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since you're attacking us, can you give us a question? You are welcome to keep it real. The podcast where we explore ways to navigate our own reality in a world of fake news by accident at the design technique. Philtres like an enhanced where falsehoods travel faster than the fact. So how do we stay grounded in a world where perfect seems possible? That the tap of a button, I think it's more just make it look, I guess, more pretty. I'm retrial and I'll be joined by my guests as we discuss what it means to keep it real. This week, I'm joined by Tamsa. Temperature is an EMC and is a well known voice on the D and B circuit. He's front man to one of the biggest liquid duos on the scene, hybrid mines alongside his partner, Charlotte Heyning, who is also a household name to the D. M V World. It's safe to say Temps has been killing it this year, dropping his own releases on spearhead records. He's also launched his own clothing company, urban creative clothing, the ethos behind urban creative. Be brave, be kind. Create has struck a chord with me and I wanted to find out more, right? That should be better if you got me. I've got you. Your social is kind of what I see from you and also urban creative, which we can talk a bit more about later is really positive and always just comes across as very real. Very you. Is that intentional? Is that something that you set out to do? Where do you sit on that? Mm, That's a good question. I think it's a bit of both, Really. To be honest with you, I think I don't particularly like social media. And I never really have to be honest with you. I remember, you know, I'm 35 years old now. I guess I'm older than than than some of the, you know, the kids that are like 2021 years old. And they've already got 50,000 Instagram followers, and you know, um, no disrespect to them at all, But obviously a lot of them have built careers off the back of social media following, and that's not me. And it's never has been me. I'm not. I'm not saying anything detrimental about it. It's just different. Um, the scary thing about social media from my end is that you are able to fabricate alternative realities and an alternative narrative in a way to who you are your life. If there are things in your life that you're not particularly happy with, you know, personally, then you can communicate a very different story on social media. Um, receive adulation and praise from people as a result of that, and then at the same time, not do any work on yourself internally to actually address those issues. I think I like to keep things light and positive, I guess to some extent, I also like to I do like to share, you know, bits and pieces of times when I'm perhaps not feeling so great or or I'm not feeling 100% you know, anxiety, mental health issues and stuff. They affect us all right. And I'm quite vocal about them as and when they do hit me. Um and, you know, I just think if you think too much about the stuff that you're posting online, then perhaps you're not being true to yourself. Has to kind of be a natural thing. Really? So yeah, I hope that sort of answers the question, I think a bit of a bit of both. I also like to make people smile, you know, particularly at the moment, Um can't make people smile on the stage and have a good time. So, you know. Yeah, well, that's it. Yeah. So with urban creative, let's let's talk a little bit about that. So people that don't know what urban creative is, Can you just kind of give us a little bit of background? Yeah, of course. Definitely. So I started having creative clothing. Is a clothing brand actually a streetwear clothing brand? You know, first and foremost, it is a clothing brand. I know that there's been a lot of other stuff kind of commentated with it over the last year or so. I started it a couple of years ago. It was like an idea that I've had for a long time. It was really just a case of wanting to create some some nice guns for people that were within the creative community. That kind of stood up for the importance of creativity. And this is not just a drum and bass related clothing brand, although obviously, of course, I've engaged with the drum and bass community as an initial audience, as as a way to sell clothes and obviously get the get the products out of the market. Given my close affiliation with the scene and and contact based within it, but really are not, you know, I wanted to create a brand that gave a nod to people like you and me and the millions of other creatives out there that whose brains work a little bit differently, who are perhaps not not really built for the for the system, so to speak, you know, kind of viewed as outsiders, I guess, which has been shown pretty. It's pretty stark light over the last 78 months. So I feel like it's important. And I think if you can create a some sort of community basis within a brand, then it would work and at the same time as that also make some cool looking clothes as well. I always had a very much like black and white wearing clothes wearing person, like I don't really do that much colour and stuff, so I wanted to create a brand of clothes that so I just killed a fly. I wanted to create a brand out