Issue 001 5 minutes
The Bag Test
If you’re building anything that has to matter, this one’s for you.
Let’s do a quick Sound Check.
Read time: 6 minutes. Creative ROI: Timeless.
VIBE CHECK
We’re officially in the era where everything is content, which means most of it is invisible.
The only thing cutting through now is expression with consequences. Taste. Contrast. Belief-backed creation.
If it doesn’t move someone, it’s just scroll-fodder with better kerning.
Today’s level: Stop polishing. Start expressing.
AGAINST THE GRAIN
Stop optimizing for virality. Start optimizing for replay value.
Everyone’s chasing the 15-second TikTok moment. The algorithm bait. The hook in the first 3 seconds. And sure, that gets you discovered. But here’s what nobody’s saying: virality without depth is a sugar rush. You get the spike, then nothing sticks.
The data shows it: 50% discover on social, but where do they stay? Streaming platforms. YouTube. Places where they loop, save, and return. The viral moment gets you in the door. Replay value makes them stay in the room.
The redirect: Build music/ shows/ books/ content that rewards the second listen. Layer in details that only reveal themselves on loop. Make the chorus better the third time. What’s the details we didnt’t catch the first time we watched? That’s how you go from “discovered” to “indispensable.”
Tactic to pocket: Next project you make, ask yourself: “What’s the thing people only catch on listen three?” Then make sure it’s there.
THE TOP 5
ONE // LISTENING: FLOAT MODE ON
DiJon, “Higher”
A record that levitates. Gospel-infused, love-drunk energy with exhilarating production. It nods to Prince, Dilla, and Jai Paul, but it’s not cosplay…it’s elevation. Soaring vocals ride the distortion like a halo.
Why it matters: Uplift isn’t a plugin. It’s a decision you can hear, and this track commits all the way.
Tactic to pocket: Design “uplift” with arrangement choices, not louder drums. DiJon does it with vocal layering that builds vertically, each stack adds air, not weight. Try stacking harmonies in 5ths instead of 3rds. Let the groove do the lifting. Add multilayers to your content, narrative, visual work.
The KOVAS Sound Check Playlist:
TWO // READING: WEIRD IS THE MOAT
The Laws of Creativity, Joey Cofone - “The Law of Expression”
The hit: “Embrace the parts of you that others call weird… allow those parts to float to the top and be seen by all.”
Why it matters: Originality isn’t a strategy. It’s self-permission. Your weird isn’t a bug. It’s the feature people remember.
Taste note: Polished is easy. Specific is rare. Specific wins.
Tactic to pocket: Pick one “weird” trait you usually sand down-maybe it’s the way you pitch-shift vocals, or your obsession with field recordings, or your tendency to write in 7/8-and make it the centerpiece of the next project. Don’t hide it. Architect around it.
Link: https://amzn.to/3N6vHZI
THREE // IDEA I CAN’T SHAKE: BELIEF ENGINE
Belief dictates experience.
Your beliefs pre-write your results. Positive or negative, they self-fulfill, because you start collecting evidence like it’s your job.
The real battleground isn’t talent. It’s the internal script.
“I can’t” creates proof.
“I can” creates proof.
Same world. Different filter. Different outcomes.
Taste note: Belief is the color grade on reality. You don’t see what is, you see what your settings allow.
Tactic to pocket: Change the script to a conditional: “I can if I…” then assign the “if” to something you control.
Example: “I can finish this track if I limit myself to 8 tracks and 2 hours.”
You just turned a block into a game.
FOUR // TOOL: CONTRAST PAYS RENT
You can’t tell dark without light. You can’t tell soft without loud.
Why it matters: Contrast is the cheat code for feeling. It’s how you make moments feel like moments instead of content that happened.
Taste note: Most people overproduce the average. Pros design the switch. That switch is cinema.
Quick recipe:
Step 1: Pick the primary emotion (tension, awe, dread, tenderness).
Step 2: Build the opposite in miniature (silence vs impact, clean vs distorted, sparse vs dense).
Step 3: Time the flip like a reveal. Let contrast tell the story.
Tactic to pocket: Put a hard switch into a 20–30 second sketch and save it as a study. Build a library of switches. Label them. “Contrast Study 001: Silence to Bass.” “Contrast Study 002: Mono to Wide.” These become your playbook.
FIVE // WILDCARD: THE RELEVANCE TEST
“Made Luck” - David Airaudi
The hit: “Your music has to have relevance beyond being a product… it has to matter to people. Really matter.”
Why it matters: This is the assignment. Not more output. Not more marketing. More meaning.
