Life & Work with Stan Sono

Today we’d like to introduce you to Stan Sono.

Stan, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I was born in Ukraine, where I lived until I was 6 before moving to Chicago, IL. My family and I fought antisemitism there and left as refugees for a better life in the U.S. I had to learn English quickly and acclimate to the American culture right away. While in high school, I began to explore my interests in music: writing, singing, and production. My music is a perfect blend of R&B/Hip-Hop and Top 40 sound with infectious hooks, catchy lyrics, and stellar production full of ear candy.

I have released several R&B projects and singles which have amassed millions of plays. I am also credited on multiple Gold albums. Production and writing credits include: G Herbo, Jacquees, Ye Ali, Seddy Hendrix, Lucki, Nines, Kaleem Taylor, Kur, Sk8, and Goodbye Tomorrow. My latest project “Forever Favorite” written and produced by me (co-produced by my close friend V3ry Rich) is out as of 11/11/22 and I’m super excited to share it with all my fans and followers. This project has a variety of genre-fused music from contemporary R&B to R&B Drill to House and even Downtempo Electronic. My aim is to continue to collaborate with as many artists and producers as I can and to keep getting better day by day! I feel that I am still only scratching the surface of what I am going to do!

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The music industry is far from a smooth road and that is really an understatement. There is an incredible amount of persistence and passion that one must have throughout this music career journey if you want to succeed. If you do not love what you are doing and if you don’t have the willpower and drive to persevere through the challenges, this industry will suck the life out of you. It’s one thing when you are making music just for fun, but when you’re doing this for a living and in competition with others for placements, it’s a cut-throat game. The biggest obstacles for me along the way have been finding the right team of people to work with who not only believe in me but are also great at what they do and also hold themselves accountable. Also, money is not guaranteed with this career and so you really have to grind and find ways of keeping afloat in the midst of getting into sessions and sending out beats. It’s an extremely challenging career path, but it’s very fulfilling when the dots start to connect and you see results and that is what I do it for!

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am mostly known for my production and songwriting in Hip-Hop/R&B and as of late I have also been producing dancehall/reggaeton music as well for artists. One of my biggest strengths is seeing the record through from start to finish and making it come to life. I really love all the intricate parts of creating a song from scratch and then from the writing to the production to the post-vocal production, my goal is to make it the best song possible! I love playing around with arrangements to make sure that the song feels natural and cohesive and sometimes taking out elements after a vocal has been laid down to make room for it in the production. What sets me apart is my work ethic and dedication to my craft. I am continuously learning and finding ways to improve my abilities and challenge myself to work in other genres that are out of my comfort zone. I am most proud of the fact that I never gave up and continued to achieve milestones that I didn’t even know were possible!

What were you like growing up?
Growing up for me is kind of a blur at this point, but I feel like I was a pretty chill and outgoing kid. I used to get sick a lot is what my mom would say and of course, moving from Ukraine to Chicago at 6 and then losing my dad at 12 made me mature sooner than I should have, but that’s life. Around that time is when I fully escaped into music and embraced the positive feeling it gave me as it was an outlet for me throughout all the chaos during that time in my life. I definitely remember basketball being a huge interest of mine and it still is. Michael Jordan and the Bulls were everything in Chicago during ’90s and I remember being captivated by that. I also remember eating potato chips and snickers for the first time when I moved to Chicago at a young age and we never had that in Ukraine so my snack game went all the way up from there!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: instagram.com/stansono
• Facebook: facebook.com/stansonomusic
• Twitter: twitter.com/stansono
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiMcWjkYCbtACUd9iRXlpCw
• SoundCloud: soundcloud.com/stansono