there in the background. I record that. Yeah, I just wanted to create a brand that I would like to close, that I would like to wear myself in it, um, it kind of it launched. It trickled along its it's been good to know, sold T shirts and hoodies and sweatshirts and stuff. And then earlier this year, like I had a couple of guys Ravens, actually, people who had come to see me perform. Um, not just me. Like also hybrid minds in Charlotte, Haining and lots of other people and stuff they were. They used to see them about quite a few raves, and they approached me and just said, Look, you know what? We think you could be taking this brand forward like and grow it. Um, and it could engage a lot more people rather than just the audience that you've got at the moment. And, um, I said how? Because again, I think from my age perspective, But also I'm a busy guy. I run a business outside of urban creative and music as well. So they were talking about setting up content channels and YouTube channel and other ways of engaging people creating content. And at first I was a little I wasn't 100% sure about it, Really, From a time management perspective, really, to do this. But they showed me that it was possible, and it was. So we're now, um we've done 15 episodes of a content series called Be Brave Be kind, Create, Be bravely kind. Create is now effectively the slogan and mantra of urban creative clothing is effectively what it stands for. Um, and people can digest that slogan. However, however they want it, I'm not going to sit here and say, um, this is what he bravely kind create means it's more about What does it mean to you as a creative, you know, how does it resonate with you? Um so, yeah, we've had 15 videos, obviously, one of which was was yours. Incredible. Incredible content we've had from creatives predominantly within the D. N B industry sharing. You know, songwriting sessions, sharing work, process stuff, production tutorials, even just chats, interviews and stuff. It's been great. I think we're going to probably one and down the series after the last two or three that we've got at the moment and we're going to focus, perhaps on a few other areas. But we've got some new new products and new clothes drop in at the beginning of December, which is really cool. So that will be the next thing to tackle. Amazing. You talked a bit about your mantra. This be brave, Be kind to create, which is amazing, especially, I think that be kind. We talk a lot about mental health on this podcast, and I feel like it raises some of those issues that I think are quite at the surface at the moment. You know, with the rise of social media and also with lockdown, you know, there's been a massive increase, and I mean that that message that you're putting out has that come from anywhere? Or is that just kind of what you felt? Uh, yeah, it's stemmed. It stemmed from a few places. I think you know, uh, I'm very aware of the fact that we're living in a an era now, where by there's a lot, I think, predominantly down to social media as well. I guess in the Internet and misinformation and all of this sort of stuff that's so prevalent in today in present times. But I think hatred and negativity and polarised, you know, sort of views have got to the point now where it's almost become diluted. It's almost normal to see warring factions of human beings. It's no surprise. It's It's almost pretty standard, you know, to which is one of the reasons why I obviously, you know, ingesting too much news and social media and everything else is a bad thing for your head. Then obviously you need to. You need to put in practise is to limit that, um, set aside from that, I'm a sensitive person roof, you know, and I say that proudly, I always have been I've always been a a sensitive, creative soul. I feel stuff very deeply inside myself. I can't help it. I've gone three times in my life, and I've tried to stem those sorts of really, really sort of like stark emotions. And, you know, I get tingles up my spine and I get, you know, sort of a heavy feeling in my stomach. You know, when I'm upset, I also have an extremely difficult relationship with injustice as well. I find injustice really difficult to swallow and stuff and I'm not a fighter, but definitely I will stand up and I'll call things out as as And when I see them, um, you know, and I think that be kind element is really it's almost that there was something resigned about it when I actually thought of the slogan and it was like, Just be kind like, Is it hard? Is it is it that difficult? You know, and I don't think it is. But then again, I feel like it's something that comes relatively naturally, like in terms of respect for your fellow human, you know, a level of emotional intelligence and self awareness. You know, that is, that is present when you're talking to other people or interacting with other people. Empathy, high levels of empathy as well, like really, really important. And these are not necessarily things that can be can be taught. I've considered myself lucky that I've sort of had those things kind of built into me. I don't know whether it was because of how I was brought up or the life that I've had or something like that. But that really was where