Episode 16: Byram on how to harness inspiration for your creative expression

About Byram

Born to professional musician and performer parents, Los Angeles based artist and producer Byram witnessed a love for creativity and performing from a very young age. As a child, Byram became a professional in the music industry singing on the soundtracks of movies such as The Polar Express, Peter Pan, High School Musical and many more. As he entered high school, his passion for music turned into writing and producing his own music. Heavily influenced by classic songwriters like Billy Joel and Rufus Wainwright as well as alternative rock and folk artists like Coldplay, The Killers, and Sufjan Stevens, Byram formed his own sound which initially manifested as a self described “freak folk album” he wrote and produced with two band mates he met while studying and traveling in England at seventeen years old. Graduating from Cal State Northridge with a degree in Music Industry Studies, Byram was the co-head of the student run record label where he led forty other students in signing and developing Los Angeles based artists. At the same time, Byram’s own sound continued to shift while he continued to write and release more music with “I Hate You Never Leave Me”, another self produced album and video. After college, Byram worked at the legendary studio The Village Recorder and then continued to produce and engineer for artists such as Camilla Cabello, Lil Dicky, Fetty Wap, Skizzy Mars, Kimbra, PnB Rock, and more. In 2019 Byram released his latest project called “Forget” which is on all streaming platforms and he is currently in the studio for his next project.

Show Notes

Resources

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In the Episode

Byram finds creating a space where creativity can flourish is the most important part of preparing for a creative project. He could warm up but without the right space to think and create it won’t be the same.
Byram grew up in a creative household with both of his parents having experience in the entertainment industry. His father voiced the singing voice for Moses in The Prince of Egypt.
When he started writing music it was difficult to finish songs. It was easy starting them, but finishing songs turned out to be pretty difficult. His first song he finished was for a school book report. A song about Dante’s inferno… (No link to share unfortunately)
We learned a lot about how we can approach inspiration and how to harness it as a tool to focus and limit the scope of the project act hand. Options can be stifle creativity in some cases. By limiting things, not necessarily the tools you use, but the concepts you work with can help in the creative process for focusing on what matters most in expressing your work.
It is important to balance being a specialist and a generalist. Byram talks about how he leans more toward being a solid generalist, but points to the value of working with others that specialize and are at the top of their field. Great music is produced, written, mixed, etc. by a group of specialists that work well together in most cases.
Shoutout to Neon West!
Live shows (when we were going to live shows) are a great experience, however music videos are also great outlets for true creativity. We also really like Byram’s music video that you can find HERE!
Advice: Be a good steward for what you already have. It will create more opportunity and space for what you want.