Magitman on the Virtual Sessions presented by The DJ Sessions 7/29/24

In this immersive Virtual Session, Darran Bruce speaks with Israeli DJ and producer Magitman, whose career spans over two decades of innovative music creation. Known for his melodic storytelling and collaborative work with longtime friend Brisker, Magitman shares insights into his creative process, philosophy on music, and the recent release of their track Chasing Time on Mode Rhythm.

 

Magitman reveals his approach to music as a deeply personal journey rather than a commercial pursuit, producing first for his own satisfaction and releasing only when a track fully resonates with him. He discusses how each song is a standalone narrative, created without strict adherence to trends or label requirements. His partnership with Brisker, dating back to childhood, has yielded numerous global releases, live performances, and a strong creative synergy that continues to inspire their work today.

 

The conversation covers his balance between a full-time career in tech and his passion for music, the importance of the “car test” in finalizing tracks, and his preference for software-based production with tools like Ableton Live and UAD plugins. Magitman also reflects on industry challenges such as social media pressures, algorithm-driven visibility, and the saturation of music platforms.

 

From early releases in the 2000s to maintaining creative freedom through his label Mode Rhythm, Magitman’s story is one of authenticity, adaptability, and enduring passion for sound. Whether producing progressive house, exploring slower or jazzier compositions, or experimenting across genres, his focus remains on crafting music that tells a compelling story.

 

Host: Darran Bruce
Guest: Magitman
Location: Virtual Studios, Seattle WA & Israel

Overview:
Darran Bruce connects with Magitman to discuss his decades-long career, collaboration with Brisker, creative philosophies, and maintaining a passion for music alongside a professional career in tech.

Topics Covered:

• Early Career: First releases in 2002–2003 and evolving into a global artist.
• Chasing Time: Collaborative track with Brisker on Mode Rhythm, marking a reunion after years apart.
• Creative Philosophy: Producing for personal satisfaction before commercial considerations.
• Storytelling in Music: Each track as its own narrative without forced thematic planning.
• Partnership with Brisker: Childhood friendship fueling a shared vision and strong production chemistry.
• Balancing Life and Music: Managing a career in tech alongside evening and weekend studio sessions.
• Production Approach: Primarily software-based using Ableton Live, UAD plugins, and controllers.
• Car Test Standard: Using car audio as the main reference for finalizing mixes.
• Genre Exploration: Venturing into slower, jazz-influenced, and experimental sounds outside his main style.
• Industry Challenges: Navigating algorithms, social media presence, and the oversaturation of digital platforms.
• Mode Rhythm Label: A platform for personal projects and genre-free releases, open to other artists.
• Advice for Producers: Focus on environment quality, learn fundamentals, and trust personal taste.

Call to Action:
Follow Magitman on Instagram @magitman and Meta @magitmanmusic for updates on upcoming releases.
Discover more interviews at thedjsessions.com

[Darran]
Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of the DJ Sessions Presents the Virtual Sessions. I’m your host, Darran, and right now I’m sitting in the virtual studios in Seattle, Washington with some much needed precipitation in the Pacific Northwest after that little hot spell that we just went through. And I mean, hot, hot for Seattle is anything above 90 degrees.

So I know some of my friends down in the Phoenix, Arizona marketplace are probably at 118 right now. But you know, we have my guests coming in all the way from Israel, and you know what? This is why you gotta do tech checks on things and make sure when you’re starting out new stuff, you don’t have volume turned up on other things.

How you doing there, Magitman? Hey, hello everybody, I’m good, thank you. Thank you for having me.

Yeah, I was doing a test and you heard my Instagram feed coming in in the background, I did something new and found out we’re actually displaying it in the right aspect ratio now for Instagram, which is so huge. Awesome to reach our Instagram viewers out there. But you’re coming in from around the Tel Aviv area in Israel right now, correct?

[Magitman]
Yeah, I actually live in a smaller city, much smaller city, it’s the souther, like 45 minutes from Tel Aviv to the south. Yeah, go ahead.

[Darran]
And you’ve been doing music for about, what, 16 years now? Is that correct?

[Magitman]
Wow, I’ve been making music since I remember myself. My first release was in 2003, maybe, 2002, 2003. And then, I never stopped since then, yeah.

So every year there is a release or two, or some years are more.

[Darran]
You know, how many tracks have you produced in that amount of time? Oh my God.

[Magitman]
You know, at the beginning, when you start to produce, before you have a track, you have a number of an arrangement or something. So I think my numbers are maybe at four or 500, and I’m the one that I normally finish the track I started. I don’t have a lot of tracks that I started and I just leave them behind.

[Darran]
So you know what? A lot of people say when they’re making tracks, their tracks are like their children. And you know, they make a track, they release it out into the world, and it goes out there, and then they don’t look back on it.

Is that the way you treat your tracks, or do you ever go back and look back on them?

[Magitman]
That’s a good question, actually. I really like you ask this question. No, I always go back to my tracks.

I think one of the reasons why is, first of all, I produce music for myself. And this is like the high priority. If I don’t like it, I can’t make it.

And when I make a new track, and I like it, and I hear it all the time in my car, everywhere I go, even after some time, music is like time machine. So it always bring me to that moment of that track, and I always like the story in the tracks. That’s the thing.

[Darran]
Yeah, I mean, it’s funny, because I was just talking with the producer that I started in the business with a very long time ago, almost 30 years ago to the date. And actually, 32 years ago to the date. And one of the things we were talking about is his catalog, his library of video productions that he’s done, which is kind of synonymous to producing a track.

I mean, you’re a producer of music, I’m a producer of video shows, and I have over 2,500 episodes in my belt, and he has 10, 20 years of episodes that he’s shot over the years. And he always asks me, do I go back and look at my old episodes? And I’m like, no, I don’t have time to, because it’d be an hour long, and I wouldn’t be able to listen to any new music, I wouldn’t be able to listen to and make new episodes, and there’s just so many to go through.

[Magitman]
I think it’s a little different, because this is video and this is audio. And video, you must be in front of something, and audio, you’re here on the road, in the air, when you’re jogging or making sport or anything. And that’s the difference, it’s more easy.