it came from. That that stuff put together with history of of mental health issues within my family, within also my wider family, that of my other half as well. You know, we've had everything from, you know, manic depression through to suicide in the family. And there's been, Yeah, there's been a lot to deal with on that front. So again, I think it's a nod towards towards the importance of just being kind the two. You can split it into two areas around rambling a bit here, but you can split it into two areas, like is how it's your outwards being kind. But then it's also internally as well, you know, to yourself, um, out would lead to your fellow human, of course, you know, treat others as you'd expect to be treated yourself or would like to be treated yourself, but also the biggest battle. I think a lot of people haven't certainly for me in my life. Biggest battle has obviously been with my own head, and they did. You have to learn that your your own head is an entity in itself that needs to be treated with kindness and respect. And if you don't, then you're in for a world of pain. I feel like that when they keep it real. Movement started and people started to kind of share stories and talk about the subject. That was the main thing. Was the sense of self and like how we speak to ourselves, you know? And when we're kind of bombarded with a platform that doesn't really, I don't really feel you can show empathy necessarily in social media. Maybe you can, but I feel like it comes from that face to face connection. You know, when you when you get that connection with another person and you really feel that that sense of empathy from them or to them and it feels like because we've got this, you know, this screen between us and that other person. We're losing those really important things that help us feel confident and feel positive within ourselves, you know, and it's interesting that that's the thing that seems to be the most prominent. The strongest thing that comes through is that I don't like myself. I don't like how I look. I don't like who I am, you know. I feel that, you know, that's that's why I think brands like urban creative and what you're doing and what you're putting out is so important at the moment. Yeah, I think I think human beings are, like, naturally, self critical. I think you know, if you're driven and ambitious and everything else and you already setting a precedent to be self critical, right? And you know, if you're someone that's like yourself or like myself and millions of others that are also self employed or that are taking it upon themselves to work for themselves, there is that added extra of, you know, how do you benchmark yourself expectation. How do you tell yourself what's good, what's acceptable? What is a good day like, How do you measure these things? There's no like metrics to put in place to. You know, I can sit in front of my computer for 10 hours a day, you know, and achieve absolutely nothing. I can sit in front of a pen and paper for half an hour and write something that turns into a track or turns into a new idea for the clothing brand. Or, you know, whatever it is, it's that self critical battle that humans faces is probably one of the most interesting things and almost unsurprising in a way giving are complex, our brains are. And so therefore how the Yeah, How do you monitor that and how the remedy it? Well, you remedy it by get by feeding it, don't you? It's like it's like anything. It's like an animal. Whatever. You have to feed the good stuff in and then you'll get the good stuff out. And if you feed it really bad stuff and its capabilities. Actually, I think on the his powers, when it comes to the negative side of things that will manifest themselves in all sorts of ways and sometimes in ways that you don't actually pick up very quickly. You know, for me, it was it was addiction. You know, I had a major major problem with addiction when I was when I was a bit younger, Um, and, you know, gambling. Like just to to call it out there. Um, and it lasted many, many years, and I was consistently feeding my brain really bad stuff. Um, and it manifested itself in one of the worst ways possible. So self destructive like, and it did, you know, near very nearly destroyed me as a person completely, Um, but you have to. I guess, in a way I'm thankful for the experience because it's obviously taught me quite a lot about myself, but also just about the importance of feeding these things. You get out. What you put in the output depends on the input, and it does. And it's patterns of thought and behaviour and stuff that again you read rewards from the really good stuff. If you're kind to your brain, if you're kind to yourself, you do re read those rewards massively. But if you're not, then it's dangerous territory. You know, I don't think this is highlighted enough like, I think, you know, I think again the stuff you talk about on the keep it real, you know, sort of movement, side of things. And certainly the podcast, the last one with Ava as well it was. It was very much around this idea of, you know, you're that the platforms that have been created for us have basically been put there for us in order to have the ability to