When it comes to music production, I always admire innovation. It takes a lot of courage and determination to do it differently. Mokhov is one of those innovators.
People who travel the world and run a location independent business are often referred to as “digital nomads”.
Mokhov has had the self awareness to realise what he’s most passionate about and has built a sustainable, self-sufficient business that allows him to travel the world and make music.
Sounds pretty great, right?
Well, he kindly took the time to answer some questions I had for him about his career and I want to share those with you today.
In this interview, you’re going to learn:
- how Mokhov got his start in music
- his influences
- the power of collaboration
- how to generate sustainable, passive income from your music
- how a mobile music producer adapts to a pandemic
- …and much more!
So without further ado, let’s get into the interview…
SK = Stephen Kelly (aka me!)
M = Mokhov
SK: Your music is very positive and atmospheric. It feels like you create your own electronic sonic universe with each piece. When did you first realise that was something you could do or wanted to do?
M: I first realized that I wanted to make music a long time ago when I heard BT’s “Godspeed”. I went from getting excited as a listener to wanting to try making something like that myself.
I realized that I wanted to attempt to seriously go full-time with my music many years later, during a moment of reflection while I was freelance writing. I found that whenever I’d write I’d always want to make music instead, so I realized that I should make whatever it is that I’d rather do my main work. I figured it’s a more fun life that way, and it’ll provide the most value to the world, since naturally you put in the most effort when you’re doing what you want.
Fortunately, a year after the release of my first album I was able to go full-time with my music, and I have been ever since. It’s allowed me to make and release more music, which I hope listeners benefit from.
SK: It’s clear that you’re heavily influenced by amazing electronic artists like Four Tet, Bonobo, Tycho and Aphex Twin. Are these long-standing influences or were you originally influenced by other music genres?
M: Aphex Twin has been a long-standing influence, and electronic music in general has been my original influence.
It actually took me a while to get into music, and when I first heard electronic music I disliked it. However, eventually I fell in love with it, and it’s been my favorite music and main influence since. The futuristic abstract nature that doesn’t reference traditional instruments excited me, since it was like a new alternate music universe with limitless possibilities of sound.
Along the way, I did also get influenced by elements of other genres, like the rhythms of hip-hop and the melodies of guitar-based pop.
SK: Do you enjoy writing on your own or do you sometimes wish you could collaborate with others?
M: I enjoy writing on my own. However, I’m always open to collaborations. So far, I’ve indirectly collaborated by remixing other artists, like the remix releases out on the label Sun Sea Sky.
SK: You write music while you travel the world. How have you found being in one place for a prolonged period of time due to the current pandemic?
M: I’ve fortunately found it to be not much different.
I set up my music-making and work style to be as self-sufficient and sustainable as possible. The reason is that I didn’t want to rely on anything out of my control, like outside circumstances. My mindset has been that as long as I have a laptop and internet connection, I’m fulfilled. That includes making music at home. Anything else, like traveling, is a scenery-changing bonus but not required to enjoy the moment of music-making.
So, during the pandemic I’ve been able to keep making music as I always have. I’m grateful for that, because unfortunately not everyone has been as lucky.
SK: Your business and career is built entirely around passive income via sales/streams/royalties/licensing of your original recorded music… which is awesome! What would your advice be to someone who wishes to follow in your footsteps and move from active income (9-5 job or freelance) to passive income made entirely from music?
M: My advice would be to basically get your music in as many places as possible and monetize it.
Once you have music that you feel confident in, have it available in as many stores and streaming services as possible for listening and buying. Consider having your music available for licensing to shows, films, games, retail, and whatnot, monetized for video use, and so forth. Have your music registered in the appropriate organizations and services to collect royalties from the use of your music as well as other additional royalties. As new platforms and services emerge, include your music in them and monetize it.
This way, you’ll have multiple diverse passive income streams from your music.
SK: What advice do you have for someone pitching their music to blogs and licensing websites?
