Rising Stars: Meet Nevin Shoker

Today we’d like to introduce you to Nevin Shoker.

Nevin, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I go by the name ibeshocker. I am an Independent Artist and Audio Engineer of Indian descent and I am currently based out of West Hollywood, CA. I grew up in a small town in Northern California called Ceres. As much as I loved my city and where I came from, I knew that if I ever wanted to grow as a person and as an artist then I would have to leave.

My eventual goal in life is to be able to build a recording studio in my hometown and use it to teach kids how to handle and work with audio equipment so that they can be able to record themselves and produce their own music. Growing up in my city, we never had any creative programs in school just because there was never a budget for creativity. I want to set up an interactive recording studio for the youth in my city so that they could have the opportunities that I wish I had when I was a kid. My story begins at 13 years old. I was always a huge fan of music. It would always be around in my household mostly thanks to my mother and my older sister. My mom was a singer in our church for many years, and my sister is the one who got me into listening to full length albums. My dad also influenced me by always having Bollywood movies on with all these huge musical numbers. I would always see him singing along to the music and grooving with the dance moves and as a kid it really helped me gain a deeper appreciation for live performances.

Before I dove into the realm of hip-hop, I actually fell in love with Rock first. Bands like Blink 182, Green Day, Weezer, and My Chemical Romance were in heavy rotation for most of my youth. I started to really fall in love with hip-hop during 2006-2010. I grew up listening to artists like Wiz Khalifa, Mac Miller, Drake, Scott Storch, and many more from that era. My musical influences for today’s music include Phora, blackbear, Russ, Marc E Bassy, Logic, KYLE, and G-Eazy. When I was 13, I started getting into music by writing poems. Mainly for girls that I thought were cute at the time. These poems turned into rhythm which turned into rap. I always used to like thinking of rap as an acronym. For “rhythm assisted poetry.” In a sense, that’s exactly what rap is am I right? Anyways, when I first started getting into recording music it was 2012. And it was the absolute worst setup and worst recording quality I could ever imagine now that I look back.

But at the time, we thought it was FIRE. Literally back in the day, my friends and I would take a bootleg version of Garageband, set up a RockBand microphone (yes from the video game) in our closet and hang it by the rod that holds the clothes. We would then take a dryer sheet and a rubber band and tie it over the mic. That was our pop filter. It was the worst setup of all time. But it did its purpose. We were able to record music, and that’s when I first fell in love. Today, I run a fully professional recording studio with state of the art gear and plugins literally out of my living room at my house in West Hollywood. We have had people such as Dakota Lohan, Platinum Recording Artist Wes Walker, and Ty Dolla Sign producer Mike Lowry come to our studio to catch a vibe. From a closet all the way in Ceres, California to working with major artists in my living room in West Hollywood. The progress that we have made is undeniably positive.

The name of my recording studio is “Open Studios” and our studio mascot/logo is an LED Open sign. Occasionally you might find a stuffed animal version of Olaf from Frozen “chillin” on top of the sign for good luck. The Open in Open Studios stands for a lot of things. Open-mindedness, open to new ideas and suggestions, open-ended, open-late, the list goes on and on. Our main motto is “always open, never closed.” This is a regard to our creativity. We are always open to collaborate and be creative and there’s never a dull moment when you’re doing what you love in life. We also rent out the studio for studio time to independent artists in Los Angeles. Studio time includes a live recording engineer, in-house producers, as well as mixing and mastering services performed by myself.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
There has definitely been a ton of speed bumps along the way. As an Indian-American artist, I was never initially accepted into the realm of hip-hop. Especially in my own city when I first started out. I have to admit, when I first started I didn’t know what I was doing. And I was nowhere near the level I’m at now. That initial negativity I encountered at an early age when I first started putting out music would’ve been enough to make people stop. But I knew always since the beginning that this is what I wanted to do and nothing will stop me except myself. I continued to persevere and create with my best friends. I went on to work in Radio at my University and I took that as an opportunity to show love to the hidden gems in my city. I created a platform through the radio station titled “The Cypher Factory” where I created full on hip-hop cypher videos for local artists in my neighboring cities to display their talents. This was not an easy thing to do. There’s so much logistics when it comes to planning out big events such as this, especially when you’re going through a university there’s a ton of politics involved. Regardless, I made sure that whatever I started I saw it through.