[Darran]
I can, yeah, I’d say, well, come on, it’s not so easy to jump in front of a camera and start talking to somebody. No, you need to watch the Bekta catalog, because it’s just an audio. No, I can understand that.

I’ve dabbled a little bit in music production. I used to have some gear that I own way back in the day, probably right when you got first started. I was playing around with Fruity Loops 3, and- Yeah, we all started there.

I know, right? And then I bought some Roland gear, and I was playing around with the MC-505 and the SB-808 when I was in college, but I always was a video guy, so I always went into making videos, and wanted to be a broadcast television producer, which led into podcast producing, which led into live streaming, which is what we’re doing right now. So I wanna give a shout out to some people that are watching the show right now on Instagram.

Thank you, Zona. Thank you, Soletro. Thank you, Angel, for all tuning in.

Excutamungo, I’m sorry, I didn’t get that right. Hopefully I didn’t murder that. Conlove, thanks for tuning in as well.

Homie from Seattle. Anyways, let’s go into, we’re not here to talk about me, though. We’re here to talk about you, and what you’re all about.

If you could describe, if none of our DJ Sessions viewers have ever heard your music ever before, if you could describe it in three words, how would you describe your music?

[Magitman]
There’s always a story. What was that? It’s more than three words.

There’s always a story.

[Darran]
It’s always a story. I’ll take the A out of there.

[Magitman]
It’s a story.

[Darran]
Yes. It’s a story. And is there a agenda or message, or do you take it in blocks?

When you create an EP, does the EP become the story, or do you get in a phase where you say, okay, this is the story or journey I’m going on for these next 10 songs, or is it each song is its own individual story?

[Magitman]
So my approach, maybe it’s because for me, music is not my main thing that I live from. I have a normal job. I’m a project manager, tech guy and engineer and stuff, but music was always with me, and I do it.

That’s what I said for me. So for me, the approach is different. I do what I feel like and what I like at that moment, and then the music comes.

It’s not that I plan what I want to do, and it was never like that. I never planned what I want to do because then the outcome is not what I like.

[Darran]
Fair enough. I can understand. Again, I can relate to that experience, but I’m sitting there with a friend of mine.

We’re watching a beat battle, producer battle yesterday, and the producers would get up and they’d play their beats, and then they had a beatbox battle where they were beatboxing, and then DJ Qbert got on the decks. I don’t know if you know DJ Qbert. Pretty well-known DJ around the world, and he gets up there.

My friend says to me, hey, why aren’t you filming this right now? And I said, he goes, you got an iPhone Pro 15 Max. You should be able to go get some footage, and I said, well, I don’t have a patch to the audio board, so it doesn’t tell the way I want to tell the story.

He goes, well, what about guerrilla style? We used to just run up with video cameras and film people for our show. I go, well, that’s what we did 30 years ago.

Nowadays, I want to launch a brand. I have standards that I have for my show, so I just don’t run out and grab my phone. Like if I’m doing a little plug, if I saw you in the crowd at a nightclub, yeah, I’m gonna be like, Magitman, yeah, what’s up?

It’s Darran with the DJ Session. We’ll do something on my phone for that, but if I’m gonna record a live performance, I want to make sure that I have the audio dialed in. I want to make sure that my audience is getting that real end-user experience, so no, I just don’t go shoot guerrilla anymore.

So that’s, when you say telling the story, you’re kind of on the fly, on the go. You gotta go with it. I had to not pull out my phone and want to record that performance because of that, but I can relate to that.

You want to be in the moment and have that inspiration right there. That’s awesome.

[Magitman]
Sometimes you start to make a track and you finish it in three days, and it’s one of the, you always think it’s one of the best after you finish a track, but it really sounds good and you like it, and sometimes you have an arrangement that you can one, two months, three months, and then to finish it. So it’s just the phase that we pass in the life. It’s something different.

You can’t predict it, how it will go.

[Darran]
Yeah, and your latest release that just came out recently called Chasing Time out on Mode Rhythm, that was a compilation between you and Brisker, correct? How long did that track take to, well, congratulations on the release, first of all. Thank you, thank you.

Yeah, and then how long did that take to produce?

[Magitman]
We are very excited about this release. The story about me and Brisker are very long, and I’m sure most of the viewers that know me knows Brisker as well, because when we started seriously in 2005, 2006, me and Brisker produced a lot of tracks together. First of all, we are best friends since the childhood, and we see each other every day and talking to each other every day, and it began there, and we had many releases, and we played all over the world, playing gigs and everything, but then we got older families and stuff.

So this release is like symbolizing something that after some time that we didn’t work together. We always have been friends, and we sometimes did something together and jamming all the time, and we like it. We have most likely the same taste also in music, and we decided to get it to life.

This track, we started the jam session, and it just went so fast and so good with stuff, and it sounded so fresh for us, and we felt really, really good about it. We have a lot of other tracks that coming out and should be coming soon, stay followed, but this time, it’s chasing time.

[Darran]
Chasing time, I turn 50 next month. Well, I turn 50. I guess next month is only two days away, but towards the end of the month.

42? Yeah. Awesome.

It seems like that is relevant, and that’s an awesome story behind chasing time. You say you have some other releases that are gonna be coming out here in the near future. Can we talk about those and anything secret you can give our DJ Sessions fans?

[Magitman]
We have, well, not too much information for now, but we still have a couple of new tracks that we want to release, and we probably want to, we’re checking our options, waiting to finish it completely, so we will both be happy with it when we’ll be ready to release it, but stay updated. We are always updating about new stuff that coming out. We will post later on maybe some other links for the Brisbane Market Man project.

In the meantime, I have released, I also produce as Market Man myself all this time. I have several new tracks also that should be coming out, and I should start to post something about it very soon, so stay updated here also. There is not a lot of releases, because as I said before, music is something that compliments my life, and it’s something to work several hours in the evening and weekends, and it’s for me, first of all, so only when I’m 100% happy, then I start to think about releasing, but it’s a therapy.

[Darran]
What’s the longest time you’ve ever consecutively spent working in the studio on a track?

