Meet Eric Gao of Oksami in Arcadia

Today we’d like to introduce you to Eric Gao.

So, before we jump into specific questions, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
Currently a 25 years old software engineer/producer living in LA. I grew up playing classical piano and cello until I was 16 and spent a few more years self-teaching guitar and vocals. Although I tried a few times to pick up music production in high school, I kept falling victim to the steep learning curve until 2015. Since then, I have continued to produce and hone my craft, focusing on lush, orchestral hip hop, R&B and soul.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
All things considered, I’m pretty blessed to not be financially dependent on music. Most challenges along this road have been mental and personal to me.

The first is the technical barrier.

When you begin, you have no idea how to translate the ideas in your head to a recording. You flounder around, testing things only to find that you’ve made things worse or are still incredibly far off from what you envisioned. The frustration is part of the process and is usually the first struggle that all producers encounter.

The second is the inspiration barrier.

When you’ve practiced enough, you’ll find that you are able to recreate sounds with fairly good accuracy. Now your technical abilities have caught up with your ideas, and you are in the pursuit of better songwriting and concept. This is an endless struggle as you constantly are seeking inspiration and trying to avoid writer’s block. All of these things are just part of art and must be accepted, if not even embraced.

The last is the motivational barrier.

Up until recently this year, I had been starting to plateau in my production skill and I didn’t even realize it. Often times, the word “grind” is tossed around as if it’s the secret to success. While I understand where this advice comes from, I think the connotation of “grind” is far too volume focused. It implies that all you have to do at this point is produce as much as you can and success will come. I was stuck in this mindset and I felt like I was falling behind my peers, drawing comparisons between my success and others. As you can imagine, this was a very poisonous road to start walking down, and I was fortunate enough to be able to snap out of it and realize that I had been too complacent. I started feeling entitled to validation and growth and it was destroying my joy of production.

I had to rediscover why I was producing. I realized that improving was fun. Trying new things was fun. Experimenting was fun. All of the things that weren’t necessarily conducive to producing as many songs as I could were the things that fueled me. I took a step back and approached my production process from a clean slate, which has sparked the longest personal streak of inspiration to date.

Can you give our readers some background on your music?
I am oksami and I write music – usually composing the entirety of the instrumentals for the songs that I work on. I am starting to pick up some steam, known for a blend of electronic, orchestral, soul and R&B influences. I think what sets me apart is my specific vision with my sound. I believe that often times, R&B and hip hop are considered to be these very down-to-earth genres, but I hear a lot of world-building potential with them and try to capture that in my music.

Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
It’s a little hard to say, as luck in music is definitely a huge factor for some individuals. I would say that while luck creates doors, it’s still up to you to try to open them up.

If there’s a silver lining to the pandemic, it’s that it made a sprawling music community magnitudes more intimate as it brought so many producers online. I’ve been fortunate to be able to connect with so many talented artists during this time, and it’s hard to think of many other circumstances which would bring this many people together at once.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://soundcloud.com/itsoksami
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/itsoksami/?hl=en
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/itsoksami?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1b0Xogb0sa1XfgUXFWPb26

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