After I graduated college, I was at a crossroads with what to do with my life. Do I take the path to the 9-5 and play it safe? Or do I go for broke and follow my dreams. I chose the latter. For me, playing it safe is way too risky. I rather live my life knowing that I tried absolutely everything I could in my living power to chase my dream than to spend a life full of resentment and regret. I lost a lot of people in my life that had meant the world to me because of music. I was going through a really bad breakup when I decided to leave my hometown and move to Los Angeles. I came here not knowing anybody other than my roommates. I was scared, anxious, lonely, and depressed. I started to doubt if I had made the right choice or not. The career path I wanted for myself was 100% based on uncertainty. But I knew that the only way to reach success is by wanting it more than your next breath. I kept pushing, and I’m still pushing.

Two weeks after I had moved to Los Angeles, we get hit with a global pandemic and it stops everything that I had planned out for this year. I was beginning to get really discouraged, but I didn’t lose faith. I took the time during the stay at home order to really lock in in the studio. It resulted in me making some of the best of music of my life for my personal artist project. It gave me time to get really detailed driven in the production and the mixing of own music. I also carved out time to shoot five music videos this during lockdown which is more than I’ve ever shot in a year. Apart from working on my own stuff, I also managed to mix and master 117 songs this year for my clients. This goes to show that no matter what your circumstance is, you can always make time to do what you love. I went through a lot of emotional pain and struggled this year, and I’m sure we all have. But I never gave up and I’m still not going to. There’s beauty in the journey, and this is just the beginning for me.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I am an artist and Audio Engineer my genre can be classified as alternative hip-hop. Artists that you can possibly compare me to based off my sound include Phora, blackbear, KYLE, and older G-Eazy. I specialize in rap music, audio engineering, and songwriting. I’m most proud of the music that I was able to create this year during the pandemic. In my darkest emotional time, I was able to see light and deliver some of the realist most honest music I have ever made. It was really beautiful for me to experience a brand new side of myself and allow myself to become more vulnerable in my music and in the public eye. I used to care a lot about what people thought of me, and I still might to an extent. But one thing that I learned this year is that it doesn’t matter how the world sees you, all that matters is how you see yourself.

What sets me apart from others is my drive and my passion. As well as I think my race. I haven’t seen too many Indian artists solidify a spot in hip-hop or American entertainment altogether. I think that the way my voice sounds as well as the topics I choose to write about in my music are unique and aren’t often heard of. I can go from writing a song about a girl where the premise is “how many more times do I gotta fall for you? I thought I did it all for you” to rapping a verse about solving rubiks cube or wearing white crocs with Nike socks in my grey Corolla. It’s really just the most honest form of expression in music in my opinion. I just talk about what’s true and real to me. Sometimes I talk about what I want in the future as well of course, but I always make sure to find the balance and draw the line to where I’m perceived as authentic because truly that’s what I am and that’s how I see myself.

Here are some links to my work ibeshocker Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3T4QDR6ACQuK1Euy21HRTq
ibeshocker & Kevvie3TM – Melrose Blues (Official Video) (Dir. Ethan J May) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfBOSv6SVTs
ibeshocker & Kevvie3TM – Run on Sentences (Official Video) (Dir. @ntrvisuals) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Qzm7XUNyLs

The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
100% I learned there are two types of people in this world. One type will take the L and spend the whole year binge-watching Netflix and letting their body go. Which is fine, if that’s what you choose. The other type are the hustlers who wanted to take this time and use it productively. Whether it’s a new skill, a new hobby or talent, or taking better care of your own body. There has never been a time since I’ve been alive where the government paid you unemployment to stay at home for a couple of months. If you took that money and wasted it on unnecessary things then I don’t feel bad for you. But if you took the money, took care of your bills and your family as well as discovered something new and positive about yourself, then I have nothing but respect for you.

Pricing:

• Mixing and Mastering Rates: $120 per song
• Recording time with Engineer $40 per hour
• Recording time without Engineer $30 per hour

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ibeshocker/?hl=en
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/IBeShocker?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCR9y9KNLdnYM2X_SXYoyz9Q?view_as=subscriber
• SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/ibeshocker
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3T4QDR6ACQuK1Euy21HRTq

Image Credits
Raul Moreno George Corral Kevin Elkins Nevin Shoker Konstantin Ladurner Cody Ryan Pilkington Jafet Munoz Kevin Mosqueda