Another month, another batch of former PB students who are making some serious waves out there in the real world. This is where we round up – like proud parents – the month’s biggest success stories to give you some insight into how careers in the music industry are established and nurtured right here at Point Blank. In April 2016, we’re catching up with trance sensation Eddie Bitar, rising US house star Austin Welsh and hotly tipped deep house producer Parkx. Perhaps you’ve already heard of them? If not, get to know.
Eddie Bitar (VANDIT, Spin Twist)
Eddie Bitar graduated from the Music Industry course, and the skills he learned have proved incredibly useful in his career as a globally recognised trance DJ and producer. The Canadian-Lebanese artist, who relocated to London to study at Point Blank, has stacked up releases on Paul van Dyk’s VANDIT label, Mental Asylum, with his latest track Eze coming out via Spin Twist. No stranger to the club world’s most recognisable brands – he’s played The Gallery at Ministry of Sound in London, as well as Tranceport tours in Argentina and a residency for London’s The Energy Box – he is quickly establishing himself as the next big name in trance. His own Podcast Dinamode has also built up a loyal following, too, and is now into its 34th edition.
We cornered him on the eve of a US tour to ask how he found his time at Point Blank: “Studying away from home in a foreign country can be quite daunting – the staff at PB made me feel at home and were super cool to work alongside. I feel that the year spent at PB has made me think outside the box, it has given me the confidence in my productions and has taught me sensible business ethics within the industry – I use these tools every day.”
Austin Welsh (Sweat It Out, KMS)
Austin Welsh undertook the Point Blank online course in Deep House: Ableton Live, part of the Music Production Master Diploma, in 2013, and has since released music across a wide range of labels including KMS, White Widow and Club Sweat. His recent rework of Greco’s House Party has been getting major support from Toolroom’s Mark Knight, and he’s currently locked into an international DJ schedule, bringing his party-primed deep house to nights from Shoreditch to Orlando. With fresh material dropping soon on Simma Black and Sweat It Out, it looks like 2016 is going to continue to be a key year for the young producer.
Speaking about his time at Point Blank, he said: “I already had a pretty decent background in production but felt some formal education would be beneficial. Point Blank enriched my foundation, teaching me a lot of technics I had previously overlooked. Live has a lot of native features, and implementing them into my workflow has saved me a tremendous amount of time. The group lessons, and individual track feedback brought real interaction to the course, literally, allowing me to request specific information relevant to the style I was interested in developing.”
Parkx (Perfecto, Radio 1 Dance Anthems)
Alex Cramp, better known to deep house fans as Parkx, took the Music Production & Sound Engineering Diploma and Music Industry course here at Point Blank in London. Since then, he’s been applying his new-found skills, refining his sound and creating all the right noises. This week sees the release of his track Shady featuring Charlotte Haining on Paul Oakenfold’s Perfecto label, which follows hot on the heels of his remix of Alan Walker’s Faded, a big tune that was championed by Danny Howard on his Radio 1 Dance Anthems show.
“Given that apart from deep-set interest and enthusiasm I had no technical knowledge about music production, Point Blank provided an ideal environment to further my passion and fundamentally augment my current skills and knowledge in the field,” he says, of his period studying with us. “During my time at Point Blank I learnt theory as well as gained a practical knowledge that provided a strong basis for my further work. The course offered me a chance to develop my expertise in using Logic, which since then became the most essential tool I work with. Apart from the well designed course, the most valuable asset, which influenced my development during the course were teachers, that not only provided support with the learning material, but most of all shared the inside knowledge and practical advice about the industry that I was going to try and break into.”
Want to get out there and start making a name for yourself? Make like these guys and book onto one of our courses. To find out which course is for you, visit our London and Los Angeles course pages to find out more. We’ve got everything from sound engineering and mixing courses to singing, songwriting and music business courses, so if you want to start your career in the music industry, Point Blank is the place to be.
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