[Magitman]
That’s a good question. Well, now in the adult life, as you say, it’s not much. It’s not much, because you have obligation.

You have work in the morning, and I can spend three, four, five, six hours at max, but eventually I need to go to sleep because I need to wake up in the morning, but there is always the next day, and there is always the weekend coming, and it’s a good day when you have started something and you’re at work and you’re thinking in your head, this is it, this is gonna be it, and you have time to test it. There are some positives and negatives. When you sit a lot of time in the studio, I, for example, I can’t do it for a lot of time.

I think it’s individual, eventually.

[Darran]
And I see you’re sitting in the studio there. Are you a hardware producer or software producer? Did you start with hardware and move into software, or what was your transition, or were you always into software?

You mentioned Fruity Loops, or now everyone says FL, and I’m like, gosh, I remember playing with that back in 2001.

[Magitman]
Yeah, I started even, Fruity Loops was my evolution. I started with a program called Fast Tracker, if you know. It’s something so old, I think it worked on DOS only.

So, no, I’m more a software producer. I don’t use a lot of hardware, and I have a good setup of a good computer, I have a good sound card, I have UAD and plugins and stuff, but not a lot of hardware. Maybe it’s the way I work on music, maybe it’s something to come in the future, I don’t know.

But for now, I’m not feeling limited by it. So, this is it as now, and maybe we’ll start. It’s something, I think, that comes with time also, and there is some thinking, and you always want, maybe I’ll get this, and maybe I’ll get that.

I don’t know, we’ll see, but for now, mostly it’s controllers, it’s Push, it’s Ableton, it’s UAD, it’s plugins. It’s faster for me, for my way of work. To work only with hardware, you need to record a lot, you need to spend more time with this, with the way I work and the way I spend the time, so maybe this is the answer.

[Darran]
Yeah, no, I mean, like I said, I started with software way back in the day, got into a little bit of hardware. In 2005, I went to work for Apple, and this is where I first got introduced to Logic. Logic 7, I think, was out at the time, and became a trainer for Apple, and started playing around with Logic, and I just never looked back on hardware really ever again.

I got myself a nice 49-key MIDI keyboard, like something probably what you got right there in front of you, and just fell in love with the sequencer in the back end of Logic. I mean, I’m not a musician by any chance. I only knew the program so I could teach people how to navigate and do things in the program, but not music composition or creating beats for music, but I’ve used it in past things, making some simple soundtracks or different programs I’ve produced and things of that nature.

Using soundtrack, and even GarageBand was a fun one to play around with and use, still is, to make some basic stuff, but I’m very rudimentary when it comes to music production, but yeah, the advancement of, I remember back in the day, it was just, you had to buy almost a supercomputer to do music production in a software environment, so it was very hardware-based stuff that was really awesome, and obviously sequencing all of MIDI, and I grew up, my brothers had a studio, my dad had basically furnished for them in the 80s, so I was playing around with MIDI and keyboards at the age of eight years old, back in the early 80s, so connecting things in wires and putting gear together was not new to me, but getting into the computer side, the computer stuff behind it was, still some awesome stuff there. If you had a track, I mean, you also DJ, correct?

[Magitman]
I used to play, I used to play before I got my kids, and it was something that I decided with myself. This is just not the way of life for me to go abroad every weekend to play and stuff. I liked it a lot, and maybe I’ll come back to it maybe on small scale or something, but I just felt that at that time that I wanted to be more home with the family and not to be abroad, and this is some decision I made for myself, so this is it.

[Darran]
Yeah, I mean, a lot of people do make that choice. I was actually at that event the other night, and there was somebody who got on stage, and when they got on stage, they were all production people. It was all producing beats on stage, and a lot of people would get up there, they’d hit play, and they kind of would just stand there letting their beat play in the crowd, but the one thing that stood out with me about this particular producer was that when she was up there, she got up there and she was just rocking it out.

She was DJing the beat that she made performing, and I went up to her after the show and I said, hey, are you a DJ? She says, no, I don’t DJ. I’ve been looking to get into DJing, but I do play one.

I am one on a radio show. I produce a radio show, so I mean, I don’t think she’s, she might be like selecting, I haven’t heard her radio show because I just met her yesterday, but she might be selecting tracks and then talking about the tracks, selecting tracks and putting tracks out there. I’m not sure how a radio show format goes, but it was interesting because it’s what caught my attention to liking her beats more than the other people was that they were a little bit more engaged, which made me want to approach and say, are you a DJ and does, do you think being a DJ and a producer helps your overall production skills because you’re, or is it like, do you think it’s not needed?

[Magitman]
I think it does give, it gives some advantage because eventually you produce your own tracks. You test them when you DJ and you know the feedback for your own tracks and how it sounds and you can feed what works, what not works. And there is an advantage in this.

I think so. But it’s eventually, if you’re not a DJ, so no matter what you’re going to do, you are not, if you can’t perform and do the stuff and you only know to produce, this is you. You can’t be someone else.

So if you have both of them and you like both also to produce and you know to produce and you like to be a DJ, this is like a jackpot if you like and everything. But I think it’s personality and not everybody are like this, but.

[Darran]
Yeah, and I felt, I can feel that. I mean, there’s a kind of funny joke that goes on with the DJ sessions that people often ask me. I say, I produce a live streaming DJ show and they ask me, oh, so you DJ?

And I say, no, I don’t DJ. I’ve never learned how to DJ. I don’t know how to do it.

I mean, I’m sure I could pick it up. I’m not going to be phenomenal. I’m not going to become a success overnight.

But I get the beat matching portions. I’ve seen enough shows. I’ve been to enough clubs.

I’ve talked to enough DJs and producers to understand the concepts of it. But I don’t have that goal to be a DJ per se. Although I do play one on live streams.

There’s an inside joke for that. But I kind of, I focus on video production. I let the DJs and producers focus on the music production and telling stories through music.

I think that’s a very good symbiotic relationship to have because then they don’t have to worry about all the video stuff that I got to worry about and running the show and doing all that fun stuff. So, you know, I got to ask one question though. Do you use the car test?

Are you familiar with it? Of course I use the car test.

