Meet OV
OrlandoVaughn — producer, artist, all around creative and now developer, has been a staple in the St. Louis music scene for years. We got the chance to chop it up with him about his process, inspirations, collaborations and his vision for himself and the city. Here’s what he had to say. - Written by Malcolm Xavier
Instagram: @vaughnvibes
WHAT FIRST SPARKED YOUR INTEREST IN MUSIC?
“My pops. He’s always had it around the crib and he’s been in bands my whole life. I would always see him have rehearsals in our living room. On car rides we’d be listening to Stevie Wonder and Earth Wind & Fire and as we got older, he started showing us Outkast & Pharrell, guys that were more outliers from mainstream music. What really got the ball rolling was him buying the equipment.”
AT WHAT POINT DID IT GO FROM PASSION TO POSSIBLE CAREER?
“I think I recorded my first beat on a Radio Shack, Casio keyboard. I guess it got serious when I was like 18. I had a little studio set up in my room. I would just make music and people wouldn’t know what to call it but everybody knew it was crazy. Ever since, I’ve been creating but lately, its been more creating for me.”
WHATS YOUR PROCESS LIKE? DO YOU START WITH AN IDEA ALREADY IN MIND?
“It depends. If I’m working on a project and I got that intention in mind, then I’m gonna go in a certain direction. I’m not the type of person to go in with a tune in my head but its really the feeling that I look for. I allow that feeling to direct me.”
NOW, AS A HUSBAND & FATHER, WHAT INSPIRES YOU?
“ Right now, I’m in a space where I’m not putting the pressure of music being a job on me. With being a father, husband, a son, a good friend, and a brother, my inspiration is everyday. I really don’t make music unless I have something to say, it has to be something there. I don’t force it anymore because in the past, forcing it made me hard on myself. Now, I know that’s not healthy for the creative process, at least not for me. I won’t mess with it until I feel like it’s time to get a message out or experiment with different sounds. I try to go at it like a kid because kids don’t really know and truly, none of us REALLY know. I just try to sit down like I don’t know anything and just press buttons and see what happens and then move on. Watching my son, he keeps me young. He’s very creative and very outgoing so watching him has really helped me.”
HOW HAVE THE RELATIONSHIPS YOU’VE BUILT WITH ARTISTS LIKE ARSHAD GOODS AND ZADO HELPED YOU? WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO OTHER PRODUCERS WORKING WITH AN ARTIST?
“Both of them are very different. One thing that’s important when you get in those spaces is that they’re coming there for you. I don’t believe you should create anything like somebody else or copy, or allow someone to come to you like “can you make a beat like that?”. Don’t be afraid to stay true to yourself and do you. When you’re in the room with somebody and you’re collaborating, you’re bringing something to the table and they’re bringing something to the table. I’ve gotten tremendous results from that with Arshad and Zado. It also pushes them outside of the box. It also allows you to work on communication with another person, which we don’t talk about a lot in this space. Do you. You’re in that room with that person for a reason.”
WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO START GETTING BEHIND THE MIC AND EXPLORING YOUR SOUND VOCALLY?
“At first, people weren’t getting on the beats the way I wanted them to. I love heavy layers and a lot of harmonies and I just wanted to try that. I wanted to see if I could do it and I wanted to hear that on my beats. I felt like, I have a voice and if I exercise it, it’ll only get better.”
WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY WORKING ON?
“Just continuing to build the catalogue. I’m working on projects with both Zado and Arshad right now. I produced the whole joints form start to finish expect for couple songs on Arshad’s project. I’m also just getting more free and consistent with creating and releasing my own stuff. Also, me & my wife’s agency is going crazy. It’s been taking up a lot of time right now but I’m cool with it because I know its going to give me the time I need to give to that and my music.”
HOW WERE YOU ABLE TO BUILD YOUR BRAND IN STL’s CREATIVE SCENE & HOW HAVE YOU BEEN ABLE TO LEVERAGE IT?
“A lot of it happened really organically. Just from staying true to yourself and people seeing that it’s quality. I’m a perfectionist and I think too much but at the same time, if you push through that, you end up with a really good product, which I believe has led to my fanbase. I have a solid fanbase where I can take a break from releasing stuff or being active on social media but as soon as I come back out, people are ready for it. My fanbase isn’t the biggest, but I can say I have 1000 true fans and everything I have now has happened organically. Just being consistent and keeping that quality, whether it takes you some time to release it or not. As long as the quality is straight, you’ll win. I make sure when I do come out with something that it’s packaged well. Quality over quantity.”
HOW DID YOU LINK UP WITH MICK JENKINS?
“That was super dope and once again, that was organic. My homie Michael Anthony from THEMpeople was working with Mick heavily on a lot of his early projects. For Pieces of A Man, they were looking for new people to work with and I ended up making it on that list. I went out there twice and the second time, we brought in New Years and I spent like 4 days out there. It was crazy. That was one of the greatest times of my life. I got to hang out and converse with Mick and I got a lot of gems from that and we made hella music. We made beats and songs all day from 7am-5pm.”
AFTER BEING IN CHICAGO WORKING WITH MICK, WHAT DO YOU THINK IS STOPPING STL FROM BEING ON THE SAME LEVEL AS CHICAGO?
“It's something about Chicago people in general. They just have certainty of themselves. People from Chicago or people that are there long enough just get a certain confidence like they know they’re going to make it. Here, we know that but we’re afraid. There’s a weird fear that I’ve noticed was a pattern in everybody. We have to have some sort of comfort before we can really go hard with it. From working with Mick to even going to Classick [Studios], they just have a different level of belief up there. At the same time I don’t truly know, I can’t necessarily think or speak for everyone, this is just my guess. I feel like STL is up and coming. We’re way past that crab in the bucket mentality but it’s going to take everybody to continue to make those jumps.”
EVENTS LIKE BEAT DAY HAVE HELPED SHAPE, SOLIDIFY AND CONNECT THE STL MUSIC SCENE, WHAT INSPIRED THAT EVENT?
“Thats all we wanted. It’s not known for that community type of feel to be here in St. Louis. Our biggest goal was to set up a platform for people to link. I’ve been hearing from a lot of people that they met other artists and collaborated after Beat Day and that’s all we wanted. We knew we didn’t necessarily have that, we had to make it.”
WHAT DOES SUCCESS LOOK LIKE TO YOU AT THIS POINT?
“Just having control over my time. Whether that be with our agency, making music or both, and that time being used for my family. This coronavirus has shown me none of this is set in stone. Nature gon’ nature my nigga. That’s all that matters to me, the people around me, my family. That’s what success is to me. Having the time to do so and you controlling that.”