create something that is completely not real, completely false reality in every single way. And it's almost it's not just said. If you want to do this, you can. It's almost basically saying, Here are the tools with which to do it. Now go now, go for it And in the meantime, we're going to take all your data and everything else, obviously back and all of that sort of snuck off on us, isn't it? We're now living in the Internet, and it's Yeah, completely living in the Internet. America. We're doing this interview right now. Exactly. Yeah, precisely like America has been living in a Hollywood movie for the last, however many years. You know the world is now living through the screen, particularly due to covid, obviously. But the world is living through a screen, and people are getting you know what? One of the other things that we do our guests as well as humans, is compare. We compare ourselves the whole time, don't we, um, we we look at what other people have and whether it be ideas or material possessions or anything else, and we we don't feel like the days of, like, emulation and stuff for a little bit over. It's almost just like straight up plagiarism and copyrighting across the board and it's just again widely accepted. It's scary. It is because everyone's got their little groups of followings and all that sort of stuff. There's no kind of everything is quite siloed, isn't it? So therefore, we actually have got to a point now where by people that have got larger followings of people can therefore dictate the narrative to some extent, and that is that is mental. But if you actually think about what that means, that is, that is ridiculous. Like to eat, to have to have got to that point to have allowed that to happen. You're listening to keep it real. If you'd like to get in touch with us, you can find us on Facebook by searching. Keep it real. If you want to find out more about me, you can find me on Instagram at Ruth Royal Vocals. One of the things that I feel because it does it sometimes feels so bleak, doesn't it? Looking it all of this stuff and thinking, Oh, my God. You know, in fact, but there is hope. There really is hope, because the thing that I found so amazing was when you know, I literally put a post up saying right? I'm not gonna use philtres anymore because I don't want to. And I don't feel like I want to put that message out because like, you say, you know, a lot of people that follow what I do are younger. And, you know, I think I don't want to pretend that I look amazing in studio because I don't like wearing my slippers most of the time. But the outpouring of like people saying, I feel the same I don't want to do this either. Or, you know, people that are actually wanting to go against this go against this kind of fake reality force reality and where everything is online that, you know, it does give me some sense of hope because, you know, both me and you is out here talking about it, and we're aware, You know, we're aware now that this is going on and a feeling like right, What's the antidote to this? You know, maybe it's music. Maybe it's the community. Maybe it's the arts. Maybe it's, you know, be Localising, you know, saying hi to your neighbours, whatever it is, you know, we are coming up and saying Okay, enough now this is this is taking a toll. Definitely. I feel like I should just clarify there that you know, it's only It's only a It's only a really, really bad thing if it's if it's utilised in the way that all of those things that it was just talking about. But if it's the ways in which you just highlighted, there can only be a positive thing. You know, my question is around how the platforms out there themselves, few issues like this and what's better? What's better for business for them, you know, and that that again does raise the question because something like keep it real with the picture that you put up in the the honesty that you displayed there is fantastic, but at the same time, is that Is that really what the platform is out there wanting people to put on there? You know, like I'm not a conspiracy theorist or a weird paranoid. That is where the question of responsibility is their responsibility, really, when it comes down to 100% their responsibility. Um, the great thing is that it's got to the point where people like you and I just you know normal citizens or whatever have started to, you know, have started to be able to have conversations about this stuff and where you've actually started to flag it made that made a movement. Now making a podcast and talking to people about raising awareness is like the biggest. It's like the best form of, um it's like the best form of what you call it, like vigilant. It's not like vigilante type activism, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's raising awareness because a lot of people don't notice any of that stuff. It's true. It's my very polite activism, I think. I think I think a lot of people at the moment we call you a Marxist because you know, they were liberal. Lefty. You like talking about all this crap? I you know, I am a proud slow snowflake. Yeah, exactly. A proud snow. A snow flake. Little punch in the face is what you live for us to. Yeah, I think like one