[Magitman]
You use the car test. Of course I use the car is my reference. My main reference.

It’s a, I can go to the car up forward and back to home just to listen again and again. And after another expert and well, I think your reference is where you spend the most time when you’re listening to music, to other music as well. Not only yours music.

I don’t listen a lot of other people’s music in the studio back at home. Not, not, not in the studio. I listen it on the living room and some other speakers, but not in the studio.

So that’s why I can’t reference it here. So I go the way to where I the most hear my music and it’s a car. Yeah.

[Darran]
And do you do headset tests as well?

[Magitman]
Now, less because I think, what do you mean? You mean if I test it in the headphones?

[Darran]
Like I know some people have like six different, like they have earbuds, they have the skull candy, they’ll have different headsets. I’ve tested it and go, what’s it sound like in all of these?

[Magitman]
I think, I think the, if it sounds good in the car and in your phone, when you outside and you try to listen it and there is some plugins today that you can test it and see the mono signal and see how it will sound on some different systems. I think it’s not an issue now when your reference, when your reference car is good, then it’s good.

[Darran]
And that brings me right back to earlier in the conversation that I was talking about why I wouldn’t film a DJ performance or a live music performance on my phone and then push that out to social media, especially in a personal capacity, yes. If it’s going to my personal Facebook or Meta, my personal Instagram or whatever, okay, cool. But if it’s going to my business stuff, and somebody’s, it’s their first experience and they’re going to watch a video for the first time and they’re going to listen to that and goes, why does the audio sound like crap?

Is this what I’m going to expect? Okay, see you later, bye. You know, I want that end user experience to be, I came here, I listened to DJ, the sound sounded awesome in my car, I want more of that.

You know, they’re going to follow us and check out our past episodes and things of that nature. So that degree of quality has to be there. And the car test, I’ve, you know, I can’t remember what DJ told me that, but like, you know, the best thing I ever done is when I finish a track, I get in my car and I go drive around listening to it over and over and over again.

[Magitman]
Yeah, exactly. When you finish the track, it’s the first week, I hear it in the morning, in the afternoon, when I go to work, back to work. In the morning, when I take my kids to the school, we always hear the new trucks, they know all my trucks, new trucks.

[Darran]
Awesome. Now, producing music stands like synonymous. It’s kind of like, you spend countless hours behind the computer, making your beats, sculpting your beats, perfecting your beats.

What do you do in your free time to stay fit?

[Magitman]
I don’t do much. I have a good genetics. And I try not to eat too much, but I can’t eat too much now.

Well, I lost maybe, like three years ago, I lost 15 kilograms, but I always have been fit and this is my genetics, whatever I eat now, and I still stay in shape. I don’t do anything. I need to start to do something with myself, but I don’t do anything.

[Darran]
I know how that goes. About a year and a half ago, I was weighing in at about 187 pounds. Pounds, not kilograms.

And over the years, I lost about 30 pounds and people hadn’t seen me on camera for a while. I took a break last year and I got on camera. They’re like, you look thinner.

What’s going on? Are you okay? People seeing people in person, they’re like, they hadn’t seen me for a while.

They’re like, wow, you look really good. You look fit. I’m like, yeah, I’ve been a little active, but you can put on that with sitting in the chair, doing a lot of work behind the computer, a lot of behind the scenes stuff that people see me do.

I’m sitting in a chair behind a computer at a computer desk pretty much all day long, doing work.

[Magitman]
I try to get up on my rooftop.

[Darran]
I walked for like two and a half miles the other day on my rooftop, just doing business, up in the sun, having fun. But no, I saw this really awesome. The reason I asked that question to you is, I saw this post.

It must have been your Instagram or Facebook. And it was this really awesome backyard with a pool. Is that your personal backyard or are you on vacation?

Where was that at? Cause that looked like somewhere I want to be at.

[Magitman]
I will tell you. Let me check it. I will tell you.

Yeah, it’s not the backyard. It’s not the backyard. On the weekends, I like to go when it’s not too hot.

So we go to just travel, work around, do barbecues and picnics with the kids. We have several friends that we live all together and everybody have the kids, several kids. And we always try to go to find some nice places to walk around.

[Darran]
Yeah, it looked beautiful.

[Magitman]
And that’s not just right in your own hometown? No, some places you need to go. I have not a big pool and I have a yard.

And I go every afternoon with my kids there. And some fruits, trees and apples and oranges and stuff. But the more nicer things are you need to drive.

It’s not here.

[Darran]
Awesome. I want to go experience more tropical locations. We live in Seattle.

It’s nice here. The weather’s okay. We get all four seasons.

But on a day like today and it’s overcast and I’m like, I would love to be somewhere where there’s a palm tree and it’s tropical right now with a beach.

[Magitman]
Well, you don’t want to be here because during the day here, it’s like 45 degrees. It’s impossible to be outside. You can’t go barbecue.

You just need to be around water.

[Darran]
Yeah.

[Magitman]
Or in the air conditioner.

[Darran]
Oh, air conditioning. Yeah, yeah, I hear you there. Now, do you sometimes ever make…

You mentioned when you make your movie, it’s a story when you make your music. Do you ever make music completely out of your own genre that never gets released? Say like, I’m going to do this genre for a minute and I’m going to tell a story in this genre, but that’s not my normal genre.

Do you do anything like that?

[Magitman]
Yes, yes, I do this. And I think I always do it. And I think that maybe this is one of the reasons that I don’t have a lot of releases because firstly, I do what I like.

And sometimes it’s the more slow things it’s the more jazzy things. It’s the more, whatever I feel at that moment, whatever I like to hear and whatever I want to do. And I have not a lot of tracks, but when I have good tracks that are not fit to any label.

And this is something that I speak about and I think about a lot of time now that I never try to do a track for a specific label. I just do what I like. And if it doesn’t fit, it doesn’t fit.

That’s why several years ago, me and Brisker established Mod Rhythm where Chasing Time is out. So this is our label. And eventually it will be for music we love and we believe and with no frames, with no specific genre, just a good music and not only ours music, maybe some other artists as well.

