Photos by Kawai Matthews (airphilosophy.com)

So you wanna be a music producer, eh Sparky? You already got the oversized gold vintage shades and tilted New Era lid. You’ve made sure your clothes are neon sharp and limited edition…but you wear them like you just picked ‘em off the floor of some early 20s fashion chick after a night at Cinespace. Your iPod is loaded with all the latest Crookers and  CONTACT _Con-3BF972E611D \c \s \l iheartcomix remixes, and you’ve got fluokids and lastnightsparty bookmarked on your MacBook Pro. You’ve got all the ripe ingredients ready for a career as the Next Hot Shit Producer except…well…except you couldn’t craft a proper beat if it showed up at Blow Up LA and clocked you over the head with a kick drum. 

So what do you do, pseudo-Hot Shot? Why, you go to school, young’un, and learn the ropes proper. 

Located in the heart of downtown Los Angeles in a gated, 4 city-block entertainment complex, the Icon Collective is an innovative electronic music production school that caters to the digital era of music creation, promotion and distribution. Founders Christopher Wight and David Alexander took a moment to teach us all what makes this “Collective” unique within the paradigm of music education. Get out your pencils, there will be a pop quiz…

What motivated you to start Icon Collective? We were working for well-known music/recording engineering schools and realized their programs did not cater or relate to electronic artists and DJs. They’re preparing artists to become audio technicians—WTF?! They don’t understand dance culture/lifestyle and are not addressing the needs of beatmakers and DJs who have a passion for electronic music. We provide an environment that makes aspiring producers feel like “Wow…this is my culture…my lifestyle…this was created for me.”

What’s your background in education? Christopher and I have been involved in every aspect of vocational music and recording education for the last 10 years, from career counseling and teaching, to developing innovative curriculum for other schools. Because of these experiences, we realized the need for a place like Icon Collective.

David’s creative credits include scoring videogames such as Quake II and James Bond 007, and produced remixes for artists like U2, Nirvana, and The Eurythmics. My father is a composer/producer so I grew up in and around music and studios all my life…it’s in my blood. I pride myself on being an entertainer/performer and have toured with Linkin Park and Cypress Hill, just to name a few.

We’ve also produced our first record set for release September 30th under the moniker Icon Underground—a live audio/visual electronic band. It’s what sets Icon apart from other “engineering schools”: the founders are artist who live and embrace the lifestyle, just like the producers we’re educating.

How did you develop the curriculum? We continually look at the current tools being used to produce electronic music and incorporate them into our curriculum. For example, Predator and Albino are virtual synths used on lots of electronic records. Call any recording school and ask them about Predator or Albino, I bet they wont have a clue what you’re talking about. 

What’ve been the most popular courses you’ve offered? I would have to say that our Creativity and Marketing classes are popular because they discuss a 21st century approach to being creative, independent and successful—including new models for promoting and distributing music directly to fans. The Synthesis class is popular because it exposes our producers to new tools for creating the sounds they imagine in their head. 

Is it true all students get an Apple laptop when they complete the program? David said to me one day, “What’s the use of learning an SSL or a Neve console if you can’t afford one when you graduate? Let’s give our grads the ability to continue being creative when they finish our studies.” 

Many music producers are “self-taught”—for future producers reading this, what else would you say to convince them that they should enroll at IC? IC is more a community, a collective, than a school by design. We want to shorten the typical process of “trial and error” experienced by those that have traveled the “self-taught” path. We give you the tools but do not dictate what you should create with those tools. It’s our goal to empower you to produce the music you feel in your heart…the more original and creative you become, the more we feel we have accomplished our mission of giving you the opportunity to live a successful creative lifestyle.

The DMP course runs 3 days/12 hours per week, and costs $10,000 for the 6-month course. “Even with the purchase of the laptop and software, it’s more effective to study with us than traditional recording schools that have fees of at least $15,000 and typically much higher,” notes David. learn2produce.com