hannah Montana Soundtrack. Also, we had the Cru5h 5 single, "Femmelicious," that we co-wrote with Cecy B. Also, we got to do some production for an artist, Jung Park-Ah, in Korea, After a while of working with Trilogy, I decided to leave and work for my own company Sean Alexander Music.

About a month after leaving Trilogy, I was introduced to Drew Ryan Scott (Varsity Fanclub) and Michaelangelo by Gregory Watton. We immediately hit it off and gelled so well with our song-writing and production. Drew, Mike and I wrote about 30+ songs in hopes to get them placed on the Varsity Fanclub album. I was blessed to get 3 of them cut by Varsity Fanclub and I engineer'd on a bunch of other songs. The songs that we didn't place with Varsity were quickly picked up else where. They really introduced me to a lot of people in the industry and helped push me to that next level. I learned so much from them and I continue to work with them today.

Over the past year, I have gotten placements with Donnie Klang, Varsity Fanclub, Tynisha Keli, Shinee, TVXQ, US5, Tae Yang, Super Junior, Dutch Idol winner Nikki, There are plenty more songs that are on hold with artists. I have also written and demo'd over 100 songs the past year. There are soooo many that I stopped counting at 100. I continue to grow every day as songwriter, producer, and engineer. I am sooo blessed to be doing what I love to do as a career. For all the up and coming producers/songwriters that want some advice, here it is:

1. Keep God first.
2. Work hard! It takes years of hard work to get somewhere.
***Make sure you take your Sabbath off. Whatever works the best with your normal schedule. For me it happens to be Sunday. If you work 7 days a week you will get burned out. I did it to myself and it is no fun at all. When I stopped working on Sundays I ended up getting a lot more stuff done in the 6 days than the 7. I was also a lot happier! :) God created us so he knows what makes us "tick." If He thinks we should have a day off from work, I'm sure God knows what's best for us. ***
3. Surround yourself with good people at heart. If you surround yourself with shady people sometimes you can get lumped in the category with them.
4. Surround yourself with people that are better than you so you can learn from them and grow.
5. Try new things, don't always be scared to get out of your comfort zone on a song. You can only learn from it even if it ends up being a disaster! :)
6. Take hit songs, songs that you love, or tracks and break them down piece by piece. Find out what makes them work.
7. Music is art so there is no right or wrong way of creating it. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, If one person doesn't like it, it doesn't mean everyone else won't like it. However, make sure you take creative criticism well.
8. Try not to "baby" your songs. Meaning, don't get too attached to them. After I've written so many songs I really could care less what people say about 1 song. However, when I only had about 20 songs I was shopping, I felt more attached to the songs then I do now,
9. A&R's are people too. They have preferences and don't know everything. If a song is turned down by one guy, it doesn't mean it's not going to get picked up else where. I've had songs turned down but then they are wanted by multiple artists later.
10. The industry is very small and people talk. So watch what you say and watch the way you run your business.

*** and of course....Have fun!!!  If you are doing what you love, but it stops being fun, there is a huge problem.

I wish you all much success! I love you all! :)

God bless <><
Sean Alexander