Today we’d like to introduce you to Gideon Siebert
Hi Gideon, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Hi, I’m Gideon but a lot of people just call me GiDS. I’m originally from Orange County. I’m a Type 1 Diabetic (since I was 7). I’m a creative through and through as no matter what medium, I like to bring things to life. Now, what got me to San Diego? Well, I met my fiancée on Twitter back in 2013 before it became a more commonplace way of dating. Eventually I moved down to San Diego which started my journey in the city I now call home.
Now as far as what I do on a more specific level, I am a self taught music producer who started learning to make music in back in 2012. During my junior year of high school, they offered us Music Technology as an elective and I jumped at the opportunity to learn anything and everything I could on computers. I had saved up for a Macbook for school and I wanted to truly learn the capabilities. Fast forward 12 years and I’ve made over 100 hours of music, had some viral successes, and evolved my sound from rapping, to producing trap beats for myself to rap on, and now, a heavy focus on experimental bass.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Its definitely had it’s ups and downs. In 2019, my buddy Kroko and I had the inebriated yet actually great idea to try throwing our own underground rap shows. The scene was flooded with new talent and around this time, I was seeing success on a song called Anime Paradox so I was originally just focused on getting an opening slot at a local venue (i.e The Observatory) but as I realized that wasn’t as straight forward or accessible as I had hoped, we pivoted to throwing our own. We were able to have a successful first show (considering we didn’t know what we were doing) and managed to make enough money back to be able to throw another show. We went back to the planning stages for the next show to be Spring 2020. As we know, a lot of things changed in March 2020 with COVID lockdowns. There was a serious concern for big industry players that the live entertainment industry might not have survived and as 20-something year olds who still lost a bit of money on our first show, we weren’t in a position to outperform companies like Live Nation. I also graduated with my Bachelors around the same time so my whole plan sort of got diverted in another direction. Ended up working construction for a few years before I decided I wanted to go full time on music for a bit while supporting myself with music adjacent side gigs like editing music videos or making cover art for artists and bands. The big takeaway from this for me was honestly, to just keep it pushing even if stuff happens. Life is a series of curveballs and you have to keep swinging.
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 make experimental trap beats with an EDM influence. Or depending on who you ask, I make EDM with a hip hop influence, but nonetheless, that my style for the most part. I used to rap a lot before I went down the rabbit hole of producing and I can proudly say that one of my songs has 1.5 million streams (Anime Paradox) and at one point in time, I had around 25,000 monthly listeners on Spotify. It was a good time and I look back on it fondly, considering those 2 things didn’t sound possible when I first started. I’ve since realized the accolades are awesome, but loving the direction and evolution of my music became far more important to me so I stopped focusing on what people wanted to hear following up Anime Paradox and started making what I just wanted to listen to.
Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
Networking has always been an interesting thing for me especially as an introvert, because a lot of the opportunities that I’ve gotten have come about by simply making genuine connections with people. Never be afraid to be confident in your accomplishments but also, humility is a powerful tool. I’m proud of what I’ve done over the years, but unless someone asks, networking isn’t about flexing on each other. It’s about providing value to one another and building something in the process.
The other thing I would say is that I’ve had people who have offered bits of advice but never a serious mentor in that regard. Don’t be afraid to go out and learn on your own. Sometimes making mistakes and learning from it will get you further along than anything else.
Pricing:
- Cover Art: $50
- Music Videos: $50 per minute
- Original Instrumentals: DM (@notgids) on IG
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.gideonsiebert.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/notgids
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@gids222
- Soundcloud: https://on.soundcloud.com/gAX95tMDNRpUUSUK9
Image Credits
Gideon Siebert