And this will be the home for those music. And I have some very slow stuff and I know it doesn’t fit to a lot of labels. And I always don’t spend a lot of energy and time to look for the right label because maybe there are some labels that will release it because it’s a good quality music eventually.

But if I don’t know it, I think it’s like a gap in the industry that for now, you don’t know upfront who to contact to release a good music. And I think it’s about time that something will come out because labels that, it’s either way, the labels owners also can’t hunt for music. There must be something invented for this gap to cover.

Maybe some, I don’t know, but it’s not my field. So because it’s hard for everybody, not for me, I guess. And every artist, I think from time to time want to do something that it’s not really mainly the thing he produced.

That’s why I will release it in more rhythm if I like.

[Darran]
You know, that is a difficult thing that I hear about releasing tracks now out there. We have toyed with the idea, I speak about this all the time in interviews with people about the DJ sessions and us forming our own label over here. Our website is right, we are ready to go.

I built everything and did a big revamp a few years back and we’re talking about doing our own label here at the DJ sessions. And the thing is, is do we only do produce our own internal music and push it out there? Do we open it for submissions?

What kind of floodgates gonna open? What’s gonna happen when we open for submissions? Even if we say we are this genre and we only take this genre, so please stick within this genre or do we open it up for all genres?

I don’t have time to listen to 500 tracks a day or 1,000 tracks a day. And once word gets out there and you’re in that database, I mean, yes, you can have a submission form maybe we can allow it to only one submission per month or something and somebody has an email says you’ve already submitted. You can’t submit more than once a month or something to gatekeep that.

It would just be interesting to have to go through all of that information, especially with the internet out there. I bring this up, it was in my marketing class on my second degree a few years back and the instructor in the marketing class says, at that point, this is like 2017, 2018, he said that there are, the statistics are that there are a million videos being uploaded to YouTube every minute. A million videos a minute.

Just imagine how many tracks are being uploaded per minute or how many videos are uploaded per minute now, how many tracks are being uploaded per minute. And now with the advent of everyone going to live streaming because of pandemic from Pandi, how many live stream video productions are now going up? How many mixes are now being pushed out there that weren’t actually, maybe they’d make it to SoundCloud, but now you can do the mix, record it, put it to SoundCloud, put it to Mixcloud, maybe live stream it here, put it on your own server.

How many submissions are now happening because of that or how has that increased the amount of people submitting stuff? And how do you sift through it all? Is there a way?

I heard that labels, promoters, they won’t even touch a track if a person doesn’t have 50,000 followers on Instagram. Or they base a lot on their socials now and is there gonna be distribution? Is the person gonna be able to focus on it?

Again, talking to that same person I was talking to yesterday, we were having, he comes from, he’s old school. We started a public access television. There was television and public access and you couldn’t get on FM radio.

It was all the regulations to get on, but we had public access to outreach people. And then it was broadcast television. Once YouTube came out and podcasting, video podcasting came out, at least for our field, that gave us a distribution platform we could put stuff out on and it would go all over the world.

And we abandoned that. Then, of course, it became video podcasting and live streaming became the new hit thing. I’ve always been adapting to the new platforms, but eventually you get caught in the what not, the smoke screen.

What’s the word I’m looking for? Not the mess, you get caught up in the noise. That’s what I’m looking for.

The noise of everyone else saying, look at me, look at me, look at me. And how do you stand out? You could even have 10 Beatport, top 10 hits and still not get booked for a show even though you’re doing millions of streams.

[Magitman]
So you see where we are, where we at. It’s not about music anymore. And this is the sad part because I’m also a person.

I never, never, and I think maybe our generation, we are the transmission. And for me, for example, me and Brisker, we were at peak maybe 2007, 2008. We had a lot of vinyls, we released music in Sony, PlayStation games, and we didn’t do, this was the time when the social media came out.

And we weren’t the people that pushed this. I’m not the person to post anything. I never post any post, anything.

For me to make a post for me is to fight with myself. It’s just not me. And this is the main reason that if you don’t do this, even if your music is good, it’s nothing.

And this is the sad story that now it’s not about music. Well, I mean, it’s not everywhere, but a lot of times. That’s the problem.

[Darran]
And that’s exactly what the conversation I was having with my friend was, is that you have to put into your overall mix, if you wanna stay relevant, you have to put into your marketing mix a social media strategy. It just, it has to be there now. Even if it’s a slight one, even if you say, I’m gonna post once a week, or I’m gonna do this, this much time, or I’m gonna dedicate this much effort to, I find out where my top fans are and I’m gonna buy ads in those markets.

Like if I knew I had a following in England, I had a following in Germany, I had a following in Belize, I’m gonna buy ads on Facebook maybe in those countries. I can see where my downloads and everything are coming in from and really promote myself there or to those mediums or hire some influencers in those areas that are on social media and you pay them 50 bucks and then they talk about your product to their tens, hundreds, 50,000s of fans and getting in that has to be part of the marketing mix now, unfortunately. And I get you, I was talking with Martin Ayer and Tom Wax the last couple of weeks and they’ve been in the game for 35 years and they might not be heavy into social media, but are they getting called to be booked on anymore unless you’re the old school, older crowd, you don’t know, oh, let me get Martin, let me get Tom.

They’re great musicians, great producers, great DJs, but they’re being surpassed by the younger generation because they just don’t know about them anymore because they’re not socially relevant and that’s kind of a little hump you gotta get over.

[Magitman]
I admire those people that are active socially and they can, they love it and it’s going good for them. I’m really happy for them and it’s not envy, it’s like white envy, good that they can have it and I know that I’m not the person, I don’t feel that I want to do it and I don’t do it because I can’t because if I wanted to do it, I would do it, but it’s just not me, but this is helpful in these times. That’s the change game eventually.

[Darran]
Yeah, and that’s just, it’s the same thing. If somebody’s stuck with a video camera, wanted to be on television and they never embraced YouTube, which we didn’t in the beginning, we thought YouTube in the beginning was gonna be like a TikTok, what TikTok is now. You tubing to the camera, that wasn’t us.

