We are proud to announce that Reza Moinossadat (SEDA) is the Class of 808 Purple Belt Ninja of the month. Reza is building his brand with energetic live shows, a thriving Facebook Group and an upcoming September release of his tune “All Systems Go” on the Producer Dojo Space Station Beats EP. I caught up with Reza and learned how he has gained such impressive momentum and got the scoop on his plans for his bright future ahead.

Reza, tell us about your musical journey and how did it lead you to ill.gates, The Producer Dojo and the Class of 808? 

I’ve been making music one way or another ever since I can remember. I played bass guitar from a young age and a little cello and upright bass in middle school. I never stuck with anything though and making music kind of fell on the back burner until recently. After about a decade of bad decisions and not much direction I decided to get my life together and asked myself what it is I really love. The answer was very simple and right in my face all along… Music. I made the decision about 2 years ago to make music my life which gave me an excellent direction to head in but I didn’t really know where I was going. I had recently moved to Bozeman, Mt. and learned that one of the local producers here (Tyson Lunn) was an instructor for the Dojo. We met and I showed him what I was working on and kinda where I was at and he suggested I get some mentorship to help give me some direction as to where I needed to go. This is where I learned about the Producer Dojo and Class of 808. After getting to know Dylan and the mentors a little better and seeing that they genuinely wanted people to become better musicians I made the decision to invest in myself and my future as a musician by joining the Dojo and Class of 808. Almost a year later now and I know exactly where I’m headed and exactly what I need to do thanks to the mentorship. 

Where are you from originally? Can you describe your life using only song titles? 

I’m originally from Centreville, Virginia right outside D.C.

Let’s see… how bout “Semi Charmed Life”-Third eye blind, “I need an eight”-Mac Dre, “Ironic” – Alanis Morissette, “a different sound”-g jones

What made you want to become a music producer? What do you do when you are not producing music?  

Well I was in a number of metal bands in high school and the one thing that always got to me was the dynamic of the band. There was always some issue with one band member or the other or someone was late or couldn’t make it. Things like that frustrated me. So when I found out about production and I realized I didn’t need to depend on anyone to write music and I could just do it myself I knew it was for me.

When I’m not producing I like to go to the park with my dog Pepper. She’s super sweet. I live right next to the Bozeman Hot Springs so I’m there as much as I can be. Montana is great for hiking and nature so I’m outside in the summertime. The winter here is very beautiful but I don’t snowboard or ski or anything so it’s a prime time for me to produce. Other than my dog and the hot springs I really just smoke weed and chill with friends. I love hitting shows and going to festivals so that’s usually my weekend life if I decide to leave my house haha. Gotta get my G Jones and Tipper fixes from time to time.

Tell us about your Facebook Group “SEDA HEADZ.” I understand that you recently reached over 1,000 members. What is your growth strategy and how has this helped your brand?

So SEDA HEADZ is a crazy thing cuz I had no plans on starting it. My friend Nicholas Reynalds sent me an invite to it one day and I just ran with it. I think that some of the success of the group over the past 2 months has been from the fact that it was started by a friend and not by me. I think Dylan said in a workshop once that you don’t wanna hand a mixtape to a promoter yourself but if your friend does it’s way more likely to be accepted.  All I really do is share the things I think people will enjoy. It’s kind of like DJing. Share things that the crowd will vibe with the crowd being your group. Also, I try to make it not just about music so people have more chances to interact on a bunch of different topics like memes, nature, visual arts and whatever else really. We recently added a new admin another dojo member Eric Suhr. I wanna make sure the content is tasteful and with the member count rising there’s a pretty constant flow of post submissions some of which are not so tasteful haha. Eric has been a big help with filtering through them. We hit 1000 members in 2 months because of the community interaction I think. Everyone is enjoying themselves. Periodically I’ll ask ‘em to send some more invites out to keep the party going and everyone has been really receptive to the request because they are having fun and enjoying themselves. Also it’s been a great way to self release music because at certain benchmarks (250/500/1000 members) I can release tunes to show some appreciation for the SEDA HEADZ support. The “SEDA HEADZ” name just clicked and I think it works great with the brand I’m still molding. I had used it in some hashtags previously before the group was started but Nicky kinda got the ball rollin’ once he named the group that. Big ups to him for sure. From here I would like to think the content both musical and other coupled with the amazing members are enough to keep the ball rollin’. As my music continues to grow, I think the momentum from that will also add fuel to the fire and help shape my brand. I’m actually getting a reference board together now for a rebrand in the near future. Gonna roll out a whole new look for my SEDA headz along with a bunch of new music. 

