Meet Lucas Aikin of Tunaotb in Cave Creek

Today we’d like to introduce you to Lucas Aikin.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Lucas. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I began playing in bands when I was 14/15 around the PHX area most notably with “The Kards”. I was playing drums but have always been into music since I was a little kid taking piano lessons from Martha Glenn. Around my senior year of high school, I began planning my escape from Arizona and planned on going to Berklee, but after attending a few camps, I didn’t think it was the right school for me personally. I auditioned at Musicians Institute in Hollywood and while the school wasn’t per say ‘The Best” music school, I really enjoyed the location and new I would probably end up moving there after college anyway.

Once I began living in Hollywood and going to school for drums and music business, I quickly developed my passion for Hiphop and rap music. Even more so, I began dabbling in Music Production. I knew I could pick up making beats for rappers easily because I already knew how to play piano and drums, which gave me a tremendous head start. I didn’t really need to experiment too much. I already knew what rhythms and patterns worked together.

Let me back up… I began listening to hiphop my senior year and started to love the rhythmic play between the beats and the flows that the rappers were putting on them. Artists like Kendrick Lamar and Logic are who really got me into hiphop at first. They opened pandora’s box for me.

Once I started producing for my friends and they gave me feedback (good feedback) that’s when I gained more confidence and began taking beat making more seriously. I still love playing drums, but the school turned me off from playing as much as I used to. I started making more friends in the hiphop world, and thus my nickname ‘Tuna’ became my producer tag.

As the next couple of years went by, I started to amass a large amount of beats and realized I needed to promote these a little better. I started posting more on social media, changed my handle and started a Beatstars account to help sell beats. Once people started fucking with me and my vibe the domino effect began. It’s still a working progress, but I like to think that my production has reached a professional level and my passion for music/hiphop will always push me to keep going. Today I make around 5 or 6 beats a day and usually perfect and post 3-5 a week. TRaffic continues to grow and I just keep having fun with it because that’s the #1 reason I started. I love them 808s.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Overall it’s been smooth. I’d say that because the market for beats is so saturated my main struggle for a while was just getting my name out there. That still is a struggle to be honest.

Can you give our readers some background on your music?
I make hiphop/trap beats. I like to think my beats are always unique in that my drumming background spills into the rhythms I use. I try to make stuff that makes me feel a certain way… whether that be head banging against a pole or emotionally sad or reflective. I like just taking my mood of the day and making something new out of it. Usually it translates to someone. That’s the beauty of art (yes making beats on a computer is art) ppl take what they want from it. My beats feel familiar to hiphop lovers, but there’s always something subtle that makes them pop more than most beats out there.

If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
I would have stuck with the piano more as a child, but since this whole production craze of mine started, I’ve been getting better with it. I used to be very biased towards hiphop as a genre when I was young, but I think that comes from being raised in Arizona. I wish I got into the genre sooner. However, my past influences is what makes my music sound how it does today, so overall I have no regrets.

Pricing:

• Beats leases — 20-50$
• Full rights ownership — 100$-150$
• Full rights custom work + stems — 250 and up

Contact Info:

• Website: www.tunaotb.com, https://www.beatstars.com/tunaotb/feed
• Phone: 6025311835
• Email: Lucas@lucasaikindrums.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tuna_otb/

Image Credit:
Josh Lee Aikin

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