Meet ADHD | Music producer / sound engineer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Samir “adhd” Akhter and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Samir, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I had spent most of my life listening to what I was told to do, often against my own intuition. Starting my own business allowed me the freedom to make my own decisions.

I had to sacrifice the comfort and security of a regular paycheck, but at the time the studio I was working at had fired me after underpaying me for a year, and none of the labels I was working with would pay on time… I started taking cash clients to my bedroom where I would record them for whatever they could afford.

Eventually I saved enough to rent a lockout space, where I continued to record and produce for low level artists while growing and maintaining celebrity/label relationships.

When covid hit, for some reason business started booming. That’s when I could finally afford a real location. (not some lockout closet in a warehouse full of other studios, but a real penthouse office space which I had professionally built out and treated).

So you could say it was something I always wanted to do, have my own business, but it really came about because my back was against a wall and I had no other way to pay bills. Go figure.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Definitely not easy, lots of challenges… I watched tons of people give up… feels like I’m only here sometimes because I just kept going.

This business is very weird… like, you could have the best music in the world, but if you not paying the right people, you not gonna go anywhere.

And you don’t have to pay in cash, you can pay by putting in work, bringing plays to the table, whatever. Every single relationship been a result of me putting in more than what I ask to take.

I worked for artists who got less than 20% of their own music royalty !!! The label taking 80% ! These are big major artists. It’s really weird business and you have to learn how to navigate very carefully.

Most of time when you’re coming up you take the L up front so you can get in the room and grow later. I consider it an investment in everyone I meet, and if the investment doesn’t return well, I stop working with that person.

So I guess what I want to say as far the art goes, I’ve been blessed to be able to create music and live off of it, but I credit most of the success to understanding the business side, not my musical talents.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Yea top spots

1. EL cholo (FIRE Mexican food) favorite place to unwind the day after a long session

2. Bossa Nova (if u want to eat rapper food)

3. JOKES UP dispensary or COOKIES dispensary (go get yourself some bomb rapper weed)

4. Griffith / Old LA ZOO. (Fire hiking spots, everyone hikes out here it’s like you can’t walk to work in LA so you gotta put some walking time in somewhere)

5. Ave 26 (they shut it down recently but I think it just moved down the block…. Best tacos you gonna get in LA, you can feed 5 people with $20)

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Yea, I would like to shout out my father, Sohail, who loaned me a good amount of money back in 2016 to open a studio, which ended up being a huge failure and resulted in me driving Uber for the next 4 years until I finally opened up Ice Cream Sound.

Many of my peers in music don’t have the opportunity to be close with their fathers, and while we have not always had the best relationship I am thankful n blessed to have him in my corner.

Website: Www.icecreamsound.com

Instagram: Instagram.com/1adhd

Image Credits
Kamran Syed