What are your plans for your music (both near term and long term goals)?

So for my near term goals it’s really simple…OUTPUT. In the past year I think I’ve come a long way and the reason is due to output and feedback from mentors. I try to focus on the moment and right now I need to write more so I can continue to close the gap between the music I’m writing and the music I love. The only way to do that is through a volume of work. So I’ma get workin’. As for the sound of SEDA, I think it’s taking shape and I’m excited to keep molding it and perfecting my craft. I know perfection can’t be reached but it’s the pursuit that’s important. 

As far as my long term goals, I’d like to get my music up to par to get some international artist support. I’ve been pitching some music to smaller labels and have an EP release coming out on Obskure Collective. The date isn’t set for that yet but I look at it as a good stepping stone to get to where I need to be. I also have a release scheduled through the Dojo for the Space Station Beats EP coming out in September. Super excited and humbled to have a track of mine chosen for that. Management is another long term goal for me. I recently have been playing local shows around Montana and to be honest it’s only slowed down my writing. I decided recently to step back from playing out so much. I’m still gonna play some here or there to keep me on my toes and it’s also good for exposure. Not having a manager has shown me how artists can really be taken advantage of without good management and until my music is good enough to deserve management I need to keep writing and finishing tracks.

What are the top 3 “game changing” lessons that you learned as a member of the Class of 808?

Number one would have to be workflow. All of the workflow techniques have been soooo vital. If you wanna up your output you need to get a good workflow down. 

Number two is to trust my mentors. At first some things were counterintuitive to what I thought was correct but when I put my trust in them I saw great success at a rapid pace.

Number three would have to be accountability. It’s important to have deadlines and stick to ‘em. Create to-do lists and utilize them from short term tasks to long term tasks. Hold yourself accountable to the tasks you set and the timeline you set with them. Especially when writing. I love the chopping block tip that Dylan talks about. If it’s not producing results in 10 minutes move on! Hold yourself accountable.

If you could go back 10 years ago and advise your younger self of just 1 thing, what would that advice be? 

I would tell myself that you can change and you aren’t stuck.

Do you ever experience writer’s block in the studio? How do you overcome it? How often do you make music?

I haven’t really experienced writer’s block yet. I have moments of laziness but I wouldn’t call it writer’s block. I have a great method that I like to use to get me going if I’m not feeling inspired though. I’ll throw a reference track in and lay out the kick and snare to match the reference track. This way I have a skeleton of a tune so I can see where the build is and where the drop is etc. Then I can just start filling in the blanks and edit the drums where I feel like to match the call and response and what not.

I make music as much as possible. Usually 20-45 hours in a good week. I know I need to write more so I’m working on holding myself more accountable. I was on vacation for 2 weeks so I only got like 5-10 hours or so of writing done in that time which sucks haha. Gotta make up for lost time.

What are your favorite genres of music at the moment and who are your top 5 favorite artists right now?

Freeform bass music is what I’m into right now. I love the heavy experimental stuff. I like a lot of halftime tunes. Anything 100 bpm or slower really haha buuuut I do like some dubstep and a little riddim. I really like some drum and bass too if it’s gonna be the faster stuff. 

Top 5 favorite artists right now are 

#1 G Jones 

#2 SAYER 

#3 MOLOKAI 

#4 OK. Kevin 

#5 JIQUI

Are you involved in any other music production communities?

I’m also in the Freelance musician course. That course is geared on making music your full time income which is a long term goal of mine.  Also some random Facebook production communities. 

If you met with a music producer that was on the fence about joining Producer Dojo what would you tell them? 

I would tell them that the information and guidance I’ve received since joining the Dojo has helped take my production to the next level. The lessons I’ve learned have been vital to guiding me in the right direction and getting me where I need to go the fastest. If you wanna step your production up in a multitude of ways then invest in yourself. It was a scary leap to take but I’m so happy I took it.

Is there anything else that you would like to share with us?

Mad Love to Dylan and the rest of the Senseis. Thank you for your help. Also a big thank you to all my SEDA headz. I’m super grateful to be on this journey with all of you and I can’t wait for what’s next.

Learn more about SEDA here: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, SEDA HEADZ FB Group Page