We had the good fortune of connecting with Xiaoqi Zhou and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Xiaoqi, how do you think about risk?
I think of risks as stepping out of my comfort zone, embracing new opportunities in life and discover higher personal value. For me I took my biggest risk at grade 12 that altered my life and career once after getting accepted by the college I planned to go to I suddenly had a realization of the true passion I’ve always had for music, so I tried to apply for a bunch of music collages without knowing if I would get in or not but urge made me felt this is something that has to be done. I was accepted by Musicians Institute eventually and at that moment I had my epiphany of the new definition of taking risks. It wasn’t easy for an 18-year-old moving from China to a foreign country without anyone’s assistance, but I was able to manifest my real passion and vision through the process so I’m very grateful for taking the necessary risks and facing the unknown.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
So currently I work as a music producer and mixing engineer, I am also an independent artist under the name of ‘Soulgood Kid’ who’s in charge of all my songs from start to finish including every step of making a song. I think the ability to play different roles is definitely my biggest strength because I have the perspective of the artist that performs and the perspective of producing and mixing, so all of these roles offer me various angles of creating songs or working on other artist’s projects. I love how I can think from these angles to see what are the highlights in a song or how to add a little more excitement and make the listeners feel interested by certain sounds I use, effects in the mix and the overall vibe of the music itself.

It’s not easy to be able to do all the jobs that can easily take a team to work on, but I’d say it’s worth the effort and time. It was hard at the beginning of course just like anything we do, personally, the one big factor that carried me through the learning process of every role I play is really just the love for music itself, I wanted to master all these skills so I can fully engage with inspirations and ideas, and be able to present them in the form of listening. Plus songwriting to me is kind of a gifted skill, I enjoy poems and literature so it’s only natural for me to write lyrics.

The lesson I learned throughout the process of pursuing music is first and foremost to enjoy it, doesn’t matter what skills you want to master, it’s important to enjoy the procedure regardless of the level you are at and knowing you can improve from persistence and practice.

The story I’m bringing to the table is to know yourself, your passion and take the risk if it’s really in your alignment and enlightenment. I never planned any of these chapters prior to taking my risk, but knowing it will unfold as you learn to evolve and become better versions of who you really are.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
We all know Los Angeles is a beautiful, charming city with enriched social backgrounds of different cultures, it’s wonderful all these customs can mix so well in the city of angels. If I were to show them the best time in LA I’d start with the Hollywood sign, pretty sure they would love to taking pictures of it to begin this journey. We’d then visit Universal Studios and spend a day immersing ourselves in the thrills of rides and my personal favorite, the butterbeer haha. Since most of my friends are artsy like me we’d for sure hit downtown to visit The Broad and MOCA then go to Grand Central Market for food. Speaking of food, LA is the perfect city for any foodie to explore, it literally has all kinds of cuisine in the world. It blows my mind I can get real authentic Chinese food around San Gabriel Valley and nice Korean BBQ in Ktown, these are two of my favorite places to visit for food. The night is never over without partying in WeHo, places like Rocco’s WeHo and The Abbey are definitely where I want to celebrate with friends for a wild and good time. They can’t go home without visiting Los Feliz, Silver Lake area and Pasadena, again just really chill, artsy vibes and full of hidden gems like Skylight Books store, Los Feliz Theater, got Slowdown Studio and One Life Yoga in Pasadena, these are all great places for my friends to really get to see the city.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
After about two years since I came to Los Angeles, I was very lucky and blessed to have encountered a really good friend of mine, her name is Icy. I had a lot of doubts and fears about my academic ability and was worrying about not being able to find my place in the music industry which is well known for fierce competition. It was Icy who later introduced the idea of spirituality and meditation to me, which was a completely key transition in my life, I’ve been meditating since then and really thank her for showing me what’s possible for the mind, body and soul to achieve. Also, I wanna shout out to my music mentor, Marc Dold, the best music producer and instructor for selflessly teaching me his most creative and excellent techniques on music production, offering me new perspectives of building songs, so I am able to create my music with confidence and enjoyment.

Website: https://www.soulgoodkid.com/

Instagram: soulgoodkid

Youtube: Soulgood Kid

Nominate Someone: ShoutoutLA is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.