We were a broadcast show, we were above the board, trying to raise millions of dollars and we thought something like Hulu or Netflix was gonna come out and pick up our series and put it online, but luckily we got in at the video podcasting we did with Apple and kind of had a big success there in 2005 and then kind of looked at YouTube as something in the secondary, but did not pass that up when it came to live streaming. So always adapting and looking to the next technology and how to stay above the rest, it’s very different. It’s a different ball game than it was years ago.

What do you feel distinguishes a DJ who kind of curates music from a producer that produces music? Is there a difference there, really? I mean, obviously one is producing and telling a story like you do, but the DJ is also producing a product and telling a story through music.

Is there something that distinguishes the difference between the two?

[Magitman]
I think it’s, I’m not sure I can answer correctly from my point of view. It’s eventually if he can produce music, he can produce whatever works better. And if he’s a good DJ, he can produce something that works so good that others will like it as well.

So it is a good thing eventually.

[Darran]
Yeah, like I said, it’s a fine line. If you see a producer who’s not a DJ, do they ever get a chance to put that, unless somebody’s playing their track, they don’t get to hear it in a club. Where I know a lot of producers that are DJs, they’ll test out their tracks in the club.

And see, I mean, I remember Benny Bonassi was telling me once in an interview, he was, I was backstage with him and he’s like, yeah, I have my new mix. And I’ve tested it out in this market to 5,000 people. I’m testing that in this market to 1,200 people.

I got seven different remixes of it that I test out and I’m playing before I release it. And nobody hears it, but they’re hearing it in the club for the first time. And it’s like, okay, this one worked well.

And I got the most audience response here in the club, watching this go and then boom.

[Magitman]
This is the best. It’s a good thing to have it, to test it. Because eventually, I think it depends on what genre of music you produce.

If it’s electronic music for the dance floor, so yeah, for sure you need to test it. If it’s for the beach before the sunset, you can test it on the beach before the sunset.

[Darran]
Absolutely, absolutely. You know, do you ever sometimes get fed up with making and playing music? Or I should say making music.

And if you do, what do you do to deal with that?

[Magitman]
Every producer passes some of this sometimes. And it’s sometimes can be a period of three months that I don’t even turn on Ableton. And sometimes I can produce three tracks in a month.

And both are okay with it. I’m okay with both of that. There are no timelines that I need to, or deadlines that I need to do.

There is no one is running behind me. So if you start to do something and it’s just, there is no flow, I just leave it for a couple of time, for some time. And when I feel that I’m ready for it, I’m trying, and you see it start to flow, then it starts to flow.

When it starts to flow, it’s three, four tracks. Before I get three months.

[Darran]
No, I can relate to that. I’ve taken about, I’ve tell a story often that, over the years, doing this for 30 years and being just really headstrong from like 2005 on, I’ve burnt out, burnt out like three or four times where I just don’t wanna pick up a camera, don’t wanna do an interview, don’t wanna try to put on an event. I mean, there’s still back-end work that I’m doing, but the front-end, the front-facing stuff of doing interviews, like what we’re doing right now, or doing our mobile series, or putting on a rooftop event, or anything that gets outside of the office, I just take a break from.

And it’s like, huh, I gotta take a break and get my bearings back. And I mean, it was even just last year, I had an issue where I was like, why am I doing these interviews? What does this, I was questioning myself.

I’m like, what are you talking about? Why, like, get back in the game, like get back in the ring, get back, come on, get back in there and fight, fight, fight, and make it happen.

[Magitman]
Today you need to fight with algorithms, not with people, not with anything else. You need to fight with algorithms.

[Darran]
I bring it right up, that’s exactly, that’s exactly what my friend said to me yesterday. It’s like, I feel like I’m fighting with the algorithms now. It’s no longer you just go out and you buy space on broadcast TV, and you’re the only one that made it, and you might be up against four or five other channels locally.

Even when cable TV came out, you got 100 channels you’re up against, but still, your local market.

[Magitman]
You need to put a pitch on Spotify, on some playlist, on something, and that’s it. You don’t need a lot, but you fight with algorithms eventually, and not the music speaks. And I totally understand, because when I was at the peak producing 2008, 2009, and later, when you try to keep up with everything and try to make it, I started to hear it in the music itself, and I didn’t like it.

You can’t do something by force. It’s just, you know that you need to do some releases and stuff, because you need to continue to play abroad, and you need to bring new music, and you need to go to clubs and everything just to meet people. But I don’t like it.

I like to produce. I like to produce a lot. But eventually, when you need to fulfill something, some obligations, when you have something above your head, I started to hear it in the music, and I didn’t like it.

That’s it.

[Darran]
Yeah, it has to have that feeling to it. You have to be on the right wave. I’m not a surfer, but if you’re on the right comfortable wave, you’re riding that wave, and you just know it’s going.

But if you’re just not feeling that wave, you just, and you might paddle out there and be in the ocean all day long just sitting under the water waiting for the wave to come in. Or somebody might come in and steal your wave, and you’re like, nah, you go take that one. And you’re like waiting and waiting.

Oh, I got my ride in. You know? That can happen a lot.

And that’s just a frustration, I think, of anyone trying to put together something, especially for artists. Whether you’re a writer, a musician, a DJ, a performer, a fashion designer, a chef. There’s always a roadblock.

[Magitman]
That’s true, and the main question is, I think that it depends if you depend on that financially or not. Because if you’re not, then you’re good to go anything you do. But if you are, then you need to fulfill some obligations to maintain the same income or increase your income.

[Darran]
Yeah, absolutely. So you need to do something. Yeah, you’re right.

I think you’re right. If your livelihood depends on it, you gotta keep going. But if it’s not, then you’re like, eh, I don’t have to get to that today.

Yeah, yes, exactly. If there was one production tip or insight that you could give to new producers out there, what would that be? Like a number one, make sure you do this.

I hear a lot of songs or music and they aren’t doing this. What would that production tip or insight be for those new producers? Wow.

[Magitman]
I think it’s a little bit different now because there are so many guys online, on Instagram and everywhere, do this and do this and buy this bag and this bag and everything. Eventually, eventually. I think you need to learn new stuff because some of it helpful, like EQ and stuff.

