Journalist & Interviewer: Mégan Babbitt
Oftentimes, one of the first things you notice about a song is the beat. That underlying pulse that acts as the ‘heart,’ creating the fundamental structure for an artist to build on and a sound that resonates with its listeners to evoke emotion. Mitch Bashford, or as he goes by Mitchplz Beats, is a producer known for producing these types of beats.
While originally from Colorado, Mitch received his degree in music before moving his family to the Los Angeles area, where he now resides. Growing up, Mitch learned to play a multitude of instruments: the piano, guitar, trumpet, and the ukulele. However, his initial start to making music didn’t begin until around age 13. “I just downloaded GarageBand on my phone and I started making beats…I’ve always wanted to do production. I love just being in the background making cool sounds and seeing what artists do with the beats that I make and the sounds that I create.”
When talking about what music inspires him, hip-hop seemed to be the defining genre that left the biggest impression. “I remember starting to really get into music around 2010-2011. Hip-hop was the first genre that really scratched my brain in a way that I just fell in love with. One of the first Hip-hop songs that I loved was by Lil Wayne called ‘Right Above It.’ To this day it’s one of my favorite songs. It’s just a unique expression.” Mitch points out that what draws him to hip-hop is the fact that it thrives on its authenticity and unconventionality, especially in a time when some music can start to be very formulaic or feel a little too perfect.
Not only did Lil Wayne leave an impression but artists such as Kid Cudi, Lupe Fiasco, and Mac Miller also had their hand in influencing Mitch’s style and taste for music. “I remember at the time Kid Cudi was a big artist for me, with his Man on the Moon album. I heard that album and just listened to it all the way through. I just hadn’t heard anything like that. I just thought it was really cool and really emotional too. A lot of the music that he touched on… made me feel a special way. A lot of these artists, I loved their beats. Beats have always been the most important for me. Whenever I listen to a new song, sometimes I’m not even listening to what they're saying. I’m just listening to the back. Like how does this beat make me feel and the tone of the person's voice and their harmonies and melodies. How does it all work together? So, yeah those guys, they had incredible production and just great music.”
It’s clear that from the start, Mitch gravitated to the question of ‘HOW’ a song was made, leaning in to all the elements and techniques that it took to create sounds that mixed well together. Beyond the creation process, Mitch explains that he’s constantly searching for that hidden piece of a song that makes you feel something. “I’m more just kind of chasing a certain feeling. When a song has the right sounds… it can make a good song great.”
When it comes to producing, Mitch usually starts his process by choosing a synth sound and then adding to it. “I just kind of build until I’ve created something that I think I enjoy listening to and that I would like. If you want a weird sound, you might have to do something weird. If you want something unique, you have to do something unique. You can’t just scroll through whatever’s available out there and get something unique because that’s what everyone is using for their music. You might have to search and put in some effort to find something to use.”
Of course, when it comes to creating something new, there’s always bound to be some sort of discourse. “I always find myself with these awesome loops (4–8 bar loops) and then have a hard time turning them into full songs. It sits on my hard drive for like a month or until I finally just go, ‘okay I need to make a song out of this,’ and then I make a song out of it.” It’s moments like this where collaborating with other artists and producers plays a vital role. “I think one thing to keep in mind when you’re collaborating with someone is if you can understand their strengths and weaknesses and your own, you can learn how to work together. Everyone has different things that they’re good at. For example, I know what I’m good at—I can come up with some cool sounds, chords, interesting riffs, and melodies. But I know my weaknesses also. We just have to know where we fit in and be respectful of each other’s decisions.”
Playing to each other’s strengths is certainly one way to create a dynamic workflow in the studio. Delving deeper into the process, Mitch breaks down what a typical session between him and an artist usually looks like. “Typically, when I collaborate with someone, there’s kind of a mutual understanding that the workflow that we’re going to have is going to be different than what we’ve done with other people. There has to be good vibes, there has to be a level of connection where we understand each other and get to know each other a little bit. It makes for a really positive experience later on as we’re making music. I feel where they’re coming from, what’s going on in their life, and I can try to mirror that. I feel like I have a good way of mimicking emotions in my music. In a nutshell, play to each other’s strengths when you’re collaborating and come prepared or else you’re just going to be stuck trying to come up with something on the spot, and then you get anxious.”
In an industry with such high expectations and pressure on both artist and producers, it's no secret that anxiety is a prevalent issue. Mitch opens up to me about his social anxiety and how he was able to overcome it. “It was tough. When I started I was absolutely mortified to show anyone any music that I had created. I don’t know why, maybe because I felt like they were going to secretly hate it.” Which of course is absolutely relatable to so many people. “ But you just have to get over it. Not everyone’s gonna love the stuff that you make. If you like it though that’s all that really matters. You got to make music that you enjoy. That makes you feel positive. That makes you feel good.”
For Mitch, years of making beats and establishing himself gave him plenty of opportunities to showcase his talents and send his music to artists that had the potential to take his work to the next level. One such occasion was a turning point for him. “I had the chance to get one of my songs to a fairly popular singer. I heard that he recorded on it and then got sent the file that he recorded over. That gave me a lot of confidence. I felt like okay if this guy likes my track and he recorded on it then I must be good enough.”
The song unfortunately never got released but it gave him the boost he needed. “I wasn’t really scared to show people my stuff as much after that. I was showing my family, it made me proud. But I go up and down with confidence. Sometimes I’ll have a drought where I don’t get a lot of songs. Nothing's coming out and then I’ll have spans of months where things are great. It’s a constant struggle. But I think confidence over time has just come from experience of just showing people stuff and being okay.”
While thinking of some of his past projects Mitch shares two songs that have stuck with him over his career. The most recent one being his work with artist Jasmine Alvarado for her EP Slow Burn with her song called ‘Bout U,’ which came about at a point when he felt like he wasn’t progressing. “I had a moment in my life-career where I felt like I was plateauing.” He decided to take that time to challenge himself by using social media to push content and new music. “So I made this track. I didn’t expect it to turn out as cool as it did. And then Jasmine saw the video I posted and she dueted it. She was like let’s create a whole song out of this. It’s on this EP!” That song became a reminder that he had everything he needed to create something great, he just needed to put himself out there a little more.
The second song, called ‘Phoenix’ was one that ended up with Kevin Woo, who is known most recently for lending his voice to the Saja Boys in Kpop Demon Hunters and being a former member of the Korean boyband UKISS. “I was living at my in-laws house before we moved to LA and it was the summer where I didn’t have a job. I was just like I’m going to make music all summer. So that was the song I made there. Didn’t think much of it. Decided to send it to Brite (another producer) when he was working with Kevin and they wanted some beats. I sent that one, they picked it, and they created an awesome song out of it. I got to see him perform it live at the end of last year. I don’t know if I’ve ever heard one of my songs performed live in person like that. Where it's in LA at a legit venue. That song has a lot of meaning to me. It's definitely a milestone in my career.”
With many more milestones to come, Mitch is currently continuing to work on new music with the label he’s signed to. His main focus is to create pitches for artists who need music and to work on his social media presence to network within the ever-expanding music industry.
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