of the things as well you know, we touched on was you know, the antidote. What? You know what is the antidote? And I think I mean creativity. You're right. Be brave. You can create. That is one of those antidotes and a lot of people. I mean, so you and Charlotte did these amazing live streams that just reached out to so many people, and this Facebook group was created, and that has helped so many people, you know, the music that you guys have made, Um, and the way that you have interacted with people you know we know has helped people through this lockdown. And I think you know that that is an antidote. There is something there that's really, really positive. Yeah. I don't think I was really aware of it, to be honest beforehand. I prior to that prior to this year. Really? I think social media for me has just always been one of those places to showcase some of the music exploits. And some because I was gigging so much of hybrid minds as well. And it was really, you know, it was just it would be the standard thing. It would be something to do, isn't it? When you're making the missions at the weekend when you're on a train to, you know, wear Plimer for you on a plane to Berlin or something like that or wherever you're going to play a show, you're on your own, You're travelling. And obviously, what do you do? You sit there on Instagram and you know, I'll take instagram stories of my trainers Or, you know, like, the important the important things. Yeah, or like, stupid, stupid selfies and Oh, my God. This train journey. So basically complaining about or how long the travelling is which you know, now you're, like, never complain again about listening to to do a gig. Um, but again, like, you know, it was so that was kind of where social Media was for me. And then, obviously with the live streams on a Friday night and again, it was a very organic theme. It wasn't really a an idea that we had at all. It was more just a case of bloody our board. And it was the Friday night that we were meant to be doing the hybrid minds outlined show of print works, and, um, that had obviously been cancelled. And we've done boom of the week before, which turned out to be the last gig that you know, who played for Well, obviously, all the way up until now, Um and yeah, the The fact that it resonated with people kind of showed. I think what it was, to be honest, looking back at it now, it's purely about the fact that it was literally just just me and Charlotte standing in front of I was sitting in front of a phone originally, um, we hadn't staged it at all. We had a little speaker, you know, like a little little bow sound speaker. I think like this big just sitting there and it's just placing tunes. And I got really drunk the first night we did it because I was just part. Yeah, I was having loads of fun, like, you know, not I wasn't really thinking about anything other than the fact that it was just having a sing song. And, you know, 100 people decided to join on Charlotte's Instagram Live thing, and it was like, All right, cool. Let's just enjoy this together. And then, obviously the fact that it turned into some sort of community and the Facebook page got set up by someone, and obviously we got the regulars in on a on A on a Friday, and we start to utilise it as a way to play other people's music and the new stuff that would come out each week and talk about it and, you know, not necessarily like critique anything or, you know, it was just an outlet, really, to be honest with you and again, completely. It was for us as much as much as it was for the people that joined us to do it, because, you know, we're used to performing and you need that side of things in your life. It's probably the biggest thing that I've missed over the last 89 months alongside all of my peers, including yourself in the N B. And we all know that. So, you know, the reality aspect of it was was completely real, like it was. There was nothing fabricated about it. And I think in this era, the livestream world and stuff, you know, everything is polished. It is. I think, that's the thing that was so nice about your stream is you were clearly having so much fun and it's infectious, you know, it's like, Oh yeah, great. Let's Cisco and basically hang out in your living room for a photo. It's just really nice, and I think that that's the positive side of social media. You know, that's like, That's That's the connectivity of it. But you know, the difference is that's really real. That's you sitting on your instagram live chat into a lot of people who are having fun chatting to each other. You know, interacting. And it's not like you say, polished. It's not beautifully filtered and edited. It's just people being people, music being music. And that's got to give us some kind of hope. You know that we're going to figure out this social media because social media is not going anywhere. You know, we need to work out how to interacts, deal with it and, you know, find the positives in it. I like it's such a good point. It's not going anywhere at all. So we need to find out those things, I guess, in a way, like and I like, trust me, I'm not like a saint here. Yeah, I I use philtres. Yeah, me too. I like you know, it's like that