It’s very important to be in a good environment to hear what you do. If you make some changes and you can’t hear the difference, there’s something wrong in the environment. You need to, whatever you do, you need to hear the feedback of it.

So this is to make sure. And eventually you have to feel it. You can, new producers must go to learn how to do things so it will sound.

But today I think it’s the least important thing because you have so many tools to make just like this and it sounds good and it sounds good enough to release it as well. And sometimes you hear stuff that got released and they sound so horrible that you don’t know how to release it. So there is no standard as we expect to speak before.

Today, it’s not the music speaks. So you can make whatever you want with no EQ at all, but you will spend $1,000 and you will push it all over. It might bring some outcome.

[Darran]
Exactly. I totally hear you there. I’m sure in your history, there’s a million things you can see that people need to be doing a lot better.

A lot of artists now can self-produce, self-create their own label, self-distribute. I think that’s such a huge, powerful tool. One of the things that I saw that I think is gonna happen after Pandy happening was that a lot of musicians are finding a way to now they didn’t look at live streaming as a medium to put their content out there or even make YouTube videos and put their content out there in the sense of things, especially for musicians.

I think that’s gonna be a new way that musicians are gonna be like, I have a fan base now of say 10,000 followers that I didn’t have before. If 5,000 of those followers gave me $5 a month, that’s $25,000 a month. That’s $250,000 a year if you break it down by how Twitch takes their cut or if they’re getting donations and building that online base.

That’s more than they would probably ever make touring as an indie musician without a publicist, without a manager, without a booking manager, without having to pay for tours and be on the road all the time. They’re just producing right out of their home studio. I think that’s a huge outlet that they should look at more.

I don’t know if you do live streaming from your studio.

[Magitman]
I’ve never done a live stream. Because it’s a live stream for what? I’m a bit shy.

[Darran]
You’re doing great on camera right now.

[Magitman]
I know. I actually thought a lot about it to make this interview. I’m really honest with you.

I don’t normally do this stuff. I like to produce and I like to release and I want my music to speak for myself and that’s it. It’s very nice to do it.

I enjoy it every moment, but I normally don’t do it. But this is the thing. You need to do it these days.

You need to do it. I never do live streams because I don’t DJ and make sets just for my time. The couple of hours I have in the evening is I want to produce music and to do exactly what I love and that’s it.

Not to do some extra stuff just to make my work more successful or something. Because as we speak about it, this is not the main goal.

[Darran]
What do you consider your biggest break that launched your whole career? You’ve been doing this for almost 14, 15 years. Well, actually you said back in 2003 or early 2000s.

But what was the biggest break that actually launched your career that got you into this or that made you really move forward with it?

[Magitman]
I can say that in the beginning when we started, we actually started a long time ago. We started with Pull On Music and Psy Trance and we did an album also with Brisk Hair. And then we started Brisk Hair and Mugget Man.

And after a couple of several years, we did really good. We have a lot of vinyls on biggest labels with our music and everything. We just didn’t invest in everything.

And this was the peak, but this was organic and natural. No algorithms, no anything. And as soon as you had to invest in it and we didn’t, then it started to decline.

So it just started automatically, this transition. But it’s not always the goal to be famous or celebrity or something or to play on the biggest venues. This was not the goal for me.

For me, the first one is to make music and the others is the extra.

[Darran]
Yeah, I can respect that. I see, like you said, this isn’t your full-time operation. This isn’t your full-time gig.

[Magitman]
Some goals that I set to myself to release in some biggest labels like Global Underground and Tool Room and Glasgow and Proton. Some of them and some VJs to play my music. That was my dreams before that when I started with music and I achieved most of them.

And this was for me the main thing. And that’s it. Not to play the biggest club because I’m shy.

[Darran]
That’s all good, that’s all good. Like I said, you’re doing great in the interview now. Who has been the biggest influence though when it comes to your career as an artist?

And why is that person so influential?

[Magitman]
It’s obviously Brisker, obviously. Because first of all, he’s my best friend, whatever what. But I think in music, this is a funny thing because we compliment each other and something different comes out of it.

And whenever I need an opinion, I can always send him something and ask his opinion about it. And it’s very helpful. Sometimes it takes the opposite side.

It’s not always someone’s feedback, it’s this is the decision. So it makes you think maybe he likes it, but I like it like this. So I’m not sure now.

But it’s always him when wherever it comes for music and the inspiration that gives me, I can come to his house and we sit outside and we drink some beer and he put me some new music that you hear. And we listen to a couple of tracks and those are the moments that the inspiration comes.

[Darran]
Yeah, that’s always a good way to collaborate when you’re working with somebody who definitely inspires you to want to do more or want to take it to that next level or adds insight. I run into this a lot with my own brand is that I’m everything. So I might write something and I think it sounds great.

But then I just brought on a new resident DJ and she’s looking at my copy for the words that I wrote for an event. And she goes, Darran, you’re supposed to be throwing a rooftop party. This doesn’t sound like it’s a rooftop party.

This sounds like something where you want DJs to come over and play on your show, not a rooftop party where people want to come by and get drinks and be on this awesome rooftop. And I’m like, what do you mean? I don’t read it like that.

And she goes, let me tweak the copy and see what happens. And it came up with a different set of eyes. It did sound a little bit more organic, a little bit more inviting.

Like, hey people, come on and party with us. But I’m thinking from a show standpoint as an executive producer, come play on my show, invite your friends. And so the wording probably sounds like come play on the show first, then invite your friends.

Rather than come hang out with some really cool DJs. I gotta remember, I don’t know everything. I might think what I know is great, but it’s always that outside opinion.

Had a conversation with somebody online yesterday on Netta Facebook, and they posted something. And I said, hey, the reason why I’m talking to you about this is because somebody could be reading your post in a completely different light without the wrong inflection. And I see it like this, which means others probably are gonna see it like this.

And you might just wanna, I’m not trying to tell or police Facebook, but this is how I’m reading it. This is how it looks. I’m not trying to tell you you’re wrong.

I mean, the guy said some harsh words back to me online and then removed them, hit me up in a private message. Hey, I’m really sorry I came at you like that. I said, it’s okay.

