Meet Tiger Darrow | Music Producer, Songwriter, Musician

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

Hi Tiger, how has your work-life balance changed over time?
To be your own boss, you have to be a bit of a workaholic to make ends meet–especially in the creative world. That said, there’s definitely a balance that takes some trial and error to come find. When I first quit my day job to be a full-time producer, I worked almost around the clock. I’d work until the wee hours of the morning to meet deadlines, which would either leave me with 4-5 hours of sleep until I’d finally crash and need to sleep until about 2pm. My diet was very poor, I left myself no room for exercise, and I would hardly get time to socialize with anyone other than my roommates.

A part of me took a lot of pride in the fact that I was working so hard. America also tends to glorify being “busy,” so I felt like I was thriving in that sense. However, after a couple of years of this, I started to lose my confidence, and my depression worsened. I started to realize that even though I consider myself a bit of a socially anxious person, I always came away from social settings with my friends feeling far more energized than before, and like anything else, I needed to deliberately schedule that time. I realized that getting outside of my own head and hearing what other people were up to, helping them troubleshoot issues, talking about current events and what music they were listening to in the moment was so valuable to my own wellbeing.

Another realization I had was that I needed to set boundaries with my work. Yes, it’s music and music is incredibly fun, but if it’s my JOB, then I need to treat it like a job. As someone who primarily works in the studio, most of the time, I have the flexibility to “clock in” and out. So allowing myself to turn off my computer every night at around 8-10PM (I start my days a little later), helps me set a boundary with music, allowing my relationship with it to stay healthy rather than slowly growing to resent it for not having enough downtime.

Overall, when it comes to work–and ESPECIALLY work in a creative field, your mental wellbeing and health is so incredibly important with regards to how efficiently you can work, how much creative capacity you have, and how healthy your relationship with your work is. Any time I start to feel burned out, I take a step away and chat with a friend, do some painting, take a walk, or cook a meal to try to refresh and reset myself.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I’m a self-employed producer/singer-songwriter/instrumentalist/string arranger. In a conversation recently, I referred to myself as a bit of a Swiss Army Knife. I suppose you kind of have to be a Swiss Army Knife in order to do music full time, though.

I think something that could set me apart is my love of texture combined with being a string player. In high school, I really admired (and obviously still do) Zoe Keating, Imogen Heap and Björk and how they have such unique sonic thumb prints. I’ve tried to follow in their footsteps with the use of strings and textures that are not easily identifiable in my productions.

I’ve had a long, twisty road to get to where I am today, and it has absolutely taken a lot of tears, a lot of sleepless nights, and a lot of overdrawn bank statements, but it was absolutely worth it.

I attended the performing arts high school in Dallas, TX as a cellist, but always knew I wanted to compose music–I’d taught myself how to engineer and use Logic Pro, and even won two Student Downbeat Awards for engineering–so when I’d get home from school, I would sit in my room and make lush arrangements of songs that were floating around in my head using the tools I had around me. When I graduated, I attended college at NYU for Music Theory and Composition, thinking I would do a masters in film scoring, but by my second semester of freshman year, the head of the department suggested I try shifting my focus to songwriting. I LOVED the songwriting program. I loved writing lyrics, I loved producing out the songs I wrote, I loved learning about song structure and tools for writing. That ultimately led me to explore my love of production more deeply.

I scheduled many writing sessions as a topliner for a while, and took those opportunities to take notes about software, plugins, virtual instruments, and mixing basics so that I could more confidently produce for other people. Once I started gaining more confidence and found the people I trusted to give me clear, honest feedback, I began to produce for other people.

It definitely wasn’t the easiest leap to make in terms of my sanity and sleep schedule, but watching an artist get so excited to see their vision come to life is so incredibly rewarding. Along the way, I’ve learned so much about patience, clear communication, organization, and file backup.

The biggest thing I’ve learned is how valuable genuine relationships are within a creative community. I feel very close to a lot of the artists I work with, and as a producer, I think that’s an incredibly important part of helping artists communicate their ideas in the context of song. Understanding the meaning behind a song, or the purpose it serves in the artists’ lives, is integral to creating a production that is true to the song and honors its meaning.

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?
New York is so fun! I will say, I spend the bulk of my time in Brooklyn, since I work from my home studio, so most of my recommendations are near me.

For food: Concrete is incredible Italian food near the Myrtle-Broadway M

For fun trinket shopping: I love Friends off of the Morgan Ave L–I get weird candles, jewelry, and other miscellaneous home goods there

For great drinks: Palmetto near the DeKalb L feels like your fancy grandmother’s mid-century modern living room

For dinner and a movie: Syndicated off of the Morgan L does dinner + usually some slightly “weirder” films in a similar format to Alamo Drafthouse

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I’d like to give a shoutout to my best friend in the world, Rachel Bochner. We started out working together in 2020. I became her primary producer for her last few projects, and now we’re pretty inseparable. I feel like Rachel and I have grown as musicians and songwriters together, and I really appreciate her deep trust that she has in me as a producer, her willingness to let me go down goofy rabbit holes in service of trying something new production-wise for her songs, and also her empathy when it comes to collaboration.

Rachel knows me better than most, and she can see if I’m feeling low or burnt out and immediately suggests a fix–from boba to a snack to “lizard time” (a walk in the sun). She’s my biggest hype-person and comes to every show, listens to every half-baked demo, and always takes the time to remind me that what I’m doing is a feat.

My career definitely changed when I met Rachel, but so did my whole life. She’s taught me to be gentle with myself, to not take things too seriously when I’m working, and that there’s humor and light to be found in every situation life throws at you. Love you, Rachie!!!!

Website: www.tigerdarrow.com

Instagram: instagram.com/tigerdarrow

Twitter: twitter.com/tigerdarrow

Youtube: youtube.com/tigerdarrowmusic

Image Credits
Josefine Cardoni, Keeley Bumford, Liz Maney, Lauren Baez, Little Birbs