whole sort of that whole vanity thing that some subconsciously Yeah, that's fine. Yeah, exactly, that is. But then But then You also think, if you really think deeply about it, you just Why? Why is that? Why is that funny? Why is that something that I do? Why is that even a button? Why is it there? Like I mean, I'm going? Yes, to some extent. But there is that sort of almost feeling of, like, hang on a set. Like, why is this stuff being put in front of me to use? Because there is something highly addictive about that. It's addictive, isn't it? It is. It is addictive. You can Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And I think because this conversation that we're having right now and you know, the to keep it real movement is actually something that you've you've had to actively bring up. It's not like it's almost like going against the wave, isn't it? The way the automatic wave is like, you know, coming towards you, you're pushing back against it in the way of saying hang on a second here. This is not right. You know what I mean? So it's like, Yeah, it's interesting the way it's not the other way around, because I wouldn't it be nice if there was just no philtres and none of that crap. And it was like the social media was basically saying, you know, utilise this as a freedom of expression. It is this balance, isn't it? Is this balance of we're human and we have these impulses and we have, you know, we want to be perfect and we want to feel good, and we want to get, you know, rewarded. And that is just human nature. But I think it's the same as anything else. You eat too many sweets, you're going to feel sick. It's we don't you realise your limits would drink. You know, you don't drink too much because you get blind drunk, you know? And I think it's the same thing. It's that we need to as a whole globe need to work out our limits with this new toy, this new thing that can, if continue too much cause, of course, some some issues. Let's finish on a positive note as well, which I'm asking all of my guests. Um, it's been really great to talk to you. Thank you so much for coming on and chatting. It's been really interesting. Um, so I mean, me and you, we remember when the Internet was, you know, a dial up thing. We didn't have it. It wasn't like constant everywhere. Whereas I think you know, the next generation, they're always going to know this. That's always there, always going to be connected to social media, whatever form it is. And you know, everybody's got a smartphone. What piece of advice or what message would you give those generations? It's a good question. Mm, I think across the board. Just be aware of the I suppose the fact that you have all of this accessibility at your hands and that you're able to create greatness. But you're also able to, you know, fall into it its grasp as well and become controlled, right? So my biggest bit of advice would be to engage because it's obviously something that's normal within your generation, and it's something that is completely, you know, except it. It's something that everybody has, you know, 11 year olds with smartphones, all of that sort of stuff. It's standard these days. Make sure that you don't forget to also interact with a lot of the other materials and things that have been there over the years. It's maybe not such an old man, but like, you know, make sure you balance basically balance things out by reading books, actual books, um, and educating yourself on things that you're interested in. Don't be afraid to pick up the pick up a book rather than jumping on the Internet and getting that immediate gratification for news because you don't know whether or not really it's the it's right or wrong these days, you know, Um, and at the same time, as well as that, make sure that you step out to step back in again as well. So, um, just the basics of of making sure you respect your human body that you do exercise. You spend time outdoors. You look at the nature and the stuff around you and be aware of it. Be conscious of it and learn to be present in moments like that and take them for what they are. Life is all about balance. I think if you go one way or the other too much again, you know it can be a slippery slope. It's like if the line is is sort of balanced out, then it's then it's great, right and and lots and lots of different things can thrive. And you can achieve everything you want to achieve as well as obviously looking after your head. But if it's too far one way, you know, and this could be stress related stuff to do to work or career or any you know, or or anything Um, Then you're going to slide and you're going to end up falling off in the day. So probably, Yeah, in a roundabout way. Just create that balance in your life and and, yeah, learn to look inwardly if it's not something that that comes to you Naturally, all those years ago, you've been listening to keep it real with me, Ruth Royal and my guest temp. Sir, if you want to find out more about temps er or urban creative clothing, check them out on Instagram, at tempter or at urban creative clothing. If you want to find out more about to keep it real movement, search us on Facebook. Keep it real. Enjoy the movie. Mhm. Yeah, yeah, yeah