I still love you. Let’s go hang out sometime. I’m not mad at you.

Don’t take my inflection as being pissed off either. Let’s all collaborate together because I think the goal is to help each other out, help spread a good ecosystem and make a good place for people wanting to feel nurtured and not throw in shade or hate or anything negative towards somebody. And having that extra insight can be helpful.

So I’m glad you have that symbiotic relationship with you. And you have a best friend, you and Brister.

[Magitman]
In the audio, it’s a bit different because when you produce and you made some melody that runs in the background, you produce this melody, you hear it in your head all the time, but then you put to your friend to listen and say, you hear that melody? No. So you start to understand that this melody is hidden.

He didn’t hear it. Or I need to do something to make it up or something else because he didn’t hear it. But this is for me that I hear it.

So something is wrong here. So this is the other’s opinion is, not any others, yeah, but the people you trust. The people that have good taste in music.

[Darran]
Now, when you say people good taste in music, without just running things by Brister, do you have a core group of fans or anyone, do you have a team or a group of people out there that you say, hey, here’s 10 people I send this to and let them listen to it first as well? Do they get a sneak peek or do you do that at all?

[Magitman]
Yes, we have a small group with several people with good music, yeah, and good friends, that not a lot, but very small, that we send there and we hear feedbacks and very, very helpful people there. And I love them very much, every one of them.

[Darran]
Now, you said- Honest people.

[Magitman]
That’s the main thing.

[Darran]
Honest people, honest people. Well, I’ve met a lot of people I’ve interviewed on the show that you would think wouldn’t have the time to, you’d think they’d be so big and so busy, they’d never listen to my track, and they will say, no, please send me your track, I’m glad to give you some notes on your track. Or there was Robert Babasich, Babasich, he’ll say, he’ll actually do an online stream, let you submit his track to him, he’ll listen to it in the live stream, and then say, this is what’s wrong, this is what’s wrong, this is what’s wrong.

He’s not critiquing, he’s not saying it sucks, he’s saying, you need to add in this, bring in this, bring down that, and do this, and he’ll do that with four or five songs in a chat room with hundreds of people watching, maybe they’re producers, maybe they’re not, they’re watching for entertainment, they’re watching for producing, but the person’s there going, I’m getting a consultation on my track from a very, very well-known producer, and even that’s a live streaming show and something really awesome that you can kind of give back to the community.

[Magitman]
This is short and good use of it, and this is excellent tool for this.

[Darran]
Awesome, now, I know that you said earlier, though, in the interview, you have a day job, and you don’t rely 100% on your music production and all that, but success sometimes, it doesn’t last forever for artists. What would be your suggestion to an artist that is looking to do this 100% of the time or make it successful? Would there be anything that you would suggest for them to save up for in the future, what to invest their earnings in, what they should look forward to to kind of make it successful as an artist?

Any words of insight that you would have for a producer or artist out there regarding that?

[Magitman]
I think it’s, from my point of view, you need to be in control and to understand what you want in your life, and then you make the decisions. I don’t think I have a tip or something how to be successful and what to have on the second thing, because in these days, you never know what you’re gonna get famous from. It could be anything, you know, it could be a hack tool or it can be something else.

So it’s like, you don’t know, so no tip is here. It’s like, you need to know what to do, and if you’re not sure that you’re gonna be successful in music, you need to start to think what you’re gonna do somewhere else. You need to plan B.

It depends on your obligations and you as a person, if you are thinking about it, or you’re just living the day and living the life, and you’re not concerned what’s gonna be tomorrow.

[Darran]
Yeah, exactly, you know, and that kind of can be a tough jumping off point for a lot of artists to go full in, and even if they’re in that middle of, I’m feeling so successful that it’s gonna be around the turn and the mountain of gold’s gonna come, and the next thing you know, the algorithms aren’t nice to them, and whoop, oh, I gotta go back and get a day job now. What am I doing?

[Magitman]
You know, I’m sure that’s happened a lot. That’s the problem, that’s the switch I did a long time ago because I realized I don’t like it too much. I realized I need to spend a lot of time and energy to do something, I don’t like to push it on social media and everything else, and that was the decision I made a long time ago, and that’s it, and I love my job, and I like to combine the job and music because to do music all the day, it’s also not, I don’t think it’s a good thing.

When you depend on it, as we were speaking, then you must do it, but if not, it’s very hard.

[Darran]
Absolutely. Well, you know, Igal, thank you so much for coming on the show today. Really a pleasure having you on.

We definitely wanna stay in touch with you over the next upcoming months. We always follow up with our guests that come on the show. Is there anything else that you wanna let our DJ Sessions fans know about before I let you go?

[Magitman]
Just check the social media accounts and whatever gonna be new, and there are gonna be new tracks, just keep following and you will be updated. I had so much fun. Thank you so much, guys.

[Darran]
Absolutely, and those socials are, let’s take a look at your Instagram down below right there. We got Megaman at Instagram, and we also have, we got that one right, and then we got the forward slash Megaman Music on Meta. Awesome, thank you.

Thank you so much. Absolutely, for coming on the show. It was a pleasure having you.

Next time we get you on, we’re gonna get an interview with Brisker, we’re gonna get an interview with you and Brisker at the same time. That’ll be some fun there, and follow up with your new tracks. Congratulations on the release of Chasing Time, and have some fun out there.

Thanks for having me, thank you. You’re welcome. On that note, don’t forget to go to our website, thedjsessions.com.

Find us on Meta, find us on Instagram, find us on X, find us on all the social media platforms. You can subscribe to our show in the iTunes, or I say iTunes, just dated myself there in the music store, the Apple Music Store. Go to our website, though, thedjsessions.com.

All that and more is there. Merch, over 600 news stories published a month, exclusive interviews like the one you just saw with Megaman, and more. Exclusive mixes, contests, giveaways.

Check out our VR app and VR chat. Our mobile app will be updated here soon for both Google Play and Apple, so you can take us on the go around the world, wherever we’re at, The DJ Sessions. I’m your host, Darran.

That was Megaman coming in from Israel, and remember, on The DJ Sessions, the music never stops.