M: I don’t have any blog pitching advice specifically, as I wasn’t good at it myself. Cold-emailing and following up just wasn’t for me, so I went with another route to get listeners, which was uploading remixes to YouTube.
So my general advice would be to figure out your strengths and focus your promotional energy on them, instead of ineffectively doing things you think you should be doing.
As for licensing websites, you can simply contact them directly through their website, as most have a form or email address for artists to submit music for their consideration. I’d recommend being succinct to save them time and make it likelier that they’ll read your message sooner. Just have a short description of your sound, some well-known artists that your music sounds like, and listening links to a handful of your strongest tunes.
SK: People often run into gatekeepers when pitching their music and get discouraged. How can they make sure their music gets to the right person?
M: I consider the right person to be us, the listeners. So any pitching is ultimately to get your music to listeners. If you can circumvent gatekeepers in your music’s promotion to reach listeners, then I’d consider focusing on that. Any blogs and other outlets will eventually discover your music, since like anyone else they are music fans first.
SK: A lot of artists are still determined to find a label to represent them. You self-release your music. What do you think are the positives and negatives of being signed to a label and self-releasing?
M: I don’t have experience being signed to a label, so I can’t comment on the positives and negatives of that. I just had a few one-off releases on labels.
As for self-releasing, one positive is owning 100% of your music, therefore maximizing income from royalties. Another positive is having complete control, such as what you release and when, how you license your music, and adapting to industry changes when they happen, like getting your music onto emerging platforms and services.
A negative of self-releasing is needing to do all the promotion yourself, as opposed to utilizing a label’s existing listenership and coverage. Another possible negative is the need to spend time on the work side in addition to making music, but whether that’s a negative depends on your personal preference.
SK: Your wonderful track, ‘Halcyon Days’, has over 3 million streams on Spotify. Have those streams come from you actively promoting your music to playlist owners or is it a natural side effect of blogs writing about your music?
M: A natural side effect, I imagine. There was no active promotion of “Halcyon Days” on my part, other than announcing it to the existing listeners at the time. All of the tune’s listenership, coverage, playlist adds, and so forth has been purely natural. I continue to be amazed, grateful, and humbled by that.
It reminds me that the best promotion is making great work. Then, get it out as well as you can, and people who like it will share it. That’s much easier said than done, but I feel it’s the unavoidable truth. It’s hard to make great work, but it’s more sustainable long-term. People will continue to discover and share it because they truly enjoy it, not because marketing was trying to convince them.
SK: Where is the first place you’re going to travel post-pandemic?
M: To my favorite place, Tokyo.
SK: ‘Sun Bloom’ was your last album release and it came out in 2019. As you normally release an album a year, will we see a new release from Mokhov in 2020?
M: You will. I will indeed release an album for 2020, ‘Afterglow Reverie’. Like the previous album, it’s six tunes of uplifting, dreamy, and melodic dance music.
SK: On behalf of myself and everyone at Understanding Audio, thank you so much for taking the time to answer these questions and share your insights.
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Mokhov makes uplifting electronic music that sounds like a mix of Four Tet, Bonobo, Tycho, and Jon Hopkins. You can learn more about Mokhov on Wikipedia, and you can listen to Mokhov on Bandcamp, Spotify, Apple Music/iTunes, or any other service or store that you use.
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I hope you enjoyed reading this and you picked up some valuable information. If you did, leave a comment below and let us know.
I’m also really looking forward to hearing ‘Afterglow Reverie’ when it’s released in early June 2020. Keep an eye out for that!
professional sounding mix every time...
Hi Stephen,
It is a delight to be a part of this community where interviews with innovative artists like Mohkov have become a piece of content on your feed.
Definitely found value in the interview and you asked some relevant questions to a young producer like myself. His comments about focusing on creating great music in particular, was a great response because I have found it to be true as well. The music blogs do find you when you’ve made something great and it feels good to have hard work rewarded. It was also nice to learn about arranging licensing and so forth of your work so your receive all the royalties. Those are definitely some pro tips from experience.
I hope we see more interviews like this in 2021!