Taste note: The cool factor isn’t visual aesthetic. It’s emotional impact. Matter is the new viral.
Tactic to pocket: Before you export, answer one question: “What does this change in the listener?”
If the answer is “nothing,” go back in. If the answer is “it sounds cool,” go deeper. Cool fades. Change sticks.
Link: https://amzn.to/496ZxGf
IN THE WILD: FIELD NOTES
Real-world case study from the booth:
I just scored a brand campaign. The brief said “epic, cinematic, inspiring”…the usual. I could’ve sent them a Hans Zimmer knockoff and called it a day.
Instead, I sent them 30 seconds of sparse piano, field recordings of a train station, and one distorted cello note that hits at :18.
They picked it immediately.
Why? Contrast. Everyone else sent them “big.” I sent them “human, then big.” The sparse opening made the cello feel epic without me having to stack 40 tracks.
The receipt: That one note did more work than an entire string section because it had space to land in.
Tactic extracted: When the brief says “big,” try starting small. Let contrast do the heavy lifting. The impact isn’t in the volume-it’s in the shift.
ONE NUMBER THAT MADE ME LOOK UP: 50%
Discovery is a three-lane freeway now.
For Gen Z (13–27), social is the #1 music discovery channel-but it’s not one place. It’s TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.
Here’s the twist: TikTok is the top discovery method for ages 16–24, but only 12% of all consumers say it’s their primary discovery source.
Translation: TikTok is loud, but the whole room isn’t on TikTok.
Zoom out and the plot thickens:
YouTube (52%), streaming services (40%), TikTok (37%). That’s a 15-point spread. No single king. Just a crowded court.
Why it matters: Discovery isn’t a funnel anymore. It’s a mesh network. “Go viral” is not a strategy. Multi-surface moments are.
Build the same musical idea to travel as:
→ A clip (TikTok/Reels)
→ A loopable listen (Spotify/Apple)
→ A searchable artifact (YouTube)
Bonus signal: Radio is basically a legacy app now. Gen Z and Millennials rank it dead last (15–19%). Respectfully.
THE MECHANISM
Expression + Belief + Contrast = Relevance
Expression is who you are when nobody’s clapping yet.
Belief is the engine that makes you brave enough to show it.
Contrast is how you make people feel it.
This is the formula. Everything else is decoration.
RUN THIS DRILL
Move #1 (Expression Drill, 10 min):
Write a list called “My Weird Is My Weapon.” 10 bullets. Circle the top 3 and make them non-negotiables in your next project.
Move #2 (Belief Flip, 5 min):
Take one stuck belief (”I can’t ___”) and rewrite it as: “I can ___ if I ___.” Add one condition you control.
Move #3 (Contrast Sprint, 15 min):
Create a 20–30 second sketch with one hard contrast switch: silence to impact, clean to gritty, mono to wide, dry to drenched. Name it “Contrast Study 001.” Save it. Build a library.
Did one of these drills? Reply “DONE” + which one you ran. I want to know what’s actually getting used.
SOUND + VISION
The moment: The car chase in One Battle After Another (Paul Thomas Anderson).
The score refuses to score a chase the normal way. It’s mostly the raw roar of the engine, with surgical musical punctures: snare and drumstick hits, occasional bass, and stabbing strings.
Why it works: The engine is the drone. The engine is the tempo. The engine is the anxiety. Instead of laying music over the scene, the music behaves like a nervous system-little involuntary jolts that spike your adrenaline at the exact moments your body would flinch.
Tactic to pocket: Treat sound design as the low-end and sustain. That engine roar is your bass note. Use percussion as punctuation, not groove. Snare and dry stick hits = danger markers, like the scene blinking red.
NOISE CANCELLATION
Not it: More polish to avoid being seen.
If you keep sanding down your weird, you’re not getting better. You’re getting safer.
And safe doesn’t cut through. Safe gets scrolled.
STUDIO THOUGHT
Most creative blocks are just drafts you don’t want anyone to judge yet.
QUICK HIT: WHAT’S YOUR CREATIVE BOTTLENECK?
Reply with one sentence:
“The thing keeping me from making my best work right now is __________.”
I’ll pick 5 and answer them in Issue #002-not with fluff, with a tactic you can run this week.
This is not therapy. This is troubleshooting.
THE RECEIPTS
DiJon, “Higher” [link]
The Laws of Creativity, Joey Cofone https://amzn.to/3N6vHZI
Made Luck, David Airaudi https://amzn.to/496ZxGf
KOVAS Sound Check Newsletter Playlist:
If this hit, forward it to one person with taste.
Make it matter.
KOVAS
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