Rising music producer TEMPO speaks about his background and latest track ‘Self’

TEMPO is a rising music producer who has built a unique identity in the music industry. While traditionally having produced instrumental tracks, TEMPO has recently teamed up with Kubla Kahn & Shelley Segal to create the new track ‘Self’.

TEMPO answered some questions about his music.

tempo at work

Can you tell us a bit about your background and how you started making music?

IT entrepreneurship is my background. I studied computer science and with 20 years of experience in data analytics, big data, technology and algorithms, with the evolution of music to digital stream today, 4 years ago I knew I could blend my background and passion for music to create a unique identity in the music industry for myself and any star I discover. I also noticed that there was a gap of mentorship need for independent artists vs groomed and stars made by the record labels. In 2019, my sister born with autism passed at 40. This hit me. I have always been a music lover. I know every song you can throw at me. I need to listen to a song once, and it is registered in my head. I don’t need to hear a song replayed many times on air before I feel the song is a hit, a good song or a bad song. It hits me. I have no genre of music as a preference. It’s either good or bad music for me.

Fast forward, when I lost a love one for the first time, my very long time drug (music) failed to put me together for months. I went back to all my favorite Chris brown songs, DJ Khaled songs, Rufus du Sol, Arizona, etc… none worked. I got fed up with hearing the same type of music, same topics, same genres. I wanted more. I felt the creativity of artists were all centered around commercial, whereby I was seeing upcoming artists copying what’s happening, and wanted quick fame, social media following creates the hype and boom, you are a star overnight with no knowledge or bond or protection to the culture. Everyone wants to believe he or she is the originator or their a culture.

This is a mess, in my opinion. Therefore I started mentoring upcoming artists on Finance, Technology awareness and also help them look up to music legends.

Am happy I am mentoring today under my founded company www.gtempo.com

What made me start to make music is my failure to connect with music after the loss of my sister. The only thing I wanted to listen to was beats made by myself. That is when I said, if I want to see these mentees succeed, I want to also understand the complete music creation and production process. I, therefore, went through understanding and learning about mixing, mastering, A&R roles, artist manager role, how to book shows, get onto curated playlists, etc… the whole process.

However I wanted my personal brand to be known for the beat, for example, we all can acknowledge what the legend Timbaland is known for, we all can acknowledge what the Maestro Quincy Jones is known for. So I self-promoted 4 tracks (full instrumental) onto all the platforms but focused more on Spotify.

I then got some feedback from producers from part of the world to collaborate. Most are in discussion, and I like what I am seeing and how I have mastered my unique creation process.

I set up a music studio now in Africa, Ghana and have started receiving guest artists for project discussion (soundtracks) and collaborations (singles and albums production).

The studio is called The Madroom, and my goal is to make it a website when complete music production and collaboration are done virtually between all artists around the world without having to meet in person.

It is in research on this that I found out about SoundBetter. I met Kubla and Shelley there and collaborated with them to add their vocals on the track Self. I had already released then the track Self – Instrumental and it was already gaining its organic streams to about 15,000. They got the spirit behind the beat, and that’s how we made Self with them as featured Artists. We wanted the song to motivate people to believe in themselves and get up and do it, whatever it is!

music producer - tempo

Who are some of your biggest musical inspirations?

Music inspires me. I learn from everything, nobody in particular.

I relate myself to Simon Cowell.

What was it like to work with Kubla Kahn & Shelley Segal?

Completely virtual. We never met in real life. Kubla is American, Shelley is Australian, I am French based in Ghana.

Can you tell us a bit about the album and documentary project called SANITY?

It is a complete instrumental project, being the soundtrack of documentation I co-wrote called SANITY. Sanity is a character going through mental health issues, based in an environment where mental health is not a known disease. It highlights and creates awareness of many states of the mind. The documentary is currently being shot.

Do you have any work coming up in the future for fans to look forward to?

Yes, I want to build my fan based on mentoring independent, upcoming, and established artists. Until I have established a reputation in the music industry, I will continue to work hard with my team to put projects out that demonstrate my style, my business ideas and how eager I am to bring values on the table and as well obviously gain value of my creativity.

Thank you TEMPO for your time!
You can listening to his music at:

 

Tempo music producer